Areas
of Photographic Practice
Name: Imogen Jones
Working title: Persephone
My idea stems from looking at the literacy inspired works of Tom Hunter
and Dina Goldstein, whose effective use of literature enables them to create
(in my eyes) successful narratives. I have a huge fascination for Greek
Mythology and Symbolism so I used motifs found in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter
and the myth of Persephone to influence my own narratives; for example the symbol
for fertility was the pomegranate, as seen on early Greek Statues c1200BC. I’d
feel like I successfully incorporated this use of symbols into my photography.
I wanted to produce this body of work as I felt that my interest in
Greek literature would create an original narrative, as I am so fascinated I believe
that this did show in my work and that I kept focussed on it. What started as a
piece to perhaps show the expectations placed on women to have children even in
today’s world turned to something that made me think about forced marriage, a
very real problem in some parts of the world. The images I produced with this
in mind had an eerie feel to them,
especially with the symbol of the pomegranate to represent the “ripe fertility”
of young girls forced into marriage, used from the Myth of Persephone where a
goddess is forced to marry a God (Hades).
At first I wanted to just have the image of the pomegranate by itself, alone on the bed; representing how alone these girls may feel. But after a couple of shoots I felt like I could show the whole myth within one tableau, inspired by Dutch Still Life paintings. My project evolved completely after I decided to do this, I researched further into the symbolism presented in the myth and found I could show the seasons through symbols meant for the Gods.
I knew that realistically I only had one shot for the shoot as the deadline was approaching, I knew what I wanted to achieve lighting wise and drew a rough sketch of where I wanted the different components to be. In the studio I only needed one light, as the artists of Dutch Still Life painted as if there was only one light source coming in from the side. Dutch Still Life’s are also usually set on a table and I wanted this to be shown in my own photography, but I also wanted to create an illusion of a bed; the pillow cover I used for a semi-backdrop also generated texture similar to that of an oil painting.
At first I wanted to just have the image of the pomegranate by itself, alone on the bed; representing how alone these girls may feel. But after a couple of shoots I felt like I could show the whole myth within one tableau, inspired by Dutch Still Life paintings. My project evolved completely after I decided to do this, I researched further into the symbolism presented in the myth and found I could show the seasons through symbols meant for the Gods.
I knew that realistically I only had one shot for the shoot as the deadline was approaching, I knew what I wanted to achieve lighting wise and drew a rough sketch of where I wanted the different components to be. In the studio I only needed one light, as the artists of Dutch Still Life painted as if there was only one light source coming in from the side. Dutch Still Life’s are also usually set on a table and I wanted this to be shown in my own photography, but I also wanted to create an illusion of a bed; the pillow cover I used for a semi-backdrop also generated texture similar to that of an oil painting.
The work would be shown in a gallery, although I used the contemporary
method of digital photography the image itself looks like an antique oil
painting, especially in the old frame I bought from a charity shop. There would
be a slight assumption that the audience would roughly know the myth, but as
shown in the virtual gallery I would have quotes from the Homeric Hymn to
Demeter displayed on the walls, and perhaps a hand out describing the myth. So
all in all the work would be for any audience interested in galleries, whether
my work would affect anyone of a certain age or gender I’m not too sure, I’d
hope it’d affect women and promote some sort of change too.
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