The Beginnings

Still Dreams - a project by Jake Hampton

(D.J.Brian Photography)

Welcome to the start of a journey, a journey through visions and dreams, through sunny daydreams and gloomy nightmares. This expedition and exploration will be taking place in the form of my college major project, which I have decisively named, Still Dreams

This project will be all about surrealism and conceptual photography and imagery. A lot of surrealist art is influenced by dreams and thoughts that go against reality. Conceptual photography is very much the same; the photographer will create a concept within their image, and an idea that portrays a story or a chain of thought. Conceptual photography is often a little out of ordinary. Some photographers decide to shoot dark, gloomy, nightmarish conceptual photographs and some pleasant, joyful, almost dreamlike concepts.

Over the time of being at college (my own journey), I have conceived a great taste for things that are a little out of the ordinary or strange. I've dreamed up tons of scenarios and situations in which I can see as a story, and I have wanted to capture them in photographs – to freeze the story into one or two moments and for the viewer to make how they think the rest of the story goes. These stories that I create in my mind aren't regular stories of how a persons life happens in the physical form, they are about how a persons life happens in their dreams, in their mind, their emotions, feelings; almost an exaggeration of their story.

As I am taking you through a journey of emotions, I am able to show you many aspects and different sides of the story. This will be through using landscape and portraiture photography. I am also able to combine these different styles to create a new and unique experience for you.

And speaking of experiences, I hope that you will lose yourself in the images that I create. I want to create a sense that you are within the frame, experiencing the scene or event that is in the image. 

In creating this journey, I will be experiencing events and challenges on my own, along the way. I am prepared for them and expect them to happen, but with a project like this, I can expect the unexpected.

So follow through this project and enjoy.

My first photographic shoot -

As this was my first photo-shoot, It was almost a 'rookie' shoot. As I said this genre of photography is slightly new to me so although taking the images had its struggles with lighting, compositions etc, I struggled majorly with the editing process. Using Photoshop in ways I have never used it before. I had to learn new skills in order to create these photographs. These images are a few of many that I captured. They are all about colour, form and tone. I love the mood and atmosphere that is created in them and the way they make you feel uneasy.