My images emphasise the camera as a tool for image making, in the same way as we regard a canvas to a painter. Kandinsky talks of the ‘geist’ and moves away from representation to concentrate on the ‘essence of life’. For me, this work expresses the physical act of being alive.

The collection I have submitted uses contrast and the ‘Void’ to reveal and conceal myself in the images; in the physical sense and more importantly, what I reveal or conceal of myself emotionally in the vacuum of the void itself.

My ‘Void’ collection is concerned with representing my emotions directly through photography and in essence, a self-exploration of personal content where the act of photographing takes place at night as a direct result of experiencing insomnia. This uses my negative energy constructively when I should be sleeping, to make a negative part of me, into a positive act and outcome.

The images are photographs on colour negative and are long exposures, some for up to half an hour. The majority of these photographs are made through documenting processes used in Colour Therapy; I project slides of my own photographs to apply the healing properties of colour directly to my body as treatment. I photograph this act, using abstraction so you are unable to differentiate between my body, colour and the darkness that surrounds me.

In addition to the pieces being a therapeutic act, I aim of my work is to induce a meditative influence on others and explores my relationship with my personal space, using colour and light out of everyday context to be appreciated as valid subject matter within themselves. The work is presented on large scale to envelop the viewers senses and actively involve them in the process of looking, communicating an awareness of seeing.