Planning:

For my first photo shoot I decided to photograph my grandparents archival imagery in order to enhance my understanding of my grandparents lifestyle visually. I intend to look through their photo books capturing weddings, family events, holidays and their old house. While looking through the archival imagery I intend to ask questions about what was happening in the images as well as asking questions about their lifestyle in terms of family structure, traditions, religion, all aspects which have an impact on lifestyle. In order to get a digital copy of the images I intend to photograph the images using my DSLR, manual setting. I intend to keep the ISO and shutter speed low. I did look at scanning in the imagery, however a lot of them are bundled together and are laminated which would make the outcome distorted and not a ‘good quality’. Once I have all the imagery I intend to upload them to light room and select the best imagery which showcase their lifestyle. I will slightly adjust the images to ensure the all detail of the photograph to be showcased, without making it seem highly edited and lowering the quality and authenticity.

Importance of Archival Imagery:

Whose Archive is it Anyway?

After previous research into archival imagery, I learnt the importance of this form of photographs to enhance a photographic project in terms of narrative and structure. Using family archives will allow me to explore my grandparents lifestyle when they were younger, allowing me to see how this underlying theme has changed and developed over time. In addition, the use of archives will spark conversation with my grandparents, allowing me to understand my subject on a deeper level, gaining more research in insight which will hopefully develop the way in which I go about capturing their lifestyle in future photo shoots.

Furthermore, some of the images will still be on film and/or slides which means a lot of the images I may not have access to. However, those images are very ‘old school’ and after emailing my grandparents do not hold much content in terms of showcasing the theme of lifestyle. I will also look at capturing any objects around the house, which my grandparents believe hold meaning and showcase their lifestyle.