ARTIST
STATEMENT

The Cycle

I based my project on the song “Weird Fishes” by Radiohead, In which the lead singer Tom Yorke explores the themes of isolation and despair. The Cycle intends to convey these themes in a visual sequence, composed of three images. Each frame taken was inspired by a lyric in the song. The first image was based on the line, “Turn me on to phantoms I follow to the edge of the Earth”. This symbolizes how someone would feel when they’ve hit rock bottom. The edge of the earth symbolizes the end of life and hope. The second photo inspired by, “Yeah, everybody leaves If they get the chance” adds to the story of the Cycle as this lyric is talking about how anyone suffering would do anything to get out of it if they had a chance to. Finally, the last photo was inspired by the line “I get eaten by the worms and weird fishes, picked over by the worms and weird fishes”. This symbolizes the cycle of trying to get better, but eventually falling back to the same place you were. 
 
For this project, I was inspired by Duane Michals and Gregory Crewdson to create a dreamy and mysterious triptych. In Michals's sequence work, his photos were in black and white which gave a mysterious and cryptic mood, like in Death Comes to the Old Lady. I wanted to shoot in black and white and build upon this in my project, as I intend to create and visualize a story about the feeling of despair while leaving some parts of the photo to be up for the audience’s interpretation. Crewdson’s work is often dreamy with his attention to detail on set pieces and lighting, which I took inspiration upon. In order for me to convey the Cycle’s story, I needed to focus on the lighting directed on my subject to give off the “mysterious, dark” mood. Not only does the lighting create mood, but it highlights the beauty within darkness.