Isolation is not an inevitable side-effect of the ageing process, but the life events associated with older age can leave people vulnerable. More than one million people in the UK are suffering the misery of isolation. The Help the Aged charities research discovered that nearly half a million pensioners only leave their houses once a week, and a further 300,000 are entirely housebound.
For this series I wanted to address the issue of isolation within the elderly by its symbolic representation. With each image the person faces away from the viewer, revealing the subjects absorption, so denying the presence of the viewer, with no ability towards identification, in doing so themselves becoming severed from the image and isolated from the activity being observed. The construction of each image is created by a number of images, which are merged into one. This is achieved to summon a confrontational experience from the viewer based on fragments and contradictions in the images systematic order. By violating spatial logic I have attempted to load each image with the symbolic representation of isolation.
I am currently a 2nd year photography student on a BA course at the London College of Communication.
My work is developed from research. It is constructed by means of images with a suggestive narrative in response to a variety of issues shaped by our social, domestic, cultural and political environment.
