Influence: Ziqian Liu

After creating many shoots developing from my initial ideas, to Lee Friedlander, to developing from elements held within the photographs, I knew I needed to research on new photographs in which could inspire me to take the next step.

I came across Ziqian Liu when brainstorming ideas on Pinterest, after viewing some of her projects on her website, specifically 'Reflections 2' this gave me that light bulb moment of how I could incorporate her elements into my own emerging surrealism and to develop my concept of fragmentation of the human form.

Liu is a self-portrait photograph that combines her body, plants and mirrors to explore the balanced state of peaceful coexistence between humans and nature. She continuously removes her facial features in order for the viewer to imagine that the body captured can be anyone.

I was instantly drawn to Liu's work due to the lighting, composition, tonality and her use of mirrors in her self-portraits. Although the main element that interested me the most was the visual representation of human fragmentation. This personally fascinates me so much, as her imagery reminded me of anthropomorphism imagery due her unusual representation of her human form. The combination of objects and the human formation creates an unnerving unique outlook of the human body but through the use of tonality and composition, this hooks the viewers' attention to create assumptions and questions on the appearance before reading the meaning.

Is this the start to my surreal practice?

Harley Kelly.