Having someone you know go missing is a terrifying thing. You hear and see ads of people missing, but never think it could be someone you know. In many ways not knowing about your missing friend/lover/colleague/etc is much worse than them being hurt or dead. Not knowing makes our imagination go into overdrive and imagine the many things that could happen or be wrong. But at the same time, we have to keep living our life.
"Sometimes, no matter how much faith we have, we lose people. But you never forget them. And sometimes, it's those memories that give us the strength to go on."
My friends' friend has been missing since the beginning of February and is suspected to have met with foul play. He is 24 years old and has a 6 year old daughter. This person is merely an acquaintance of mine, but the sadness and worry I feel over him has lead me to create this project. The project I'm working on is tentatively named Missing. I plan to create a series of images using local locations to recreate a scene of a person right before they have gone missing. Each image will be a standalone to represent a missing person. I have chosen several females that are or would be around my age that have gone missing from all over the U.S. This project will question the ways we feel and deal when someone you know goes missing. It also lets us put ourselves in a similar state of mind as the person that has gone missing. Some people may feel that, this is disrespectful toward the missing person and their loved ones. It may even seem cruel to poke at their pain. Missing is not being created to do the opposite of that, it may be inevitable to not feel pain from the event despite that, but human beings are strong and the memories of that person lets us keep living.
Britney, please look at the work of Stephen Chalmers. I think you'll get something out of that. Also, the landscapes of Sally Mann....her 'The south' images. I would also read up on 'tableaux vivant' photography.
ReplyDelete