Photographer

Suhayla Ahmed

Finalist in

Upper Secondary Category

Written Statement

When addressing the theme of ‘fragility’ I thought of how some things we believe are so permanent, yet they are often the most fragile. I specifically looked at knowledge, family and time.

I was interested in exploring fragility at another level past just broken glass. I looked at how knowledge is constantly changing and what we know now is completely different to what was known hundreds of years ago. This makes knowledge extremely fragile because the world as we know it is constantly changing, and it is hard to preserve the truth for the future.

Family is another concept which I feel is fragile because the dynamics of family keeps changing. As family members grow or when there is a change in circumstances, the ties get frayed and broken beyond repair in some cases. I was also fascinated by the construct of time and how this is something society cannot function without.

Time is fragile because we cannot control it. Everything has an expiration, and no one knows when their time will come to an end.

I used a DSLR to shoot all my images. I mainly used low angles with a shallow depth of field to direct the audience’s focus to the subject. I used Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to create a reoccurring theme in my images to all be black and white with a tinge of pink. I chose to use the colour pink because pink is associated with femininity which is often depicted as fragile. I wanted to have continuity between my pieces to display the link of fragility in aspects of life.