The real world is calling.

It's round three of my degree, just 5 or 6 months and I will relinquish my grip on the educational world to see if things go any better in the real one.

3rd year means 3rd year final project, I spent my summer dusting away my time watching frivolous television, walking my dog and occasionally working, the rest of my time involved socialising with St. Ives finest. However every now and then I'd have that feeling, the one where you know you should be doing something but it's been pushed so far to the back of you brain that chose to ignore rather than embrace it.

This nagging feeling was the looming prospect of my dissertation, this had some thought, and absolutely no action. I'd decided on the area I wanted to research and had written some notes. When I returned to glorious Chatham I suddenly remembered that we have to make visual work aswell, so with the influence of some photographers I moved onto idea.

That was then and this is now.

I've been lazy with this blog but now the dissertation is finished and the first stage of my visual project is well and truly established. We've had the pass or fail assesment and I wait with bated breath as to what my fate shall be.

Voyeurism, the act of looking is something i've always been drawn to. The thrill you gain from watching someone, in sometimes the most unobvious way is what interests me. I thought voyeurism was what i wanted to explore photographically, and more so the obsession that builds from the voyeurism. The need to watch your subject, the addiction. But alas that didn't work and i turned my focus to obsession and more precisely my obsession.

I'm a self confessed obsessive.

Personally i feel OCD is too strong a term, my life isn't rulled by my obsessions but they do structure parts of it. I believe it is these things in life that make you different from everyone else. So I have decided to embrace them.

The project is a documentation of my obsessions and i began with curtains.

The images are scaned C-type prints, i'm working with film and printing in the dark room. My obsession is a need to have straight curtains, if they are caught up or not drawn properly then I can't sleep. This isn't a new development but something that has always 'disturbed' me. Its completely irrational and most would say 'what does it matter', but it matters to me and so i photograph it, thus it becomes relevant to the audience.

The series consists of 3 different frames, all shot with the same specifications, and printed a total of 6 times. The repetition of the print becomes an obsession and the audience strives to distinguish what it is that makes them different.

My major project is going to consist of mini projects with each obssesion standing alone. Together i hope that the obsesions will collectively show an obsessive need for control and perfection in my life.