To conclude my project, I will discuss how well I believe I have fulfilled exam criteria, as well as realising my initial intentions for the project.

Initially, in regards to my exam brief I believe that I sufficiently addressed the task at hand to a respectable standard and to one that I am proud of. Environment is of course a broad topic, but I feel I had narrowed down my thoughts well enough to pinpoint an idea small enough that it became personal to me.

I feel like my photography has vastly improved in comparison to my previous works throughout the course. Not only in technical qualities but also through the art of story telling, being more conceptual and as well conveying more of a message through my imagery in such a way that I haven’t quite been able to in previous projects.

In addition, the initial ideas I set out to explore within my project, I feel I successfully explored in sufficient depth. My intentions were to explore significant aspects within my own personal life, which in turn almost create my environment. Through exploring this theme of environment I have realised that the friends within my life predominantly make up my environment, as no matter where I am, being with them creates and becomes my ideal setting.

The images I have taken and presented show the relationship I share with these individuals in such a way that is almost poetic. They are of course not saying anything verbally, or even specifically acting in an irrational or noticeable way. Yet through their comfort and equally their shyness or awkwardness, a sense of relationship is shown that is almost hard to describe through words. I think the images speak for themselves.

In terms of my artist references and inspirations, my final body of work was heavily influenced by this. All artists that I chose to explore, featured a strong sense of environment within their work, as they all explored their own personal ones. Which is of course what I went on to do myself, fitting into my exam theme. Overall, studying these artists led me to take my exam title ‘environment’ and make it personal.

The styles of each artists has in some way become incorporated within the photographs I have taken. Examples are shown below, where I have attempted to create my own response to certain photographs by each artist, containing similar composition and aesthetic, in my own style.

Ben Gore 

Jacob Sobol 

Theo Gosselin

My work is summarised and presented most confidently through my final images, where I display a portrait of each character I photographed alongside an image that is juxtaposed. This in many ways creates a more personal image, as firstly the use of a portrait implies a sense of relationship as only a certain type of person would be allowed to photograph a subject so closely or intimately. As well the inclusion of a juxtaposed image suggests understanding of the subject.

An example of one of my final images, mounted and presented as an A3 photograph, is featured above. Firstly, I chose to print my final images as A3, as I was combining two images into one and felt that they needed to be on a large scale in order to fully see the image and my intentions for combining two. Secondly, my choice of a white window mount was to allow for the high contrast within my images to really stand out and become a focal point, I felt that black almost drained my images of this quality.

In terms of the compositions of my final outcomes,  each was created with the same intension, which was to present a portrait with a juxtaposing image that would suggested something about the character.

This would then help to add meaning to the photograph. The concept was ultimately to to present a personal relationship between myself and the subject, which was achieved in the way I photographed these characters so intimately. Symbolising friendship and closeness.