Alan Lee - A final look at life in a hospice

Just as i finished my writing for Assignment 5, I received a Facebook notification from a friend who asked my thoughts on a video posted on the Staits Times website.

The video is about Freelance photographer Alan Lee, who at 69, is suffering from the last stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This condition is progressive and is causing him major breathing difficulties, even though he is limited to a wheelchair he still wanted to photograph his fellow patients in the hospice.

Lee stated "I don't want to die, I didn't come here to die, I came here to take pictures" and in doing so has created possibly the last exhibition of his work 'Come Walk with Me' showing life within the hospice.

I can understand some of the frustrations he expresses within the video regarding the limited access he had, but he has taken some highly expressive images and his work shows his happiness bot only in his ability to take photos but the happiness of his fellow patients at the hospice.

Lee demonstrates his skill by not allowing his condition to limit him and I am deeply touched by his words in the video. Like Peter Mansell he faces his situation head on and using his skills as and artist allows us in to see the people within who are coping with their condition.



Reference

Straits Times. 2017. Photographer's final look at life in a hospice. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.straitstimes.com/videos/-photographers-final-look-at-life-in-a-hospice/5535073757001. [Accessed 29 August 2017].

Assignment 5 – Constructed Image 'Making it up'

I wanted to continue with the theme of my condition for this assignment. As I have stated in my learning log, the Millions Missing campaign is only one day and then the forgotten are once again forgotten about.

Rather than have a line of shoes or a single shoe, I decided that I would work with just one pair of boots and use them as the focus of the feature in the way that Eleanor Antin used wellington boots in the series 100 boots [Antin, 1971-1973]

I wanted to make a statement about my condition and how it affects my life. In the research leading up to the final 'Making it up' I examined a number of ideas before settling not on a series of images but instead, on a single image as I felt that I could express my voice through it.

It was during my reading of the Dad Project that I felt that there was a way that I could start expressing what was going on around me and when Les my Tutor asked me why I had failed to reference Pete Mansell in Assignment 3, I found that I had failed to look at his whole output of work, I had instead mistakenly read something else. Upon reevaluating Pete Mansell and especially his Essay 'Illness' 2011, I understood that it was possible to photograph, express and illustrate my unseen condition.

Working with these complementary influences was really helpful as I was now able to start to express myself and understand that I too had the ability to make myself heard through art.

Assignment

A lone pair of boots sits in front of a boundary, they are worn, marked by their use of time, the tough leather softened by wear to be comfortable and last heavy use throughout a day. Cast aside they sit outside the boundary, their place of use quickly fading into memory. The beauty of life is around and is slowly overcoming the grey dark past, pushing aside the bad memories and experiences and saying that there is the possibility of life afterwards, all it takes is a passer by to lift the boots, clean and use them for them to contribute to the world again.

Scuffed, worn, still usable but abandoned.

Assessment criteria

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

From a visual point of view, the composition may seem simple and a bit bland however this is deliberate, I wanted to contrast the station, which is now a receding memory, with the simple beauty surrounding it and the worn out used boots which are separate in the foreground by the use of focal depth and deliberate focus.

I wanted to isolate the boots, to show that the past, my working life, is now a memory. Being forced into not working and deliberately isolated makes me the boots, bashed, used, worn and when no longer useful tossed aside. The foreground under the boots also reflects this with the battered concrete slowly being covered by lichen.

As this was a reshoot, I was able to take more time and adjust the composition so that I could have the nuances of colour of everything around the buildings against the grey of the building itself.

I did have alternative scene compositions which I took and developed in Photoshop, some of which were further processed for HDR infrared, but I thought that they were a bit heavy handed. I had also considered stacking a number of shots together but after the developing the process they were too highly artificial and I dropped them from the workload. Full details of my research and preparation are detailed in my learning log 'Constructed Realities – Preparation Work'

In total with the research shots and the reshoot of the final submitted image I would estimate that the whole assignment has taken just over 14 hours to shoot including the time taken to upload the images into a digital light board, select the images and adjust them in Photoshop. I did not over manipulate the images in Photoshop as I did not want to create a manipulated image, instead I post processed to correct colour and lighting within the image

The full contact sheets for the image are available here,

Quality of the outcome

As detailed above I did a lot of research and some soul searching to complete this assignment. I had considered submitting a sequence of images but I felt in the end that the one single idea that kick started the whole process was the one that spoke the loudest to me.

