The idea behind this photoshoot was to represent a place that had a lot of meaning to both me and my mum, which was a place both of us have grown up in. I wanted to represent them in a different way then just including the images I have taken over the last summer, therefore II had an idea to project them onto me. To show not only where I came from but that it is still a part of me.

Sub-Selection

A couple of them came out blurrier than I though, due to me moving a lot and the shutter speed being low. However I made a selection of my favourite ones, that came out in good resolution, and their composition was right.

Editing

Final Photographs

I didn’t end up with many final outcomes, however the ones that I was left with were a good quality and the landscape projected onto the body was clear to see.

For this photoshoot I have picked out items which were important to my mum as well as me as well as items that showed a link between us, like the ultrasound which she kept and the brace I was given after being born. Some other items include toys I used to play with as well as some shells which are important to my mum.

Editing

I was quite minimal with the editing process when it came to the images as I wanted to keep it simple, just in case I could use them for alterations. The first idea to use them as a response to another image, therefore I could always go back and change the setting to suit it better for a responding image.

Some of them i had to neutralise, by discolouring them to make them look like they haven’t been edited, when in reality they have.

Final Photographs

Most of these images would be a great use when it comes to a collage, or by cutting them out so I’ m left with just the object. however if they were alone it might seem quite uninteresting.

As the project is mainly about my mother, i needed to show how as she is now, to introduce the link about her past to her present, to show how her past shaped the person she is now. to take these images i used a single light to the side of her, and a digital camera. these photos were taken at home, against a plain wall. I originally wanted to use the sun to my advantage as the main source of lighting, however because of the time of year it was difficult to do so as the sun setts quickly. instead i used a phone torch and the lighting from the sceeling.

Sub Selection

I have selcted the images that to me where up to their bbest quality and resolution.

Editing

From the sub-selection I have started to edit the photographs. I made minimal changes as I planed to distort them later on, therefore I didn’t wanted to have too much going on.

As I was trying different editing techniques and settings, the outcome above, compared to the one bellow shows how different they are. This also shows me a certain mood that each one creates, like for example the first one has a futuristic look due to the amount of colours. However the one bellow looks like it was taken on an older camera, which gives a nostalgic feel to the image.

Final Photographs

I needed to gather images which showed my mums past as well as my own. this is because the project was based about the past, with some links to the present. to gather the material i looked through photo albums and family albums. I picked photographs that represented the past the most, as well as showed a story through them. I also tried to select some that would be easy to recreate through me.

To photograph the images i have used a tripod with attachments that allowed the camera to rest above the photographs.

Sub Selection

I have cropped them so that no borders are visible, from then on the images are ready to be printed off to be worked with manually or to be further edited it i wanted to include them as they are in the photobook.

Photoshoot 1

• Who– I will be focusing on my mum to begin with. I will need to produce portrait photographs of her as the book will be mainly about her.
• Where– as I wont be able to have a professional studio, where this would be ideal for this kind of portraits, i will have to photograph at home against a plain background.
• When– the best would be to do this near a window to get natural lighting, therefore during daytime, maybe during golden hour, so early in the morning or just before the sunset I could use the lighting to my advantage as it would be the strongest.
• How– using the digital camera the setting would depend on the lighting, however these would be standard portraits where I will take them straight on from the subject.
• Why– so I can show who the book is about as well as be able to distort the images later on and play around with sowing, cutting and collaging them. these photographs therefore have to be quite plain in backroad so it doesn’t clash with the alterations, similar to Jessa Fairbrothers’ work, the portraits she produced of her mother.

Photoshoot 2

• what- items that are personal belongings to my mum and to me, these would be items from my childhood like a teddy or toys. The items I would use need to be not only personal but hold meaning behind them, this for example being a wrist band of the day I was born or the wrist bant of my mum when she was born.
• where- in the school studio, so I can access professional equipment, especially the backdrop which i used at the beginning of still life module. I will also have access to different light like a diffused one or sharper lighting which i have more freedom personalising
• When- since this is going to be done in the studio with artificial light, the time of day doesn’t influence how the photographs will turn out. But since its the schools studio I will have to during the school hours.
• how- I will use the backdrop available in school as well as using a tripod to station my camera, this will ensure the photographs to come out to their best quality. Since they are stationary objects and I’m using a tripod, I could lower the shutter speed, but the settings in the digital camera will depend on the lighting.
• why- so I can show my mums past as well as mine in a different form then just old images. I believe items hold so much meaning behind them therefore it is a necessity to use them for this project.

