For the first six weeks of term, I was given a task at the start of each one. I've questioned if I truly do know, bit by bit, my favourite childhood photo, I’ve explored and interpreted other people's ideas from The Photographers Playbook, I’ve created a visual autobiography of myself using photos of the things that currently shape who I am, I’ve explored the area that surrounds my University whilst being alone and documented what I saw along the way, I've been shown how using appropriation of a subject can give a new context and lastly, I have been made to follow a set of rules when taking photos.

From the various tasks, I really enjoyed using appropriation as it made me question morals and ethics when it comes to art, and how you’re able to change the meaning of something. I also enjoyed implementing rules as it restricted how I was able to shoot and encouraged me to think about how to take the photo. Overall, I've taken part in tasks that have shown me what type of skills and concepts I've forgotten to take into consideration when taking photos or conjuring up ideas.   

For image and reality, I wish to explore the theme of ‘Lost’. These beginning months of my University journey has left me feeling rather lost. An unfamiliar place, faces and new ways of seeing art all combined has left me emotionally quite lost – a feeling which is an often occurrence for me but has seemed to evolve even more since the start of term. For this reason, I’d like to explore what lost means for Image and Reality. There are different understandings of lost - For death (“Sadly lost them”), for losing a child (missing children), a void, lost in love, feeling alone & feeling lonely (which are rather different things) It often feels as if you’re trying to find something that is not there.   

Through the beginnings of my research I’ve discovered that going missing isn’t illegal – in fact, any person(s) over the age of 18 have the right to go missing (As long as you’re not under the mental health act. Or are legally in the care of another person.) Throughout the history of societal disasters such as 9/11, people intentionally have used disasters as an excuse to go missing. We see a similar theme in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, where one of the characters completely vanishes and is later believed to be dead but has intentionally gone missing to save herself from the abuse of her brother.   

I have also remembered plenty of my mum and I’s conversations about her dreams of being abandoned and lost in the middle of nowhere and not being able to find her way back. Because of this, I will be researching into subjects like the history of the Milk Carton Kids and The Mystery of the Man Found Dead on Saddleworth Moor. I’ll also be looking at artists like Pierfrancesco Celada and his piece named ‘Wish I Knew Your Name’ as I believe it deals with the feeling of being emotionally lost and Noah Kalina’s ‘Bedmounds’ - he’s utilized an object repetitively and has given ‘The bed’ new meaning in the terms of ‘Lost’ to me.  

I’ll also be overlooking an array of sources and different types of media like videos and music. A musician named Lorn creates songs that are mostly eerily lost and ethereal sounds with a few lyrics. Taking how he creates his work into account, how could I translate that into a visual idea? How could I translate the idea of ‘lost’ without directly showing it?   

I’d also like to take from what we’ve explored in tutorials and use the idea of setting rules that I must abide by when taking my photos as I think it would push my experimentation process. Being limited allows for exploration as you must find a way around the rules. When looking at usual interpretations of ‘Lost’ the visual imagery is rather cliché so rather than concentrate on ‘lost’ photography, I'll be exploring some techniques I wish to use within my own photographic ideas: Underexposure. Out of focus. Medium Format. Digital.

Overall, this project will be an exploration of self and understanding.