The reason behind this shoot was because it makes all of my photographs come together, as what I wanted to represent was some young adults on journey, exploring, taking in beautiful landscapes etc. Showing what they would do when away from home and away from the worries of typical every day life. Therefore I wanted to show a carefree youth. The van represents the literal movement between each place I’ve photographed, and show’s how relaxed they are on their journey as all they need is a bed, some books, and a camera to capture their moments. For my final outcome, i’m going to present it as a book, with all my favourite photographs to show the journey their vans have taken them on.

I choose this location as I wanted to show that the people I photographed would just pull up in a beautiful area and stay there for the night. Even though this is a fairly remote location, there were still other cars and people in the background, therefore we had to park the car so they wouldn’t be in the image. I also parked the car in the position which used the natural lighting to my advantage, as I originally was going to park it the other way so I could capture the sunset and the more scenic background, however because of the lighting I wouldn’t be able to get the natural lighting on the models face and show the little details which were important to the shoot.

The photographs below taken in black&white remind me of documentary photography, as they’re self explanatory and documentary photography generally relates to longer term projects which mine is meant to represent a group of my friends travelling.

I think these two photographs work really well together as it shows the movement of the model, and the composition is exactly the same, so it works nicely as a couple. The weather was perfect for the day as the wind made her hair blow and it made the photographs have more character.

The photograph below is shows the models surrounding and shows her looking directly at the camera. Therefore, because she’s looking at the camera it makes it feel as if she’s interacting with the person taking the photograph, and this makes the person who views the image feel as if they’re in that moment.

Referring back to the quote by Ted Grant, which I’ve analysed in my previous shoots; “When you photograph in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph in B&W, you photograph their souls.” I think this quote is very true and important for the type of photographs I’m trying to capture, as I want my images to portray the basic life of a free soul.

For this photograph I was originally going to get the model to lie down surrounded by the pillows on the bed, however I noticed the lighting lying down wasn’t the best and there was a bit of natural lighting coming through the window so I made the model sit up against the back of the van, so i could capture the concentration on her face whilst reading the book.

I then left some of the images in colour, as the sun lit up the models her beautifully and made the images very colourful and therefore look playful.

Frequently in my shoots, I’ve captured the models hair blowing in the wind, an example is given below. This is due to the wind creating a carefree image. The natural lighting also captures the hair blowing and lights up half of her face and making her features stand out. I like the fact the model is not smiling in this photograph as it shows the images are purposely meant to look as if they’re not posed;

“photography is about capturing souls and not smiles.” Dragan Tapshanov.

The reason I believe this photograph works well is due to the composition of the photograph, because where the line of paint stops on the van it starts on the other side yet the line of the horizon.

For the images below I tried to capture it from a different perspective, and I took it up-close to create a more personal effect between the model and the viewer.

In the image below, one can see that it has had a filter added to it, like many of my photographs. This is done to add a certain feeling or aesthetic to the images;

“A lot of people in the art world hate to use the word Photoshop like it’s cheating or easy or something. I say bollocks to that. For me, it’s my tool, my paintbrush if you like, and lets me create my own visual language.” Idris Khan