Paradise Abandon

Paradise Abandon demonstrates a harrowing perspective on the infectious, invasive nature of industrialism upon the everyday lives of those who both fear and abide by its necessity for modern existence. The looming presence of work manipulates and tonally disfigures every aspect of our families lives, perpetuated by the universal fear of failure, homelessness and death at the hands of the industrial process. Hung like a series of demented family photos, following a concise narrative of family memories being overtaken by the impact of a working life, each print utilises a method of double exposure to communicate the ‘infectious’ attributes of industrialism within the urban lifestyle, using the recurring imagery of the White Bay Power Station as a representation of this threat.

Originally deriving my idea from stroke simulation images, I began researching into several photographers who had used multiple exposures to showcase narratives, including Duane Michals (Spirit leaving the body) and Alessio Trerotoli, whose double exposures of cityscapes began my interest in the impact of industrial society on modern life. Eventually, I began heavily drawing inspiration from the works of Daido Moriyama, as his usage of snapshot photography combined with heavy contrast simultaneously created an ultimately sinister but real landscape of the urban lifestyle, and Geoff Kleem, whose various photographs of industrial-like areas that had been layered in various geometric shapes and sizes allowed me to experiment with space and placement of framing within my work. Thus, using their work as a spring-board, I began performing first-hand research on how I could effectively use multiple exposures of several different, but similar photos that revolve around the area of the White Bay Power Station, to convey the invasive reality of a working lifestyle, primarily using high contrast and flowing angles to represent an aura of dullness, despair and hopelessness. Additionally, the 5th print of my work would feature a double exposure in which the presence of the power station merged meticulously with its graffiti background, similar to one of Geoff Kleem’s work, to represent the final stage of the infection, with the fear of homelessness at its helm.