Oops I did it - police alert!!

Right sooo what happened:

• I wanted to do something similar to this:

Because we couldn't go to a house with a garden as we couldn't find one, I decided to go to a very nice park, very stupid of me as I have chosen one of the biggest parks in London. Very clever! 

In trying to do something similar to that, we tied up 2 trees with a plastic rope from Poundland and then we hung the clothes to dry. Now I don't know if that was bad luck or just a stupid thing that I have done, but we didn't even managed to do all the set ups and we saw the police car coming towards us. Yaaay!! Let the fun begin!! I should have though before that there is a big chance of that happening but I don't know why, probably for the love of art and because I was desperate with my project, I decided to risk it!!

there it issss!!

I feel so bad and embarrassed now when I look and remember the whole thing and I don't know what I was thinking. I freaked out, of course, and was prepared to get arrested!! haha

But you know, I think faith was on my side as the policeman was understanding and he told me that I am not allowed to touch the trees in any of the parks in London which I definitely didn't know. Why would I know that? As I said, he was surprisingly nice and understood the whole situation and instead of taking me to the section he only took my details and gave me a warning or something like that and then told me he would send me a thing with the rules in the London parks. That was luck!! On top of that, he gave me 2 minutes to quickly take my photos and then grab everything and gooooo!!! 

I never did a shoot in 2 minutes like on that day!! I was shaking and wanted to go as quick as possible. I didn't care about the images, about the project, I just wanted to hide! haha Now it's funny but I could have gotten into serious problems.

Now the bad thing is that even if the policeman was nice and let me take my images, I couldn't choose any of them as I don't think they represent want I wanted to portray. 

All that show for nothing!! What about that!!

this is one of them. 

This means that I have to go agaaain to London!! This is starting to be so exhausting, waking up at 5 in the morning and getting back at 10 in the evening. But I got to do it!!!

Almost there

I am almost there with my obsessions.Following my vision, the next step is the moment when she takes her role as housewife in serious. She become obsessed with taking care of her family. This is the moment when she is back on track.

Again, the idea of being a housewife has been converted into a stereotype throughout the years; my goal is not to portray the typical house wife bu to show her thoughts and emotions, how she is feeling and thinking about this.; " housewife" is just a name attributed to the whole scene.

This is the moment when Andrea is starting to remember her mother and what she did for her. She is now in the same situation, trying to take decisions for her children. But remembering what she's been through and the pressure from her parents, she is finding even harder to take decisions.

Final

This is the final image:

We had to change a bit the plan as there weren't enough people on Oxford Street for a crowd. I think this image works better because it's closer to the viewer. 

A said before, the mirror emphasizes the fact that she becomes obsessed with the idea of being seen and appreciated and respected for what she managed to achieve so far. Looking in the mirror is about looking at yourself and your life. 

I didn't want to capture the rest of the body because it didn't signify anything. I wanted to focus on her expression, on her look.

Shooting time

The initial idea for this scenario was to go to a busy place and I wanted to take a picture of Andreea in the crowd, her looking in the mirror and people around her starring at her but once we got there to Oxford Street we tried to do this idea but it wasn’t busy enough to have a good shot which was weird as Ox St i always busy . When you look in the mirror you see your image, how you are seen by someone else, how other people see you. She wasn’t alone anymore, she’s not afraid to get out there in the middle of the crowd, she is not afraid to get noticed. In fact, she wants people to look at her and to see where she is now and what she achieved. She really wants that. The mirror emphasizes the fact that she becomes obsessed with the idea of being noticed and appreciated and respected for what she achieved so far. 

We even had an admirer. haha

Props

the wig that I have used for many scenarios

and the mirror that I have found in a charity shop for my new obsession

this is what we're going to use in terms of clothing

Inspiration

For this idea, Aleg Prager was a great inspiration.

these images of putting the subject into the light to show it off made me think about a possible scenario for my obsession.

I was also thinking about the idea of a crowd, being in the middle and people looking at you.

Also, this image by Philip Lorca diCorcia inspired me in creating my scenario.

What I am thinking to do is to buy a mirror and then me and Andrea will go to a crowded place in London and try to gather the attention of people whilst she is looking in a mirror. It will probably change or I will have to adjust it depending on what's going to happen in London.

New idea

The next obsession that I would like to portray is more figuratively presented rather than being taken from a real scenario or fact in my life or my mother's. It is more about society and the values that it promotes.

It is about the obsession for attention. When I say attention though, I don't mean people interacting with another or something extravagant that needs to be shown off in order to get attention.

What I would like to portray is an inner state that Andrea has got during this cycle of being happy and taking care of her kids. It is about her wish to be seen as a happy woman, her struggle to show that she has finally managed to have a decent life, she is loved and she gives love back. I want to portray Andrea's image if an accomplished woman.

I called it obsession because she has an urge to show the world that no matter if you have problems and you can get distracted from the normal turnover of life, if you believe in yourself and fight for what you want, in the end you can get there and reward yourself.