Institute of Art Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire
Ireland’s campus for the Creative Industries

Amber O’Shea 

BA [Hons] Photography

Amber O'Shea is an Irish-born artist and photographer based in Dublin. Her work addresses the intersection between design, sculpture, and moving image and aims to blur the boundaries between fashion and modern photography in her art. Her use of incorporating multiple forms conveys a surrealist sensibility, offering an unusual view of photography. The techniques and tools with each project often change but the perspective, drama and ardency of the image remain consistent. O'Shea's broad perspective on photography and image-making sees beauty in the spaces between and beyond formal distinctions.

About Anamorphosis

In these current times amongst selfie culture we live in a heavily digital saturated world, and not all is how it seems. When we look at pictures online, we can't regulate our perspective. In this project, the spectator can choose what they want to see at each angle. This work focuses on how we have been consumed by our own image and how selfie culture has replaced mirrors by examining how psychology affects the photographic image and exposing our own personal narcissism. The final work will be projected as large-scale lenticular billboard photographs, allowing the artist to produce a trickery of images in the form of Agamographs. An Agamograph is a series of images that change at different angles.



Thesis Description: Picturing Intimacy: How the role of Intimacy is represented in the Photographic Image

Picturing Intimacy: is a discourse analysis of how intimacy is conveyed in contemporary photography—starting with understanding the meaning of intimacy and how it permeates within the photographic image. By observing human connection studies, intimacy plays a huge role within the act and practice of photography. This existence enables the viewer to see how intimacy can play a role in shaping the image's narrative and construction. Intimacy has many more meanings than one; it becomes extensive and vast with a plethora of interpretations by exploring photographic works where intimacy is visible at the core of the works themselves. By starting to take a look at The Ballad of Sexual Dependency by Nan Goldin, Hesitating Beauty by Joshua Lutz, Leaving and Waving by Deanna Dikeman, and finally, I Love You More by Emily Wiethorn. Each photographer utilises intimacy in various ways but shares similar values that explore a specific part of their intimate relationships. Within each work, the artist focuses on the most personal elements of their relationships present in their surroundings and connections with the people within the frames. With these ideas, evidence exists that the role of intimacy can act together with photography as a tool of representation.