Demonstration of creativity

During this course, I have undergone a sea change in my life due to my condition I have lost a lot and the whole complicated mess kept coming to the forefront of my mind throughout and I have found a way to express myself in this work. I am aware of the social realities of my fellow sufferers and using documentary, staged and constructed photography is a good medium to express my anger and concerns.

I am aware that the structure of image makes the boots appear almost as a statue or sculpture against the background in a manner similar to Gabriel Orozcos "Island within an Island" [Orozco, 1993]

Context

I think one of the main influences of the final image is Elliot Erwitt with DogDogs, especially New York City 1974, where we are presented with an image and we were are granted the freedom to interpret the image as we wish; there is enough information within Erwitts scene to allow us to look and gain our own insight.

There is a minor influence of William Wegman within the image as it hints of the abandonment of belongings as a method of gaining freedom [Wegman, 1971]  as within his image "For A Moment He Forgot Where He Was And Jumped Into The Ocean" however within my own image it is less do with abandoning the belongings, but more to do with the loss of belonging.

The isolated and unpopulated background landscape of my image is also reminiscent of the photograph 'Into the Valley of the Shadow of Death' by Roger Fenton (1819-1869) and Paul Seawrights Sequence 'Durden Hidden' Although in my case only one shot has been fired.

'Into the Valley of the Shadow of Death' Fenton, 1855

Paul; Seawright, Durden Hidden, 2003

Both images show a landscape destroyed by war, littered with the detritus of combat. In both cases the landscape will heal but the scars on people will remain for generations. 

Seawrights landscape to me is similar to Fentons in content but it is the more combative as we know that the remaining landmines will have a prolonged impact on the future and we are unable to change this.

During my research I did find a webpage that alleged that Fenton staged his famous photograph, [Morris & Zhang, 2012] but I believe at worst Fenton took some artistic licence to make the final image more disturbing. I do not believe that he created a constructed image.


Conclusion

This was quite a physical and emotional painful assignment for me as I worked through the process and learned better ways to present and drive the narrative of what I am photographing, In the end I can present my scene in a constructed way, not documenting what has happened, but instead an allegorical exaggeration of how I feel.

References 

ME Action. 2017. Millions Missing. [ONLINE] Available at: https://millionsmissing.meaction.net/. [Accessed 28 August 2017].

Gerry.Edu. 2017. 100 Boots. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blogs.getty.edu/pacificstandardtime/explore-the-era/worksofart/100-boots/. [Accessed 21 August 2017].

SF MOMA. 2017. Eleanor Antin, 100 Boots. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/83.116.1-51. [Accessed 22 August 2017].

Peter Mansell. 2017. Pete's Photographic Essay Website. [ONLINE] Available at: http://clkpete.weebly.com/2011-illness.html. [Accessed 28 August 2017].

Peter Mansell. 2017. PETER MANSELL IMAGERY. [ONLINE] Available at: http://paralysed.weebly.com/. [Accessed 28 August 2017].
The J. Paul Getty Museum. 2017. Valley of the Shadow of Death. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/60602/roger-fenton-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death-english-april-23-1855/. [Accessed 28 August 2017].

PetaPixel. 2012. Famous ‘Valley Of The Shadow Of Death’ Photo Was Almost Certainly Staged. [ONLINE] Available at: https://petapixel.com/2012/10/01/famous-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death-photo-was-most-likely-staged/. [Accessed 24 August 2017].

Time. 2017. The Valley of the Shadow of Death. [ONLINE] Available at: http://100photos.time.com/photos/roger-fenton-valley-shadow-death. [Accessed 24 August 2017].

Paul Seawright. 2017. Paul Seawright - Hidden. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.paulseawright.com/hidden/. [Accessed 28 August 2017].

Walker. 2017. Isla en la Isla. [ONLINE] Available at: https://walkerart.org/collections/artworks/isla-en-la-isla-island-within-an-island. [Accessed 22 August 2017].

Tate. 2010. Gabriel Orozco. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/gabriel-orozco-tate-modern-curators-blog. [Accessed 22 August 2017].

Public Delivery. 2013. Gabriel Orozco. [ONLINE] Available at: http://publicdelivery.org/gabriel-orozcoisla-en-la-isla-island-within-an-island-1993/. [Accessed 22 August 2017].

