My Oldest Teddy

When I was at home, my parents helped me find one of my oldest teddies. It’s actually a little ball with a bell inside, I think it has the little handle on so it could be connected to one of those baby seat things, but I may be wrong. This teddy may be going into my suitcase for my installation, if I can find a way to secure it so that nobody can steal it. Or I will buy a replica of it, to keep the project personal to me, and have a childhood aesthetic.

It is the same ball teddy, just from 3 different angles.

Scanned Childhood Photographs of Me

These photographs will be used in my final project installation, showing my childhood where I came from, what I left behind when I moved to university. The photographs are all of me with toys or having fun, showing the imagination of a child, they will accompany my sky photographs and my ghostly room photographs.

I don’t really look like my self when im not wearing my glasses. These photographs will keep the entire project personal, as it is a kind of self-portrait of my experiences at uni, and how I feel about leaving.

I love the aesthetic of the photographs, I scanned them into my computer so there are a few lines, but I don’t feel they detract from the photos. I really like the colours in the photographs, they remind me of Martin Parr photographs, and John Hinde postcards. I like the kind of vintage feel the photographs have, even though it makes me feel old. I think these images will hold the entire project together and keep people’s attention while they are looking at my images.

Julien Mauve-Back to Childhood

French photographer Julien Mauve was hanging around in his grandparents’ attic when he found a box full of toys that he used to play with as a child.

Each toy reminded him of a particular moment during his childhood, which then prompted him to embark on a nostalgic series where he reimagined how toys might function in adults’ lives.

Titled ‘Back To Childhood’, Mauve’s clever works will bring any viewer on a trip down memory lane.

“Going further than their power to generate nostalgia, toys offer those who animate them a marvelous power to reinvent the world,” says Mauve.

Images from here.

I really like Mauve’s work, it brings toys from his and others childhood into the lives of adults. Looking at his work has really helped me with my project, I start to think how toys could be incorporated into adults lives, and how that spark of imagination could be carried with us from childhood. My work is focused on the journey from childhood to adulthood, how we move on leaving our homes and childhood behind, but it is always with us, maybe in the form of our favorite toy or a photograph.