My continuation route is Photography. I have begun to think of some ideas of things that I might do for a small project in Digital Arts this term. I have been thinking about something to do with ritual or habitual behaviour that I can capture as images. I am interested in ritual in everyday life and so I was thinking about capturing this photographically.
I might start by looking at Natalie Grono as she concentrated on the rituals of childhood and photographed her two daughers. As can be seen from this image the images are in black and white and highly stylised and in this case staged. So in fact this is a photographic construction of daily life. The light and water coming down does have the feeling of a baptism and as with baptism the children are represented as pure and covered in light.
This second image is clearly a take on Ophelia, as shown in Millais' work here:
'Ophelia is a character in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. She is driven mad when her father, Polonius, is murdered by her lover, Hamlet. She dies while still very young, suffering from grief and madness. The events shown in Millais’s Ophelia are not actually seen on stage. Instead they are referred to in a conversation between Queen Gertrude and Ophelia’s brother Laertes. Gertrude describes how Ophelia fell into the river while picking flowers and slowly drowned, singing all the while.' (The Story of Ophelia – Look Closer | Tate, 2022)
The second image again is highly stylized and the light is again in the centre of the image and coming through the child's legs - in both cases the light is sunlight/natural light. The images themselves are technically well shot however in terms of content if I was completing a ritualised image I may do something less stylized and perhaps with a little more grit as I think rituals that are personal rate not necessarily full of beauty. I would perhaps take a more snapshot approach more in the way of Jurgen Teller, who shoots fashion.
I prefer the look of this image, it has a grungy, over-exposed feel. The yellow light, the man standing over her taking the picture (the photographer) give this photograph the snapshot aesthetic which is more interesting, and although this may have been highly staged it has the look of being spontaneous. I would like to explore this idea within my own work for this project.
References
The Guardian. 2021. Invisible Threads: the rituals and symbolism of childhood – in pictures. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/nov/24/invisible-threads-the-rituals-and-symbolism-of-childhood-in-pictures [Accessed 23 February 2022].
Tate. 2022. The Story of Ophelia – Look Closer | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia [Accessed 23 February 2022].
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