Having experienced and gone through three lockdowns has become more and more frustrating, purely because of how limiting it can be in so many aspects of life - from seeing loved ones to being able to, in my case, do collaborative shoots with other creatives. As mentioned previously, I've had to continue figuring out new ways on how to stay creative and keep making work for university - which had meant that my work evolved from being a lot of fashion photography to various still life photography and concepts. Creating still life (and product photography work) for me has definitely been something unexpected - pretty sure in 2020, I thought I would actually be able to do more and more shoots with other creatives. But even though, this isn't something that I was able to do this year, it gave more time to explore other ways of photography as well, such as self portraits. Something that I know I would not have explored or considering doing if it wasn't for lockdown, but it is definitely something that I am glad that I have done.
I've also written a little piece previously speaking about keeping creativity, when I was in the second Lockdown! - https://www.mathushaasagthidasphotography.com/post/keeping-creative-in-lockdown
This shoot was partly inspired by the shoot that I previously spoke about in my last blog, Stills after Stills, as well as something that my mum had said about something we do in south Asian culture. Something that is really simple and something we do for certain festivals, which is place cut flowers in bowls of water; sometimes these arrangements can be really beautifully organised. From this shoot, this is one of my favourite images as it really captures the details of the earrings, as well subtly encapsulating the concept that was inspired by mum.
You can see more here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKdyY-2AYJB/?hl=en
This shot is actually from my first ever self portrait that I shot from home. Starting off and trying to get the first shot was actually quite confusing and frustrating- I think this was because I had to adjust and feel comfortable being and knowing that I was going to be in front of the camera (something that I'm not used too). However once I had got my head around trying to figure out the best angles, position to get myself in shot and most importantly felt comfortable - I found this whole process a lot easier. Doing this has made feel more comfortable and confident in putting myself out there within my photography but has also meant that I can really reflect that aspects of Tamil/ south Asian culture I explore through me being the subject, rather than other south Asian models.
You can see more here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKo2to-Ai4n/
This is just another image from the previous still life series I have spoken about in this blog, that just explores different methods of creating and composition through various south Asian/ Tamil objects.
You can see more here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKdyY-2AYJB/?hl=en
Photography by me ©
Math x