“Photography has become less about the special or rarefied moments of domestic/family living (for such things as holidays, gatherings, baby photos) and more about an immediate, rather fleeting display of one’s discovery of the small and mundane”. (Murray.2008)
The above
extract describes how photography in the twenty first century has shifted from a
way to capture memorable moments in time, to a concentration upon the beauty found
in the everyday aesthetic. We have utilised this concept throughout our
photographic work in order to show the beauty that can be found in things that
one would otherwise overlook. For our main theme we have used the idea of lost
and forgotten objects, with the subtheme of the beach. Our work consists of an
array of photographs involving objects and creatures that are often lost within
the scenery and overlooked. It is only when you go searching for such things
that one can truly appreciate the beauty and aesthetical features that they may
hold.
Our photo
essay utilises the concept of the everyday aesthetic by capturing small details
of the scenery that are usually overlooked by taking in the landscape in a
larger sense. When one walks upon a beach, the common scene to take in is one
of simply sand and waves, we envisage a stretch of yellow colour accompanied by
blue and white water. If you look a little closer, into all of the nooks and crannies;
behind beach houses, inside piles of washed up seaweed and within the sand you
see that there is more to this landscape than just what meets the eye.
In our
photographs, suddenly you not only see a stretch of yellow sand, but instead
thousands of grains of sand below objects such as shells, rubbish and washed up
sea life, the overlooked details of the beach. The items and creatures shown throughout
the essay represent things that have been ‘lost and forgotten’ (items left
behind, forgotten or washed up on shore far away from home). Some examples of
this is the photograph involving a babies dummy and sock which have most likely
fallen from inside a pram, or possibly tossed away by a small child during a tantrum.
Another example is the washed up sea life such as bluebottles which we
determined to have been ‘lost’ as the earth is clearly not where they belong.
Similar to this is the dog and its footsteps representing a lost dog.
Muray, S, 2008. Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics. Journal of Visual Culture, 7:147, p.151.
Stephanie Bailey: 42876761
Jennifer Rogers: 43034683
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