Page History

Emily Dixon

The aim of my folio was to explore “the connections within the natural and manmade landscape, with the incorporation of the human form,” more precisely how people feel when interacting with nature. The focus of my photographs was to consist of people in a variety of landscapes within Victoria, in an attempt to capture the beauty of our country and the importance of its preservation while demonstrating the desire and need many people feel to be a part of nature. Due to COVID-19 this original plan to photograph widely throughout Victoria changed, and instead I photographed in urban Melbourne. These three final pieces cohesively work together to illustrate how people can connect with their surrounding naturalistic environments even in the midst of a pandemic. The juxtaposition of the black and white photograph and the two coloured photographs, paired with the painting aim to add more depth and further portray the connections between human nature and its surrounding environments

Name: William Foster

Title of work: 1. Fridge in which bodies are stored 2. Preparing for funeral #1 3. Cupboard of mortuary room 4. Preparing for funeral #2 5. Mortuary room 6. Loading coffin into hearse

Medium: Inkjet Print

Over the past few years I have become fascinated with the topic of death and the industry that surrounds it, after researching about the practices surrounding death in other countries and reading a non-fiction book about the life of a mortuary technician within the U.K, I decided that I really disliked how the western world perceives death and the funeral industry so negatively. The people who work in the funeral industry are seen as ‘creepy’ or ‘strange’ when in fact they are everyday hard-working people who put a lot of emotion and care into their work. For my works I visited Gabrielle Walsh Funeral Services and photographed the space and the staff at work. The aim of my final works was to destigmatise the funeral industry and display that those who work in the industry are normal everyday people who work hard to help those during often, very emotional times. People see death as confronting, but if western countries discussed the topic more and made it less taboo, death would be perceived how it should be, just a part of life.