Uses of Photography PB4 Post #2

Joanna Zylinska in citing Jai Mckenzie (2014) defines photo-mediations as “light based practices” (2016, p.11). By proposing that photography is studied through it’s mediation and movement rather than the technology attached to it, Zylinska is able to conclude that photography works to cut mediation, therefore works to edit and shape life it’s self (2o16, p.13).

This was practically important to me as I began to produce PB2. Realising that while I would have normally used photography to create memories, I was actively working to push sequencing and editing to forth the feelings and moods I wanted acknowledged. By detaching photography from only being an act of preservation (Zylinska, 2016, p.13) I was able to start unconsciously acting on how I wanted to use photography to communicate my ideas to others. Though back in week 4 this merely came out as; “I want people to feel something when they look at my work.”  However this was not feelings to do with remembering, no nostalgia or yearning for a childhood lost.  I wanted to bring out emotions I was feeling right now in this time and place – something I had considered impossible for me to perviously achieve.

The idea that photography wasn’t just for capturing the past,was something that hung over me as I first entered this course. My brainstorming all seemed to be imbedded in the past with me wanting to revisit old work I had down perviously and even exploring the type of fear linked to childhood. While knowing from the beginning photography’s ability to create the timelines (Zylinska, 2016, p.7), we traverse, it’s through this course and this practical reading that I was able to explore it’s other uses.

In the future I want to continue to use photography to communicate the present, to cut into life and pull out the  emotions and moods I want to convey – using photography as a tool to create new perspectives, rather than playing it safe to retell the old.