Fading

Rationale

This series of images discusses about how families are forgotten after war that they are the ones left behind to pick up the pieces. The inspiration behind this piece was several photojournalistic artists that worked in the major wars of the 20^th Century. I wanted these images to look dark and grungy and have a depressing feel about them. The woman in the image is standing on a balcony looking as though she is waiting for her husband to come back but through the series of images it is obvious that her hope is fading as she disappears completely by the end of the series. The images can be read and interpreted several ways, it can be interpreted that her hope is fading that her husband will never return. It also can be interpreted that over time she will be forgotten and is expected to carry on with her life. The images also have a sense that the woman’s memory is fading and this is a topic that the Australian Photographic Artist Anne Ferran is famous for.

I wanted the five images to have a surrealist look to them, as they are not a reflection of the past but an insight into the emotion of how the families and wives were feeling at this time. Through my research I found that artworks at the period of both the world wars were heavily influenced by death, destruction and fear. The series of images in “Fading” can be related to several photographers such as Margret Bourke-White and Anne Ferran who use shutter speed in their work in similar ways.