name. Connor O'Sullivan
right now. Fourth year studying Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh
instagram. @allmybsides
Images from during the blizzard
‘Images from during the blizzard’ is a series of photographs I made when the polar vortex hit Edinburgh at the end of February. The arrival of the ‘beast from the east’ was sudden and total, comprising of biting winds and snow that blanketed the city enough to put it to sleep. It was a strange atmosphere: feelings of both panic and excitement were palpable, creating a space that was simultaneously chaotic and serene. I wanted to make a body of work that reflected this mix of contradictions and captured the novelty of the experience; I shot both digital and analog over the first two days of the snow, and only created images in black and white as a mechanism to accentuate my subjects.
The resulting work focused on the contrast that people have against their environment - often literally with many of the subjects only appearing in silhouette or obscured by the weather. This project also marked the first time I developed and scanned my film photographs myself, and while my poor understanding of these processes lead to damaged film and dust being scanned, I found this added to the project and these unintentional mistakes blurred with the content of the photographs themselves. I tried to incorporate this in editing the digital pictures, deliberately trying to obscure elements in a way that also mirrored what the weather was doing to my subjects in the photographs themselves.
The series thus explores the relationship between ambiguity and clarity, in the contexts of humanity against nature’s backdrop, as well as the creation of the photographs that explore this.
"The series thus explores the relationship between ambiguity and clarity, in the contexts of humanity against nature’s backdrop, as well as the creation of the photographs that explore this."
"...feelings of both panic and excitement were palpable..."
