Luke Weller : Kitchen Murder

I think I became aware of imagery around the age of 15 when I used to go out skateboarding with my friends. I used to take out my dad’s camcorder and film me and my mates doing tricks. This is when I first started trying to make aesthetically pleasing imagery.

From there I did a photography A-level at my sixth form back in my hometown of Dorchester, Dorset. As soon as I started the course I fell in love with photography, I started seeing the world differently, everything and everyone was a photographic opportunity.

I am currently in my third year at the University of Derby studying Commercial Photography. I have learnt a lot on the course and have become an all round better photographer, technically and creatively.

My main influence has continuously been Gregory Crewdson, ever since I started properly taking note of photography in my life. In my eyes the man is a genius, and he has his critics for the way he goes about his work, but you can’t deny the man’s ability to make a great image. The way, in which he tells a story in one singular frame, his pictures always make the viewer think.

I primarily like to produce narrative photography, where the viewer is made to ask their own questions of the image; with a singular image you as the viewer are given the opportunity to give it a beginning and end. I have also always enjoyed creating my images in the dark, which is strange as I’m afraid of the darkness to be honest.

This may be why I like to make images of an unsettling nature in the dark, as subconsciously I am unsettled myself. The darkness always seems to be covering something up; there are plenty of places to hide in the dark.

The two included images are from my series, ‘Scenes’, which is an ongoing project. The series is made up of different single frame stories that have no real basis or come from my own life, they are just fragments of my imagination that I feel I need to create in a photograph. I don’t really like to explain them either as I’d like to leave it to the viewer to decide on what they are looking at and create their own narrative for the frame, images should make the viewer think, its boring if its handed to them on a plate.

As for my aspirations in the photographic world, I want to continue creating work that excites me and hopefully in turn excites others. I plan to move to London and get my work out after University and see where that takes me. At the moment, myself and five others are at the beginning stages of trying to make our own creative business called dCollective; it is made up of photographers, filmmakers and illustrators. Check it out on the link below.