Evaluation

This body of work has been such a roller-coaster ride! I have had so many different thoughts and ideas throughout the whole project and have let it go on for such a long time, however each and every idea and thought brought me so much joy and excitement, however unfortunately, due to my very short attention span, I can find something so interesting for a day or two and then find it so boring or stressful and so I then struggle with the idea which makes me want to have a new, fresh idea. I tend to have a very annoying habit of creating ideas which I think other people would find interesting and so I make unrealistic goals for myself which causes me to get extremely stressed and therefor not get on with the work, hence why it has taken me such a long time to create this project.

Although, I decided that I really needed to stop doing this and so I made the decision to reduce my ideas to something a lot more achievable but to make sure that it was still a challenge so that i can feel like I have accomplished something exciting.

I started not having a clue as to what I wanted to do for this project, but then after beginning to listen to Mythos by Stephen Fry, I realized just how much I love Greek Mythology and always have.I believe that this came from learning it in my French class in France. My teacher was very much in love with the topic and would teach it to us with such passion, I remember I used to believe he was a Greek God himself. He sadly passed away a few years ago from a heart attack and so I decided I would create this project in his honor.

My ideas went from making 12 tableaux for each God, to only making 4, then to working on Greek mythology stories instead of the Gods and having 3 different still lives of to show these stories, to having a still life of different foods rotting over time, to finally focusing on just one story and creating a few different pieces for that one story. The story I finally decided to focus on was Pandora’s box! This is mostly because it is something I have always been very interested in especially as the idea of it was shown in a Doctor Who episode which is something I have been obsessed with since a very young age. Once I had finally decided on my plans, it was so much easier and a lot less pressure to finally get my work done. The one theme that was always recurring throughout these different idea was the fact that I wanted to use Still Life as the way of showing the work. Working in the studio is something I have always thoroughly enjoyed throughout my photographic journey, having dramatic lighting and exciting compositions is really very compelling to me. I really enjoy working in a very clean type of setting but having a bit of a chaotic subject, so this story was perfect as there is no set way of doing it, I could be as playful and indirect as I wanted to be which was very exciting. I was very highly influenced by Dominic Davies for the most part of the visuals within this project in terms of lighting and creating the still life works in a very symbolic way, I really admired his Synesthesia project and how playful each and every object in the frame was as well as the gorgeous colours and mysterious lighting.

Ori Gersht was another artists I was very interested in as I feel he taught me how to involve a lot more concept into my work without it necessarily being visually there, I never thought of using photography in a scientific or anything other than it being visually conceptual or even just visually pleasing. I have always had a very big interest in the concept of time and I was really glad to be able to use it within this project. The main way I was able to show time in this project was through the use of the zoetrope and how conflicting it was with the idea of still life, as I used still life images to create the animation I was really glad to be able to bring the idea of clashing concepts into my work as I really love to have that feeling of uneasiness and imperfection as there is a disagreement in place.

I have always been a sort of mixed media type person in terms of messing around with my images and creating something different to a simple photograph, so i was really excited and pleased when I decided to create something a bit more technical for this project! I have always been interested by animations, I remember my sister created one in Primary school and we would watch it every now and then as it was very funny, but I always found the idea of a flip book or stop motion films to be so very alluring and so to be able to create something in this subject was something that I really enjoyed doing. Luckily, I have my boyfriend is very good when it comes to the technical side of things, so in this case he was able to build the Lego motor which was used to power the Zoetrope, luckily he already had all of the parts. Meaning that I only needed to get a few extra bit to make the whole thing become a reality! Even though it was very stressful, the final result was so exciting! Creating the photos for the animation was a lot more difficult than I realized it would be and was most likely the part which took the most amount of time, having to be careful of my every move as if the setup were to move even slightly, it would have messed up the whole thing, including if the lights were changed even a little bit. Having the vapor come out into the frame and in the box was a cool effect to create that sense that something is happening, which it was in this case.

