Year 12 Media : Photography

Exploration of Dark Fantasy themes by Grace Lucas

Grace developed, planned and produced a photography series for her Year 12 Media project. This involved some pain around weather (the risk of an outdoor on-location shoot) but it turned out stunningly. Two pieces from this work recently were selected to exhibit at The Centre for Contemporary Photography’s upcoming summer salon ‘22 in Collingwood from the 25th of November if you want to see part of this project in person. 

https://ccp.org.au/exhibition/2022-ccp-summer-salon/

A word from Grace as to what her Intention for the series was:

For my SAT, I intend to produce a series of 10-12 photos, situated within the fantasy genre. Inspired by the Loki quote “Nobody bad is ever truly bad, and nobody good is ever truly good”, I hope to play with audiences, and furthermore societies perceptions of who is “truly good” and “truly bad.” Within my mise en scene, incorporation of fairytale, dark and high fantasy will from the construction of my fantasy genre.

The fairytale and high fantasy subgenres will aid in the portrayal of good themes, and the subgenre of dark fantasy will be the driving force of malificance within my production. I intend to situate my photography within nature, in order to push magical themes, and transform viewers away from the mundane world, and into another one entirely. I plan to work primarily with closeup, portrait  shots, in order to capture specific detailing within the acting and mise en scene, and use full body, low shots, in order to incorporate the setting into the photography, while also putting my models in a position of power over the audience, as so commonly depicted within the fantasy genre through the protagonists and antagonists. 

Through narrative within photography, I wish to play with a relationship between my two models, whether a platonic friendship or a romance is a concept that needs to be developed further. The message that I wish to convey through my photography is that no-one is ever truly as they seem, society forces people into stereotypes cages, based on demographics and outdated beliefs, and I intended to oppose this idea through my photography in a subversion of audiences expectations. 

I wish for my audience to view my work and feel completely immersed in the fantasy world, through the use of mise en scene and setting. I wish for viewers to feel wistful, distracted, but also curious as to the relationship of my characters, and how their individual, and intertwined dynamics cam about; what experiences they’ve had, how long they've known each other, why their personalities are they contradictory to the assumption we as a society have made about them.