The Light Is Coming
...
The Light Is Coming is about finding light at the end of the tunnel, the light being Ellen’s identity, her true self, her sexuality. throughout the project she has questioned a lot about herself, her family, society, does she need to depend on sexuality to know who she is, who does she identify as, who is Ellen. She has created a series of self-portraits with representations of thoughts and feelings that occur throughout the journey of wanting to come out as bisexual and showing the frustration of just wanting to say it out loud with using different photographic techniques and processes. The photographs start off blurred and hard to see, she’s confused, disorientated then as you gradually make your way through the tunnel you'll notice, getting closer towards the light, the photographs are getting clearer, easier to see the person underneath all the confusion and finally seeing her come out the other side.
Foundation Year - Photography
WHAT WAS ELLEN'S MAIN INSPIRATION FOR HER PROJECT?
The biggest inspiration for my project was people around me, how they saw me and how I should see myself. The LGBTQ+ community has definitely been a massive inspiration and confidence boost to be able to produce my work and to have the courage to use this project to come out as bi.
WHY WAS THIS A PERSONAL PASSION OF HERS?
Since studying art and photography outside of school, I have never considered producing a personal piece of work. This project has been so personal because I have gone out of my comfort zone and opened up to my classmates and tutors, I almost changed my idea because I was so nervous to talk about my concept to my tutors and why I want to do it. Looking back over the last 10 weeks, I have developed self-confidence and worth, this project has helped me talk about my sexuality more with friends and family, when I told my brother, who has been in New Zealand since the beginning of last year, he was so happy and proud which gave me the biggest confidence boost ever. My mum has been a huge part in this as well, she has supported me through-out the whole thing and I couldn’t be more grateful. If it wasn’t for my friends and family, I would’ve changed my whole project.
WHY DID ELLEN TITLE HER PROJECT THE WAY SHE DID?
I had many ideas for naming this project, I came up with puns to keep it up-beat, but I also had some that seemed deeper. I decided to go with “The Light Is Coming” because I imagine my journey as finding the light at the end of the tunnel, while I was thinking about this, I had the song “the light is coming” by Ariana Grande in my head so I thought why not name it that I’m glad I stuck with it because it helped me come up with my display concept.
WHAT WORK DID ELLEN PRODUCE?
I started off taking portraits of other people using different processes and techniques. It worked in a sense that they came out strong and I had a vague idea about what else I wanted to do. I had a thought about doing self-portraits, but I was unsure about having the message more obvious with self portraits rather than having photos of someone else. I gave it more thought and after experimenting with self-portraiture I decided that I would continue. I’m glad I decided to carry on taking self-portraits because to allowed me to self-develop and become more confident with myself.
WHAT MEDIUMS DID ELLEN USE AND WHY?
I mostly used photography as my medium, each photoshoot was a different process, I used polaroid, film, digital, I also incorporated materials such as fisheye lenses, coloured gel sheets, studio lights, a projector, I even used a tree to prop my camera up. I knew from the start I wanted to use as many materials, processes and techniques as I could to make it as fun and creative as possible.