Research

With a switch towards more representational, unfocused images, Uta Barth is an obvious artist to look at.
Her work challenges the borders of photography, and evokes the language of memory. Her images appear alien, yet strangely familiar. We can recognise shapes and features within them, but as these are not clearly defined, it's up to use to reconstruct the work and interpret it in our own individual way.
Her work becomes about the act of looking and the way in which we see, as much as what's contained within the images themselves. They evoke a more base, emotional response than an intellectual one, we react to the image, rather than try to understand it.
These principles are what I want to incorporate into my work - this suggestivity and subjectivity. I want to create impressions of scenes, and allude to narratives and ideas rather than dictate them.

I discovered Slinkachu's work over Christmas. It revolves around "little hand painted people left in London to fend for themselves." I think it's fantastic, but it's not the main part of his work that I'm interested in with relation to my work, but the backgrounds. When photographing these people at very close range, the background is out of focus, but beautiful. Obviously this is not the key part to the image, but I really like the effect, and think it's another good example of the kind of direction I might be headed.

I've recently discovered Idris Khan's work. He works with amalgamated images to create something new. The image on the left is constructed from Bernd and Hilla Becher's series of gas cylinders. Despite being constructed from photographs, his work almost appears more painterly in its appearance. This stretching of the boundaries of the photographic medium is something I'm becoming increasingly interested in, and this is an exciting approach to creating work.

I really like Astrid Kruse Jensen's work. They appear almost like dreams - a small moment that raises more questions than it can provide answers to. Her work "explores the passage between reality and imagination, and the constant clash between nature and the artificial." The images are suggestive, and although features are recognisable, they don't appear to be anchored within the 'real' world.