Paradise Photoshoot 1.0
In my first photoshoot for this project, I visited Gylly Beach in Falmouth to capture some images inspired by Gareth McConnell and the section in my mother’s short story. She describes her place of hope and sanity from what she describes as hell.
Using the beach as my setting, I decided to capture some images on a day that was forecasted to be cloudy with a chance of sun. Meaning I could use the sun peeking through the clouds to create the visual metaphor of that chance of hope and paradise my mother was always striving for whilst experiencing the darkest period of her life. When I arrived at the beach, luckily, there were enough clouds to make these images work to capture enough details, where there were various highlights and shadows within the clouds. Unfortunately, the windy (cross-shore) conditions meant all the clouds were to the right side of the bay, so I had to walk to another side of the beach.
In figure one, I captured an image of the beach and the clouds, following two compositional rules, the rule of thirds and dynamic symmetry. I wanted my photograph to draw the viewer’s intrigue rather than being banal. I filled the lower third of the frame with the beach and the sea and the rest of the frame with the cloudy sky since I felt the sky emulating this majestic and powerful, awe-inspiring atmosphere, a sense of paradise. Compositionally, I do not feel like I drew inspiration from McConnell’s work, as the weather conditions would not allow me to capture the skies reflected in the sea. Looking at the images, I am pleased that the circumstances did not facilitate that, as I would not have captured these beautiful shots that showcase the power of nature and its all-encompassing power.
However, after consulting my mother on the piece, she said, “I love the scene of the beach. However, the sky suggests a gateway to Heaven, suggesting I’m on my way to heaven from Earth, but it’s so stunning.” I asked for her to elaborate, and she summarised that she didn’t want the viewer to think she was hoping for anything beyond Earth, such as Heaven; all she wanted was a place of respite from the constant bad events occurring in her life and the control to take back her agency to be whoever she wanted to be.
In figure two, I wanted the sea to be more within the frame as it is a part of nature that my mother holds dear to her heart as she found her freedom by the sea when she started travelling the world at a young age. I wanted to bring the sea more into focus because my mother refers to the ocean multiple times throughout her short story. She seems to view it as a haven, so I thought capturing an image of a somewhat still sea would emulate the tranquil mood she describes so frequently. I think this image is not as strong as the first image as there are not as many clouds meaning there are fewer details to focus on, and the composition itself is pretty minimal. Nonetheless, the colouring of the image inspired by Gareth McConnell’s landscapes from his series, ‘Close Your Eyes’, clings to the details creating a more dynamic image showing the vast juxtaposition of the sky and the sea.
To create this effect, I pulled the image into photoshop and added a layer where a used the gradient tool to create a gradient using one of the colour presets with orange, pink, purple and blue. Then I changed the layer to hard light, which meant the different colours would reveal various details hidden in the image’s unedited version. I like this effect. It emphasises these landscapes’ romantic nature; to serve the idea of paradise on earth to the viewer, it is almost alien with colours that do not present naturally.
In figure three, one of my mother’s favourite images from this photoshoot is an image of only the cloudy skies, which is highly reminiscent of a galaxy nebulous. I drew inspiration from the proof of Einstein’s theory of reality from the image of the solar eclipse found in the documentary the age of the image that I recently made notes. In this image, I wanted to portray the unattainable essence of reaching out for hope by capturing from a low-angle point of view of the skies to give the impression of impossible reach while still creating the feeling that the viewer would be able to reach out and touch the clouds. I feel my perspective as the audience to my mother’s short story directed this image more than her viewpoint. It has darker emotional undertones than the previous photos, which I view as my own shortcoming. Still, when I brought this up with my mother when re-reviewing the images, she stated, “The dark doesn’t necessarily have to be scary.” I thought her statement made this image much more impactful as it showed her determination and perseverance in that one sentence.
Continuing this project, I want to attempt to reshoot these images during the golden hour at a different location to see if they produce different results, like the sunset reflected in the ocean. Overall, I am pleased with these landscapes. To push these images further, I will capture some portraits in the studio inspired by Gareth McConnell’s more recent work of bodies of light, then overlay them onto these landscapes to create more layers. I want to add more visual and emotional layers to my work.
