To develop my ideas further I started to look into dreams. A lot of dreams are common amongst everyone and we often have the same dream numerous times. For example, being lost, falling, flying, being chased, being put in uncommon places and drowning are some of the common dreams we are likely to have every night. For my development work I wanted to recreate some of these dreams.
A lot of these dreams stem not from the dream itself but from the fear of what happens within that dream. For example being lost is something a lot of people feel anxious about and therefore these fears can manifest themselves in the form of a dream. This explanation is similar for a lot of these dreams such as the dream of drowning or being in an unfamiliar environment. However,some of these dreams stem from the fantasy of them coming true. For example, the flying dream is often a dream people have if they long to be able to fly. Despite there being many reasons and explanations for the dreams we have, a lot of dreams come from the unconscious mind and have nothing to do with what is actually happening in reality.
'Lost'.
I started with the 'being lost' dream. I took these photos in a wooded area which was crowded and over grown suggesting a sense of being trapped as well as being lost. I wanted the colours within the image to represent the colour composition we often see within our dreams and when films reenact dreams it's usually very bright and cloudy, almost symbolic of heaven. They often look faded,which is why I chose to make the tops of the images brighter and keep the bottom with more contrast and shadow to give the idea that she is dreaming about the situation she is in but also to create the idea of chaos around her when actually the scenario is just a dream and not a reality.
Although, the dream of being lost can appear to be more scary than comforting, it's meaning actually can represent a new beginning, and new settings in the future and so for the illustration of this dream, although I wanted the subject to look small, surrounded by overcrowded trees I still wanted the colour composition to be light and bright to symbolise the meaning behind and interoperation behind them.
'Unfamiliar Environments'.
I then took photos to illustrate the way when we dream we often envision ourselves in unfamiliar places or often places we know but they can look different or distorted within our dreams. To put this into a photograph I chose to go to an abandoned bridge surrounded by derelict and empty fields to symbolise the idea that the subject is alone and in unfamiliar surroundings. I then had the subject looking up and around with their back facing the camera to suggest the way we often wander and explore within dreams where we don't recognise our environment.
To exaggerate the element of the environment often being somewhere we know or have been before but we don't recognise it straight away as it is distorted and disguised I chose to use a slow shutter speed to create the misty effect within the image. Furthermore, the blur makes it look slightly shaken as if it's a hallucination of a normal in focus image, symbolic of the distortion and confusion of an unfamiliar place.
'Drowning'.
Dreaming of drowning is another common dream people are likely to have at least once in their lifetime. It can sometimes be the literal feeling of drowning where you invasion yourself or someone close to you drowning in vast water. However, sometimes it can be just the thought of drowning or swimming in an empty and endless space of water.
Furthermore, it can also be in a place where you feel safe and are familiar with such as a bath or swimming pool, along with the feeling of being alone in that space; water can be an anxious environment for a lot of people and can often present themselves through dreams when you feel anxious during the day as you have no control over the vastness of the area you are in. To illustrate this through photos I took photos of a young girl in the bath which I feel symbolises the drowning dream as it incorporates the idea that you are in a normally safe and known area however the circumstances you are in change the mood of the picture as well as the comfort of the familiar space.
Often when we dream we are put in uncomfortable situations which are disguised by the haven of a setting we recognise and so I chose to capture this dream within a bath as it is common environment with uncertain and uncomfortable connotations of the fear of being alone in the emptiness of vast and endless water.
'Death'.
Death is dream uncommon to most. However, the people who do experience it are likely to experience it reoccur throughout their life. It can have many meanings and triggers. A lot of people who dream about their death think it is a negative thing and fear the idea of their dream coming true and manifesting itself in their own death or the death of someone close to them. However the death dream can often occur in times when something significant has come to an end or the conclusion to a bad habit or phase in a persons life. To symbolise the dream of death I chose to photograph it in a barren and empty place with little colour surrounding it. I used the same young girl and had her lying on the floor appearing to be dead on a concrete slab which gives some stability to the image. The colour composition in these images I have edited to be more de-saturated, thus making them look more grey and symbolic of death.
I want to photos to look as if the person has been left there to die, and so I took them in a vast and empty location which is out of reach of human contact and the location itself has been abandoned as well as the person in the image. I did this because when people dream of death it is often in a way that is unlikely to happen and often the most traumatic way your imagination can think of, so being alone and in a unfamiliar place symbolises this lonely way of dying.
'Distorted Familiarity'.
Dreams are usually in places we are unfamiliar with and don't recognise from places we have been before when we are conscious. However, some of the most memorable and interesting dreams are visions of being in places familiar to us and often set inside our homes or places we frequent. The most common of the familiar dreams are our 'happy places' which have been slightly adapted and distorted into new settings or environments but still have the familiarity of the comfort of our own home. To illustrate this I took photos of my bed in which I considered my 'happy place' and took this comfort into an unfamiliar and uncommon area for it to be in. I chose to take this outside and have me sat looking around the new environment to appear to be confused in the new setting of my familiar comfort.
Dreams are often set in places we either feel safe in and are familiar to us or places we feel vulnerable and unknown. However, sometimes we feel safe and think we know where we are by the people we are with or the environment we are in but actually it isn't the full picture of familiarity and we are actually in a distorted view of our safe place.
I started by taking a single bed outside into different unlikely environments, for example the concrete surrounding and then the grass surrounding. I then took photos of just the bed with the angle looking from above to illustrate the idea that someone is looking down from within their dream. I experimented with different backgrounds and angles. I also wanted the bedding to be completely white and then the backgrounds shadowed the represent further the idea of the 'happy place' being the bed and then the distorted surroundings being unfamiliar and unsafe.
I then decided to experiment further with the bed. I used the end of the bed as my focal point and made it appear to be coming out of the bushes which enhances the 'distorted familiarity' within these images. I still wanted the bed to be brighter than the surrounding and so I edited them using photoshop to create a more earthy and shadowed effect.
I then experimented without the bed frame. I used just the mattress and took some self portraits from on the mattress as if I was inside the dream. I chose to development these photographs further with the use of just the mattress as it emphasises the distorted familiarity dream in that the safety of the bed has been taken away and although I still have the comfort of my bed I am in a completely unknown and unfamiliar place but made slightly more comfortable with the safety of my bed.
'Flying'.
Dreams can often manifest themselves in things we fantasise about. This can be things such as our wedding or having children or for a lot of people it's things that are impossible to happen and so we dream about these things happening to fulfil our desire.
One of these impossible fantasies is flying. To photograph this I will take inspiration from Maia Flore, who took photos of floating illusions of people appearing to be asleep. To illustrate the idea of flying within a dream I used inspiation from Maia Flores 'sleep elevations', whereby she photoshops them to appear as if they are floating in midair.
I took these photographs in a vast and empty field as my backdrop and on a cloudy day I will take a photo of someone wearing white to suggest the idea that when you're asleep everything seems a lot cleaner and crisper than in reality. I will then edit the model to appear is if they are floating which will be symbolic of the flying dream. This suggests the idea of being asleep and also fantasising of flying throughout your sleep within a dream.
The positioning of the model is significant as the flying dream can also mean that you are being liberated from or by something,often referring to freedom from a bad situation. The model has her arms out from either side of her and this suggests that a weight has been lifted. Despite the most common meaning of the flying dream stemming from a fantasy of it coming true, it can also mean a freeing emotion has occurred recently, or is going to present itself in the future.
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