Photography, trauma and the romanticised landscape

The aim of this research project is to create a series of photographic images that consider the effects of trauma on the psyche using the motif of the landscape. As a gallery based installation, this work will be comprised of mural sized prints that aim to immerse the viewer as an affective experience. The central research question is to consider whether the effects of personal trauma can be authentically represented in contemporary art and if so, how? In the Postmodern era the subject of trauma is commonly evoked by employing absence as a representational strategy. However, in recent times artists have begun to re-investigate the representational possibilities offered by Romanticism and the theme of the Sublime. We see an emerging trend for a more playful and ambiguous evocation of this theme and this has caused me to explore the subject of trauma within this new context. Trauma can affect the inner world of experience perceived by an individual and disrupt their sense of self. As one who as experienced trauma directly, I have found the representational strategies employed by many artists position the viewer as external to the event. For this reason the central focus of this research is to consider how to represent an experience of this psychic event to an audience by using the medium of photography.