The idea is that people would look into the zoetrope, see the animation, from the text with the display, they would recognize that it is to do with Pandora’s Box and then when they look at the still life image, they would, hopefully, relate to the objects which are in the shot and create their own ideas of what evils came out of the box and what Hope means for them in their lives. This is by far the most exciting piece I have put together and I have worked so so hard to get it all up and running.

I have enjoyed this project very much but it has caused me so much anxiety and mental pressure that I am so glad it is finally over! I have learnt so much from this one project alone which does not even seem to necessarily be related to the project itself. The main thing I have learnt is that I like to take my time with my work and I have a lot of different ideas and it is OK if my pace is not the same as everyone else’s, the fact that I work slower is just part of who I am as an artist and needing a little extra time to put my work together is completely OK.

Overall, this has been by far the most exciting, joyful and very stressful project I have done so far, and I cannot believe it marks the end of my University journey! Even though it has been a very weird and apprehensive journey, it has been the best years of my life so far and I am so glad that I decided to go ahead with it.

Bibliography

Adobe Acrobat extension for Google Chrome (no date). Available at: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-pro-chrome-extension.html (Accessed: 19 April 2021).

Animation, in et al. (no date) ‘18 Classic Myths Explained with Animation: Pandora’s Box, Sisyphus & More | Open Culture’. Available at: https://www.openculture.com/2019/02/18-classic-myths-explained-with-animation-pandoras-box-sisyphus-more.html (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

Athéna à Athènes (no date) Polyxenia en Méditerranée. Available at: http://www.polyxenia.net/athena-a-athenes-p1323144 (Accessed: 22 April 2021).

Austin Parks & Recreation (2020) Make a Praxinoscope. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBftZ0-xvmw (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

Brouwers, J. (no date) Who’s Pallas? - Or: Greek mythology is a mess, Ancient World Magazine. Available at: https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/whos-pallas-greek-mythology-mess/ (Accessed: 23 April 2021).

Cohen, B. (1997a) ‘The Early Greek Palladion: Two Bronze Statuettes in America’, The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 55/56, pp. 11–26.

Cohen, B. (1997b) ‘The Early Greek Palladion: Two Bronze Statuettes in America’, The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 55/56, pp. 11–26.

Cristina de Gennaro (no date). Available at: https://www.cristinadegennaro.com/photographs- (Accessed: 20 March 2021).

Definition of palladium | Dictionary.com (no date) www.dictionary.com. Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/palladium (Accessed: 23 April 2021).

dev, S. U.- (no date) 30 of the Most Famous Tales from Greek Mythology. Available at: https://greektraveltellers.com/blog/30-of-the-most-famous-tales-from-greek-mythology (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

Gale OneFile: News - Document - Why art and storytelling owe a great debt to Greek mythology. (no date). Available at: https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=STND&u=bsuc&id=GALE%7CA656117877&v=2.1&it=r&sid=ebsco (Accessed: 15 April 2021).

History, T. E. of G. M. (2020) ‘Top 14 Ancient Symbols of Bravery & Courage with Meanings’, Give Me History, 30 September. Available at: https://givemehistory.com/symbols-of-bravery-courage (Accessed: 19 April 2021).

Hubble Polaroids | Deep Space Photography | Melanie King (no date) Melanie King. Available at: https://www.melaniek.co.uk/hubble (Accessed: 19 March 2021).

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Joel-Peter Witkin | God of Earth and Heaven, Los Angeles (1988) | Available for Sale | Artsy (no date). Available at: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/joel-peter-witkin-god-of-earth-and-heaven-los-angeles (Accessed: 20 March 2021).

magsqvideo (no date) Robyn Stacey. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTiA1HMe9eU (Accessed: 27 July 2021).

Most Famous Stories of Greek Mythology (2020). Available at: https://www.greekboston.com/culture/mythology/most-famous-stories/ (Accessed: 18 March 2021).

