Slur.

In this body of work, I explore the idea of the blur within two main strands – sound and truth – both of which utilised the visual aesthetic of ‘blur’.

By creating unoccupied blurred images, I explore my personal experience of hearing loss particularly referring to the lack of clarity I have around sounds, especially vowels, in order to investigate the impact my hearing loss has had on my perception of the world. Playing with the idea of blur, I purposely critique the relationship between photography, clarity and truth – comparing the contemporary and traditional role sight plays in image production.

The blurred images in this body of work are soft and fuzzy - similar to how sounds can blend into one another, rendering an incomprehensible slur. Within these images, I try to simulate the feelings of loneliness, alienation and the existentialist dilemma that I sometimes experience through my hearing impairment. This recent diagnosis of permanent hearing loss has had a significant impact on my own perception of the world. It has made me start to ask questions like; have I always perceived the world differently? what have I missed out on? 

The act of seeing was traditionally considered to be a purely mechanical process, where the photograph was understood to be a passive vehicle of image production without intervention from an artist’s hand. However, contemporary thinking now opposes this. We realise that the eye plays an active role in image production; recognising that there has been a series of decisions as to where to point the camera, when to take the photo, and if it warrants enough importance in the first place to be printed. By playing with the focus and using non-traditional image processes, aesthetics and subject matter – I directly highlight these decisions while critiquing the role of perception.