Laura Williams is a 19 year student from Cambridge. She takes interesting and odd photos of herself using different props to make the outcome appear as an illusion. She also uses Photoshop to enhance the look of her images and to create more weird looking photographs. She is most known for her mirror photography, in which she takes photos of herself positioned with a mirror or photo frame and then when edited the mirror gives a see-through, illusion effect. Most of her images contain different, odd looking props to create really interesting and thought provoking images. She often uses her backgrounds to bring her images to life also, not just the props. Many of her mirror images are taken in front of woodland and areas with a lot of texture to enhance the look of the mirror effect within the image. Although such a young photographer, Williams has become somewhat 'famous' with her use of surrealism and clever techniques throughout her work to create weird and interesting portraiture from every day materials and backgrounds.
This is a self portrait by Laura Williams. The background is fairly simple and plain, which makes the person in the centre of the image the focus. Descriptively, the mirror effects makes it appear as if she doesn't have a body, however, in my opinion, this could represent her body as open and could symbolise the way she views herself as being transparent and empty. The way she has positioned herself in this image makes the image slightly more haunting and eerie, as she is hiding behind the mirror.
This could symbolise how she may be feeling, subjectively implying that she is hiding behind what people want to see and not the real her. The way her eyes are centred and focused on the camera creates a connection with the viewer and also makes the image more powerful, than if she was looking away and distracted by her surroundings.
The blurred effect around the edges of the image makes her and the mirror the focal point and because the background is so plain it doesn't distract or interfere from the main subject. In her images Williams likes to create an eerie surreal feel to her work as it draws the viewer in. The use of surrealism in her work portrays a different side to a portrait and because she does self portraits it creates a more intimate connection with the viewer. None of the colours in this image are particularly bright or vibrant and they are quite muted and de-saturated, which adds to the mood of the photo and creates a more eerie feel to the picture.
This could symbolise how she may be feeling, subjectively implying that she is hiding behind what people want to see and not the real her. The way her eyes are centred and focused on the camera creates a connection with the viewer and also makes the image more powerful, than if she was looking away and distracted by her surroundings.
The blurred effect around the edges of the image makes her and the mirror the focal point and because the background is so plain it doesn't distract or interfere from the main subject. In her images Williams likes to create an eerie surreal feel to her work as it draws the viewer in. The use of surrealism in her work portrays a different side to a portrait and because she does self portraits it creates a more intimate connection with the viewer. None of the colours in this image are particularly bright or vibrant and they are quite muted and de-saturated, which adds to the mood of the photo and creates a more eerie feel to the picture.
My responses…
These are my responses to Laura William's work. I wanted to recreate her work in my own photos however I didn't just want to do carbon copies of her work. I chose to use a photo frame instead of a mirror as I think it looks more vintage and allows you to create the mirror effect. I used the shed as my background because it created a simple background so that I could edit the photo but also made the image look more authentic. I chose to do these images as self portraits as I found the images more interesting from my perspective. I used a tripod and used self timer to take these photos. I took one without me in it and then took one with me in it, so that when I edited them in photo shop I could overlap them and use the brush tool to colour in the background of the shed to create the mirror look. I chose to make some of them black and white to make it look more distant and eerie. The mirror effect ceases an absence of identity and makes the images look odd and different to other portraits.
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