Final Evaluation.

I do not feel as though I have learnt anything that I was not already aware of whilst working on this brief. I feel as though I already possessed a decent amount of knowledge where location photography was concerned; things like what can affect the outcome of your images, etc. This said, I now feel more aware of how it is possible to tell a story with photographs, which is something that I do not feel I had a great deal of knowledge of before.

If there is one thing that I would like to have improved or would do differently if I were to do this brief again then it would be to improve my motivation and time-management throughout the brief. To be brutally honest, both of these things have been extremely poor whilst I have been doing work on this brief. I felt apathetic towards the brief to begin with, as I did not really have an idea of what I wanted to do, and this was something that I found difficult to shake off, even once I had got going on the brief. Working on two briefs (this and my final major project) at the same time did not help, as I found myself prioritising one, the FMP, over the other, with this brief getting left by the wayside, so to speak. This is definitely something that I do not want to do again.

My research for this brief partly consisted of looking at examples of narrative photography; I looked at the work of Sophie Calle and Gregory Crewdson. I found both of these photographers' work interesting, as it gave me something of an idea of how it was possible to tell a story with photographs. I found Calle's work the more interesting, though; although it was not as surreal and eye-catching as Crewdson's is/was, I liked it simply for the fact that she took simple, every day objects [found in hotel bedrooms in this case] and created a person from them; I found myself wondering about who had left the items behind in the hotel, which I think was the entire idea behind her work. Part of my research also consisted of shooting various sets of images at home, which are shown in the contact sheets on this blog. I found this useful as I got some good ideas for lighting set-ups that I will be able to use in future work.

If this brief has taught me anything about myself then it will be that I should not leave things unfinished for a significant amount of time, because I then find it difficult to motivate myself again.

I struggled to come up with ideas for this brief to begin with, which I think was part of the reason(s) why I eventually became so apathetic towards it. When I first read the information for this narrative brief, I thought that it would be easy to come up with a good idea, and that I would be metaphorically brimming over with ideas, but this was not the case. Ideas that I did have in my head a few months back did not come to fruition in the end. The idea that I eventually used, which was a theme centred around being poor/lack of money and how this can affect a person, was I believe suggested to me by my tutor. I have had problems with money in the past, so it was quite personal to me in a way, and I felt that this could be an interesting theme to work with.

The idea that I wanted to put across with my images was, as mentioned above, how being poor and not having money affects a person, and looking at my final images I personally think I have managed to get this across. They start showing a few coins, i.e. someone realising that they do not have a lot of money, so they decide to look for a job, then face multiple rejections, eventually sinking into despair.

On the whole I am once again pleased with my final images for this brief. I think they work well in getting across what I wanted to show, and would work well as separate images on their own. I wish that I had felt more enthusiastic for doing work on this brief, as this would have more than likely enable to me to produce work of a higher standard, but this is not too big a minus point as far as I am concerned.

Final Images.

The images included in this post are my final ones for the narrative brief. I hope that they will get across my idea for this brief without too many extra words being needed. The idea that I had was how being poor/not having much money can affect you as a person. These images show pennies being counted, realising that you do not have a lot of money to spare, so you look for a(nother) job, only to face rejection, after rejection, after rejection, and how a person might cope with this.

I have chosen to make my final images black & white, as I feel that this adds a different feeling to an image, and will hopefully heighten the sense of depression and despair that I was attempting to convey with these images. For the editing I simply duplicated the base, sharpened it, upped the curves if necessary, added more contrast, and then added a black & white adjustment layer.

The final five photographs of this set were taken at home, on Sunday the 27th of June (I have tried to make a contact sheet of them, but discovered that Photoshop CS4 rather annoyingly lacks the Contact Sheet function!). I quickly typed out a mock job rejection letter, and then printed four copies of it off. The images themselves were shot on my kitchen table, using natural light that came in through the window adjacent to the table. I prefer using natural light when possible, as I find it looks much better. My favourite images here are the very last one, of the whisky bottle and glass - I like the tones here, and the one which is third from last, showing the single glass of whisky placed on top of the letters. Again I like the tones here, but I also like the reflection that is being cast on to the paper from the glass itself.

Research: Gregory Crewdson.