Myrtle Entertainment (2012) CLOUD | The Trojan Horse (from jmyrtle13 Productions). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RYGQQ_qybY (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

Pruitt, S. (no date) The Lumière Brothers, Pioneers of Cinema, HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/news/the-lumiere-brothers-pioneers-of-cinema (Accessed: 9 July 2021).

Robyn Stacey - Stills Gallery (no date). Available at: http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/stacey/index.php?obj_id=series&nav=12 (Accessed: 27 July 2021).

Still Life Photography - The Moving Image of an Inanimate World | Widewalls (no date). Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/still-life-photography (Accessed: 7 July 2021).

“Such as I Have Painted” : Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death,” and the Vani...: Bath Spa Library (no date). Available at: https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.bathspa.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=632d37c9-8c1b-4202-bbff-33ffe25ee581%40pdc-v-sessmgr02 (Accessed: 29 July 2021).

Symbolism Painting Movement (no date). Available at: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/symbolism.htm (Accessed: 6 July 2021).

TED (2017) The forgotten art of the zoetrope | Eric Dyer. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B9A3J70IPQ (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

‘The Archive of Gesture Alexandra Lethbridge’ (no date) Yogurt Magazine. Available at: https://yogurtmagazine.com/portfolio/the-archive-of-gesture-alexandra-lethbridge/ (Accessed: 14 April 2021).

The Icarus Syndrome: Execs Who Fly Too Close to the Sun (2019) INSEAD Knowledge. Available at: https://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/the-icarus-syndrome-execs-who-fly-too-close-to-the-sun-11851 (Accessed: 13 May 2021).

The Secret Language of Still Lifes (no date). Available at: https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/04/05/the-secret-language-of-still-lifes/ (Accessed: 6 July 2021).

‘Tout savoir sur la déesse Athéna’ (2019) Anciennes Civilisations, 6 November. Available at: https://anciennescivilisations.com/histoire-grece/tout-savoir-sur-la-deesse-athena (Accessed: 22 April 2021).

Villing, A. C. (no date) ‘The Iconography of Athena in Attic Vase-painting from 440–370 BC’, p. 155.

‘Visual Art 2019 v1.1 Unit 2 high-level annotated sample response’ (2019), p. 3.

Zoetrope (no date) National Museums Scotland. Available at: https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/collection-search-results/ (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

(No date).


Final Display

Within the final display, there is the zoetrope, the A0 and an A5 piece of card with the accompanying text. I added 2 titles, for A0 I decided upon the title - ‘The Unforgiving’. and for the zoetrope, I decided the title - ‘Zeus’ cunning plan.’ I am very happy with the final display, all the stress and worried about making this project have finally paid off!

Vanitas

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-lush-17th-century-paintings-striking-reminders-mortality

‘Vanitas paintings represent a moralistic form of still-life artwork that “developed into a fully-fledged genre in the 17th century,” says Patrick de Rynck’

I believe that having a reflection of himself within his work is such a big thing, I think it is really exciting and makes the work so much more interesting. The painting itself does not show Claesz, but instead shows his reflection, I feel this is such a playful and exciting topic, and it reminds me a lot of Ori Gersht and how he works with reflections and matter within some of his works.

Why the zoetrope goes so fast and why it repeats itself.

When creating the zoetrope, I knew that I would need something to go in it which would make sense as to why it was in there, going at a certain speed as well as being repeated over and over again.

After some long thinking, I decided that Pandora’s box would be more than perfect, as I have previously mentioned, I am very interested in the concept of time, and I am also interested in the idea of fixed points in time. I believe it is clear that the opening of Pandora’s box would most definitely be a fixed point in time due to the amount t had affected the world today as well as the fact that this idea would have happened anyway was time went on. So in other words, no matter what, Pandora’s box, was going to be opened.

