Automatism is a concept that I personally connect with. Within art,  automatism refers to a method of creation which seeks to engage with the unconscious mind through suppressing conscious control.

Andre Breton, leader of the surrealist movement defined surrealism as ‘pure physic automatism’ in his surrealist manifesto of 1924.

consistently throughout my own process of creation, I find my best work comes from exploring the environment and engaging with the subject in a way that is primarily ‘intuitive’. Even images that seem preplanned or carefully considered are often spur of the moment ideas that came from the creative energy during the shoot. (See figure 1). Despite the static and rigid qualities of this image, the pose was very much a spur of the moment thing . The creation of images and art as an extension of the subconscious mind is a particular interest of mine and a perspective that I maintain throughout. I’m a big believer that you don’t have to plan too much as I find work is often more exciting when you just let go and allow the images to manifest. In this regard I view automatic creation as a grounding force to me practice.