HELENA FORD

My work focuses on cultural and societal differences highlighted through found and personal images collected and taken in cities in the UK and various other countries. Analysing each image thoughtfully, I piece them together, digitally and/or manually to create a new image to eventually turn into a digital print. Not only do I enjoy this side of my practice, but I also love to create ‘alternate universe’ collages, using my own images and piecing them together to invent ‘dystopian’ cities. Through editing on Photoshop, I can give prominence to an existing distinctness in different cities - I find that altering things such as the brightness, vibrancy, hue and saturation, increases our former views and manifests them into a new vision.
A particular series of images I have made that I found has been the most successful is ‘Hidden Perspectives’. These digital collages all consist of two images either both from different cities or one from my paintings and one from a city. Using photoshop I cut into one of the images to construct the illusion of a ‘peep hole’ through to the second layer. I edit the colours, brightness, and vibrancy of each image separately to highlight their dissimilarity which draws us to the depth of the image - the second layer behind. It creates a new perspective on each city, with the two counteracting each other and the imbalance highlights my observations and allows the audience to question my judgement.