My second final image for my Snow White project. This is the Evil Queen..her jealousy pouring out of her fingertips and her ego's embracing her passion for beauty and control.

creating as much as I can in the next two weeks. Just got back from a partly successful shoot..going for another one tomorrow involving loads of paint and cloning! :D

 I'm SO happy with this! I've been trying to frame a portrait like this for the longest time. I shot from behind the twigs. I made it so one twig was outlining her head and the other one was framing the image from the bottom. I'm really proud :)

This was kind of spontaneous...what I originally planned didn't work. I think it turned out well, although I do want to take it up a notch...I don't want to get to a 'comfortable' level..I really want to push myself. So hopefully I'll come back with something tomorrow that'll make me proud :)
This one got onto PhotoVogue! http://www.vogue.it/photovogue/Portfolio/58492265-30c6-4a8c-9215-f72254052f9d/Image

sometimes less is more.

I initially envisioned this image having a lot more in the frame, for no meaningful reason whatsoever as it turns out. My art has always let emotion lead in a photograph. Sometimes that means stripping down to the basics and not using photoshop at all, and sometimes that just means complete solitude in an image, like in the image above. This emotion called for being portrayed just as I have. No birds, no cracks, no flying hair. Now all the pieces fit :)

I've been learning a lot about who I am as an artist more than learning more about photoshop or the camera recently and I think that's a really good thing. I guess I'm at a comfortable level with understanding my camera and even more so with photoshop, so I'm taking the time for myself before *hopefully* starting my journey in art school.

Creating stories, intensity, characters. I'm just in love.

before-after. model Katherine Stapleton
the original image encapsulated all the emotions I was aiming for. The only thing lacking was the roughness, and texture. I wanted it to seem like she's returned from some sort of battle, still standing. The details in her skin come to surface, and there is a very dark, ethereal quality in her eyes. 

 what lies beneath the surface of a dark art photograph...

I remember sitting in Brooke Shaden's workshop, thinking of an answer to a certain question she asked us, which was "What would you like to be different about your photography?" or something along the lines of that. I couldn't really think of something I wanted to change. Sure, there were loads of things that I wanted to learn, but nothing that I didn't like about what I was creating at present. I answered with "The only thing I want different, is for people to stop perceiving the darkness in my images as negative. Or perceiving my art as negative, because it is dark. "
There's more to darkness than discomfort. Easily every dark artist you come across will tell you that. In fact, if you *really* look into most of my pictures, you won't feel uncomfortable at all. You'll see that there's meaning within my images that aren't particularly negative. Or, instead, you can look at the surface of my images, see something that's not natural, and assume it is negative. That's quite honestly a loss. You don't have to be art lover to think about what is in front of you. If you turn something away because of a stereotype and dare not look back, that's a damaging quality to have. Take this image I created today for example;

 

The tones are dark. Her eyes have an almost ethereal and eerie contrast in them. There are roots protruding through her neck. She seems to be frightened.

As an artist I have chosen a style for myself. I have discovered qualities that I love and portray concepts and stories I have in mind. The story behind this character is very relatable. She's a young girl, becoming a woman. Stories from her past, every influence in her life, has risen to surface. The roots are protruding and finally releasing themselves, and beyond the roots, there is earth. there is growth. This character is in the process of growing. This is not a "sad" concept. It's a deep concept. All the attributes that make life so precious are deep, there is no question about it. My art visits these emotions and brings them to life. There is a huge difference between sad, and deep.  

Right, so everyone knows that me going to Brooke's workshop in Berlin meant so much to me! Firstly, I felt like it was the first time I was able to be around a group of people that were passionate about the same thing. I really felt at home, and the crazy things we all had the models do made me giggle and feel all warm inside at the same time. Secondly, Brooke has been my role model for the past 2 and a half years or so, so it was a reaaaally huge deal.

Anyway, when I got to where the workshop was being held it was pouring rain. Absolutely pouring. I managed to drop my laptop in a puddle of water, fall over on the subway stairs, and not know how to even get into the building before I saw Brooke coming down the stairs. At that point I was like....what. Is this even happening? When she opened the door I stood in the rain staring at her like a complete fool for a pretty damn long time...and then of course killed her with my bear hugs!

The actual workshop was just amazing. Everything was planned out perfectly and it all flowed. The first few hours filled us up with inspiration and got us to really think about why we were attending the workshop, what we think abour our work, what new things we want to try. I thought that was amazing 'cause we were all super hyped about shooting the gorgeous two models we had in the amazing, spacious space we had. If we had gone straight into shooting I think it'd be a mess, haha! We really got comfortable learning about Brooke and other people's work. Atleast I felt that ANY idea we had was fine and do-able. Nothing was wrong, or too much...it was like we were completely free! Amazing feeling, amazing atmosphere. I want to go back soooo much!! :)

My first set-up was hilarious :P I was attempting to tangle model KD in her own hair which utterly failed, then I wanted to turn her hair into a river which also utterly failed..but atleast I have some hilarious BTS pictures to show!

