Assignment one: Local communities Learning log
In preparation…
We were asked to read the section entitled ‘The Photographic Brief’ in Short, M. (2011) Creative photography: context and narrative. Lausanne: AVA Publishing, pp.20–26. See my post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/research/a1-research/the-photographic-brief-short/
The brief
Produce a small photo essay of 10 images that demonstrates your engagement with the lives, experiences and histories of your local community and its people. Decide on a single theme, topic or activity to focus on. Discuss your ideas with your tutor before committing to it. Do this assignment with only one camera and one lens. Provide a short commentary (200 words) explaining your ethos and rationale along with your images. Provide a short commentary (200 words) explaining your ethos and rationale along with your images.
Delivery: For this assignment you’ll need to submit 10 unmounted quality prints. The size should be 8×10 or A4. Liaise with your tutor regarding the technical aspects of printing your photographs.
Aims
The emphasis is on engaging with the world with your camera. You’re encouraged to be a participant-observer in the situations and activities that you photograph. By limiting your field of action to your immediate surroundings, you’ll develop the ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary – the things that may go unnoticed when you’re familiar with a place. This assignment will develop your observational skills and prepare you for more involved projects towards the second half of the course (Open College of the Arts, 2014, p31).
INITIAL PLANS:
Initially I ran through possible ideas for the assignment I have 2 locations that I engage with Tredreath Pembrokeshire and Old Basing Hampshire. I decided to shot the Boat club comitteeI’m a member of in Tredreath and spent a few weeks exploring ideas and did quite a bit of exploratory shooting late February early March when I was in Pembrokeshire, see my earlier post : https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-assignments-2/assignment-1-local-communities/a1-learning-log/1st-draft-pre-covid-19/
This took me to the 15th of March when the impact of Covid19 began to have an effect on social engagement. I had planned to return to Pembrokeshire for the next committee meeting 26th of March with a developed plan (conceptual, visual narrative) to finish the project. It quickly became evident that this would not be possible.
I dithered whether to stop, move on and return to the work later or start afresh.
I shared my dilemma with the OCA Tutor led meeting 18th March “approaching an assignment”, see post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/18-3-20/
I also shared with my peers at the virtual Thames Valley OCA monthly meeting 21st March facilitated by OCA tutor Jayne Taylor, see posts: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/thames-valley-oca-meetings/21-3-20/
Generally my peers suggested moving on, and we talked about new ways in the current circumstances that I could capture community engagement (Traces of people, disruption in the community, changes in the community, barriers to engaging with the community).
Following these meetings I have resolved to start again with a new idea for assignment 1, even though I lost a lot of time but I was concerned that if we have a “lockdown” opportunities will be even more limited. In the event the lock down did begin March 23rd and I had to conceive a new idea that would show my community engagement withing these restrictions. I contacted my tutor to let him know that I’d lost time by beginning over.
ASSIGNMENT ONE SECOND ATTEMPT:
BRAINSTORMING:
So my first idea and shoots for assignment 1 thwarted I looked for other ideas. Now in Hampshire and quite rural I felt my options were quite limited. I considered shooting from my window or through my gate but there is little footfall outside my street so that didn’t look fruitful. So I turned to the community inside my house, 2 older adults and 2 young ones, some home working some not. I brainstormed some ideas:
Mindmap Initial ideas:
I also considered advice I had recently in particular, embrace the constraints, don’t get wrapped up in the end product, see differently.
My research made me consider:
- Express my emotions in the images
- Pay attention to the ordinary and bring attention to it
- Really think about what concept of home/community I am sharing
- That I can vary the perspective if I maintain continuity of subject strongly enough
- Show a sense of isolation
Advice gathered encouraged me to:
- Accentuate the detail in the ordinary
- Show the boundaries between the inner and out worlds
- Show a sense of isolation
- Be sure what concept of the home I’m sharing
SHOOTING
I decided to go with the theme of staying safe at home and to begin by photographing by looking in through my windows as an outsider would, I wanted to portray a house in a Covid 19 lock down. I reduced my initial ideas for subjects to about 10 that represented for me life in a lock down house, these would be headed by an image of the front door opening carefully as if to an outsider, and finished with an image of a closed front door with an empty shopping bag outside. I also knew from the outset that this would be a colour project.
To fit with the brief I used one lens, my prime Efs 24mm.
The idea seemed simple but the execution I discovered was not. To begin with I live in a house with few window sills downstairs as they are nearly all full length windows so I had to be inventive to get the variety of locations that I needed. I found reflections were a huge consideration and I experimented with shots without reflections and those with reflections accentuating them. I decided that for the message I intended to share I wanted clear images with detail, so shot at different times of day and directions until I got what I needed.
Part way through I re-clarified my objectives to make sure that I was capturing the right images for my narrative:
- CONCEPT: Safe at home – a community isolating at home
- CONTEXT: COVID 19
- NARRATIVE: Outsider looking in at traces of a protected community inside
- RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUDIENCE/SUBJECT/PHOTOGRAPH: Physical barriers but connections through understanding
- WANT TO SHARE: Feeling of being outside looking in at a protected world
I decided that it was important to:
- Express in my images how I am feeling (barriers, isolated, provisioning, protector).
- Attention and focus on the ordinary
- Present things simply- don’t over complicate for the sake of it
I shot as close as I could to subjects but could only go so close before I lost the window frame and therefore the context.
Mindmap shooting:
EDITING
As I edited my images I began to form the series.
When shooting I captured windows and subjects both straight on and at angles and considered like Anna Fox in “My Mother’s cupboards” keeping the same perspective throughout the series; I settled on a variety of perspectives but keeping a similar focal length and simple composition. Likewise after asking others I decided that it was okay to have some windows open and some closed, this was more realistic and increased my options when shooting and making the series.
After sharing twice with different OCA peer groups I’d reshot my bottles on the window sill as empty bottles outside the backdoor instead (as this seemed more realistic). And even after reshooting the laptop at a closer distance after peer group advice I chose not to use it and replaced it with a close up of paracetamol packets which I had reshot at a closer distance.
Links to peer sharing opportunities:
Documentary hangout 9.4.20: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/documentary-hangout-9-4-20/
Thames Valley OCA group: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/thames-valley-oca-meetings/18-4-20-virtual/
Choosing the final 10 images I prioritised:
- The ordinary
- Simple representation (framing, focus, lack of distraction-less is more)
- Detail in the ordinary – Good depth of field
- Subjects that viewers will ascribe a Covid19 lockdown connotation to- the invisible in the visible
- Images that viewers will empathise and respond to
- Signs of human traces of: protection, safety, provisioning, routines and barriers
Mindmap Editing:
From my first draft of the series I decided to drop this image of the paracetamols on a table as it was too long range, as well as this image of a lap top on a table:
I re shoot the paracetamol at closer range and used this in the final series. I did re shoot the lap top at closer range but ultimately it was still an image I dropped because I thought it fitted less well:
I also deliberated over which of these two images of washing up to use but decided on the angled perspective.
For the final series of 10 I replaced this image of full bottles of wine on the window sill for empty ones outside the door as I felt it was more realistic:
Presentation:
I considered whether to add text to the images such as government orders to the images so that they would have context later, or whether not to in order to allow some discontinuity. I have decided that text won’y be necessary to give context as I’m now sure that the event will live on for a very long time and I think be very easily recognised in the future.
The size of the prints will be A4 which is the ratio as shot.
Photography 2: Documentary 