FINDING THE ART IN THE EVERYDAY
“My art is that of storytelling, of creating beautiful images with a voice and intimate narratives; an art that I thought came with certain requirements of props and equipment skill, but the lockdown changed all of that. “
Ever taken the time to look at and appreciate the inside of a papaya? Ever thought flowing milk would be soothing to look at? I certainly hadn’t. The lockdown has shown me a lot of things and for a lot of people it has been a period of reflection. For me, it was about truly embracing slow living. It became about finding joy in the little things. Having meals together with family, playing board games again, gardening, the simple things I never treasured as much before. Being a stylist, a lot of what I do involves running around and usually depends on a group of people. However, I took the extra time to finally start teaching myself photography. I took a picture every single day, for 60 days. I sat with myself everyday around the golden hour and let myself be surprised. The 60 days locked in with my camera, made me look at everyday things in a new light. It has challenged me to explore other mediums of props. It was the start to my journey of Finding the Art in the Everyday. The greatest gift the lockdown gave me was the freedom to surprise myself, to find joy in what I love most.
My thought process when I create always starts with the colours. While choosing my props, I see a colour palette I would like to explore in my mind, and I illustrate and play with compositions from that. For traditional top shots, you would choose props that relate to each other and illustrate a theme. I wanted to challenge myself during the lockdown and so I scrapped all my understanding of the first and followed my colour palette instinct. For these isolation creations, I chose to photograph everyday things we consume, to re -look at the ordinary.
In most of my images, I have focused on creating an emotion. With the shapes and movement, I have tried to string together a story using a series of still life compositions that each evoked a specific emotion in me.