Harmony Blog. 2012. William Wegman. [ONLINE] Available at: http://harmony-blog.com/2012/07/william-wegman-for-a-moment-he-forgot-where-he-was-and-jumped-into-the-ocean-1971/. [Accessed 22 August 2017].

Magnum Photos. 2017. Elliott Erwitts DogsDogs. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/art/elliott-erwitt-dog-dogs/. [Accessed 22 August 2017].

Contructed Realities - Prepartion Work.

As previously mentioned in Assignment 3, the  Millions Missing campaign is a one day (May 12th) worldwide event to promote understanding of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). The shared goal of this patient-led campaign is to highlight the condition and to try and reform its treatment and diagnoisis; to 'wish to attain for the [ME/CFS] community a good level of health, mobility and continual support from social, medical and political spheres'. It is part of the campaign by Fibromyalia, CFS and ME charities to highlight a disability that is unseen as not everyone with the condition is stuck in a wheelchair. The condition is unseen and therefore sufferers are often judged unfairly because they look healthy.

The main action of the campaign was the gathering together of shoes, each pair representing a sufferer who was too ill to attend. The shoes were left in a place of prominence to demonstrate the voices and represent people who are missing. Many CFS/ME sufferers cannot travel to an event or are too ill to gather and march, so their cause goes unheard.

This campaign is very much in the manner of Togay and Pauers 'Shoes on the Danube' which highlights the missing. Togay and Pauers’ memorial is a tough and touching remembrance of the 3,500 people who were murdered by the militiamen of the extreme fascist Arrow Cross party on the banks of the Danube. They were shot and their bodies allowed to fall into the waters of the river.

Shoes on the Danube' Pauper 2005

The Millions Missing campaign only happens once a year and I felt that it did not highlight the plight of sufferers enough. I conceived this work as my Assignment submission based on my own activism and to highlight my anger and frustration at missing out on large portions of my own life.

Each pair of shoes shown in the series represents part of my life which has been impacted by CFS and gives voice to my sadness and frustration at the lack of help received from either the public, the health services or the government. Just like clothes, the shoes were chosen to serve the different aspects to my life.

I broke my ideas down into groups and made selections on the basis of what the final image would look like and whether it would be physically possible for me to actually get to the locations, set up the props and photograph the scene that I wanted. My ideas focused on Work, Health, Politics, Travel and Home life. I then struck down some notes and ideas for composition and made arrangements to go to each location.

I had help travelling around from location scouting and snapping ideas, sitting thinking and then compositing and constructing the scene. In some cases my ideas did not work and I felt that they lacked the impact and the emotional factors that I wanted.

I have decided to present them as part of the research work that I undertook in effort to complete the assignment submission.

Work

Here work boots sit outside one of the locations where I used to work to represent me as a worker; a valuable member of society. It was during my time with this employer that my condition started. As my symptoms began showing themselves, I tried to continue working as normal; going ‘above and beyond’ regularly due to the demands of the job, but this impacted other aspects of my life. My home life suffered because my work/life balance was tipped heavily to work. I was too fatigued at weekends and holidays to get out of bed and enjoy other activities. When the company was no longer receiving what it felt was a satisfactory level of service, I was given a choice take medical severance or have my contract of work terminated. I took the first option.

My own story is only one of many where sufferers of Fibromyalgia (FM)/CFS/ME have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. We have been used and discarded like old work boots; thrown to one side and ignored as we are past our best







Tightly framed, the boots sit in the lower third of the scene, slightly off centre. The image is cropped so that the boots sit right in the foreground and the towering building is pushed off into the background, lessening its height and influence on the scene. The only bright colour in the scene is the trailers in the midground which although also abandoned, look as if they are patiently waiting to be put to use, unlike the boots which are worn out and discarded.

The eye is drawn first to the boots, battered from heavy use. The leather has moulded to the wearer, creased where laces have been tied, showing they were comfortable and travelled long distances before they were put away.

We ask ourselves why were the boots not replaced; was the level of comfort higher than paying the price of discomfort in breaking in a new pair; was the owner too poor to replace them or were they worn as a badge of honour stating that the owner has worked their time but is not ready to be discarded.

Health

One of the treatments forced upon me was Graded Exercise Therapy. This treatment is now felt to be a discredited primary intervention treatment due to its long term 'harmful effects and lack of substantiated evidence of its efficacy, and the legitimacy of the worldwide debunked of the flawed PACE Trial' (Millions Missing press release, 2017). This was not the opinion of my care team when it was prescribed for me.

