Tamany Baker has been working as a photographer for twenty years. She is submitting two projects for her final MA show – prints from her series, The False Moons, and a bookwork entitled Transient Beauty. Both projects further explore themes from her Icelandic work, Dark Light, engaging subconscious narratives, to delve into some of the layers of the psyche. The documentary photograph hints at personal and shared realities, even though these may be constantly shifting and evade our conscious thought.

The False Moons.

In a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false. (Guy Debord, 1967)

From the cosmic to the domestic, the camera sees what it sees, and the mind perceives. Photographic seeing, with its fixed frame and duration of exposure onto film plane, finds bathroom lights reminding us of the real moon, whilst the ‘real’ moon appears strangely surreal. These photographs play on different levels – as a simple trompe d’oeil, purely formal aesthetics or as a challenge to something primal within us all. Subconsciously, the moon evokes a connection with nature and the cycles of life; the False Moons represent a disconnection, found in our electrically powered nights, thus provoking internal conflict in the confusion between ‘false’ and ‘real’.

Transient Beauty.

The series was inspired by a visit to my mother’s house after her death, where I saw a fallen statue of a goddess, possibly Venus. The book is a journey through mixed thoughts and feelings about my relationship with my mother, and a wider reflection on death and loss of youth.

Tamany Baker

tel:       +44 (0) 117 9850800

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email:   mail@tamanybaker.co.uk

web:   www.tamanybaker-art.co.uk