Direction of Work

Q: Where is my work going? 

A: Forced Reality.



Q: What is forced reality?

A: To me forced reality is a situation, a reality and a scenario of which every aspect is real apart from it's not at all. It's all created, forced, false, fake but it looks real.



Q: Expand?

A: It's a real building, a real person and a real stage. The only thing is the people in the photos are actors playing a role, playing a character I've created. They are being part of a story. Although this story isn't moving image, it's a still photo. 1 photo per scene/story. 



Q: What will link the photos together?

A: I'm hugely interested (partially inspired & uninspired) by Britain. British culture, how we are, the social classes that exist. The mundane, the banal. The chavs and teenage pregnancies of Britain interest me. Being British and Northern has hugely carved this into me, Firstly British people like to complain, it's all very doom and gloom, we are never satisfied. 


                   Quick Background of me:

I've been brought up in two different ways. My father was brought up middle class then graduated Uni with a 1st in Politics. He's a very sensible and calm person, fairly average and pretty conventional. He's the reason I'm fairly calm and has hugely developed my curiosity and from this I've always questioned things. My Mother was brought up in a working class environment, she failed uni and got a job for the council. An average job, but nothing particularly interesting. She then married my (then) Step Father, again never went to Uni and came from a Northern working class area and family. He's much more boyish, rough and ready and less cautious compared to my father. Because of this contrast I've been able to see everything from two sides. My mother lived in a small house in a (then was) council estate. I was surrounded by chavs, tower blocks, local alcoholics and basically the dregs of society. The area wasn't awful by any means, it just wasn't the best Crime wasn't huge, it was just very average and mundane. However I was able to escape this at my fathers, we lived in a 4 bed semi, in a nice neighbourhood. Here it was a more affluent area, no chavs, no concrete tower blocks, all streets lined with trees and every house has multiple cars. 

My High School (11-18) wasn't great. It was a huge school with a fairly poor reputation, with most kids from poor and more deprived neighbourhoods. My school experience has hugely made me who I am today, I was able to see things, from different cultures, different people and from this I was able to see what I want for myself and what I want to avoid. Some people I grew up with are now in prison, others are at Oxford the school has a huge range of diversity.

As a Photographer I've always been drawn to the grim, the banal and the shit of society. I'm interested in the boring dullness of being British and how it's failing. I think it's much more interesting, many photographers do this in a documentary way, finding the dullness in the uk and photographing it as it is. What I want to do is to create the sense of this Britishness and Dullness. Creating it without actually having it, not in a documentary style, but from a more thorough fine art perspective. 


Back to the Question: What will link the photos together?


The Photos will all have a ongoing sense of 'British' running through the series. I want to also touch on issues such as isolation, fear and depression in the series. These won't be huge parts of the photos, I just want them to have a sense of these feelings in a select few of them. 




Q: What Next?  

A: I'm currently creating scenes and ideas of what it means to be British to me. These are inspired by the things around me and also what I think will be interesting to explore. I'm also looking for actors and actresses to play roles in the photos. Advertising on Facebook and in acting agencies to find suitable people for the roles.