The inner workings of me.

Watson.B (2014). The Complete Works of Zhuangzi. New York: Columbia University Press.

Being influenced so heavily by the philosophy of this book. My work has started to take an impressionistic less linear way of being composed. I have relived some of the design aspect of the work to fate as I am never truly in control of the outcome. In the book "The Complete Works of Zhuangzi", Zhuangzi states "I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man", this is something that has taken resolution in my way of working. I am taking the sense of the creator and leaving the image totally to fate. I am doing this to put into imagery how we feel like we have so much control over a situation, just because we have facts, or a dominating presence. But how much do we really know ? how influential are we ? by taking all the elements into the darkroom and having such tight control of everything from chemical strength to the paper I choose. I feel when creating my images that I am a master of outcome. Through thought I have come to realise this is not the case, I am merely a tool used by the dictation of my own circumstance and beliefs that have been fed to me through my constant need for control. I have learnt that by allowing myself freedom artistically my images are truer to the concept of showing what would happen if we really did loose bee species from our planet. I am beginning to question are we ever really able to make a difference ? the use of the image is so heavily built around the stigma of having this presence of change due to it being seen as total truth, “In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”— Alfred Stieglitz. But as as a creative practitioner working in the medium of photography, I feel we need to change this way of thinking. Our images are not "the truth" yet they are also not "untrue". Our images are a reflection of our belief and our own need to feel that we have a greater purpose. But the more I read about the human mind I feel that maybe our need to fix things through art is more of a control, gaining back control of a situation we can't change. Do I know my images will help save a species ? no. But do I believe they could ? yes. The line of artistic expression and the complex emotive qualities we relate to artist practice are things I will look into further for this project.