During the ‘variation and similarity’ projects I’ve taken inspiration from many different sources and developed my images over time to create a final piece that I am please with. Originally had looked at photographing front doors however I feel that it was not interesting enough so pursued car boots, taking inspiration form Huang Qingjuns ‘family stuff’.
My initial idea was to show just ‘Variation and similarity’ between peoples belongings and create a Typology such as bag belongings of individuals to give an insight to their lives. After experimenting with this I then decided to visit a car boot to take images of peoples belongings, however I decided to take pictures of each person with their stall as it would tell the viewer more and allowed a contrast of who they were to who they are now, by comparing them to their belongings they were hoping to sell. After this I decided to pursue this idea. At the start I was still planing on making a typology but I felt the photos were better suited to individual or a few prints displayed at a time. I took inspiration for this from Haung Qinjun’s ‘family stuff’. My initial response laid down the ground work for my project and my final pieces. I then experimented with GIFs, Typologies and Layering to further develop my work.
To conclude I believe that I have successfully followed the exam brief and the theme of Variance and Similarity’ which can be seen in my final outcomes. This is shown in the comparison between the photos with the common features of a car and a table. The comparison is aided by framing them together which allows the images to compared by the viewer. Therefore the projects follows the theme.
I feel all of my final out comes are Aesthetically pleasing, which I have created by capturing the images and editing them. All my images were taken outside with natural light, which ensured natural lighting which allowed the natural shadows and contrasts to show in the photographs, as well as a wide tonal range. The contextual idea behind my work was to provide an insight to people how they were compared to now. This shows through well in my work due to the images nature and allows comparison
For my third shoot I used the same location so my photos appear more seamless when looking at my project as a whole. I also made sure to shoot around the same time of day as my previous shoot so the natural lighting was the same. This was around midday which gave me the maximum amount of lighting allowing my photos to come out clearer. This also kept similarity of my subject’s shadow, a subtle aspect that would of made the two shoots significantly different when editing and tying all my photos together. My second subject was more expressive with hand gestures, allowing me to capture sets of pictures just focused on the hands. Throughout my shoot I tried to capture my subject from different distances, from long shots to extreme close up’s of my subjects face to capture movement in facial expressions. One set back while capturing face expressions was the intensity of light. This meant that my subject was squinting from the sun and making her facial expressions less and more rigid. I managed to capture everything I set out to achieve and hopefully the editing process will be the same as I intend.
The point of my project is pointing out the smallest or most interesting characteristics of animation in individuals that would otherwise go unnoticed during one’s everyday interaction with other people. My plan for my photo shoots is to record different subjects when they talk walk and sit. The idea is to capture the mannerisms, gestures and facial expressions that a person makes while they interact with someone. The movements that people make are not consciously done. Instead, the movements a person makes are developed over time from mirroring people they are repetitively around and from self expression.
Following up on my first shoot, I devised a photo shoot that captured the movement of walking, talking and sitting. I set up my subject against a plain wall and asked them to speak about anything they liked. I made sure I engaged in the conversation to keep their movement fluid in terms of mannerisms and facial expressions. At the beginning of the shoot, getting my subject to speak and act naturally was hard because I wanted to capture their movement in its rawest form; the subliminal movements and characteristics everyone performs. I made sure I eased them into conversation to help them forget they were performing in front of a camera and to avoid forced movement or no movement at all. This was hard because of the nature of my concept and the shoot. By putting a camera in front of my subject it made them suddenly aware and conscious of their way of being and how they moved when interacting with someone. The same issue applied to getting my subject to walk and sit as the camera served as a reminder that I was recording their movement, which applied pressure of containing their natural state of being as they were aware of every movement they made that they usually wouldn’t be aware of. These issues eventually resided but watching someone conscious of their movement was as interesting as when they aren’t conscious of it.
For this I have experimented with layering. To do this I have tried to create a new image by layering other images on to of each other, aligning the face to try and make a new one with the characteristics of the other people. by doing this I feel I have created a new story for a new person.
I found inspiration for this from Lewis Bush’s project in jersey ‘Trading Zones’. which he did for the faces of employees at financial buildings in jersey to see what the average person looked like at each firm. By doing this I believe you can find the average look of a person at the car boots.
For the presentation of my final photographs in my exam the first frame up I will be presenting will be an A3 and two A4 photos framed together. I believe that this is an effective way to display my photos as it allows the viewer to compare these similar, and busy, stores. I have used similar methods to display my photographs on past projects and think that is a good display. I believe that this represents the ‘Variation and Similarities’ theme well.
For the second image I have displayed it by its self. I feel that this is a good way to display it as its quite minimalist Photo which tells you a lot about the person who is also quite minimalist, wearing block colour clothing. By putting this image by its self it enhances the minimalist feel which I believe is quite visually pleasing.
For my final image I have put two images one on top one the other. I believe this allows the viewer to compare the two images on this display such as a difference between what the young own compared older generations. By comparing the images I believe that this follows the ‘Variations and Similarities’ theme.
The images below are my final outcomes. I believe that these represent the theme of ‘Variation and Similarities’. I have got four A4 and two A3 images which I feel reflect the standard of work and experimentation have done with these images.
