DESOLATE

UNINHABITED AND GIVING AN IMPRESSION OF BLEAK EMPTINESS.

FEELING OR SHOWING GREAT UNHAPPINESS OR LONELINESS

As I was walking through an antique warehouse and noticed a very large doll staring at me from across the room.  The doll’s stare sparked a childhood memory of the times when I would dare to slightly open up our linen cupboard doors and see dark piercing eyes and tiny teeth behind blood red lips; my mother’s antique doll was so scary! This haunting memory is so very clear in my mind today …. It’s crazy how some memories stay with you!  Instantly I thought ‘The face of Dolls’ would make a great portfolio. My next challenge was to go out and find some of these scary dolls but after doing a bit of research, I quickly came to a conclusion that scary dolls are now collector’s items and were way too expensive for me to go out and buy 10 or more. I needed to find a solution for my portfolio to evolve, so I hired, borrowed and searched eBay and Gumtree until I had sourced enough dolls to photograph.  This challenge took me a year to collect and gather these scary beauties. Once I started to photograph the dolls I began to feel connected, in a weird kind of way, I could see their beauty and then I felt sad thinking about the life that these dolls may have had.  There would have been excitement and joy when they were originally purchased or given as a gift, the playtimes and admiration.  Then would come neglect and abandonment.