For this photoshoot, I am going to try and convey the idea of how friendships shape our lives and how the presence of friends can make us feel less alone in a world that often feels isolating. I am going to take inspiration from José Ortiz’s piece called the Perfect Present. In his piece, you can see the same man appear multiple times in one image by himself. This image highlights to me the sadness and isolation people may feel who don’t have these vital, supportive friendship groups around them. 

In order to replicate this feeling of loneliness people experience without friends, I am going to begin by photographing my friends together, capturing moments of laughter, interaction and joy in one of their favourite places to hang out; Gorey. I will try to capture candid moments between them in order to ensure they dont look unnatural and that I’m actually photographing the emotions they experience whilst hanging out. Once I have completed this, I will then use photoshop to incorporate the different images of my friends into one image. To achieve this, I will use the quick selection tool to make a cutout of my friends from certain images and then drag those cutouts onto a photograph where I have captured only one of my friends by herself. Next, I will lower the opacity of these cutouts to create translucent figures but leave the singular person in full opacity to convey the idea of them not being with her anymore. There will be a clear contrast between the joy seen in my friends cutouts compared to the image where she is stood alone with her back to the camera. Additionally, I will also make the images black and white to further emphasise this feeling of sadness she is feeling as she is no longer with her friends which brought her happiness. My images will symbolise how we sometimes feel like we are merely specters in our own lives without the presence of those who truly see us. The fact that the figures are made to look like ghosts represents the loneliness many experience when they are disconnected from their friends/ loved ones. Overall, I hope to reflect the importance of connection and friendship in our lives. The images I create will not just be about capturing the joy of being with friends but highlighting the idea of how much we need friendships in order to survive.