[Documentation for Master of Fine Art Degree]

PROPOSAL FOR MFA COURSE IN PHOTOGRAPHY During the Masters course I would like to investigate deeper into the cyclic nature of existence. I intend to use flowers, fruit and seed to pursue this theme. One part of the work would continue with close-up photography, closer than my present work of surfaces of bodies. The motivation behind this kind of looking is a fascination with the richness of form and surface as well as an attempt to penetrate, to understand what lies behind these surfaces. Included in these images would be aspects of decay, of transition from one stage of existence to the next. In another part of the work I would like to deal with stillife and the symbolism of fruit flower and seed in this context. I can imagine some rather exciting theoretical investigation along with the visual work. I would like the overall mode of the work to be a celebration of life - and death, since death is an integral part of life. TRACING THE IRRATIONAL My work is motivated by an interest in elemental forms and forces of life, the 'stuff of existence' which, as I perceive it, throbs persistently and relentlessly everywhere and anywhere on this globe, even in heavily poisoned areas where, still persisting, mutants and rather grotesque new variations occur. PHOTOGRAPHY, THE PARADOX AND THE IRRATIONAL This paper is structured around the question as to how photography can deal with, explore and make visible the irrational. I will start with an explanation as to why I think I have chosen photography as my medium of operation. This will lead to an examination of the propensities of photography which particularly interest me. I will then investigate the relationship between surrealism and photography, since the surrealists were also concerned with the irrational, and close with what I, at this stage, consider to be the position of my own current work within this context.