Before commencing with my shoot I thought it would be appropriate to come up with ideas regarding what I would want to base my shoot around. I had previously looked at the works of Aaron Siskind and his use of portraying the surrounding area in abstract ways, defined by patterns and textures which present deteriorating areas in a new aesthetic light. Using him as my major inspiration for the shoot I decided to focus on a slightly built up area which would be surrounded by different landscapes and environments. To do this I would have to look at a map and decide upon areas that I thought I could use this style of photography to properly reflect my opinion and viewpoint regarding how that area portrayed. Here are a few locations that I could possibly explore on the shoot below:

The areas I chose I found to have the biggest variety of aspects within the landscape, consisting of urban and natural viewpoints which would allow me to explore opposing opinions in abstract ways which could be linked into each other. I tried to include areas within Jersey that were next to the sea, this was because I wanted to explore the use of reflects to create abstract patterns of different materials in the water such as the bricks on a pier. To do this I’m going to plan out a few ideas which I would be able to photograph regarding the topic of the variation of textures and surfaces, which once done can be used to link in with each other providing me results that would not seemed rushed but instead compliment each other and can be presented as a set. Here is a mood board of some of the textures and surfaces I wish to capture on the shoot:

One aspect of the shoot I wanted to explore is the formation of rocks, due to Jersey being an island it is completely surrounded by rocky beaches that consist of various types of rock. By using a monochrome filter I wish to highlight the detail and aestheticism of the structures, using a higher contrast to portray the light and dark more drastically than usual, exaggerating the features as a result. To accompany this I could take pictures of the reflect given off by the sea during a sunny or overcast day, this would provide me with a variety of different shades and results which could determine the mood of the entire image. By reflecting objects like walls on the sea it could further enhance the abstraction by including two different environments into one image, man-made and the natural landscape.

Another idea within the shoot could be the use of materials found in that area to display textures and a variety of surfaces. This would consist of surfaces such as walls and wood, I chose these because of the huge variation in shape and form that they come in making each surface unique to that specific area. What I also wanted to pick up from these surface textures was the use of symmetrical aestheticism which would present the viewer with the idea of something with intelligence designing the shape of form of the photographed subject.

For my last idea I found that focusing on everyday objects found in the area explored would be a great topic to pursue. This is because the objects found in the area can often be linked to the people living there, with ropes lying around maybe reflecting a beach side village or cigarettes and rubbish present inside town. This idea for me links best to the works of Aaron Siskind as he moved from portraiture to abstract due to finding that the objects found often best portrayed the people living there in a unique and unusual light, giving more meaning to the image as it then becomes down to the audiences interpretation instead.