As stated in my learning log the GET sessions have made things worse for me and now live in chronic pain. I can no longer walk down stairs with ease and cannot enjoy any form of exercise without pain, fatigue or worry.




In this image, the empty trainers descend the stairway, travelling down into the scene. They sit central to the scene, the railings and the shadows framing the shoes, pushing in from either side to bring in a tight frame. The shoes are almost insignificant to the length of the stairs. They push into the frame highlighting the challenge that someone with mobility issues sees every time they come across a set of steps. To them it can be as much of a challenge as climbing a mountain. The shoes sit as if they have been dropped, forgotten about. Once again, they are slightly worn but still of use.

I took an alternative image of the trainers abandoned in the grass in front of my local leisure centre, but was unhappy with the image. It did not have the same impact as I was unable to find a suitable frame under the trees that surround the centre, nor avoid the dappling light.


Home Life

As I have mentioned, in my attempts to keep contributing fully at work, other aspects of my life suffered. I was too fatigued and the pain too great to allow me to help at home much, spending much of the weekend sleeping to recoup enough energy for the next week. My wife and I stopped going out as travelling any distance caused too much discomfort. When I did have a ‘good day’ I would inevitably overexert myself to make up for what I saw as failure, and then suffer the consequences for several days afterwards. So guilt and frustration were added to my symptoms.



This image is of formal shoes sitting on the mat, outside the front door. Shoes like this should be partnered by a pair of women’s smart shoes – maybe high heeled courts or colourful flats, waiting for a happy couple to put them on and enjoy life. The fact that there is no second pair suggests a possibly broken relationship, where one half is absent; all dressed up and no-one to go anywhere with.

Politics / Social Activism / Making one’s Voice Heard

As I have already mentioned, I chose this topic as part of my activism to raise the profile of my condition, and those like it – FM, CFS, ME and other ‘non-visible’ disabilities. Mental Health has been the subject of several high profile campaigns in recent years and the public is now much more aware of this (if not necessarily better informed). Unfortunately, with the Missing Millions campaign only lasting one day, it quickly disappears from notice once the day’s events are over.

My intention for this shot was a pair of shoes made for walking / marching in front of the Scottish Parliament building, to depict the fact that suffers are unable to travel to this venue to speak to ministers, to put their cases to the people, or indeed to rally and raise awareness.





Without people to speak up for the cause, it becomes forgotten, like the sufferers, to be left on the sidelines. I toyed with the idea of allowing a long exposure to capture ghosted images of all of the other people coming and going while the shoes remained static on the path. Unfortunately, the day on which I was able to obtain help to travel to the location, it was not particularly busy and most of the people outside were tourists or families playing in the grounds rather than active participants, hurrying to take action on this or that matter. I chose instead to allow the shoes and the location to tell the story.

Travel

The final shot in my selection was to be of a pair of cowboy boots in front of a bus stop. Initially I had intended to take this shot at night, to signify the missing social life as well as transport, but timing and a worsening of my symptoms meant I was unable to take advantage of any good weather in the evening to attempt this. I also decided latterly that one night shot in a set of day shots would seem out of place. In the end, I decided that the shoes at the bus-stop would sufficiently represent the inherent problems for those with pain or mobility issues and once again, the inability of the public, or lack of desire, to acknowledge these problems and help. I had seen number of articles on the news describing the abuse received by people with mobility issues trying ot gain access to public transport. I wanted my image to represent the unfairness. [Guardian 2004] [Sun, 2017]

I encountered a couple of unexpected issues with this shot. The first was that, although this was taken ina relatively quiet street, I had to stand in the road to get the right framing and kept having to move to avoid being run over. Second was the fact that the cowboy boots were affected by even the slightest breeze, causing blurring. As it was too dangerous to set up in the middle of the road and halt traffic I had to look for alternative angles and positions for composition.

It took some time to capture the shot I wanted and I was particularly fatigued and sore when I was through.


References

ME Action. 2017. Millions Missing. [ONLINE] Available at: https://millionsmissing.meaction.net/. [Accessed 17 August 2017].

Press Release of the Campaign - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OfgCBag8SE39e43nDFajeAK8igWMKWTx1gAgXrLl5bs/edit 

ME Research. 2017. Energising ME Research. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.meresearch.org.uk/. [Accessed 17 August 2017].

Guardian. 2017. Disabled man forced off bus by refusal to move pram sparks equality test case. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/11/disabled-man-forced-off-bus-refusal-move-pram-sparks-equality-test-case. [Accessed 17 August 2017].

