Link to photo book: The Individuals Take on Freedom

https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/9196443/35389b87acd4fb9d0be8e30bb1616414433d4964

My focus for this project was freedom and limitations. I chose to look at the freedom of an individual and their hobby. I started by looking at a dancer, shown in my early experiments. I later decided to focus on artistic roller skating. This lead me to my photo book: The Individuals Take on Freedom as shown below. It demonstrates how freedom can be interpreted differently for each person. In this case, the freedom is gained from roller skating. The images can present this due to the composition, for example the spread and open body language can show freedom as the individual is not closed off or hiding. It can also be linked to limitation due to the time, effort and commitment it takes. For example the images of the individual competing at competitions when they are young implies the age of when they started. This exposes how long it takes to develop these skills and reach a high standard. We are shown that the commitment of activities can impact life negatively, effecting both social features due to the amount of time it takes up and physical features as it is a sport and can result in injury or fatigue. Indications of improved mental features are relevant as the freedom of doing the thing one enjoys the most can help an individual to escape their reality for a while. There is also the achievements you gain which makes it worth all the hard work. My photo book covers all of these ideas with the medals and competition photos showing the achievements, the skating photos highlighting the developments and improvements made and the black and white body images representing both the strain it can cause and the beauty of the body. The body is a major part of artistic roller skating as it is important to be able to compose yourself correctly are create a beautiful performance. Focussing on individual features clearly shows the beauty more distinctly, especially with the face as it can be used to portray emotion and tell a story. This creates a more engaging and moving performance for the audience, similar to the detail within the photos creating an interesting series of images for the viewer. The use of colour throughout the book creates eye-catching pages, with the black and white body images breaking up the book keeping it refreshing. The black and white images create a serious tone compared to the coloured images. This can help represent the limitations as they are darker than the freedom. It could also suggest the importance of these body images and convey a message about loving your individual self no matter what, embracing any flaws or minor imperfections you feel you may have.

I have sequenced this book demonstrating the elements of artistic roller skating presenting what goes into it and how long it takes to learn and the commitment it takes to compete and achieve awards. The portrait at the beginning of the book presents who it is about and creates a nice start and representation of whats to come. It links to the title as we are shown who the individual is. I will use the abstract black and white images of the individuals body parts to break up the book, creating contrast between the bright images keeping the viewer engaged. The title: The Individuals Take on Freedom sets the tone and idea that skating is a form of freedom and escape for this individual. It shows that doing what you love can be the individuals form of freedom no matter what it is. The mix of colour and black and white images create an engaging contrast keeping interest throughout the book. Each image represents a different feature of skating, providing informative images. The cover is engaging due to the bright blue and the silhouette of the skater represents the individual photographed in the images to follow.

Diane Arbus

Bill Brandt

Lois Greenfield

New shoot:

This is a collection of new images, containing aspects of skating that have meaning to the individual. For example, the medals from competitions she has competed in, along with photos from her childhood showing her at the competitions. There are also images of her outfits and team tracksuit showing her achievement representing the GB team. The images of her skating shows the place she goes to practice and feel free whilst doing what she loves. My next step is to select my strongest images and begin to edit them. This will enable me to start creating a sequence for my photo book.

Original shoot:

These images are from my previous project: “Natural Beauty”. The individual photographed is the artistic roller skater I have chosen to focus on for this new project. I will collect more images focussing on items that associate with roller skating. For example: medals, skates, skating dresses, team tracksuits and old images from competitions.

Edits:

These are a collection of edits from the shoot above. The use of black and white creates a deep contrast in tones around the skin creating more detail and intrigue. The detail of each shadow and highlight in the images create engaging and different views of the body embracing its natural aspects. 

Lois Greenfield

Diane Arbus

Bill Brandt

Chronophotography

Eadweard Muybridge

Étienne-Jules Marey

Experimenting

To experiment with chronophotography, looking at both Edward Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey, I took images of a dancer, showing the motion of a dance movement. I used the images below, creating layers and adjusting the opacity to make it look like the movement. To improve this I would use a tripod to ensure all the images are from the exact same position, ensuring a more accurate and clean image where they all lined up. I would also take more images closer together, enabling a flow of motion creating an appealing image.

I have decided to focus on one specific person and their hobby to enable a clear view of the freedom and limitations of that one particular activity. This will also create a more personal/ meaningful approach focussing on an individual and their life. I have chosen to focus on artistic rollerskating as the hobby. I will show the time and dedication and the different aspects that impact life and this hobby. I will present my work as a photo book, creating a book on the life of the individual and their journey through roller skating, showing how they have progressed over the years.