We have all felt fear – that sense that something is wrong even when we can’t put our finger on it. Perhaps it is a gut feeling that tells us not to walk down a certain street one evening, despite it being on our usual route home. Maybe you have felt unsettled in a lonely parking lot, your eyes constantly scanning while you hurriedly unlock the car door. I know that I felt unsettled many times as a paramedic, such as when we would approach pitch black houses at 3am or when we were surrounded by a crowd that was turning angry on a scene. Fear is an intrinsic thing, primal in nature, and because of that it is used by many creatives in their work (I’m looking at you Stephen King).
When I am out shooting I will occasionally use an emotion as a source of inspiration for my photography (happiness, surprise, fear, etc). Over the last year I have had the idea of “The Watchers” in the back of my mind… a feeling that maybe there is something dark and foreboding following us that might be a threat. As an exercise in creativity I have been working with composition, darkness and silhouettes to try to create this feeling in some of my photographs.
This is the first time I have put some of these images together in a series. I am definitely still exploring this idea of shooting to a specific emotion, but I thought I would share these first steps with all of you.
Cheers,
Ian
Note: The Injury Chronicles is a series of photo essays, with minimal text, that I am posting while I rehabilitate a hand injury.