David Lynch can be more easily recognised by his mediums of video and painting. However, a great asset to his work includes his use of photography. Like with the rest of his work, his photos and visuals take on dark themes both literally and metaphorically. In his series titled factory photographs, Lynch continuously uses a monochrome colour palette. This alongside his choice of dreamy and eerie visuals crafts his work into visuals that are easily recognisable as his own, his renowned lynchian styles being visibly apparent and therefore all the more unique and alluring. It will be detrimental to this discussion to not include the nature of his video visuals. When viewing ‘Twin Peaks’ the series, there are noticeable contrasts to his photography including the use of colour and a clear sense of time as to compliment the plots setting within late eighties to nineties. This is as far as his work will stretch to practically however, with symbolism littered throughout his series. The more lighthearted aspect of his work pertains around the American dream and the falseness of the Americana, as David’s work quickly spirals into darker visuals that interlink with the plot and themes. The inspiration of American soap operas is made apparent by his choice of characters costuming and dramatic nature of the plot which is paralleled with additional counted angles and all distance shots of violence, the horroresque aspects of the series saturated to emphasize Lynch’s own distaste for normalizing violence. However his surrealism isn’t limited to purpose as he relishes in keeping much of his intentions behind some of his aesthetic choices vague, as evidenced in the second series which levels up the surrealist imagery by use of obscure and unseen technology and pseudo landmarks. Laurel is clearly apparent that David Lynch himself is a master of the obscure and of surrealist visuals, which is something that is greatly inspired me when thinking over and creating my own work within photography.
Commentary – Photography
When viewing my work, I can with great certainty confirm my photos meet bot aesthetically and symbolically the criteria I was hoping to obtain for my take on identity. The visuals themselves are typically dark as obtained by a combination of lighting and editing. Said editing for the work overall required colour saturation – namely on the colder end of the spectrum, removal of original colour to then add on different colour and shade, and saturation of shadows. The subjects consists of parts of myself yet are obscured to interlink with the detailed nature of identity, yet their newly transformed colour palettes and added effects indicate a morbid perspective on the self. My critique of these photos however is limited by the subjects as well, as a focus on other external subjects I feel could have helped in testing and strengthening my creative range.
Concept – Photography
When thinking over the concept of identity and selfhood, there are many ideas that come to light. For myself, it was the fascination of investigating a sense of identity as a limitation, something restrictive. This philosophy brings with it experiences and themes that would otherwise be rarely discussed aspects of the self – namely existential dread and enigma. The nihilism of this lack of self, of the experience of identity disturbance, will inevitably invite fear and discomfort – a convenience for taking on a darker artistic rendition of the concept of identity. With this take, I aspire to inflict onto those observing vital questions about their self perception, to instill the understanding of our mortal limitations, to humble and yet to comfort.
