Lara Gilks, My Backyard Theatre (Portrait (2018))

I often sit in my backyard and think about my work. I also use it as a set for my photography. The genesis for this body of work came from the concept of using my backyard as a theatre. I imagined using photography to capture the actors in a play. The actors are disguised, obscured - they taunt, spook, challenge the traditional sense of a backyard scene. I am driven to create a body of work that disturbs the everyday reality – that allows for an escape from my reality into the playful but spooky world of theatre and props. I seek to creates subjects who look but cannot be seen - that are humorous and playful, yet spooky, surreal, disturbing and, perhaps, mythological.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.