Dream Task

During our Visual Studies session we were given a task to respond to a random dream we were given from a hat. From the dream I was given, the focal theme of it was the sense of being lost and afraid. From this I began my research on the simple notion of being afraid. I began thinking of the relationship of being afraid in nightmares, and what we see in horror movies.

A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror but also despair,anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror. Sufferers often awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a prolonged period  - Source

'The Ring'

I had the initial idea of shooting myself in a space that is often a scene in nightmares and horror films such as forests, lakes, alleys but soon realised previous images I already shot that were like this. As I was coming to an end of my project, The Way We Live Now, I took a few experimentation shots that had no actual objective to them, but to create an eerie atmosphere. This wasn’t my initial intention for these images taken, however looking back at the negatives and from the rejects of this project; I felt this particular scene that interested me and suited what I was looking for.
                Coincidentally, during my research I came across this piece of text which I found quite relevant for my work. It speaks of nightmares being used in terms of real life experiences, as well as a dream situation. 

 We frequently talk about an experience being a “nightmare,” meaning that it was frightening, dreadful or terrible, and this is nothing new. For example, as we near the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI (Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28th, 1914), we read 100 year old descriptions of the “nightmarish” fighting that took place in trenches. I am sure that many of the soldiers that went ashore during D-Day 70 years ago also described their experiences as being a nightmare. And the list could go on and on with “nightmare” or “nightmarish” being used to describe all manner of barely tolerable situations, both personal and societal.      - Source

I then proceeded on the notion of connecting real life with dreams and not knowing where one starts and the other ends. The state of dreaming where you’re in transition of dreaming and being awake, otherwise known as Hypnagogia.  

Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep: the hypnagogic state of consciousness, during the onset of sleep. In opposition, hypnopompic denotes the onset of wakefulness. Mental phenomena that occur during this "threshold consciousness" phase include lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.      - Source

Martina Hemm

Dries Bonte

From my research I wanted to create a very eerie and disturbing image incorporating the theory of Hypnagogia, which I feel I have done relatively successfully. I have drawn inspiration from the images I found of Dries Bonte, Martina Hemm and The Ring and recreated these images into one single image. I also referenced the previous text that spoke of the real life nightmares, such as WWI/WWII by using a Gas Mask. As the image I used was taken beforehand, I thought it needed to be digitally edited to capture what I wanted.

rachelleahwhite Photography ©