During the shooting experience we learnt so much about each other. From practically making Olivia fly out the window, to dousing KD with water (me, of course..haha), to making KD come out of a wall...we had a lot of laughs, and none of us felt intimidated. I loved it :) I always remember feeling shaky and gross when people watched me shoot pictures. During the workshop I loved it, I was giggling and concentrating at the same time...and the best part was that everyone was so interested in what I was doing! :') I don't get that too much. People either gather around me thinking I'm a complete psycho, or fall asleep. haha! I think one of the main points of the workshop was about learning about ourselves, exploring what we had to offer, and realizing that we could find inspiration in the littlest things..that we could do anything! I met so many amazing people. Definitely an experience I couldn't EVER forget! Thank you Brooke and everyone for making my summer!!! xoxoxo

 Awwww KD! Love you! hahahaha.

BTS of Brookes setup

Our amazing group!

aaaaaand finally... before-after of my 2nd setup! Model- Katherine Stapleton

To me, my art is all about juxtaposition. In that, I like to explore the intensity of some of the darkest emotions. I believe everything on this earth is interrelated, and although I do aim to create new worlds that have the potential to grasp my audience and pull them into places with endless boundaries, I still like to draw back to reality in some aspects of each piece I create. By this I mean connecting emotions with otherwordly or unrealistic creatures, objects, or colours, that only appear in my art. One of my key skills is the layering of images and alterations of contrast in post processing- those tools allow me to fulfill the thorough images in my imagination for the world to see. In my opinion, contrasting and deepening is a very compelling look in any art- it provokes an outburst of detail and a very raw quality, particularly in potraits. I like to embrace this. My greatest passion lies in conceptual art, and although I do have experience in other branches of photography my post processing style typically adds a dark and ethereal feel to any art I create. The thrill of creating conceptual dark art for me, is having the ability to create something that was never seen before, and had not existed outside of my imagination.  -Caroline

My body is a Garden

I've always loved exploring the connection between human and nature. The best part for me is stripping away everything artificial, playing with the natural form, elements of nature, and making all aspects work in unison. We are essentially nature. We grow just like flowers go, our emotions relate to the weather, there's something about a cold, crisp wind running through our hair that lets us feel liberated.

This picture is all about growing with the world. As time passes I think we seperate ourselves from the natural world more and more. This picture brings me, and hopefully my audience to a place where there is nothing else but feelings, and parts of nature making those feelings come to life. The rose growing out of the shoulder represents growth of something that didn't exist before- so not restoration, but simply stepping up a level in life. The flower petals scattering around more and more as they reach the bottom signify the nature of feeling free and limitless as we fall deeper into life. As with most of my work I do like to add elements of darkness, so the tilted head and stiff position suggests fragility, which raises questions as to how part of her seems to be growing but part is left behind.

The Wind

...let it lift me up and let me soar.

the force of the wind upon my skin

 lights illuminating my mind and soul

taking me away

to a serene world.

"I believe in the power of LIVING. I don't mean existing; I mean risk-taking, failure-inducing, dream-achieving LIVING. Believe your life is worth it, because it is." - Brooke Shaden.

Brooke Shaden is full of life. She is very real about it, and shares her passion and vision for life with others. Brooke found a life for herself. One that fulfills her. Her words let others know they can do the same, with determination, passion, and soul.

26 months of taking pictures

14 months of developing a passion.

I want to share my photographic journey with you in pictures. I'm inspired by how a photographer can grow in so many different ways. I've grown mentally, emotionally, and in my ability to create photographs. Photography changed my life, and is still changing it, so let's see where I started and where I am now.  :)

November 2009

My first ever conceptual photograph. I took it for a competition. It's portraying Anorexia. At this point I didn't use photoshop and didn't reflect on my personal life. I guess I was just unaware of how to use feelings and deep visions to create art. This was also before I discovered my idol, Brooke Shaden.

November 2009
Created in photoscape. I was so inspired by dark art photography at this point.

May 2010

I downloaded gimp for the first time and learnt how to use layer masks. My first experimentation! Sloppy, but I was soooooo proud. I think I began to understand how powerful my dark art could potentially be.

May 2010
The first time I got really frustrated with the spaces I was using all the time. I wanted to go and experiment with things around me but didn't know how, and wasn't confident enough. 

November 2010

At this point I had discovered Brooke Shaden and finally learned how she achieved her beautifully inspiring images. Basically, textures. This was the first time I used a texture and a costume. I remember not knowing how to use textures properly so I applied this as an overlay. And the shadows are really sloppy looking. Nevertheless, I was proud of this, still am! Breaking point in my photography.

December 2010

I think this is the first time I embraced the darkness in my mind. I really wanted to portray an eerie location, feeling and I did. The editing makes me laugh really, because I am lying on a bed sheet and I just used the smudge tool to try and make it look like snow. I created the fog using a stock image...the hard way.