This event will be happening over and over again if that point in time was stopped. hence why, in the zoetrope, the box is opened over and over again every time someone would pull the lever to show the animation. The lever sort of acts as a pause button, where we are pausing time into that exact moment for it to be happening over and over again. (This makes sense in my head, I am just struggling to convey it out into words in a proper way)

Another reason I realized Pandora’s box would be perfect is due to the fact that Pandora must have felt extreme guilt and sadness after having disobeyed strict orders and releasing so many bad and evil things onto the world, and personally whenever I do something embarrassing or regrettable (not that it would be anything as bad as this situation, I hope…), the thought of those actions always spin in my head within stopping, it’s almost like I am re watching myself make that same mistake over and over again.

The actual speed itself could have been a little bit slower, however everything happened in that moment so quickly that I kind of like the speed the zoetrope is going. Although it does mean the animation goes very quickly which does make it slightly more difficult to see.

Overall, I am very happy with how the whole setup turned out as I think, in my head anyway, that it all makes perfect sense to be the way it is.

Robyn Stacey

Robyn Stacey is a still life photographer who is highly influenced by Dutch still-life painters from the sixteenth century. She uses objects the significance of certain show history, culture and meaning within her compositions. I find this to be extremely thought-provoking, as the images are acting as a form of education towards whatever type of scene she was working about.

Robyn Stacey created a staged composition depicting books and objects that explore social and cultural icons and influences. Mark Kimber also assembled objects to take on symbolic façades for aspects of life and drama.

I found this quote in a dissertation from 2019, the author was referring to Stacey’s ‘Table of Industry, 2009’ work from her collection ‘Empire Line’. The image contains a load of books stacked upon one another which Stacey had found in a historical artefacts collection. She placed the books in a way to be able to convey her own personal meaning towards the historical and culturing meaning the books give out.

Visually, this image looks like someone’s desk that I would most likely see either in a film or in an old house. It sort of reminds me of my Nan’s old house in France as she has a table full of old educational books, interestingly whenever I see these books it reminds me of how highly intelligent and educated my Nan is, so to me this whole ensemble does scream out education and knowledge to me. I am not sure if this is the exact message that Stacey wished to convey, but this is what I get from it.

I feel my motive behind creating the work I am currently doing is quite influenced and similar to that of Stacey’s. The still lives themselves both create very different atmospheres, although the aesthetic and lighting are very similar. The ideas behind producing such setups have a very similar motive. Stacey wishes to present education and cultural messages, whereas I wish to transmit a more story-based message, although even if my work is predominantly fiction, it is part of Greek culture and so is also educational.

Photography as contemporary art - Charlotte Cotton

Below is an extract from Charlotte Cottons - ‘The Photograph as Contemporary art’ book, I found it to be a very useful and helpful extract in terms of understanding still life and how it can symbolize so much in just a few simple everyday objects.

Titles

In terms of titles, I spoke with my Nan to get some ideas of what would be interesting and what titles I could use which would give the audience an idea of what the project was about without giving it away to much.

These are the ideas that came out of our talk

For the image

  • The Unforgivable.

  • Prometheus’ flames.

  • Zeus’ orders.

  • Disobeying direct orders.

  • The Unforgiving.

  • All the evils of the world.

  • Pandora’s box.

  • Disobedience.

  • Curiosity killed the cat.

I decided to go with ‘The Unforgiving.’ as this describes how Zeus’ felt about Prometheus’ disobedience and so he was not able to forgive him, or man for his actions. I feel this was the most mysterious and the strongest words to describe the situation. Although I was rather fond of a few of the other titles, such as ‘Pandora’s box’ as it is simple and very self explanatory however I feel through having the written text which goes with the display, it is explained in there and I do not want it to be to repetitive. I also liked the title ‘Curiosity killed the cat. ‘ as I feel it works as a metaphor for how Pandora’s curiosity got the better of her and she eventually opened the box/ pithos which sent out all of these evils, however I did not feel it was as mysterious as ‘The Unforgiving.’ which is why I decided to go with this title.

For the Zoetrope

  • The plan.

  • Zeus’ plan.

  • The beginning of the end.

  • The suffering begins.

  • Zeus’ cunning plan.

