Plan

• Visit my Grandma
• Explain the project to her.
• Ask a few questions about  my Grandad
• Photograph her

Evaluation

The first week of my project has been quite productive. I started of by asking Nana a few questions about my Grandad. I learnt about his upbringing, early life and time in the RAF serving in WWII. I then started of by photographing her in different locations around the house. Since I have been looking at the work of Richard Billingham quite a bit recently I have decided to experiment with flash photography. This style is known as vernacular photography and is deliberately meant to look amateurish. After reviewing these images with Mr Toft however it is clear that I was quite careless at the time with my image composition. If I want to carry on this style of photographing then I must consider composition more. I think I will carry on this style whilst also experimenting with more traditional way of taking photograph and hopefully gather a mixture of outcomes.

She has been happy to help so far and it is pleasing to make a steady start to this project. One problem which I encountered however was after a while she got annoyed with me photographing. To be honest this isn’t ideal because it limits when and how I take my photographs. I am hoping that as the project progresses she will start to relax a bit more. I think she is more interested actually talking about my Grandad then being photographed. Therefore in terms of my photographs, I will continue to photograph hr every week because it makes sense however I will also need to explore a lot more different avenues I photographing my Grandma is annoyingly becoming a challenge – for example photographing my Dad, uncles, and other members of my extended family. My dad said he would take me to see his cousin, John Le Feuvre who knew my Grandad well.

The information my Grandma provided about my Grandad proved  to be very useful and interesting. For the next few weeks I need to keep asking her questions to refresh her memory as I am going to conduct a recorded interview with her in a few weeks. Here is what I learned so far ….

Arthur Maitland Le Feuvre

• Born June 4^th 1921
• Youngest of 9 children in a wealthy family
  • Born in Maitland House, St Peter
  • Aristocratic family

Son of a landowner and local politician; Jurat

• Lot of authority
• Stern and authoritative
• Cunning
• Had a charitable side

Banished from home at a young age for joining the Salvation Army

• Cut of all contact
• Met his mother in secret
• Ironic because his father’s mother was herself a member of the Salvation Army
• Quite distant from family throughout adult

Victoria College

• Enjoyed his time there
• Inspired by teacher at Victoria College
• People used to leave on their Birthday
• Very sporty: Cross Country and 1st XI team

Served in WWII

• 28 hours on boat to Callais
• Joined RAF in 1940, left Victoria College at 19
• Beckon Field
• Went to France and Germany as an interpreter; was in Germany when the war ended
• Hitch-hiked from Germany to London
• Aspiration to become RAF Officer
  • Father prohibited it, “my father brought me out”

Sense of Humour

• Every Christmas he said he wanted new toothbrush.
  • Nana, Phil and Steve got a big box made present look massive, but only toothbrush was in it

Here are some of the image from my first week …..