Before I went ahead with my shoots exploring the idea of consumerism I wanted to plan how I would go about doing this. I really wanted to explore the three more dominant areas of consumerism, the production, the buyer, and the waste. I thought that these would best reflect the political landscape of Jersey, as consumerism plays a dominant role in any society, influencing the mind-set of customers who want the newest product or idea. When doing this I would have to look at the aspect of each sector which most effected our everyday life or the environment surrounding it. I then named the three ideas into three sectors, Source, Product, Waste. Here I will be analysing each of the three areas to decide what the focus in each should be and the style I should incorporate into them:

Source:

Here I wanted to look at the sources of our consumerism consisting of mostly of quarries since producing granite is what Jersey is notorious for. I particularly liked the scarring of the landscape created by this industrialisation and how it makes the surrounding area almost unrecognisable and alien like to the viewer. Some of the main aspects regarding quarries that I would like to focus on can be seen below:When looking over images of local quarries I found that the layering of the landscape appealed to me the most, as it presented the viewer with something not necessarily seen in general, being sure to attract the viewer’s attention in. This is accompanied by the use of weird and unusual machinery which when looking over provides quite a menacing intricate design, which once included with the landscape around it could compliment each other well. By presenting these images in a way that could provide evidence of harmful scarring of the environment I believe that the outcome would really highlight the granite industry.

Product: 

For the idea of product I wanted to specifically look at the consumerist landscape around Jersey, especially the variety of shops present in the local area. This would include bigger brands such as Morrison’s, Co-Op and Waitrose, all of which are international brands who hold a lot of influence over the products and items bought by people. Some ideas of the areas I would explore consist of: When looking over the ideas a really like the thought of going into shops and photographing lines of products and the variety of colours they could come in. I don’t think the areas in St Helier would present me with the atmosphere desired for the effects wanted when taking images, leading my shoot to probably branch out on a local level rather than island wide as the bustle would be too much. As well as this I wanted to capture the coldness of empty isles in the shop, such as the meat aisle that when left alone could provide a rather eerie look.

Waste: 

For the final section I thought it would be appropriate to look at the waste industry of Jersey, in this case the dump. Here I would look at the textures created by the huge variety of rubbish thrown away, especially the plastics and metal. For me the landscape would be ideal as the piled dirt mounds would provide explicit evidence of landscape scarring at its full, surrounded by a sea of waste. Here are some examples of the area I will be exploring:What appealed to me here was the industries that surrounded the waste at the end of the road leading up to it. I found this to be a great reflection of how we ended our consumerism as the structures that consisted in the area generally had a grim exterior that the waste which was dumped there. When eventually doing the shoot I would make sure to incorporate the greenery into the picture which would provide contrast to most of the images, our environment vs industrialisation of the land.