when we were given the title believe my first ideas was that believe is not always a good thing, and that there could be darker side. but also, dreams came to mind, so i thought about using music, and how it inspires people and means alot to many people.

this band is slipknot, a metal band, and they are one of my musical inspirations, along with other rock bands who have mad it big in the musical world.

another idea that i got, was insanity and death. i got this idea from a verse from a song by metallica. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07re9jlpTdM

'welcome to where time stands still,

no one leaves and no one will

moon is full, never seems to change

just labeled mentally deranged'. this is the verse that inspired me, because it says to me that people who are insane didn't always get there by themselves, so leading on from this, i decided to use insanity as a theme instead of music, because it can always be good to show an out of the ordinary, and to be frank, a quite realistic, disturbing photo shoot.

the basic story of the photos, leading from the head of the coffin to the foot, is as follows:

photo 1: a girl, hunched in the corner, is she there in desperation, or forced agony.

photo 2: a sheet on the girls bed, with blood splatters, is it self inflicted?

photo 3: a bloody knife, on the stairs. a shot of escape?

photo 4: a noose through a tearful eye. is she being forced into this?

photo 5: the noose on the ground, a glimmer of hope???

photo 6: her arm with hesitation marks. trying again.

photo 7: final photo. her arm with blood on her wrists, and a note in blood. 'why wont you stop'

and an 8th photo, hidden in the flowers, to show a darkness inside.

i think that the end product did slightly stray away from the original inspiration, but in general, the theme did link in with the final piece. i think the photos worked well with the may it was mounted, on a cardboard coffin. one of the photos came out blurred, but i think that works well, because it looks like the 'victim' is looking at it after or through crying.

i didn't think the processing the film went well, because i didn't wind the film properly, and some photos ripped, so next time, i will remember to wind the film properly before trying to take it out or the camera, and also, this could have exposed some of the photos to light, and this could have ruined them.

the theme of the end product is exactly what I'd hoped for, and the turn out was ideal for the theme , and all the planning that i put into the project. i didn't get all the photos I'd hoped for, but i got most of what i needed. i could have thought of a story that leads with the photos better, but the purpose of the photos is to make the audience think about whats happened, and they can believe what they want.

today, in cram, we had to think about our ideas for our final piece of photography. i put forward my idea of a suicide /murder. in then waited and got some inspiration from some picture research me and charlie did. me and charlie went out...

today in cram, we researched about photographers, that did work like we are going to do, using installation art. we researched Francesca woodman and Misha Gordin. this was really boring, because I'm shit at researching stuff. we then went out, to try and re-create a photo we were given, with Salvador Dali as the subject of the photo. we recreated it using charlie Harris , he had to jump, and we had to make it look like the water, chair and charlie were suspended in the air. this is the original picture, the Dali atomicus.

this is our picture with charlie Harris jumping. i took this photo. it was difficult to take this photo, because we had to take into account the shutter speed.

Hi Michael

This needs much more detail and some images please.

toady, in cram, we learned about how to enlarge and develop our final prints and test prints. this was a lot of information to remember, but after a while of doing it, in got used to it, and it was easier. i printed about 2 good photos. in future printing, i'll make sure i put the print completely into the developer, and make sure i keep track of time when I'm developing the prints.

last week, in cram, we went out to take pictures with film cameras. this was fun, because we could take pictures of anything, but it was hard because we couldnt , at first, get the exposure. we then started to develop them, by pretparing the negatives in a light proof bag and develop them in the drying cupboard thing.