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©2007-2009 `cryptorchid
:iconcryptorchid:

Artist's Comments

"she saw it with her own eyes"

reverse order of my final productions project H1N1 bye bye birdie
model: the amazing Jen
camera: Canon 20D

yes, there were originally 14 pieces, rather, 16, but in the end I decided to go with a tight 12 instead of weakening the series.
I promise you're not really missing anything but for my own sanity I'm keeping the numbering to match my notes.


001 [link]
002 [link]
004 [link]
005 [link]
006 [link]
007 [link]
008 [link]
009 [link]
010 [link]
012 [link]
013 [link]
014 [link]


statement:


I was raised in an atmosphere of apocalyptic paranoia. Not the judgment day sort with the fire and brimstone, but the kind with meteors, alien conspiracies, atomic war, pandemics and Y2K. A religion of science and science fiction.
Some families dreamt of small cabins by the lake… mine planned for bunkers under the house.
And when it wasn’t the bomb, it was the bug.
At first it was “wash your hands” then it was “don’t wash your hands, anti-bacterial soap creates resistant viruses”. At the age of eight I might have started a small-scale panic after telling my friends at school about the dangers of the flesh-eating bacteria. I was convinced I had ebola, clearly evidenced by a sore throat and a rash, and soon everyone was crying and demanding throat lozenges.

I outgrew the obsession with biological Armageddon soon after, yet my upbringing has certainly had an impact. On one level I completely reject my doomsday training, but on another, subconscious level still fear the end of the world and have nightmares about it often. Floods, disease, the odd zombie, but mostly of birds; and in every dream there are thousands of them falling from the sky. It was in response to this that I decided to photograph the series “H1N1 | bye bye birdie”.

The Avian Flu, a variant of which (H1N1) was responsible for the Spanish Flu of 1918, is the core of the concept. In illustrating this idea I drew on the structure of fable to tell a story of young woman struck by the virus. I shot it in a cold, cinematic style that accords with the underlying tones of traditional, pre-disneyfied fairytales and songs that were often very dark, terrifying stories, some of which touched on subjects such as the Black Death. The basis of the series is the re-imagining of the story of Chicken Little in an ominous, modernized version, examining the obvious analogy to birds heralding the end of the world and its impact on the individual.


Comments


love 1 1 joy 1 1 wow 1 1 mad 0 0 sad 0 0 fear 0 0 neutral 0 0
:iconoutlander:
This is an amazing series...I love them.
:icondonatj:
Ooh, something about the coloring, beautiful. I've got a few minor complaints (because I'm a bitch) but I'll keep them to my self.

--
lived on decaf, faced no devil, evil I did dwell, lewd did I live.
:iconflaery:
The blue of her eyes is awesome with this. It really connects you to her.

--
My devname rhymes with merry. :flirty:

"Poetry should surprise by a fine excess ... should strike the Reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance."-John Keats

Want my stock? ~flaerystock
:icondriesi:
AMazing series!
Excellent work.
This one stands out for me.
I really like the colours and the feelings they give.
Its cold and warm, sad and hopeful,...

Details

April 3, 2007
145 KB
145 KB
416×417

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