The images included here are by American photographer Gregory Crewdson, and I have chosen to include these as research examples of narrative photography because I find them very interesting. Unlike previous work that I have included, by Sophie Calle for example, I do not think these follow on from one another, but I feel that they tell stories nonetheless.

Each photograph is very surreal, and I find myself wondering exactly what is meant to have happened in each one. For instance, in the third one from the top, why is the woman sat in multiple bunches of flowers? What caused the car to crash in the fourth one, and why is there a person stood in their underwear in the very last one? The one that I find the most interesting is the second to top one, with which shows a single beam of light hitting an empty street. I interpret this as being a UFO beaming someone up.

I think the lighting is excellent in these photos, which helps to add to the overall effect and surreal feeling created by the composition in each one.

Small contact sheet

One of the ideas that I had for an image was to take a photograph of a computer screen, where the website open is a job search one. I felt that this would tie in nicely with my theme for this brief.

These photographs were taken at college, back in May. I used my 50mm lens on my camera when I took these, as I again wanted to get the wide depth of field that it creates. I am pleased with the effect that it has created here with these photographs.

The camera was set to black & white at the time, hence why these few photos are black & white. Again this is something that I think works well, and can add a certain atmosphere to a photograph. I am probably going to edit whichever images I choose to use as final ones to be black & white for this purpose.

I do not particularly like the angle of the very first photograph here, looking straight on and the computer screen. I feel that it takes up too much of the frame. The following three, that I shot whilst stood back from the Mac, at the side of it, work much better, and are not as "in your face" as the previous one is.

Overall I think that this image concept works, will fit in well with my idea for the brief, and I will more than likely be using one of these images as a final one.

Technical Information

The entirety of my shooting for this brief has been done at home. As I do not have much photographic equipment available to me at home, my set-ups have had to have been very simple.

As noted in an earlier post for lighting on one shoot I used a modelling lamp which belongs to my dad to light the set-up. This lamp gives off a "natural light" effect; I have used it before when taking photographs for myself, liked it, and therefore decided to use it here. I think that it works well, and highlights little details of objects nicely.

The first few photographs on the contact sheet in this post were shot on the windowsill in my bedroom, and thus used natural light for lighting. The weather was quite dull on the day when I took these few images, so the lighting is not particularly brilliant. As mentioned before, I am also not overly happy with the white balance in these photos; I usually leave the white balance on my camera set to auto, and I think here, the photos look a bit too "orangey". They would have perhaps been better if I had thought to do a custom setting for the white balance.

With the last few photographs on this second contact sheet I used the modelling lamp again. It gave a nice effect over the newspaper that I had laid out, and illuminated it well.

Sophie Calle: The Hotel

The Hotel (L'Hotel) is a series of images produced in 1981 by French photographer and conceptual artist, Sophie Calle. Calle was hired to work as a chambermaid at a hotel in Venice, which allowed to her to explore/investigate the writings and objects of the guests.

The series of photographs on the left is from The Hotel. It shows eight separate images, and I am presuming that they were all taken in the same room (there was little information available about them, other than what the Hotel series was about).

On their own, and I feel that this would be true if each photo was presented separately, these are quite unremarkable images. The objects are ordinary, every-day ones, such as clothing left on a bed, newspapers, rubbish in a bin, etc. However, when all of these are placed in sequence, they start to create a story. I find myself wondering about the person [or persons] who left the items there; what were they doing, why are they staying in a hotel, how long for, etc. It is this which makes me think the photos work, and what makes me really like them.

Shooting at home (again).

This next contact sheet shows a few images that I again shot at home, which were taken about a week ago (or thereabouts). On the advice of tutor I took a few photos of the money bank "in context", as well as taking a few more, the ideas for which popped into my bed prior to shooting.

I do not think that the lighting or the white balance is particularly brilliant in the first few, but I am nevertheless quite pleased with what I achieved here.

Placing a few coins from inside the money bank at the side of it was one of the ideas I had, and although I do think this has worked well, I think it would look better if the coins were in focus, as I do not think some of them here are.

