Locaton vs Studio?

I have been battling with the idea of using the studio or doing on location shots... after speaking to one of my models, we came up with an idea for the naked photo; sitting in a lecture hall full of people, being lectured...but with one person being naked, and very uncomfortable! 

I really liked this idea and though it would be effective, however it doesn't go with the idea of the bare essentials, and my images being totally representative. 

Ideas of common dream themes?

After some research, here is some common dream themes, I just need to decise on what ones to focus on.

- Naked in Public
- Being Chased
- Drowning
- Being Ignored and in trouble
- Missing a flight/train
- Being late
- Teeth falling out
- Not being able to breathe
- Being trapped
- Having to speak in public and no sound coming out

New Direction - Pandora's Suitcase

So after my project realisation, and after a lot of thought, I have decided to go for in a much more contemporary art direction. As I feel it is near enough impossible to recreate dreams, I want to focus on feelings we feel within dreams. For this, I am going back to basics, strip my idea right down, and create a purely representational series of images, looking at common dream themes so the viewer may be able to relate.

The title of my series will be 'Pandora's suitcase' as I want to represent the mind as a suitcase, and how there are many things that we repress in the day in our minds, but when we sleep these can run riot around our heads, and hence the idea of  the mind being similar to Pandora's box. Instead, i have used as a suitcase as a suitcase also represents the idea of travel and being portable, and that is exactly what our minds our - they go everywhere with us, and pick up loads of different thoughts and feelings along the way.
 I think it is important that the suitcase is in some way incorporated in all of the images, as a way of linking the images together in the series, but also as a reminder within the picture that the mind and the subconscious is always there throughout whatever dreams we have. I want the suitcase in this sense to appear menacing somehow, and I suppose I am going to have to create that with the content, lighting, and spacial awareness within my work.

Project realisation

After all my research I have realised that it is near enough impossible to recreate dreams within images.This is not only because they are so obscure, but also because they are so personal, it is more about the feelings you get from inside the dreams, rather than what is happening within them.

                                                                     (potato dreams)

Surrealist dream work - experimenting with Photoshop and scale

After research, it seems that most surrealist photographers use heavy editing to create their work. I believe to achieve the effect I want, I am going to have to do the same thing. Taken from my Alice inspiration, I have created some self portraits of me small, and big. Also included are some photoshop experiments with surrealism.

For the above image 'hand eyes' I have taken inspiration from Pans Labyrinth. I think this effect was really eerie in the film, and I have experimented with this notion and this is evident in the above image.

(Pans Labyrinth- NOT my image, just inspiration.)

For the images where I experiment with style, this was inspiration taken from Alice in Wonderland, one of my favourite Disney films, and also PC game, see below!

Surreal costume photoshoot

In this photo shoot I used the idea of costumes and characters using juxtaposition as a way of exploring surrealism and dream like characters. 

Surrealism

Renowned French photographer Romain Laurent conveys a surreal sense of humor in all of his images. He has worked for some of the world’s largest ad agencies and fashion magazines, and Laurent’s work has been commissioned by companies such as Microsoft, Nissan and the Discovery Channel.