Environment is such a broad and abstract word that i found it quite difficult to narrow down the word at first to different ideas. After i while i came up with three broad concepts but one of my ideas is defiantly stronger than the others as its more personal and unique.

Environments of lost things and places

-Photographing spaces which contain objects which have left behind and given away

-Could photograph car boots, charity shops, abandoned places such as houses and the farm which i have already photographed.

-The photographs would be composed of landscapes of the locations as a whole and then loads of very close up shots of elements of things left behind. Could maybe take photographs which are more abstract of the different items, very close up macro shots and then could also include some portraits of people associated with these locations, the people behind the stuff being left behind.

Personal environments of different types of people

-Choose a variety of people and explore their personal space which they spend the majority of their time. I could take environmental portraits of the people within this personal environment and also action photographs of them interacting with this environment. I could also take close up photographs of elements of the environment which are significant, the elements which make it a personal space and makes it well “lived in/used”

-I could explore work environments such as my dad and how he spends all his time within his taxi for his job, my friend who works in a garage and basically works so much he lives there. I could then choose a variety of other people and explore the time they spend within their working environment.

-Another concept i could follow along the lines of personal environments could be bedrooms. I could photograph a variety of different people within the personal space of their bedrooms and specific elements of their bedrooms which make them so personal.

-Again along the same lines i could photograph the inside of cars. Not sure how interesting this one would be, might have to consider very specifically who i photograph but people normally throw loads of junk into the back of their cars. I could photograph the interior and then maybe the person in relation to their car, either inside the car or standing outside the car.

A Home away from home – Childhood dens

After coming up with these original ideas in which i have been thinking so heavily about personal spaces and the concept of personal homelike and familiar environments i came up with my favourite idea. Basically i want to create a body of work which revolves around making any environment into a home. This idea came because i remembered back to my childhood and how i continually made dens and tents and forts in any location that my mum took me to. It was a major part of my childhood to go to the woods or the beach and to use blankets and branches and literally any materials around to build houses. Immediately once i had this initial starting point i could image my whole project and the way it is going to come together.

-The starting point would be to go to various locations such as the beach and various woods and to build structures in the environment like how i used to do as a child. I would then photograph or video the process of me creating these “homes” at the various stages of creation. I would then have a series of photographs of creation which will work well as a a little series. I am thinking of like when i was a child using really vividly coloured blankets like bright reds and blues, really unnatural colours which will stand out vividly against the landscape. I might also experiment with creating structures which blend in to the environment but i want to re create the way i made structures as a child and those were normally a combination.

-Once i have made the structures i can then take various photographs of the inside, such as looking out from the inside, looking up at the roof of the den, various more abstract photographs to contrast with the more straight on ones which record the building of the structure.

-I was then thinking i could add in an element of the fantasy that the dens signified when i was a child. I could try to incorporate all the stories that me and my friends made up to play inside the dens. I was thinking that i potentially could try to bring in elements of my art into my project. I could take the photographs which i have taken of the dens and then i could illustrate them, adding in elements of fantasy worlds that i made up when i was a kid.  I could then link these to the books i read which influenced thew worlds i made up. So many of the games i used to play as a child revolved around books i read and using those same characters to make new outcomes. I could therefore use elements of these books within my project. I think i might even have written down elements of the games which might be quite interesting to also review as i’m pretty sure they are nonsense scribbles.

-The next step i thought in my project would be to have inclusion of people. I quite like having the photographs of the structures on their own and empty. I think they might look quite eerie in this manner with just the blankets and bright colours against the natural colours. But i think the project needs to have an element of people in order to really work because its all about how children can make any environment into a home and i think it needs another side to it. Thinking along these lines of childhood i thought it might be really good to take pictures of my childhood friends in these environments looking like wild children. I think it will be quite symbolic to actually use the people that i originally made dens with when i was a child in the photographs now. I’m thinking that i should have my friends with crazy wild hair like they have been dragged through bushes and mud and paint on their faces. I’m thinking that it could work really well in considering how even now when my friends are all grown up they can still remember making dens ect and still have that element to their personality. I think having these wild looking people in contrast with these crazy looking dens will work really well.

-The last element of my project i’m thinking of so far is to explore archive photographs of my dens from in the past. I’m pretty sure i have loads of photographs of the dens i made as children and with me and my friends in them. This will work really well alongside the new photographs of my friends as wild children to compare the people and how much they have grown but then also to show that they still have this childish elements to them.

Now that i have my main idea i have already begun to think about all the specifications for my photo shoots and how my project is going to pan out. From the initial straight point i now know exactly where my project is going to go.