The Artist and the masterpiece

The term master piece was originally used to describe the work of an apprentice who was aspiring to be a master of his craft in the old guild system. His piece was then kept by the guild as a token of his craftsmanship.

As I am working of my final piece of my BA in Photography I find myself looking for the same sense of completeness. I was to produce a piece that sums me up and where I am up to in my practice so far.

When working with the appropriation of the 16 mm film I find myself looking for the one image that can sum it all up. The image that contains all the anxieties of life the fear of loosing, growing up and eventually finding oneself "homeless" (only children have homes). All of these themes are issues that I have been dealing with in the previous three years of my university course and also in life as I have "grow up". So when do I look for this image in another persons video. Wouldn't it make more sense to take the photo myself? I am not sure if I have an answer to that. Maybe apart from that I believe that the anxieties I feel are present in all life and in all people. Appropriation is also a test of the abilities of photography and meaning in images. I want to challenge these abilities and see if I can make the viewer feel something which perhaps was not there as the footage was produced about 40 years ago. By using photography innate ability to be taken as true I can make up a reality from the found images.

If I fund it "the image", it would be the masterpiece, the one that is so powerful in meaning while at the same time being esthetically perfect, so far it isn't there.
But there is another approach to this. As I have been working I have collected quite a number of still image while also working with the material as moving imagery. There is really no end to the amount of work that could come out of this appropriated material. If I were to use the still form each frame I would end up with some 23 000 images. Perhaps this is the masterpiece?

Maybe this is also true for my work is best understood when you look at everything? From my initial projects looking at female sexuality, stemming from the unfairness of rape as a young teenager. Then starting to deal with themes of homesickness (referring to is as a longing for the home I once had as a child entwined and soaked in paternal safety). If my work was to be psychoanalyzed horizon/time zone project is perhaps a way to control and repeat these issues in a safe and self controlled environment. To go away in order to explore the emotions and to long for the safety of familiarity, knowing that it is available to return to. But the place that I most want to return to is childhood, the impossibility of it causes the greatest sense of loss.
Photography is the false promise that the memories of childhood are there to return to.