Horseman in a graveyard

Meatyard is my biggest inspiration when it comes to mask photography and his work has helped me compose together this masterpiece. What I love the most about Meatyard's work is the fact that he kept it personal and on the down low. He asked his wife and children to play the main roles in his work. By doing this shows his work was for only himself and the love he had for masks. It was mainly meant for him to see his own achievements and not just get to get a reaction from his audience.

This was the first day that I had found my model for my artwork, my granddad. The reason I asked my granddad was because I love focussing on the older generation when it comes to photography and I just knew that including him in my art work would be inspirational and it would bring me some sort of achievement. I have had my horse mask for a while now and I just needed that one idea to come to me to put it to best use. When night time arrives Pop (what I call my granddad) is ready for bed and lays down on his sofa with a blanket watching the old school Hammer horror movies on the horror channel. His favourite is Frankenstein. As people see my Pops as more of a chirpy man I wanted to show that dark side to him and help create that character. I later on named this character "Horseman". My idea for this came from my inspiration of the monsters and surreal like scenes seen in the horror channel. As they are old school movies they aren't as scary as this days generation. They are described as creepy and weird and far from being realistic.

I have once shot a photo-shoot in the same graveyard through using masks and creating a dark performance. The scenery felt like perfection to me as It was set in an 18th century graveyard in the middle of nowhere with broken graves. It was morbid, secretive and historical as it is way in it's generation. I just knew that my work wasn't done in that place and it had more coming.
I was surprised when I asked my granddad to do this as he immediately replied "yes" when I said it was for my art project. It was a quick and easy process as the graveyard was just around the corner from Pops's flat and easy to get to. I wanted to make this place look like a second home to the horseman. I demonstrated this through asking Pop to cook himself up his favourite meal (chips and beans) and take it up on a tray to the graveyard to look as if he is eating his food naturally in his home. This was the biggest preparation we had done as we had to wait for the food to be cooked. We then walked on up to the graveyard. I truly appreciated Pop not winging or worrying about what people would think of him if they were to walk past and see him carrying a tray full of food with his top off. Before we started I remember asking him "do you mind going topless for this?" he asked why and I replied "I would like to focus on your body fat, your tattoo, jewellery and the hairs on your belly for it to really show your humanity and have it bouncing off the animal in you" and he replied "yes of course." It was a winters night and the setting was cold and deserted. The one problems we had was the freezing weather and the bumpy surface of twigs he had to sit on.
The outfit worn was a pair of old work trousers which are a khaki green with linen textures.  Bouncing off his vintage trousers he was wearing a shiny silver watch. His tattoo's on his arms he explains were cool in his generation but no longer mean much to him now. The tattoo you can see is of a welsh leak with scrolls saying Wales. Over the years the colours and detail have faded but leaves a mark for memories. This I feel adds more character to the horseman and makes the image look more vintage which is the look I am aiming towards.
When taking the pictures I had the most fun as I saw Pop really get into the character and had fun posing. There were even times when he came up with his own ideas for pictures afterwards as he stood behind a gravestone with the mask holding his thumbs up. This is a great way to prove that people are as old as they want to be. I am overall honoured to have a granddad who would do this for me as he has helped create one of my biggest achievements in art and it is now a favourite of mine.