Task

Write a Statement of Intent of 250-500 words that clearly contextualise;

• What you want to explore?
• Why it matters to you?
• How you wish to develop your project?
• Which form you wish to present your study (photobook, film, prints etc)
• When and where you intend to begin your study?

Make sure you describe how you interpret the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA’ and any specific subject-matter, topic or issue that you wish to explore, including references to artists, art movement and any other inspiration. Revisit your mind-map and mood-board and hone in one or two ideas. For example, you may wish to consider:

• How you wish to photograph places, people, objects – carefully selecting your point of view (framing), composition and lighting.
• Will you be making images outside or inside, shooting on locations or use the studio.
• Will your images be documentary (observational), or tableaux (staged) in your approach, style and aesthetic look?
• What will you include?
• What will you leave out?
• How will you present these images to the viewer?
• In a book, a film, or prints on the wall?
• With or without accompanying text?
• In a grid, typology study or a linear sequence?
• Will you be manipulating images using montage/ collage techniques or apply AI technology?
• Will you be using any specific photographic technique, process of software (Photoshop, Premiere, Audition, Blurb online book making)
• What difference do these decisions make to the meaning of your images?

PLAN > RECORD > As a creative response to initial ideas set out in your Statement of Intent plan a relevant photoshoot this week that provide you with some visual material to develop your project. There are three photographic genres that you could consider when developing ideas and planning photoshoots, they are:

LANDSCAPE > PLACE > GEOGRAPHY > ENVIRONMENT > GEOLOGY
– familiar vs unfamiliar
– ordinary vs extra-ordinary
– vernacular vs spectacular
PORTRAIT > PEOPLE > IDENTITY > CULTURE > COMMUNITY
– individual vs collective
STILL-LIFE > OBJECT > HISTORY > MEMORY > FAMILY
– private vs public

Produce a blog post from each shoot with careful selection, adjustments and editing of images in Lightroom. Review and evaluate shoot for further development and experimentation. Your first photo-shoot MUST be published on the blog by Wed 13 Dec.

Statement.

I plan to focus my personal study on the theme of memory. I would do this by showcasing my life throughout the years using meaningful objects and places. In order to break up the project into segments I will use birthday cards which will signify my age at that particular point which shows when these objects or places were most relevant in my life. This idea of looking back on memories and nostalgia is important to me since looking back to the past helps us to remember how we have grown, what and who helped to form us into who we are today. Another reason I believe that this study is important as it is also something that will be interesting for me to discover and learn more about myself, especially things that I no longer remember but people, such as my parents, do.

Another option/ idea which would be quite interesting to include would be to missing gaps in the book due to photos from my childhood being lost when we moved house. I could focus for my location images on recreating old photos or places I remember while using toys or sentimental items as my objects to photograph. Also, it would be interesting to slowly introduce colour into my images to represent how my memories become clearer the more recent they are. 

In my opinion, the best way to display my idea would be a mix between prints and a photobook. I think the photobook would be best to display the storyline of my project however having mounted prints for specific photos would also be effective to showcase my best images from the project. When photographing my objects, I would like to have them be the only thing in focus. To do this I would have a blank background with the object in the centre, to make the images more eye catching I think that I would use colour lighting. When photographing my landscapes, I would like to have them fill the page and show how the place made me feel through the use of changing the saturation. The style of my images will also likely be changing to show my emotions growing up, for example, when I’m young it would be more colourful in contrast to current day where it would be darker as a reference to how we lose a lot of our innocence of the world when growing up, similarly to what I plan to do for my landscape photos.