Photoshoot 3

• Who- me, I will need to set up a camera on a tripod to photographs myself in a similar style to the portraits of my mum
• where- using the school studio, during school hours
• how- using tools ill have access to like a tripod, a lead so i can press when the camera will take the photograph, lights like diffused light and straight light, mainly white like. This would be done against the white background.
• why-so I can make a visual link between me and my mum, when these are compared next to each other it will be easier to see similarities between us as well as the differences. these images can also be used to alter them like planed with the first photoshoot. techniques like sawing, using bleach, burning, or other types of distortion that can be done physically.

Other photoshoot ideas

I can start introducing landscapes that show the important places that both me and my mum grew up in. this could be done by digitally distorting the images or editiing in a way where the backroud can be rrepresenting these places.

Overall with the photoshoots I have planned to show the story and narrative of the book. I want to produce as many outcomes as possible that are different to each other. This being landscapes, still life and portraits. I want to dive into each of those genres and alter them manually through different techniques. I hope the outcomes have a certain theme and I will have a lot of freedom to experiment with my images.

I took these images at Greve De Lecq woods as we frequently went there when we were younger.

CONTACT SHEET

Image selection- I flagged all the images that I wanted to edit by using ‘P’ and ‘X’

Basic Edits

YELLOW

GREEN

I took these images at the sand dunes as me and my sister used to go there a lot when we were younger.

CONTACT SHEET

Image selection- I narrowed down my images to the ones I wanted to edit and that had potential to be in my photobook by using ‘P’ and ‘X’

YELLOW

GREEN

Basic Edits

My initial thoughts are to photograph abandoned buildings and night life in jersey the reason for this is because it links to my youth when I was younger I always went and explored abandoned places and old German bunks and castles I believe this could shows my curiosity to explore the unknow and look at places that haven’t been looked at in long time I also want to give the person who is looking at my photos the feeling of nostalgia.

narrative and design

Narrative: What is your story?
Describe in:

• 3 words Night, Abandoned, Forgotten
• A sentence photobook will be about forgotten things and places
• A paragraph the photobook that I will be making is suppose to be out forgotten places and things that have just been left behind its also about exploration and finding new things it relates to my childhood as I explored abandoned things in my childhood.

Design: Consider the following

• How you want your book to look and feel I would like it to be a hard cover with glossy pages, most likely a rectangular book
• Paper and ink for writing I will probably be using black and paper as I said glossy
• Format, size and orientation I haven’t decided this yet
• Binding and cover hard cover and normal binding
• Title exploring lost places
• Structure and architecture
• Design and layout mostly pictures and not to much writing I want the person looking at the book to focuses more on the photos
• Editing and sequencing I might try and use Ai generating to alter the image
• Images and text as I said mostly images and not a lot of writing

photobook deconstruction (Night Vision The Art Of Urban Exploration)

The subject of the book is abandoned night photography Paiva went to California, Navada, Arizona, Utah and finally Texas to take all the photos in the photobook. I would say the genera of the book is documentary and the way the photos are taken is in a style documentary however Troy Paiva “paints with light” in his photo making them unique to him

Mother by Matthew Finn was published in 2017. Finn created this series of images over thirty years, photographing his mother at random times, with no intention of creating an archive of images. He tells us in the introduction of the book why it was created. Him and his mother were very close because his father was very absent during his childhood.

‘My father never lived with us and many times he would make promises that he never kept. My mother would wait to be picked up for a night out with him. I can remember her standing there dressed in her fawn, mohair coat, and he wouldn’t turn up. Eventually, she would retreat upstairs to take off her make up and going-out clothes and then return to the TV. This seemed to happen a lot.’

Finn recounts that it was discovered, after his death, that Finn’s father had multiple families across Leeds. He discovered a plethora of half brothers and sisters who had been fathered by the same man. This brought him and his mother even closer.

‘The more I knew about my father, the more I felt a need to protect my mum, to wrap her up in cotton wool, to be the supportive man in her life, someone who would not let her down.’

He explains that his mother began to direct the photography, enjoying the feeling of being wanted or needed for something. His mother was diagnosed with mixed dementia in 2013 and this ended their collaboration – she no longer recognised herself or her son. This book acts as a testament to their life together and therefore holds a lot of sentimental value to the photographer.

Finn won the Jerwood/ Photoworks Awards in 2015 for this publication.

This Guardian interview with Finn explores a more detailed explanation of the work.