Whilst at a Festival, I decided to set up a camera to take a photo every 30-seconds. I left the camera unattended for quite a long period of time so that people became accustomed to it. This way they were able to act naturally around the camera. I thought this was successful as through a different means of equipment, (I used a time-lapse project-cam instead of my Nikon D3000) I was able to photograph the same people from before, acting in as much less self-conscious manor. I believe that the idea of using a different type of camera worked well for people weren’t so consciously aware they were being photographed. However as the camera was intended to watch plants grow, it was only able to take photographs within a few inch distance. This meant that a majority of the photos were bad quality and therefore unusable. I think that the selection of photographs of the young male sat down whilst cooking food worked well for we are able to see his natural movements within a period of ten minutes.
I then moved on to look at the work of Alexander Rodchenko, I chose to study him for I believed his work related to that of Sophie Calles. Rodchenko’s work slightly varies from that of Sophie Calle’s because instead of showing a series of photographs to show physical movement of what a person was up to, he aimed to sum up the entire scenario with just one photograph. As a way of making his images more interesting, he shot his subject from unusual angles. This was a way of trying to get the viewer to look at the scenes in a new light and for them to make up their own mind about what they think is happening in the photograph.
In my initial research stage I looked at a wide variety of artists, though I narrowed it down to a small selection that I felt would best influence my work. In the end I took inspiration from a combination of three photographers.
It was only after looking at Alexander Rodchenko and Cindy Sherman’s work that I was entirely confident in which direction to head my project in. Cindy Sherman is most famous for her ‘Untitled film stills’ collection. This was where she modelled, directed and photographed a series of images to explore the various stereotypes of woman during the 20th century. Cindy Sherman creates a different narrative in each of her photographs to make each shot look as if it is a still image taken from a different film. The idea of this is to expose what people assume is happening in the photographs and thus along with Alexander Rodchenko, looking at the concept of perception. It was this idea of narrative and perception that I wanted to look at. I predominantly liked the idea of the viewer having to use their own imaginations to perceive what is happening in the photographs, and used this as the basis of the definitive direction in which to turn my project to.
During shoot 1 of this section, I directed my model in a dark eerie atmosphere to create the specific enigmatic affect I desired. I believe that the photographs which were slightly out of focus worked better to create this affect as it added a slight hint of mystery. I then went on to edit these photographs with images I had previously taken of an abandoned hospital. I hoped that this would add more ambiguity to the images. I believe these worked well but as I now knew the exact style I wanted to create, I knew I would be able to make it better. This time I thought carefully about what the model should look like and the type of environment she should be in. I chose an abandoned old peoples home for this shoot and used a slightly edgy looking model. I kept in mind what I had learnt from the first shoot about how changing the focus and using element of darkness affected the overall result of the photograph. I believe that I managed to improve on the first shoot effectively for there is a much stronger sense of narrative in these photographs, because of this, I am a lot happier with the results. I then went on to edit these photographs, experimenting with colours, contrast and opacity. I found I could merge two of my ‘film stills’ together to create a more complex image in which the narrative has much more impact on the photograph.
Overall I believe that I have managed to create a decent response to my title ‘Journey.’ However I feel I haven’t developed my ideas to a high enough standard and don’t believe that I truly pushed the boundaries of my thinking. I know that I have deviated from this topic to form a stronger response to the title ‘Narrative’ however had I been given this as a starting point instead, I do not believe my project would have evolved in quite the same way. As this is not the exam unit, I think that it is okay to advance my ideas outside the realms of the tittle.
I feel that from being given ‘Journey’ as a project I have learnt a lot along the way, inside and outside of the boundaries of photography as a subject. From doing a large amount of research on this topic I no longer view journey predominately as a physiological trip but instead, one that can be seen as a psychological journey. Perhaps most journeys are a combination of the two. One of my favourite quotes that sums this up is by Don Williams, American novelist and poet.
“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”
I like to think that through my new understanding of the title, this realisation can be clearly seen from the differences in the type of work I have created from the beginning to the end of my book. At the start of the project I focused more on capturing physical movement, a subject that I found fairly uninteresting. Though as I continued with my assignment and studied a variety of artists, I believe that the development in my understanding reflects on the way that I have developed my style of work. I think this to be true for I believe my work becomes more detailed, interesting and much more carefully constructed.
As this was my first project in which the majority of it involved people and facial expressions, it was interesting to learn how to direct people so that I was able to construct the photograph as I visioned it in my head. This was difficult at first, but from taking reshoots, and thinking about how to improve my images, I was much more careful with composing my photographs. I took into consideration the position of my camera, the position of my model, the focus of the image, the facial expression my model held, and the amount of light in the room. Due to this I do believe I have created a successful response at an intermediate level.