Somebody [Part III]

The project is going to veer laterally due to time constraints and availability of access. The changes will include a more methodical approach to addressing the notions of the 'post-human' against the backdrop of contemporary identity construction and consumerism. By manipulating images using the digital darkroom, processing RAW files in Photoshop, I will be creating rather than documenting fragments of the 'post-human'. This brings my photography into what Liz Wells addresses as the 'post-photographic image'. The created images may make great counterpoints to the more documentary images of Musgrave's Prosthetic Clinic if the images were juxtaposed in series, or as diptychs.

The compositions will have to remain simple, almost deadpan, to ensure the image's tension is not lost. An attention to minutia and subtlety will ensure the technique's success. The work of Robert Mapplethorpe has become more important as my compositions begin to creep closer in depth; from full frame portraits including the area to dissected bodies and limbs framed against a clinical backdrop.

I have opted to present this set of images in black and white for a few reasons: firstly, the portraits they are modelled on were in monochrome and this makes it easier for the viewer to associate the image as being 'natural'; secondly, black and white prints hold a specific photographic verisimilitude in the history of the recorded image so the images' truth claims are enforced; lastly, a greater degree of tone and texture can be provided by the black and white image when processing the RAW file. I may change this aspect so the images are partially coloured so they resemble the work of Robert Wilson [see below].

Robert Wilson, Helmand

The reason for trying to maximise the detail in the images is to present the human qualities, such as hair follicles and pores, as hyperbole. This will contrast beautifully with the manufactured or mechanical attributes within the frame when printed or viewed large.