My Photography Practice

 After coming to terms with the fact that there will be no more festivals during the summer of 2020 due to the current circumstances going on in the world I decided to take images of free parties and the party goers and my circle of friends, as they were becoming more and more popular. I have been going to them since I was very young so there is something quite nostalgic about attending such events. 

To me it isn't just about the partying and the music its about the people, the people I go with and the people I meet, I am a very sociable person, occasionally shy but once I get to know people I am happy to open up with them, partying has often helped me do so. It is most definitely because of my upbringing that I love being around loads of people, talking and dancing the night away. I have suffered from anxiety since I was very young and being with my friends at parties and festivals has really helped me establish a sense of community and has almost been a remedy for me. 

Here are some examples of some of my favourite images I have taken which to me describes my above statement. 

When I went to a party on Halloween, a lot of police brutality took place and it wasn't a pleasant experience, its not what you go for, you go to let loose and dance and express yourself. 

Above is the bruise which appeared after I had been hit by a police officer, the picture on the left is the morning after and the picture on the right is from a week later. I have never experienced anything like it, since I was a kid I have been brought up going to parties and festivals, I have always felt safe, I know people who have experienced police brutality but I have never until this year. Whilst I was trying to enter a party, I was held onto by a police MAN and I was repeatedly hit in the thigh 3-4 times and I was also hit in my private area with a baton, the man used force. I was only trying to enter the party like everyone else, I had no intention of harming the police man, no weapon in my arms and as he ran at me with his bat I was terrified, not to mention the pain, it hurt a lot. I was on my own, separated from my friends, it was very traumatic.

At the same party my friend, along with the last party goers, which was around fifty people, were made to be cornered by policemen who had dogs, riot shields and bats. My friend was pushed onto the ground and threatened with a dog. She was really scared, I was sad that I wasn't there to make sure she was ok as I had already left in tears that morning.  

At the same party a lady named Jessica Mae Andrew was mauled by a police dog for around 3/4 minutes and her leg has to now be reconstructed as the dog bit into the fat and revealed bone.

 

These are not the kinds of things me and my friends go for, we do not enjoy violence, we enjoy dancing and having a nice time with each other. The vibe has seriously changed, but we won't let it stop us from being together and having a sense of community, talking and dancing. 

So again after coming to the terms with the fact that parties are not the same anymore, they are not enjoyable and I have accepted that I won't be taking images at these events, I have started documenting people I consider to be my tribe, my community, the group of people who I have spent many nights with dancing and talking about our happiness, our sadness, our hopes and dreams and worries. The people who I plan to do this with for the rest of my life because we are like family.

 

The lockdowns began to make it very difficult for me to capture images and it even began to demolish my motivations to do my course work and take images. I felt like I needed to embrace my creative side in order to enjoy my project. I wanted to create work that represented rave/party culture in a sense but the images were not physically at the raves/parties. 

So my inspirations went very low and I couldn't really think about what to do until, I was on the bus one day and I thought about a poem about missing dancing and it sprung to me, I could combine poetry/statements and peoples thoughts about parties, why they go, experiences they have had etc with imagery, using projections or text on people modelling.  In year one I created a book where images coincided with a poem I had written and in year two I created a modernised scrap book of me and my friends and family in festivals from past and current times, they have been my favourite projects to date. so I thought why not combine the two. 

I wrote the words 'I dance to feel free, from negativity, I wont let it be taken away from me" on my friend, the model, firstly using black eyeliner and secondly using UV paint with UV strip lights to light the text up. I am extremely happy with these results and it helped me feel inspired again.

 

I very much enjoyed this photoshoot and I am happy with the results, I feel like I achieved what I wanted within the styles and I am happy with the message/poem I have written on the model. As a lot of my friends and people I have spoken to all agree that when we're dancing we feel free from our worries. 

I have also taken some shots capturing projections and movement through people dancing. I feel this is a true representation of rave/party culture as there are always amazing light set ups and projections in the venues wether it is inside or outside. I am also very happy with these images and feel they express the ideas that I have mentioned above. 

I have some more images which I want to include, these are from the morning of a free party, which is all part of the fun, getting ready with your closest friends, feeling excited yet apprehensions for the night ahead, some of the best times I have had have been during the day before the party. I have also taken some images of text and graffiti which I thought related to my project. I am happy with these results. 

(the above photo was taken by mum)

The images I have shown above shows my photographic journey so far. My plan is to use these photos to create a series within a video. I am going to create a video of these images in a sequence combined with audio for my final major project, I guess it is a sort of montage. 

Overall I am very happy with my images so far, I am hoping to collect more as the year goes on but for now I feel I have many to work with and I believe that I will be able to create a visually interesting project.