My Final Major Project- 'Curtains Down'

Curtains Down is a project I have been developing and producing throughout my final year at university. 'Curtains Down' is a term used in the theatre industry to signify that a show is over  since when the curtness are down and closed, a show is not currently occurring or the show has finished. This Project shows female performers in their own home environment, all dressed up to the nines but essentially no place to go.

I gained a keen interest into photographing musical theatre shows and performers in the second year of my degree when creating my photo book for a project. I photographed all of the work for this photobook, a few weeks before the world completely shut down due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In addition to businesses completely halting at the beginning of the pandemic, theatres are something which have had a huge hit both financially and emotionally for the performers and businesses within. Many of those featured in my project have had very very little work this past year and could only dream of being back on a stage again. Everything is still incredibly uncertain. 

Unfortunately, a year on, we are still battling said pandemic but when it came to the production of my final major project, this didn't stop my creativity levels and ideas from running high. I still wanted to work with musical theatre performers and opted to use a video calling platform called 'Zoom' which has been popular this last year to photograph the performers through my computer screen with a camera, while they posed at the other end. I organised and sourced the performers myself.

It has been an incredibly enlightening and refreshing experience to test a new technique and essentially move with the times to try some new things. The experience has been truly invaluable to me and my craft. It is something which I hope to keep with me as a possible new technique even when things do go back to normal. 

Please see the 'Curtains Down' tab within the 'gallery' to see the work produced for this project.