The Sun. 2017. Shocking Moment. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2658624/shocking-moment-disabled-woman-is-told-she-cant-get-on-bus-as-pram-is-in-priority-space-just-minutes-after-court-case-victory-for-wheelchair-users-on-exact-issue/. [Accessed 17 August 2017].

Current State of my Health

My Fibromyalgia and eyesight problem started during my position of employment, I tried to continue working as normal while undergoing diagnosis, treatments and operations to limit the impact of the condition. Although ill, I was pressured to go ‘above and beyond’ regularly due to the demands of the job. This impacted my home life as my work/life balance was tipped heavily to work. I was too fatigued at weekends and holidays to get out of bed and enjoy other activities.

When my symptoms became too much to allow me to work effectively on site, it was decided that I should work from home. This proved to be frustrating as I was not able to resolve issues to my satisfaction, support from my employer was sadly lacking and as time progressed the lack of interaction and stress further impacted my condition. When the station was no longer receiving what it felt was a satisfactory level of service, I was given a choice take medical severance or have my contract of work terminated. 

My own story is only one of many where sufferers of Fibromyalgia (FM)/CFS/ME have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. We have been used and discarded like the workboots; thrown to one side and ignored as we are past our best. 

One of the treatments forced upon me was graded exercise therapy which is now felt to be a discredited primary intervention treatment due to its long term 'harmful effects and lack of substantiated evidence of its efficacy, and the legitimacy of the worldwide debunked of the flawed PACE Trial' (Missing Millions press release, 2017) 

I undertook GET for several months, twice a week under the guidance of a health practitioner, having been granted time out of work to attend. I had to undertake a number of exercises, such as walking/running, cross trainer, rowing, lifting weights etc. Each week I had to push through previous targets to try and increase the exercise grading. The impact of this treatment was Post Exercise Malaise (PEM). After each session I would find myself unable to think clearly due to increased Fibro ‘brain fog’ and a total crushing tiredness which could put me in bed for two or three days at a time. 

When I first started GET I just used one walking stick. By the time I stopped because I had to return to full time work I was using two crutches and struggling to move without great pain. I can no longer walk down stairs with ease and cannot enjoy any form of exercise without pain, fatigue or worry. 

Nicky Bird - Question for Seller

This exercise came at a great time, I had just been notified that Oxfam had upgraded their website and they had a large number of LPs and old photo albums for sale. I spent some time looking through the site looking at some of the victorian photo albums that they had for sale.

I could see that these albums had become displaced and dislocated from their owners and now these archives had lost some of their provenance.

Question for seller (2004-2006) by Nicky Bird is a project whereby she has obtained portrait and family photographs via ebay; where possible Bird has queried the seller regarding the photos for sale, whether the seller has a personal link and is therefore able to provide some provenance to the photos or if the photos have no information attached to them.

Bird then detailed what she knew about the images and the series was presented in a gallery exhibition.

At each gallery that the series was presented viewers were invited to look around and comment on the images, these comments then fed back into Birds text for the next gallery presentation. When the gallery presentations were complete, Bird put the photographs back up for sale on ebay and at each gallery allowing the viewing public to purchase either one or more of the photos in the exhibition.

It can be difficult to understand why someone would sell an old photo album, but as I have described above there can be a number of circumstances by why either single photos or whole collections can come up for sale, from charity shops, to online sites, people can sell images quickly and quietly disposing of old family memories and records due to space, family dispute or they lack any emotional context to the owner.

With the images gathered together, they create an archive in which the images can be read rather than lost, misplaced or never seen as they are hidden in the backs of drawers, they become a product of existence. The artist has saved them from oblivion and made them available for reinterpretation.

Bird has taken the images she obtained and gathered them together in a gallery setting so that the images can be viewed by members of the public to see if the individuals or groups recognise something within the context of the images which indicates their membership to social or cultural groups or backgrounds.

Certainly for some viewers they will view the images and get no response at all, 'Why do some images arrest attention, animating the viewer, while others fail to speak to the particular spectator" [Wells 2017:32] Perhaps in these cases the viewer has no context to place the image within and therefore has no significance to them. For the viewers who are drawn into the images they will start to view the whole gallery looking to see if other images can contain their interest.

