Shoot Four - Work Diary

In this shoot I went to Norwich to visit my grandparents, I took photographs out in Norwich near a church and in a garden

Aperture: 5.6

Shutter Speed: 1/125

ISO: 100

This is my best photograph, I think that it is framed really well, as it shows the head and shoulders of the subject, without cutting out too much. I also really like the location of the photograph as it looks very pretty and different from a lot of the photographs I already have. A majority of my photographs have a plainer background like just the sky. This is different because it has other people in it as well.

Aperture: 4.5

Shutter Speed: 1/80

ISO: 400

This is my worst photograph because of the lighting, the photograph is very dark and it means the subject looks quite hidden, in addition to this, the photograph isn't framed very well, it has a chair in the corner which just clutters the photograph in my opinion. I am not pleased with this photograph which is why I decided not to use it in my straight images.

Progression:

Overall, I think this shoot worked quite well, I was able to get some well shot photographs, however I don't think it worked as well as some of my other shoots so I may reshoot or try a different shoot. I think in future shoots I will probably focus on youth more than elderly people because I can experiment with more techniques in my future shoots.

Photographers research - Gavin Watson

Gavin Watson was born in London in 1965. When he was fourteen he got his first camera and began to take photographs of his brother and his friends, at sixteen, he started working at Camera Press as a darkroom assistant. He continued to photograph his younger brother and their friends who were a group of skinheads. Skinheads had become associated with the right-wing extremism of political parties like the National Front in the 1970s, his photograph were published in the books Skins (1994) and Skins and Punks (2008).

This photograph shows a boy on a train smoking. We know that this photograph was taken quite a while ago as smoking on the London underground was banned in 1987 after the fire at Kings Cross. Furthermore, a majority of Watson's photographs were taken in the 1970s and 1980s. I really like this photograph because the other people in the photograph are facing away from the boy smoking, this could portray to us that none of the adults want to be associated with him. I also like the lighting in this photograph because it creates a lot of shadows on the boys face, which shows the dark and the light sides to him.

This photograph shows two young boys, they are standing in a position which makes them seem much older than they are, they are lent over looking down at something below them, the boy in the background looks quite angry at something and is standing with his hand on his hip, not many young children stand like this naturally, I think that they have probably learnt how to act from older siblings that are involved in the skin head like these kids are. I don't think that this photograph was staged, although the position doesn't look like a normal position for a child to be standing in, it looks like he is naturally standing that way, rather than him being told to stand like that.

This photograph shows a teenage girl leaning against a door, she has shaved her head but left the fringe which was a very popular hairstyle at the time. I really like this photograph because of the contrast between the black on the door and the white of the wall, Watson may have posed her like this to show how teenagers are seen, they are often seen as negative and are stereotyped as rebellious individuals, however it is often the case that rather than doing this to rebel, many teenagers dress differently as a form of expression, or simply because they like the style. Furthermore, she is wearing quite dark colours, which also shows her as rebellious and negative.

This photograph is very candid and it shows teenagers how they actually are, many of Watson's photographs show teenagers as rebellious and aggressive, however this photo shows the opposite to that, the model looks worried, possibly about how she looks. She is leaning against a wall and looking to the left, which shows us that there must be something or someone over there. 

People that like to be away from too many people tend to stand against walls and keep away from the centre of attention so it's possible that she feels uncomfortable and wants to home 

Mid-Project Evaluation

Mid-project evaluation  (MPE) 24/11/2017 ………

At the half way-point within the project you should review your progression, identifying the shoots from the series that worked well.  This is a time point where you can show any decisions that you wish to make that will focus your future research on your personal project in a particular area.  For example if you have worked on a combination of studio and location photography and decide that you location photographs are the strongest, you may decide to continue the subsequent shots with more emphasis on location based photography, alternatively you might decide to develop your studio techniques to a higher level in order to show progression. The length of this section should be 4 paragraphs maximum.   

·       Discuss what you intended to do as part of the project, has the idea changed?

·       What shoots were most successful?

·       What aspect of the work requires improvement (e.g. a shoot, a technique, etc.).

·       Where do you see the work progressing (identify future shoots that you would like to 

I have done 5 shoots so far, and of the 5 I think that my first shoot and my third shoot are the best, I think that they have worked best, of the two, one of them was taken on location and one of them was taken in the studio. The first shoot was of two of my friends in London during the summer. The third shoot was in the studio with a few friends from college, I took a photograph of them in a deadpan state, and another where they are smiling to show the contrast between the two. However I didn't do the correct lighting in the first six photographs, I didn't position the lights very well and the lights hit the subjects face which created a lot of shadows when there shouldn't be any, as I didn't look at my past shoot to compare before I took the shoot, I will need to recreate some of the photographs.

Personally, I think that the one in the studio worked best. My proposal at the beginning of the year was to do an investigation on the portrayal of age in the medium of photography. However, I would like to focus more on investigating the portrayal of youth and looking at stereotypes, the reason for this is that I don't think that my shoots of older people worked that well, in addition, it is difficult to get photographs of old people as I don't know many old people, I would likely end up with the same few people in every shoot looking at older people. I think it would be better to get more variety in my shoots by focusing on youth as I will have more models and more opportunities to take photographs.

At first I wanted to do a majority of my shoots on location, I still want to do this as I think it makes the photograph much more interesting, if I do all of my shoots in the studio, the background will be the same each time, although I will get more choice in techniques in the studio, I may do a few more shoots in the studio, but overall, the majority of my shoots will be on location, mostly in London, although a few may be in my hometown, Waltham Abbey. Focusing on youth will give me the opportunity to take photographs of other people my age whilst I'm out. 

I really like the deadpan style of photography that I did for my third shoot, so I may do that again for another one of my shoots, however next time I will do it on location, possibly on Brick Lane in London. I intend to go there in the next few weeks with a few friends so I will take photographs while I'm there.

Macro - Straight Images

Shoot Five - Contact Sheet

Shoot Five - Straight Images

Shoot Four - Straight Images