When I decided to create the composite bellow, all my thoughts were immersed into what we are living now. The world is in crisis; climate change, pandemic and threats for future ones, unnecessary war and politics. I feel sorry for the next generation and keep imagining what they will go through in a not so far future. Nonetheless, it looks like an inner force keeps us going on and we don’t give up, which makes me to create the character bellow with the lines; her world had started to be surrounded by darkness. Her mind was starting to shut down, but the voice of her soul was strong and it was in denial to let her go. It was then that she fought the odds and started reaching for the light.
Writing those lines makes me think why us human beings fight the odds that we, ourselves, create? Thinking of the animal kingdom, the greed is based upon the chance of survival that relies on acquiring food when resources are low. Therefore competition and killing happens. However, what about us, the ones considered to be at the top of the animal kingdom with our ‘inteligence’? What is our greed based on? Survival? I don’t think so. Capitalism is more important than our own survival.
A simple example of capitalism above all, is how the world now is dealing with the pandemic caused by Sars-CoV-2. How governments around the world prioritised economy above health, which is nothing more than a void strategy. I talk about the major sequelae left by the present pandemic, for those interested, in an article I wrote for Bylines Scotland that I used the same composite.
Putting together the composite
The idea for this composite was already in my mind when I went out searching for an appropriate landscape that I could apply a perspective bending effect. It wasn’t far from home and I used my mobile phone to capture it! You definitely don’t need a fancy camera nowadays to come with more complex concepts.
The character in the composite is me, a self portrait. I took it at home with me leaning towards one of the windows. The black clothes were perfect not only for the theme but to separate me from all the background; cream walls and cream carpet.
The sky was digitally painted above the original sky with clouds. The reason being was to eliminate the effect of bending in the sky and also to paint it accordingly with the concept. Darkness coming from where the subject was and brightness coming from the top and ahead as a result of the light and the dusk.
Once more, at least with me, what I experience and what I feel give rise to my concepts and composites and this time, reaching for light fit well to what lots of us might be feeling nowadays.
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