How the Percy Jackson Series Has Influenced My Work

By now it is clear that my project is about Greek Goddesses and my impersonation of them. Of course, that is only the top layer to something with much more substance, including the reference to painting and it's position between reality and fantasy, and why I feel the need to make such images. Nevertheless, the use of Greek Goddesses is an important factor within this work, and it's important for me to know where this routed from as for me to understand my own work to the fullest capacity.

My interest with the Greek Gods and Goddesses started when I was around 12 years old. I read the Percy Jackson book series by Rick Riordan, followed by the equal series the Heroes of Olympus. The books followed a group of young teens that go to Camp Half-Blood after finding out they are demigods. The camp teaches them how to use their powers and is a journey of self-discovery. Percy Jackson, the main hero, is the son of Poseidon. Poseidon, being the water God, is a very well respected and major figure of Olympus - the home of the Gods. This leads to Percy having many enemies, as well as many friends, and the books follow their adventures with other gods and mythical creatures. While Percy and his friends of course fascinated by as a child, it was always the actual gods, their personalities and their stories that hooked me.

There was always something special about reading about these characters in a modern setting, knowing that thousands of years ago these figures were very much believed in. Despite not caring for history at school, while respecting events that happened felt I could never engage with them, reading these books felt like I was forming a connection not only with the Gods and Goddesses, and the other characters, but those that believed in them.

These books were very much a form of escapism to me, allowing me to enter a world that is both relevant to my own (being set in modern times), and fantasy. Also being an avid reader of the Harry Potter series, this need to for something else, something amazing in the world in addition to what we already have, is apparent. Perhaps it's a hope for something better in the world that is just beyond my eyes, or perhaps it's a longing to be in these worlds. I think that these books offered me a way to safety enjoy adventure, being both curious and timid. I was never a brave child, and I still am not as a young adult.

I think that with this series, I am using photography as a way I used books when I was younger. They are a way for me to safely engage with a sense of fantasy and otherness. Photography, however, gives me much more control than the books. This could be seen as both positive and detrimental. Positive in a sense that this control is a way of me being braver, a way of discovering the self, and most of all create something myself rather than consume what others have created. Detrimental because the thought and effort of creating can diminish the escapism that you feel. As such, I don't actually find that when I take my images I have a sense of escapism as my mind is firmly in the now, the modern and present day. It is when I look at the images afterwards - when I edit them and when I see them printed. It is the consumption of fantasy art that makes me feel at peace.