Bleaching Photography

I've been inspired by Lucas Simoes to distort the photograph using bleach, instead of burning. I found the burning process wouldn't be suitable for my concept of vision impairments (stereo-blindness). I'm hoping, that the bleach will make the photo seem blurred. I've decided to use my own photography of people.

I began with a extreme-close up of a eye, because my work is based on the vision impairment stereo blindness. I believed that one eye would work best, because I only use one eye at once, so I felt that one would do. I applied bleach using a paintbrush, which also resulted in the rubbing effect that is made evident. I like this texture, because it gives the photograph a worn out appearance. It reminds me of the stress my eyes probably go through on a daily bases, because they cant co-operate. 

I decided to use less bleach within this example, however, remain to focus around the eye area, to further emphasis that I have a vision impairment. The people who I took photos of have a vision impairment as well, this person is long sighted and the one before was short sighted. The aim was to weakly remove the parts of the photo surrounding the eye, because of this impairment she possessed. 

I've grown to dislike my eyes, I find that when they aren't aligned their wondering which I find is off putting of my confidence in meeting new people and them talking to me. It's hard for other to know where I'm looking. This is the reason why I wanted to remove the whole eye. I had the person cover her eyes, as if to say she hates them, because that what I feel towards them. I find that the bleaching could do with colour, as it seems to dark and gloomy.  

Instead of turning the photos into colour, I applied a substance of ink and acrylic paint to cover the faces around a single eye on each. I wanted to find out what bleach did when in contract with the mediums. I like the fact that the bleach made the paint seem worn out, which is an unusual appearance for paint in art, I tend to only ever see it on abandoned or neglected wall. 









I liked this piece, the most out of all the experiments. It really captures the emotional feelings I have towards my vision impairment. I'm glad that I'm different, however, its affected me a lot over the years, so I tend to ask myself is different good. I like the ghostly effect that the bleach has created around the face. It's almost like a mist.