I decided that I was going to capture this image after looking at Philip Toledano’s work. I did this because I thought it would be really interesting to fit this into my project looking at culture identity whilst also being inspired to explore the past of my parents and how they grew up and lived at my age.

This photograph was taken in natural lighting. I wanted to get a sort of abstract feel to the image, coming relatively close up in order to show the Portuguese writing and enhance the wear and tear. The lighting was coming from the right of the image creating small shadows around the frame of the image.

I also added high contrasts to the image as well as saturation to bring out the rust in the metal letters in the top right hand corner. Manipulating the image with colour allowed me to enhance the texture of the old frame, emblems and fabric on the left hand side. I also added a vignette to ensure that the focal point remained in the middle and not so much on the frame around. I took the image from an alternative angle making the foreground slightly blurry, manipulated by the camera using a smaller f-number which equates to a larger aperture whilst using the manual focus.

The lighting in this image seems like a glimpse of natural light, possibly coming through a window creating the shapes of the shadows on the subject and background. There are shadows created by the positioning of the image and it gives the impression that the envelope is floating. The shadows in the background are out of focus however the envelope is sharp and clear creating a macro effect. The photo seems as it has been taken using f4 considering the background and middle ground is blurry with a short depth of field. The shutter speed could have been set as 1/30, allowing light in the photograph but not until it becomes highly exposed.

Contextually, this is an image of my fathers certificate from when he completed his time int he army. In the days that my parents lived in Madeira, it was compulsory for all men to go into the army when they became young adults. I was inspired by Philip Toledano’s image and looked around for old documents and objects that are owned by my parents. This certificate came over from Madeira and has been well looked after in a frame for over 30 years.