That's me in the corner

Why creating with photos works for me, and upping the emotional ante by cropping

My mother went through a relatively fleeting phase of enrolling us in ‘enrichment’ classes so my weeks were filled with ballet, tap dancing and gym classes. This was a long time ago. Now it would be accepted I clearly had dyspraxia. Then I just felt like the lost and awkward fish out of water. I did like the tutus and various tap dancing costumes my clever mother made though.

I do love adding my personal photos to my creations and I struggle to wean myself off it. Perhaps they will get just get smaller and smaller until they ALMOST disappear? ….

Creating with photos works for me because I am both very pragmatic and a lover of history and stories. For me, creating around a photo gives extra meaning to what I am creating and also something to focus on and think about as I create.

I find it interesting how adding a photo (particularly a personal photo of yourself or a family member) turns a mixed media creation into a ‘scrapbook page’ and thus a craft activity (a woman’s craft at that) rather than art.

Lots to unpick there …

Meanwhile, look at these wonderful creations by Aly that don’t use her own personal photos:

But I guess they are still photo-focused in a way, because they use many of the collage elements from the latest edition of the Hear My Voice Project with Rachel Jefferies of Pixels, Paper & Paint: Hear My Voice Balancing

Using my own photos is so easy these days. I rarely scan anymore, but instead take a photo-of-a-photo with my phone camera. And with digital, you can reuse the same photo over and over.

You can turn it black and white with ease, and crop it how you like.

In the page at the top, the photo of me ready for ballet class was cropped so I am almost hiding in a corner, reluctant to get on stage and show myself.

Cropping it like that really reinforced the message of the page - and reflected my feelings as I created it and remembered being that awkward child.

So how you crop a photo can alter its emotional impact, and it is one of my favourite things to play around with.

And here are some more creations from me with HMV Balancing:

And some fabulous creations by Barbara, Marilyn, AnnSofie, Ona, Roxana and Theresa, both with personal photos and without:

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