Assignment 2 – Collecting (re-worked)

Collecting – Behind Glass

Follow the links below to see the original assignment submission and my tutor’s feedback:

My original response to Clive’s feedback was a feeling a disappointment.  He thought the overall concept was good, but pointed out that my original title of ‘point of connection’ was actually wrong in as much as I was in fact viewing the subjects without their awareness so it was voyeurism rather than a connection.  He also felt that some of the images didn’t quite embody the concept.

Although I meant to rework this at the time, I have actually only come back to it at the end of the course.  What this is has meant, is that I have come back to it with fresh eyes and the increased knowledge that working through the course work has given me.  The different time of year and lighter evenings has also given me an opportunity to explore different lighting and given the work greater depth.

I reread the feedback, picking out the comments Clive made about the images he felt did work and also took on board the editing suggestions he had made.  In the end I have discarded all but three of the original images.  One thing i learned from Assignment 5, was that when you refine and refocus your objective you find that work you originally overlooked actually fulfills the brief better. Having redefined the concept to the idea of ‘heads’ behind glass, I reviewed my images and found a few more  in my archives that fitted this brief and I also shot some new images which I feel gave another dimension to those that were mostly shot in the winter time.

My learning from reworking this assignment is that:

  • redefining and refocusing your thoughts about the set really helps you hone in on the best images to enhance your vision
  • that printing them out and moving them around really helps with positioning the images in the set
  • that I am much more observant of everything in a frame and I think this has helped in my composition.
  • that actually feedback is good for challenging you and making you look again, which ultimately has resulted in a more satisfying set of images.

 

Collecting – Contact Sheets

My first test shots for this assignment has thrown up some things I like, and some I don’t.

My initial thoughts were to see the person behind the glass, but I really liked the images where you can only see part of the person.  I also quite like the idea of viewing a corner where perhaps there may be something different happening on each side of the corner.

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I realised this ‘through a window’ is a recurring theme in my photography so I looked through my archive to see if there were any photos that would compliment this assignment.  After all I think a ‘collection’ probably takes a long time to collate.

However, what I found was, that the photos I found didn’t really ‘fit’ with the theme and I also thought about the thinking that has gone into developing this idea and that the consciousness I am using to take these images means I am actually going out to take these images and I don’t want to just make earlier photos ‘fit’ when they weren’t taken with this purpose.

The themes I like in the images:

  • through the window
  • obscured view of person / blurred
  • reflection
  • warm light inside
  • asymmetrical lines from window frames
  • old frames

The themes I didn’t like:

  • modern frames
  • people to prominent

I was originally thought I would choose a portrait format, but have now decided to go for a square format, because I am thinking of presenting the photos as pains in a window, below is my first attempt at this idea.

my thoughts are that I might take a photo of a real window and add photos to that panes even if they are uneven. I think as the photos are largely of old windows, I need to match that in the presentation.

Contracts from second trip out:

selection of chosen images:

Collecting – Initial thoughts

executing the idea!

So I’m worrying! or is that panicking!!  I have my idea and I’ve taken a couple of test shots.  I like my idea, but my struggle now is how to execute it within the time scale I have?

I don’t want to be forced to do something else or not feel I’ve achieved my plan to the best of my ability because of the fact that I am at work pretty much all of the time there is daylight at the moment. aaaaaargh!!!

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test shot

Although this photo isn’t exactly very artistic, I was testing my idea of watching people, comfortable in their own spaces, coupled with the reflection of what’s on the outside. Inspired by Mona Kuhn’s work, which I really connected with.

When I took this one, I was also struck by the fact that you can’t actually see his face.  This gave me the idea of ‘seen but not seen’, you know that he’s there, but you can’t really see him, it reminded me of the glimpse of people you get in their homes as you pass by.  They are comfortable and feeling secure in their private spaces but in actual fact they are still partly visible to the outside world.

So my challenge is to execute this idea and make the images interesting!

The time of year isn’t helping with this! so do I consider night time images? or street photography, or do I put this thinking on hold and consider something more manageable in the time frame. I could simplify it to the reflections, but I do like the human element;   hmmm . . . . off to ruminate . . . . .

 

Collecting – research

 

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I really like the theme of heads, and I like the idea of reflections and through windows, so if I put all of this together, my theme would be:

people looking through windows, with the reflection of the outside – some images, I’ve found that I like

 

 

I ‘ve bought Mona Kuhn’s book ‘Evidence’ which I really like and want to use as inspiration.