For this piece, I decided to go with the title ‘Zeus’ cunning plan.’ as I felt it was a good title to explain the meaning behind the piece which shows Pandora’s box opening over and over again. I found the work ‘Cunning’ to be very appropriate as he was very cunning in the way that instead of letting his rage get the better of him, he thought up this brilliant, yet evil plan on how to make the human race, and Prometheus suffer for their actions.

Overall, I think these titles work well and they gave a good idea of the project without giving away to many details.

Putting everything together

I printed the image below as an A0 with borders which were around 3 cm each to give it a still life painting vibe, as they would mostly all be in frames, so the border in this case acts as a frame. I added the extra black border to show the white border as it wouldn’t show up on the screen. I am very happy with my choice of image, as when printed it looks so much more interesting and exciting which was what I was hoping would happen.

Finished Zoetrope

Here is a few detailed images showing the process of making the zoetrope.

Common and secret Symbolism Dutch Still life

It is fascinating to read and learn about what different foods signified.

In the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, a period of unprecedented class mobility and wealth accrual, art proliferation reached a fever pitch; between 1580 and 1800, approximately 5,000 artists produced almost 10 million paintings, less than one percent of which have survived to the present day. Interestingly, the Dutch Reformed Protestant Church explicitly forbade religious iconography during this period, insisting that it cheapened the subject matter.

A lot of the foods and objects would have some significance towards religion and the church which seems quite normal for this era.

These foods all symbolise something different in Dutch still life -

Bread - the body of Christ

Milk - ‘Noble liquid’ is what the dutch would call the substance in the 17th century, it symbolised cultural heritage and pride in local produce.

Oyster - often have an erotic meaning, but when they are painted with austere foods, they usually signify choosing desire over Christ.

Medlar - often depicted as sex work as the fruit is not edible until it is beginning to go bad, they used them as a way of showing the destruction of purity

Lemons - deceptive beauty of carnality

Snails - Virgin Birth

Pomegranate- resurrection, immortality and fertility, this was influenced by the story of Persephone, another Greek influence.

Lobster - Gluttony

I find it so amusing and intriguing to find all of these hidden meanings which were depicted in this era, it is very interesting to see how they believed that these items would signify such important and big topics. I have only fallen in love with the idea of symbolism more through doing this research, it is definitely one of the most appealing subject and I am very much looking forward to working with it in my photography.

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/in_depth/a-symbolism-guide-to-the-spooky-world-of-dutch-still-lives-56298

Symbolism period

Symbolism is something I have always been very interested in, I love how simple objects in our everyday lives can come across with such strong and powerful meanings. I really love working with symbolism and understanding what different things can represent. When I was creating the Athena shoot, I researched into what she represented, from which I fund that she often is represented as someone with immense courage and bravery, after I found this out I would go and look into what would visually represent this concept, when I found out that in ancient Greece, Thyme (the herb) symbolized this, I was quite amazed that something I had only ever seen as a simple herb could represent something so incredible.

Symbolism is a late 19th century movement which became very popular amount artists in Europe between 1886 and 1900. It began by being popularized within poetry and creative writing but it slowly emerged into the visual arts world.

Translations for still-life symbolism could fill a small dictionary, but here are a few of our favourites to look out for…

Lobster, shellfish or meat: wealth, gluttony and temptation

Poppies or dead animals: death. Poppy is also the flower that produces opium, the character of mortal sin of laziness.

Rose: the flower of Venus, symbol of love and sex

Crown: like masks, symbolize the absence of those who wore them.

Pomegranates: fertility (a metaphor for Persephone & Hades)

Globe: the earth and the Sky

Glass: a life of luxury.

I love how a lot of symbolism comes into Greek mythology, almost every aspect has some hidden represented meaning. Also how this website is complete unrelated to Greek mythology, yet it still references it - Pomegranates: fertility (a metaphor for Persephone & Hades).

Awkwardly, I didn’t exactly look up the meaning of the flower I used in my photo shoot, I just rushed it and took any flower I could find. Only to find out that the non scientific name is ‘Morning Glory’ which could be taken slightly in the wrong way. Oops….

