PATCHWORK: AN EXPLORATION OF INSECURITIES // A PHOTO SERIES

12:28

This series was such a long time in the making, beginning work on it in mid-October of this year. The theme of the series is insecurities. What I wanted to do was speak to each participant about an aspect of themselves that they were insecure about and figure out ways to depict it in a positive way. This is where projection photography came into play. By projecting the image of the participant’s insecurity on a large screen it was a way for them to face this insecurity and work with me to find something positive in it. The series is really personal and I don’t take that lightly. Working on each photo with each person was a beautiful experience, it was scary sometimes, going to that personal level with each individual. It is not easy to be faced with a huge projected image of yourself. The colours projected on each individual was chosen by themselves. I wanted the process of creating this series to be a shared thing, a collaborative thing.

I named the series ‘Patchwork,’ because each photo depicts the pieces or patches that make up the person, a patchwork quilt of fears, anxieties but also good things. We are all made up of positive and negative things. Believe it or not I found it really difficult to come up with a name for this series. To express what I was trying to get across. The fact that we are all made of a patchwork of positive and negative things, but we are loved all the same. God knows I am a patchwork quilt of so many negative and positive entities, but I am also worthy of good things, just as every single one of the people photographed in this series are.

I want to say a huge thank you to those who took part in the series, Katie, Michaela, Michael, David, Sorcha, Nicola and Shane for taking the time to come to my house and be photographed. There were many people who were involved in the process of the series. Many of whom who wished to be photographed but couldn’t due to one reason or another. I appreciate the fact that you believed in what I was doing enough to want to take part in first place. I’ve never directed one in a photo series before and you can see that the series is a bit rough around the edges, but I do believe everyone has to start somewhere. I want to thank Michael for lending me the first projector and Simon from The Urban Co-Op for lending me the second projector. If it wasn’t for you two I wouldn’t have been able to create this series.

I chose to keep each insecurity private because for some these insecurities are not something that should be publicized until the person feels ready. I wanted to also leave it up to the viewer’s interpretation. I would be happy to answer any questions anyone has or discuss the images with people.Thank you to you too for taking the time to look at this series and read my words. I haven’t been active on this blog much this year, but I hope that this series shows that I am trying to create positivity with this series. I’m really enjoying exploring different mediums of expression.