nature – lisafoto's show and tell

When I Work

I would like to spend more time taking photographs but never seem to get the time or the head space. When I do take photographs now it’s mainly of nature and I manipulate them digitally. I have always been fascinated with the space that exists between reality and fake when it comes to photography. I like to picture what these images will look like framed, large on a wall.

Elements

Birds

“Like the wings of birds fluttering against closed windows, photographs brush vainly against the surface of things“

John Rosenthal

All my photographs of birds are fake. They are edited, stitched together and manufactured. I add birds where there are none, remove ones that do not fit in to the composition and layer skies and backgrounds to suit my aesthetic. They remind me that all of photography is fake.

The Pusuit of Happiness

Religion, philosophy, and human interaction play smaller and smaller roles in contemporary life, we have come to value pleasure, vanity, and conspicuous consumption in their place. Happiness is a recurring theme in my work. The means through which we pursue happiness have changed significantly, but this pursuit still reigns over Western society. No longer satisfied by the truth and comforts of religion and a virtuous life we are encouraged to expect happiness at all costs, but is the contemporary pursuit of happiness doomed to fail?

The American Dream is a concept worshipped by an entire nation which has lost sight of it’s original meaning. Happiness was written into the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson with the phrase ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. However when Jefferson spoke of pursuing happiness, he had nothing vague or private in mind; his was a measured, public happiness.

This series of images, entitled ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ is from a larger body of work shot in the US over several years. I have returned time and again in an attempt to greater understand this culture and it’s people, the legacy of Scottish diaspora and their modern interpretation of the theories and philosophies from the Scottish Enlightenment.

Reflections

The HYPE group currently have an exhibition of photography, collage and painting at Armadale library (until 31st October). The work was created for the Scottish Mental Health Art and Film Festival. We took as our ambiguous theme the idea of ‘reflections’, allowing participants to interpret this brief as they wanted. Photographs were taken at a variety of locations in West and East Lothian and we used small round mirrors to reflect ourselves and our environment. Participants were encouraged to take photographs of each other and, as for all my workshops, the fake, smiley thumbs up pictures were banned making those being photographed think a little more about how they want to be portrayed in the images. Luckily there are so many beautiful spots to photograph this helped distract from the actual act of being photographed! I have included several of their portraits of each other and a few additional images taken by the group.

Feet and sand

The collages began as line drawings from photographs. Participants then filled these drawings with paint, proline markers or samples of wallpaper, chosen by them and carefully cut to size. It was very restful making the collages and this produced a very nice atmosphere in the group.

Below is a gallery of (bad ifone images) of participant’s work with their comments on the work they have created.