Although, the meaning of the flower is -

Morning Glory flowers traditionally hold the symbolic meaning of unrequited love and obsession in the language of flowers. In Japan the flower is symbolic of both innocence and love, making it a common gift between young lovers

Which is very sweet and as someone who, when able to feel a connection and love towards someone, feels it very strongly. To me, the very few people who I feel this extreme love for are the people who give me hope for the future. So in a very odd and unexpected way, this flower does in fact represent hope, which is exactly what I wanted for this concept.

Even though a lot of objects already have meanings, I find it very interesting to see what each individual feels when ever they see certain objects in a different setting to what they are used to seeing them. It’s interesting to see if people will depict out the meaning which I am trying to put across or if they will create their own set meaning of each. For this reason, I will not be giving away the meanings I have onto the audience with my final piece and instead would like to leave a notebook to see what they feel each item means or how the composition as a whole makes them feel.

Printing Image

I wanted to print my image as large as possible to really create a dramatic and mysterious feel to the viewers of the work. So I went with the biggest printing size and got an A0 print of the Pandora’s box image. This I feel would make the print seem more mysterious and exciting due to the size being bigger.

IMG_20210715_130707.jpg

The piece of paper to the side, which is the text that goes with the project, is an A5 which shows the perspective and size of the A0 print.

I really love the aesthetic of the brick wall, I feel it really brings out the work.

If it were possible, I would have really liked to have printed the image bigger, however I am very happy with how this turned out.

The Lumière brothers

The Lumière Brothers were French cinematographers, they used a single camera to create films of everyday life. They are best known for creating a Cinématographe, which is a motion picture film machine. They invented this in the 19th century and it was one of the first major film. The main reason they invented this was to create a less bulky more effective version of Thomas Edison’s Kinetograph. -

The Cinématographe photographed and projected film at a speed of 16 frames per second, much slower than Edison’s device (48 frames per second), which meant that it was less noisy to operate and used less film. (Pruitt, S. 2018)

A three-in-one device that could record, develop and project motion pictures, the Cinématographe would go down in history as the first viable film camera. (Pruitt, S. 2018)

It’s interesting to see how this concept has evolved, and how one idea turns into another until the idea is fully formed and more efficient.

Looking at these brothers has really helped me to get an idea of when Film first started to come around as a medium, and this really helps me to see when and how it started. I found this very interesting as I am working with stop motion, it feels like going back in time but I love it. !t is really exciting to see just how far technology has come in such a short space of time. I wanted to use something a bit more old fashioned, which is why I chose to use a Zoetrope as part of my display. It allows me to learn more about this side of the medium and allows me to play with the concept of time as well as learning something new.

Zoetrope wall calculations

Below are the calculations I have to make the wall of the zoetrope. The height of the slots needs to be the same height as the images, so I have made them 11.7 cm long and then 0.3cm wide, this is just the right size for the animation to work correctly and not cause any blur when spinning.

The length of the wall needs to be the same size as the circumference of the circle which is 125.6cm, it I will make it slightly longer so that I can stick it together easily.

The length of the wall itself is 25cm which is enough to have the slots are the right length and then 1 cm between them and the top of the wall, this is so that the slots are very close to the images when it is all stuck together. There will be a 0.6cm gap between the slots and the images. Each slot will be approx. 10.47 cm distance from each-other, this is the width of each frame.

IMG_20210708_145156.jpg

Above are images of the laser printer which I used to cut the card to make the slots, this way they would be perfectly aligned and at the same distance from each other as well as being cut to a much better standard than if I was to do it by hand.

Zoetrope plans and woodwork

The circumference of the circle is 125.6cm, I currently have 24 images which would need to be 5.23 cm width each, although I am considering making the animation shorter so that the images can be slightly bigger. This way it will be clearer to those who may not have as good vision.

I would like to aim to have around 12-16 images, this way they will need to be 10.467 - 7.85 cm each which will be bigger and better than 5 cm.

