Michaela Ismail
Powerless
Powerless’ is a body of work comprised of moving and still images taken at Porthcawl beach during the height of the storms that hit South Wales in 2019-2020. The project is autobiographical and attempts to capture personal traumatic experience and express my feelings about the loss of my father to the sea when I was a child.
I use my photography as a means of self-therapy and this project has allowed me to explore the potential of combining image, text and sound, including a poem I wrote to accompany the work. Together I intend that these elements act together as a metaphor for my feelings of acute loss and anger I experienced then, and that are still with me today.
My current project follows on from an earlier work ‘Solitude’ 2019. This was a series of landscape images that experimented with techniques of reflection and mirroring and the ways in which ‘abstract’ landscape can be seen to act on the unconscious mind. The series of images was exhibited at the Plaza Gallery, Llandough, during Mental Health Awareness Month. The images were taken at a time when I was mentally at my lowest having received devastating news about my mother’s health and the potential outcome of her illness.
I have used this challenging period in my life to make the projects ‘Solitude’ and ‘Powerless’ with the intention that they become thought provoking images that I hope will speak to my audience about universal human experiences.
Powerless
Powerless’ is a body of work comprised of moving and still images taken at Porthcawl beach during the height of the storms that hit South Wales in 2019-2020. The project is autobiographical and attempts to capture personal traumatic experience and express my feelings about the loss of my father to the sea when I was a child.
I use my photography as a means of self-therapy and this project has allowed me to explore the potential of combining image, text and sound, including a poem I wrote to accompany the work. Together I intend that these elements act together as a metaphor for my feelings of acute loss and anger I experienced then, and that are still with me today.
My current project follows on from an earlier work ‘Solitude’ 2019. This was a series of landscape images that experimented with techniques of reflection and mirroring and the ways in which ‘abstract’ landscape can be seen to act on the unconscious mind. The series of images was exhibited at the Plaza Gallery, Llandough, during Mental Health Awareness Month. The images were taken at a time when I was mentally at my lowest having received devastating news about my mother’s health and the potential outcome of her illness.
I have used this challenging period in my life to make the projects ‘Solitude’ and ‘Powerless’ with the intention that they become thought provoking images that I hope will speak to my audience about universal human experiences.