December 2010

I look back at this now and uhh...I think it's terrible. I was so confused editing this. Just looking back at this and knowing I could actually succeed in the editing portion makes me happy :) cause I obviously failed about a year ago.

January 2011

First picture I was really ever fully satisfied with.

April 2011.

Breaking point kind of picture. It was when I created this I found my artistic voice. I discovered how I liked portraying uncomfortable emotions and situations, in sometimes creepy and different ways. At this point I became really confident in what I was doing...not afraid to show the world who I really am. I walked through all the negative looks I got the next following weeks, proud of who I was becoming. 

July 2011.

Marks a really, really special moment in my life. I'll never forget this picture, this dress and what I felt at that time. 

November 2011

I am most proud of this picture. I am happy with every part of it, and it relates to my life so much. Just a very powerful picture for me, and made me realize nothing is impossible, and art is the most beautiful escape.

January 2012

I am so passionate about what I do. I'm learning every day. Photography is part of my every day life somehow...and it's always in my thoughts. I'm so inspired by the way you can create a moment in time. A moment in time that was only ever present in your imagination. I never want to stop...and hope you guys keep following me on this amazing journey xx

Suicide.

A graceful suicide.

This picture is about having a choice. A choice whether to be part of this world or not. A choice that would be peaceful, liberating, and painless. A soul resting.

I wanted to portray a soul peacefully escaping a body. The soul is being shed off like skin. Memories from the characters past flooding their mind.

*Please don't jump to conlusions here. If you'd like to contact me about this picture with any concerns/questions feel free. 

I recently went through my work and realized my most popular pieces had fairy-tale like qualities to them. Good/Bad?

I don't really know what to think about that. It's makes me wonder if I'm successfully portraying the deep and dark concepts I'm most passionate about. How dark and intense can a fairytale be?

Above you can see some of my most popular flickr pieces. They all have fairy-tale like qualities to them. Some more than others, but nevertheless I think you could imagine them coming from a storybook. All pictures, excluding the last one on the far right, have extremely deep concepts.

These concepts ranging from suicide, death, depression, losing a battle.

You can say I'm slightly concerned my photography may not be perceived as I'd like it to be perceived by my audience. Indeed, I do like the fairytale like look of some of my images, but I truly understand the concepts behind them. I do believe in deconstructing the typical fairytale and turning it into something dark, uncomfortable. However, do my audience realize that? Are my deep concepts masked by the intruiging delicate nature of fairytale images?

I've been kind of irked by the thought of my work being misunderstood to the point where there was a huge gap inbetween my knowledge of my work, and my audiences knowledge of my work. The thing that bothered me most is that I don't want to change my way of presenting my concepts, because I really enjoying 'confusing' and intruiging my viewers at the same time. It's like two parts of my mind were tugging at each other (like always). Is it worth it to stick to my artistic voice even though I have been noticing people misunderstanding my work? And this is not only on flickr. In 'real life' I only, I repeat...only, get positive feedback when my work is less dark visually. My concepts I must admit, are all equally as dark and deep, though sometimes I feel the need to portray them in a lighter way for whatever reasons. It's hard to describe why exactly I do that :) But every artist does it if you think about it. The fact that I get positive responses only when my work is lighter pretty much mean people are made less uncomfortable by the concepts I am portraying. I guess they don't believe they are as dark, or as I said, the soft tones and pretty locations mask the darkness of my concepts.

I guess I can understand why me, lying in a pretty blue fairy-tale like dress, surrounded by loads of green, can be mistaken as something lighter than suicide. 

I guess I'm working on convincing myself that conceptual art is something very...difficult, let's say. Everyone looks at your art differently and will have different opinions. It's not like a landscape artist capturing a picture of a lake and sharing it. There can't be much variety in opinions when it comes to receiving feedback on the picture. I guess the only way of succeeding is sticking to your own voice, and your own style. It is hard enough to succeed in anything believing in yourself to the fullest, but changing your ways of working because some people are getting confused will slowly ruin you as an artist.

I truly do believe I should stick to who I am, even though my work can be confusing to people not looking too deep into it. I'm going to start writing more about my pictures on my blog as 'picture spoilers' for anyone who is more interested. If they are not, it is their fault they don't understand my work, and not mine.

I do like when a viewer is able to create their own story behind an image, but confusing it as something completely different is not the goal of an artist (or atleast, not mine). 

"Take me with you"

I'm ready to go with the Earth.

Take me with you, as I don't belong

Grasp me

Absorb me

Free me

from this foreign land

I found this rotting, dead, and huge tree while exploring the forest today. It caught my eye instantly because of how alive it looked amongst all the neutral greys and browns of the winter. Ironic though, because it was rotten. 

It made me think about how things dead can live on in people's hearts, souls, and memories, and people alive and healthy can be so emotionally empty, they are essentially dead. I then thought about the connections between humans and earth, and again about death. Earth is where we all go eventually, and I wanted to place this young character against something pretty well ancient. 

The character is begging the earth for acceptance. For entry into an eternal land.