When the images are sold, the purchaser will have invested due to a link to the image, whether it be an interest in the period of the image; the mode of dress, social standing, an interest in the portrayed pastime or an interest in something within the image, like the site or a piece of machinery 'providing evidence to its perceived indexicality' [Bull 2010:103] The images have been sold and liberated form the archive but they have increased knowledge overall.

The fact that these images are now art does not change their value as objects and it does not change their meaning; they have been turned into a work of art and now have an additional meaning which adds to the the overall provenance of the image. The sales value of the image would depend on the provenance and value of the artist within market conditions, as well as the perceived uniqueness of the image especially where there are no other copies.


References

Wells, L., 2017. Photography: a critical introduction 3rd ed., London: Routledge.

Bull, S., 2010. Photography, London: Routledge.

Nicky Bird. 2006. Question for Seller. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nickybird.com/projects/question-for-seller/. [Accessed 17 August 2017].

Struggling with Fibromyalgia

One of my main problems with my condition is that it robs me of all energy and ability to think. Between the chronic pain and lack of sleep, I struggle to get out of bed some days and thinking becomes this massive complex task.

The last two days I have really wanted to get up out of bed and take on this coursework, but I have been unable to gather either the energy nor the intellect to do it.

Constructed Realities - Gregory Crewdson

We are asked to view the following video about Gregory Crewdson and consider the questions from the text 

Gregory Crewdson's Photography Capturing a Movie Frame | Art in Progress | Reserve Channel

Do you think there is more to this work than aesthetic beauty 

Do you think that Crewdson succeeds in making his work 'Psychological'? What does this mean? 

What is your main goal when making pictures? Do you think there's anything wrong with making beauty your main goal Why or Why not? 

Crewdson  and Beauty

While Crewdson creates beautiful images, his work can be seen as deeper constructs. Crewdson works his way through his feelings and builds and builds on parts of his images to create a final finished piece of work. These pieces are polished pieces of cinematic proportions; at times his narrative is so small that it is almost buried under the weight of the final image. Crewdson takes his time to create a cinematic setup in the style of Kubrick, working with the lighting director to get exactly the right counterbalance of light for the scene. It Is shown in the video that Crewdson will then take multiple exposures and composite parts of the different exposures until he has a final tableau. 

Psychological Work? What Does it mean? 

I believe that his work is influenced by his own early realisations while growing up in home, where his father worked a psychological analyst. Psychoanalytic thinking has obviously deeply imbedded into his brain and it shows in his work.  

After reviewing a number of his series, I can see an idea of alternative 50s Americana advertising under the influence of a nightmare, where darker beings are about to erupt into the scene.  

Very much like Jeff Walls' "A ventriloquist at a birthday party" there is the undercurrent of Norman Rockwell meets Stephen King. These images create more questions than answers and leave the viewer with a sense of unease as they are put on the back foot by the narrative. Crewdson is attempting to create a sense of anxiety that either at any moment something is going to happen or something has already happened and we have not yet realised the magnitude of the issue. Very similar to the coastal town of Antonio Bay that we pan across at the start of 'The Fog' Carpenter (1980) 

Main Goal 

My main goal is to express myself, I have lifted a camera and as part of the course I have started to communicate my life to the world, I am opening up on the issues and difficulties that I face on a day to day basis. In that I have become an activist for my problems and for the unseen to suffer from the same difficulties. I want to create pictures which express my protestation at being a 'missing' person and that I can contribute to society. 

Beauty can be captured within this, and I don’t think it can be an issue if it is your main goal, especially if you wish to express the aesthetic if beauty as beauty itself takes any forms not just in the human body, but in landscapes, still life, portraiture, etc 

I have to admit that most of Crewdson work leaves me a bit disappointed; his scenes look predicable, like stills from a poorly funded horror film. I understand what he is trying to achieve but I just don't get the 'hype'  and a lot of his work makes me feel that the women in the scenes are nothing more than objects to be stared at and desired. 

References 

The Fog, 1980. [Film] John Carpenter, USA: AVCO Embassy Pictures. 

 Artsy. 2016. About Gregory Crewdson. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/gregory-crewdson-untitled-40. [Accessed 16 August 2017].

Youtube. 2017. Collected Videos of Gregory Crewdson. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gregory+crewdson. [Accessed 16 August 2017].

 Youtube. 2012. Gregory Crewdson's Photography Capturing a Movie Frame | Art in Progress | Reserve Channel. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7CvoTtus34. [Accessed 16 August 2017].