I also took two photographs of me putting a coin into the money box, as though I was trying to save whatever little bit of money that I could find. This again was another idea that I came up with prior to shooting. I thought it would look good, and could potentially be used as a final image. I again quite like these two images, but I found it somewhat difficult to put the coin into the box, hold the camera and take a photo all at the same time, so both images look slightly out of focus. I am going to try doing this again, and will hopefully have more control over the camera!

Other photos I took here were of several little pots I have in my room. I tend to accumulate a lot of change [of the bronze type, sadly], which I just tend to chuck in whatever I can find; the pots shown here are two such things. I think these could be interpreted as keeping money wherever possible, no matter how small.

The last few photos on this contact sheet are of the job search page(s) in last week's edition of the Advertiser. When I think of being poor/having little or no money, I almost immediately think of looking for a job, as for me the two things go hand in hand. I used the modelling lamp mentioned in the previous post to light these photographs. I think these work well, but would look better if I had drawn a ring round some of the adverts.

Research, part two.

This contact sheet is a continuation from the previous one, which I thought I would upload as well. The photos here were shot at the same time as the ones on the previous one were.

Most of the photos on this contact sheet are macro photos of the pennies that I had arranged in piles, taken with the 70-300mm lens, as before. As with the previous contact sheet/photos, what I like here is the detail that I have been able to capture. Although this is not definitely what I was trying to capture when I took these photos, I think it looks good.

Research Part 1: shooting at home.

This contact sheet shows images that I shot at home, on the 7th of May, as part of this narrative brief. I wanted to shoot images that would in some way show what my idea for this brief is; i.e. lack of money/being poor.

My set-up here was very simple. To get the white background I got a book that I had used for a previous brief, and simply opened it to a blank page and used this. These photos were shot in my bedroom, where the lighting is less than brilliant, even when it is nice outside. So, for lighting here I used a modelling lamp that belongs to my dad, which gives off a natural daylight effect. I have used that lamp before when taking photos, and I liked the effect it created (hence why I decided to use it here).

The first few photos on the contact sheet are of a money bank that I have owned for a while now (which, as you can see, is not a "piggy bank" as such). One of the things which comes to mind for me when I think of money, or in this case not having money, is the piggy bank, often smashed with a hammer as a somewhat desperate way of looking for a little bit of change. I did not want to break this money bank, so I just took a few quick photos of it. I quite like the second one, IMG_1521; I like how the head is in focus with the body of the money bank being out of focus. On the whole though, I do not think that these few images are anything too special. For some of them I attached a post-it note with "IOU" written on it, as the IOU is another thing that springs to mind for me when I think of money. I don't particularly like the way this post-it looks here. It looks awkward in the way it's attached to the money bank. I think this idea would probably work better if it was an IOU in a pile of pennies, but I did not think to do anything like this at the time.

The rest of the photographs on this contact sheet are of pennies that I took out of the money bank. With the first two photographs of this section I simply left the pennies as they were when I took them out of the money bank, i.e. not organised in any kind of way. I like these. To me these photos look as though someone has emptied their piggy bank out, trying to find whatever little bit of change possible. This is what I was trying to achieve here, so I am pleased with these. For the rest of the photos on this contact sheet I arranged the pennies into piles, and then photographed them; some of the photos were taken with my 50mm lens on the camera, and some were taken with my 70-300mm lens in macro mode. I am pleased with all of these photos, too. I like how the first few [the ones which were taken with the 50mm lens] have a shallow depth of field, and I like how I have captured the detail of the pennies in the later photos - the ones which were taken with the 70-300mm lens.

#1: Action Plan.

One thing that I find affects me a lot as of lately is money, more specifically, a lack of it. I still live at home, so have no worries there, but the £30 a week that I do get does not go all that far in reality. I have therefore decided to produce a series of images that will somehow represent this, based on my own experiences of not having much money, and trying to find a job. I will stick to the required five images for this brief, and, as usual, will include most of what I take (practice shots etc) for comparison purposes. The images will be shot on location, as this is a requirement of the brief.

My idea for this brief originally came from my tutor; she suggested it to me as I really was struggling to think of something myself, and I thought it had potential, so decided to go with it.

I would quite like to shoot the images for this brief on film, perhaps using my Diana, as I do not use film as much as I would like to. Whether or not this will actually happen in reality, due to time constraints because of the fact that I have been procrastinating, remains to be seen.