Why Darkness?

‘if you could see my darkness.’ Self portrait, July 2020.

Why indeed: Darkness.

This is something I have recently been pondering over, darkness has acted as an almost innate response when creating, an instinct. I find in my photography I am drawn to darker thematics and visuals. I’ve had people in my life recently question my love for darkness, juxtaposing my everyday state- joyous and overall rather positive. I think because I have joy in my everyday life, I love to explore the polar-opposite in my work. I love to see darkness and document a whole other way of living.

some of my darker images, taken in 2019.

So I will refer back to my original question- why darkness? Well, for many reasons:

1) We all connect with darkness in one way or another, whether you feel it or not, we’ve all experienced some sort of sadness that we can personify into darkness. This varies from each person, but it is something we can all relate to.

2) It’s a surreal way for to see creativity, capturing thematics that are different to my everyday life, but still maintain a deep connection with me personally. I see a lot of beauty in darkness, the delicate moments of hurt that we build ourselves back up from. 

3) We must embrace darkness in order to find light. It’s important to have a balance of good and bad in life. We work best when we can compare our joy to past sadness, or when we can hope for happiness when it might not be apparent. Darkness can be that important entity that reminds you of what you may need reminding of. Reminded to  cherish every moment, understand your personal form of darkness, and grow with it.

a closeup of a new photo, apart of a wider series I am working on, linking with my love of darkness.

I hope you can consider why darkness in your own life. See moments of sadness as opportunities to understand a deeper side of yourself, perhaps one that you rarely get to see. Be fortunate in your happiness and brighter moments, relish in your joy.

Creativity for me has been a way to explore parts of myself that I would once hide from or feel were un-worthy of  attention, I’ve come to learn that every part of myself has value. I have had the honour to create around personal experiences and emotions, putting them out into the world. I never thought that a result of that would be the connections I’ve been able to make. Some of the sweetest compliments I get are when people take the time to reply to a post of mine, saying how they connected so much with what I was saying, and how it helped them in some way. 

For me, that is such a big part of what I do, and makes all the hurt worthwhile in some weird way. If I hadn’t have gone through said hardships, I wouldn’t have been able to help people get through theirs. So thats why I embrace darkness, not only in my work, but in my everyday life as well.