In response to my recent obsession with liminality and the way in which the internet has been celebrating the aesthetic concept, I've taken and compiled some photos around Farnham and Reading, which I think have similar unsettling qualities. These are a mixture of smartphone and DSLR photos taken at dusk and nightfall. Some are inspired by the personal memorable locations mentioned in my previous post, linked here.
Then I attempted to recreate some of the absurd, surreal and eerie vibes from the images I covered in my initial research post in Photoshop. This ranges from overlaid text, glitch effects (trace contour on duplicate layer and divide blend mode), vintage postcard-esque text, abstract/out-of-place graphics, bizarre image superimposition (eyes, fluorescent lamps, Stephen King's langoliers, etc.), unorthodox framing, 3D lighting effects, distortion filters and obstructive shadows. I also tried applying gradient maps using colours sourced from some of the original images themselves, which added more obscure familiarity. All in all, I took quite a maximalist approach, cramming lots of ideas into a single image, to see what this phenomena look like with all its tendrils combined. Personal vent art is also included.
^ Cinnabon in the mall where I'd always have a pink frosted cupcake for breakfast during family trip to Baku years ago
^ Midnight train - journey to my stepfamily's village in Ukraine, just under 10 years ago
Here is part of the FAQ channel in the 'Weirdcord' Discord server, which I joined a while ago in curiosity for this phenomenon:
Stream-of-consciousness/Reflection
Coming back to my family home for the holidays and taking these photos of what used to be my school route made me feel very alien, somehow unwelcome in the transitory spaces I used to traverse every day. You almost forget that these areas still exist and function when you no longer use them on a regular basis, which is arguably a self-centred outlook, but an interesting phenomena to examine nonetheless. It can feel strange to revisit the paths you once walked through on autopilot, especially these ones for me since they've got negative associations of declining mental health at that point in my education experience. To return and realise life still goes on for these streets, parks and alleyways can make one aware of their existential insignificance, or it can be a useful tool for stepping back and seeing how far you've come. At one point, these routes were just doom and gloom, but now they're eerie, empty memories that may never leave my mind. Point is, they're suddenly behind me and not swallowing me whole; I've moved on, and these spaces no longer define me. That's why I used an image of the langolier monsters from a Stephen King screen adaptation - these creatures feed on the past, never allowing you to revisit it or letting it chase you. I guess you could call this sentiment the dark side of nostalgia, a sort of environmental anti-limerence.
Comments
Post a Comment