Becky week 1

First week and introductions

For the first week on the creative arts course, I met the people I will be spending the next few years with, got to know the art school and where everything is and Miranda our personal tutor.

The theme for the semester is “The Everyday”. We have to create a project with this theme using any form of media and document the process along the way. My original idea for the first project was to document my life working in a local pub, serving customers and the challenges I face. However, I spend far less time working there now so I concluded to base it around my mental health and disabilities and the everyday struggles I face to basically perform simple tasks. I’m not entirely sure if I want to photograph this, document through film or sketches.  I struggle with finding a starting place and just jumping into the project, so being spontaneous and leaving my comfort zone is something I definitely need to work on. I suffer with imposter syndrome and never feel like my work is good enough so it will be interesting to link that feeling with my art and being comfortable with it not being perfect.

Research

From my tutorial I was recommended to research artists like Martin Parr and Nan Goldin. I personally like Goldin more because her work focuses on intimacy, LGBT subcultures and illness. Her work represents the non-traditional side to peoples everyday “perfect lives”. My art is definitely not perfect, and I need to remember there is no “best idea” and need to be more accepting of my mistakes.

Martin Parr

Martin Parr was born on the 23^rd of May in 1952. He is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist, and photobook collector. Parr’s work is known for the intimate and anthropological look at modern life, particularly documenting the social classes, tourism, and wealth of the western world. Some of his projects are rural communities (1975-82), the last resort (1983-85), the cost of living (1987-89), small world (1987-94) and common sense (1995-99). Since 1994, Parr has had around forty photobooks published and has featured in eighty exhibitions worldwide. His photographs are in saturated colours in daylight. A few here are of a French seaside and images of food he has captured.

On the beach in Nice in the south of France, 2015. Magnum Photos photographer Martin Parr is known for his saturated and brightly lit documentary style.

Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin, born September 12^th in 1953, is an American photographer and activist. Her work often captures the intimacy of the LGBT community and the HIV crisis. Her most noticeable work is the ballad of sexual dependency (1986). The phots capture the post-stonewall, gay subculture and of Goldin’s family and friends.

Goldin’s work is honest and raw, her Photography features documentation of love, sexuality, glamour, beauty, death, and pain. Goldin’s photography is a visual language that mirrors herself and the world around her.