My Artistic Influences

Colourmeinkindness- Basement

    This album is a top to bottom masterpiece to me. The raw vocals of Andrew Fisher are raspy and strained, contrasted with melodic interludes often with him showing more controlled vocals.

     Lyrically, these songs are poems you could sit and deconstruct without even listening to the song. My introduction to the band was the ever-so-popular song "Covet", ranking in all of my Spotify Wrapped top 100s since 2016. Admin of The Alternative, Konstantina Buhalis suggests that "sincerity abounds as we digest the feelings of grief, love, loneliness, and self-importance. The narrative presented through this record is an attempt at self-reflection and trying to induce personal growth"(Buhalis 2020). 

Colourmeinkindess Album Cover. Basement. 2016.

I think finding this album in a very confusing time in my life was a driving force for my love of the lonely and forgotten. I find that abandoned or isolated areas draw me in and remind me of the comfort of when I first heard this album. Nostalgia is an emotion I struggle to feel properly. I want to remember my childhood and past, but also move on. Taking photos of the abandoned lets me sit with a piece of the past before it is destroyed, or overtaken again by nature, much like my memories become overwritten and forgotten.

"The Picture Frame,

has seen such better days

but on the wall it's going to stay" 

    -Comfort(Track 9)

Taken on my iPhone from the 2016 Mini-tour.Worcester Palladium. Support from Ovlov and Eskimeaux.

Top tracks

Wish

 Covet

Whole

This is a design I compiled of the album artwork that I plan to get for my next tattoo.

Lilya Kunitskaya - Photographer 

Lilya Kunitskya is a Ukranian Photographer based in Kharkiv. Her photography is provocative and chaotic, contrasted with a common use of soft garments and vulnerability. 

Screenshots are taken from Instagram @Photo.Destruction

Kunitskya often makes use of water with these elements, offering soft textures and a sense of sweetness. But I still find many of her photos unsettling. 

She depicts many relationships, often they are filled with passion, chaos, and a sense of camaraderie. Whether the model is alone or with someone, there is a sense of unease. To me, it is the unseen burdens and codependency relationships can bring. The relationship itself is often blinding to these factors. Like seeing the world through rose-colored glasses.

Instagram Post for this Shoot

Another element in Kunitskya's photography that inspires me is her use of multiple models, often of the same gender. By using three-four females in a shoot, often wearing similar clothing, I see the models as a symbol of femininity. the homogenous dressing and posing equate to an almost deindividuation. I am not told a story about one of the models, but rather their identity as a whole.

Instagram Post for this Shoot

Even in a single-model shoot, the feelings of attachment are symbolized through the tank of water. While in the water, one may feel weightless, but in an attempt to leave, the lingering water sticks the clothes to her skin, pulling one down.

Instagram Post for this Shoot

Shed- Title Fight

- another beautiful album that inspires me lyrically and has become a bittersweet collector's item. The retired band leaves me wondering what could have been, but all I am left to cherish is their past. 

Top Tracks

Shed

Crescent-shaped Depression

Where am I?

GMT(Greenwich Mean time)               

                    Willem Verbeeck- Photograapher

Photograph from"On the Sunny Side of The Street" April 2022

Verbeeck was my introduction to film photography. He posts very informative videos on his Youtube. 

Through these videos, I fell in love with his attention to light and shadow. Verbeeck can turn a normal street view into a visually emotional and introspective scene. 

He is very attentive to how the shooting conditions(sunset, fog, etc.) can change an image. 

Photograph from "Walking Svalbard" May 2020.
 

More recent work that I have enjoyed.