UNSEEN

Unseen:

Some photographers emphasise that is hidden, excluded or obscured from view rather than what is visible in their work. In still-life photographs by Celine Marchbank, the background is dark and out of focus so that details of the location remain hidden. In the photograph Viewfinder (Octavia) by Arthur Ou, a girl is seen looking through binoculars at something that is not in the picture frame. For her project In Spirit, Alison Luntz used photographs taken on location as backdrops for fantasy self-portraits that can obscure her home as the real setting. Betti Mautner often observed figures seen from a distance, their faces in darkness or turned away from view so that their identity is concealed. Investigate appropriate sources and produce your own response to Unseen.

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I was inspired by this prompt because it made me think of people who we see but don’t really register as being there, the people in the background, the people making the world turn in behind the scenes. I thought of, cleaners in hospitals, fishermen, bakers and road sweepers. The people who make our lives easier yet they rarely get the recognition they deserve.  So an idea for my exa included black and white photos of fisher men coming in to port at 4am or the cleaners cleaning the corridors of derriford late at night, or the bakers making bread before any of us are awake. These are the people who are ‘unseen’ but their work is seen all the time and without them many things wouldn’t be possible.

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All carry on their work at night while the world sleeps