Lauren Kearns BA (Hons) Fine Art 2020

I primarily use film photography as a tool to capture the elusive qualities of sunlight along with the temporalities and significance of flowers, plants and nature. Particularly using a Diana Mini, which allows double exposures, light leaks, and serene accidents, or using an Instax camera to create polaroids filled with visual poetry. All images are usually taken within a domestic space and captured in a way that transforms the energy into something ethereal. I have thrived and shrivelled in the privacy of my own home, connecting and comparing myself to the likeliness of flowers brought in from the outside world. A way to connect myself to nature and absorb in its other-worldly qualities without having to leave. This has been incredibly important to find peace inside when times have been physically and mentally difficult. A shelter from misogyny, discrimination and a way to reclaim my own body and mind. Seeing the images as absent self-portraits, a reflection of my own personal growth and hope.

I also create responsive drawings, and diary entries whilst shooting in an almost spiritual manner. The sunlight shines into my home and casts dark blurry shadows, with golden light dancing across the rest of the room. Petals injected with colour or dried pale fall and form little boats of shadow. The placement of these flowers move as the sun moves, or as I meditate with them on my skin, on my walls, in my diaries, and captured in film. 

My work explores themes of life, death, love, loneliness, grief and bliss through a sense of escapism. I aim to evoke a sense of serenity and calmness to the viewer through the use of colour, light and aesthetic qualities that film photography allows me to create, to which no other medium would.