Since going through all my final outcomes presented in my last few posts, I have now been able to narrow down my favourite images into 3 genres depicting environmental awareness: symbolism, abstraction and documentary photography. For this project, as I planned in my ‘Final Piece – initial idea’ post, I will be producing a number of different prints presented in interesting ways as well as a potential photo-book to display all my work. Below I have displayed my 25 favourite and most relevant images taken during this project, separated and analysed based on their genre of photographic technique. Before this, however, I have added a contact sheet consisting of my 42 final outcomes that I have narrowed down from my original 66. These images will be used to produce my photo-book, telling a very interesting and visually stimulating story about our Island’s pollution and common environmental issues…By viewing my best images from all 10 shoots together in this contact sheet above I can start to get an idea of what my potential photo-book may look like. As well as this I am now able to see how many of each symbolic, abstract and documentary photographs I have comparatively and how each section could possibly work together or be separated. Overall I am quite pleased with the variety of techniques I have managed to portray within one project as well as the quality and symbolic strength of my final images. Below are my favourite 25 photographs that may well be presented as prints, split up into 3 sections and evaluated…

Symbolism: The seven images depicted above are my favourite final outcomes taken from three out of five of my completed symbolic shoots. The reason I have chosen the least outcomes from my symbolism shoots is because I had to create each scene instead of just picking them out of the environment around me. After comparing all my outcomes I have decided against including any of my ‘plastic symbolism portraiture’ for printing and presentation simply because the symbolism isn’t as strong. As well as this I much prefer the successful and more surreal symbolic images above that depict my carefully crafted use of props and a lot of thought behind their message. For my first representation portraying the issue of smoking waste (presented on the top row) I have chosen two of my ‘man vs nature’ photographs and one ‘connecting mankind to this problem’. I have chosen these images one, for their clear message to the audience and two, for my soft lighting techniques and dramatic studio effect. On the bottom row are my four different symbolic representations of ocean pollution crafted from waste I sourced from Jersey’s coastline. I love the emphasised meaning behind these carefully created photographs and think their vibrant and intriguing subject matter will contribute nicely to my overall project.

Abstraction: Next are my nine favourite abstract outcomes that were all taken simply as the opportunity arose during four out of five of my documentary shoots. Although I have also created a few abstract photographs in my cut out sections (depicting my beach cleans and the recycling centre) they are nowhere near as vibrant and interesting as the ones I have presented above. The first three chosen outcomes of the top row depict a few close-up detailed shots of specific parts of Jersey’s extensive ‘Energy to Waste’ setup. The reason I am keen to present them is I love the simplicity of these images as I feel they display a very strong and beautiful topographic style. The next two abstract pieces below show my vibrant and textured results documenting the issue of agricultural waste in Jersey from up-close. Although abstract, the meaning behind these images is dramatic and they perfectly depict a type of large-scale plastic going to waste – directly related to where we live. Lastly, on the bottom row, I have chosen to add my abstract pieces that portray something with devastating repercussions in a beautiful way, thus potentially intriguing my viewers and subtly informing them of the reality of ocean pollution.

Documentary:Lastly, depicted above are my very important documentary images cut down to eight photographs from three out of five of my original shoots. As with my abstraction outcomes, I have decided to exclude my sections presenting my three beach cleans and my visit to La Collette Recycling Centre. This is because although they have a lot of educational value they would not intrigue my viewers when printed out and presented on their own.  My first chosen finals on the top row can portray how much agricultural plastic is used in the potato farming industry, plastered over Jersey fields every year. The reason I have chosen these images as final prints is the obvious connection of this issue to our island as well as the beautiful way they work together to tell the story. The next row depicts a clear view of the waste I found on Faldouet beach that would later be washed into the sea at high tide. Finally, the bottom row of this contact sheet depicts three finals portraying the narrative of what ends up happening to Jersey’s un-recycled waste. The reason I have chosen these images is one, because of the contrasting natural light and shadows and two,  their dramatic intensity and ability to give my viewers an idea of how much we produce.