Tuesday 3 May 2016

Photography thoughts and process - social media influence

When given the theme - My world, My view, I was instantly inspired to take this opportunity to push the limits and come up with something wild . I started to think; What is my world? What is my view on the world? How do I view others? Who am I?
I started to think about people within my world, but who? My personal life has a great divide , in which, I have my genuine friends that I can call or text, or I have my social media friends that I don't necessary speak to. I began to feel confused about who is real and what is real.
Social media has had a great impact on how people communicate and become 'friends' with one another. I also realized that social media is extremely fake, take Facebook for example, it is one of the most popular social media sites circulating  at present. There are people I know, who upload pictures of themselves having a great time, partying, spending time with family, etc. The reality is, they only upload pictures when they eventually do something interesting. It is as if they have to prove to their 'friends' that they are having a great life, when the truth is they are miserable and boring people to be around! I could continue to rant about social media vs. reality all day given the opportunity, but this gave me an  idea on what I could do for my final photography. I thought it would be interesting to use the idea of social media vs. reality to show an alternate side of me. Revealing a negative, weak side compared to my positive, strong personality.
My view of myself- I like to think of myself as a positive , enthusiastic, caring  and reliable. I am a good friend and will help anyone in need. Recently, that was not  the case, I had lost myself for a while and no longer recognized the person looking back in the mirror. Aggression, depression, anxiety, mood swings and attitude. This was very out of character and I could not help my emotions or behaviours, It started to escalate out of control rapidly.
My world, my view- I decided to take this opportunity of using my photography to create a series of images to show an alternate me. I am an easy going, social person but I was not inspired to just take photos of myself in different situations. All my friends know that I am a family person, I am a student, a worker and a mum, but that's not new or exciting enough to mount photos off-I have a million photos of me at home! It was time to be adventurous and  go crazy.
The first step I took was writing down all the positive characteristics of myself, I then added any other positive things in my life, everything from family to socializing. I then made another list of the opposite of what I had already written down such as, family - alone, socializing with friends - drinking alone, ecstatic - miserable, and so on. My initial thought was , am I able to do this? as it is extremely out of character and my comfort zone. After reflecting on my idea and plan, I decided to continue with it and take full advantage of this opportunity.

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