We have a mini Lego motor which we will use to move the zoetrope, this is so that it will move quick enough for the animation to be clear.

Next all I need to do is the wall with the slots in them which will make the images into the animation when moved. To make this, I will use card.

After trying to make a prototype ring of images, I found that the images were to small to see correctly, so i will stick with using 12 images to make them bigger and better. The circumference is 125.6cm so the wall will need to be slightly bigger so that it can fit on the outside of the disc, so i will make the wall between 125.6 and 126cm. So each image will need to be exactly 10.483.

Below is the row of images I will print off to put inside of the zoetrope, I have added an extra 2cm on the side to glue them round.

Current Photoshoot

Ori Gersht and Dominic Davies inspiration, the theory and concept behind it is very much influenced by Ori Gersht’s work and the composition of the still life in Pandora’s box shoot is very influenced by Dominic Davies. Both of these incredible artists have had a huge impact on my way of thinking theoretically and physically. I believe that both of their works will become a big part of my practice in the future.

COVID 19 and Pandora's box

https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-open-pandoras-box-wuhan

It’s really interesting to see how people see Pandora’s box and make it into a more modern story, but also relating it to today’s situation in the pandemic, because in theory, if Prometheus had never given fire to man, Zeus would have never came up with his master plan, Pandora would have never existed and so she would have never been able to open the box. Although, through all of these years, something else would have been bound to happen which would have caused a similar story. Although, a lot of people believe that humans are the ones who created this disease and so in a way, we are destroying ourselves and might not have needed Pandora’ box to be punished in the first place. Either way this is all very theoretical talk. But the idea that people are now using Pandora’s box as a way to describe this horrific situation in which we have found ourselves in.

Relevance of time in this and how still life will be moving in zoetrope

Greek mythology has, as previously mentioned, been a big part of my life. It has come into my everyday since I was a child and I have grown more and more passionate about it as I have grown older. Even though it has been around for thousands of years, it is still so important in today’s society, which is why I would love to play with the idea of time and stillness within this display. Using a still life where everything is meant to quiet and still alongside a zoetrope which will have a set of still life as the subject, which when spun will create a short animation of Pandora’s box opening up. The idea of a image being, as a composition, a still life subject, but the physical image itself moving is quite an interesting concept to me. I feel this inspiration of playing around with both the subject of the image and the image in its physical self has definitely come from Ori Gersht’s influence, I could not be more glad that I watched his lecture as I feel it has changed my perception of photography forever.

Text idea to go with images

Zeus specifically told Prometheus that he was to never give the gift of Fire to man as this was the main source of power between humans and the Gods. However Prometheus disobeyed his orders and gave man fire anyway. Zeus was filled with rage and anger, so he came up with a plan. This plan involved creating a beautiful female who was given the name Pandora, after going through all of the procedures to bring her to life, she was given a gift. A Pithos, or in the majority of stories told, she was given a box. Zeus gave her this box as a present with the strict instructions to never open it. She was told that the box was filled with, well secrets, things that did not concern her in any way. After time passed she became more and more curious of what was inside of the container, eventually her curiosity got the better of her, she opened the box and out came horrible creatures, different types of evil, including hatred, laziness, starvation, disease, war, etc… She sealed the box shut as soon as she realized what she had done. Zeus’ plan had been a success. Little did Pandora know than within the sealed box, their was one thing left, Hope.

The aftermath of Pandora's Box

I am very happy with how this photo shoot turned out, every aspect of the frame has a symbolic meaning, even the black spaces which I used to show the idea of misery and depression, as metaphorical we consider ourselves to be in dark spaces when our mental health is bad.

The noose - Suicide and loneliness
Knife with blood - Violent death
Flower - Hope
Ash - Old, cremation, aftermath of a possibly horrific event (Pompeii springs to mind)
Chess board - War and racism (white against black)
Fire - danger, nature - forest fires, house fires… Also the cause of this event
Vapour - Disassociation, not seeing clearly, smoke

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