Next steps/Bill Henson

So where do I go from here?

I think I need to go back to my research and really focus on what it is I want to show, what my idea is.

I came across the work of Bill Henson from looking at the Victoria and Albert exhibition book Twilight. Throughout his career he has produced images that show an extraordinary illumination that have a real sense of drama and the supernatural to them. A lot of his work has been made at the twilight hour, like the two photographs below.





However it is in these works that I am mostly interested in with Henson, these photographs that are enveloped in darkness, giving illumination to only certain parts of his subjects.



I particularly like the image above, and it is perhaps one of my favorites by him. The photograph is so minimal, as given predominantly a dark image, with only two hands lit up. I really like how we are only able to see what he has given light to in the frame, how we are unaware of anything else that may be happening, it really makes me think of the unknown.




This is something that really interests me, the unknown, where we can only see what is given light so, and everything else we are unknowing of.
Could I perhaps use this to develop into a theme?
Could I construct a narrative in which the viewer can only interpret through what is given light to?



I really like the photograph below, where all we get to see is half of the persons face. What I find so interesting is when I consider what they are looking at, why do they have that blank, somewhat shocked expression on their face. It really leaves it open to interpretation, the way he has photographed it and the colours on the face he has used are really a way of making the image seem colder, darker and more eerie for me.