Dys-tortion: an exploration of man’s influence on the environment using an original photographic technique.

This series uses the flower as a motif to represent the natural environment and seeks to explore the effects of man’s impact on the environment through the idea of distortion. How much of the environment will exist in an altered state in the future due to man’s impact? Imagine taking a walk through a garden expecting to see perfect specimens of all sorts of flowers, instead, you find these dystopian, mutated forms, still beautiful but not as you knew flowers to be.

To achieve the multi-layered distortions, I developed a photographic technique using a combination of devices, each to achieve a specific effect. A macro lens was used to create some areas of hyperrealism to connect with the normal perception of the flower, and yet to contrast with other unrecognisable areas, creating the idea of something different, unfamiliar.

I also combined long exposures with a light-painting technique to develop delicate colours and a sense of dark mystery, maybe impending doom, hence the dark background. Finally, each shot was composed using a technique that allowed me to visually alter some areas of the flower, with limited control. The nature of light painting and the distortion technique are both variable elements that cannot be completely controlled or repeated in subsequent shots, as a result, each image is entirely unique. As the technique has taken almost a year to refine, it will have to remain my secret.

The images are made in camera with minimal cropping and levels adjustment in editing.

Available to Purchase Very Soon!