An app which inspired me for my next idea is the app "1 second of the day". I have been using this app for over a year now where I record one second of every day and each second then collages together into a video. This app inpsired me to cherish every day and carry on making amazing memories. To link this idea with photography, I chose to try taking a photo of every day. To give a theme to this, I decided to go down the route of self portraiture. As the one second of the day app helped me find something good in each day, and enabled me to document my life and what I do daily. Daily, I had planned to take pictures of myself before doing something, and then after doing something, to see visually what changed, and how long it took me. I will do this with activities such as makeup, skincare, showering, workouts and sleeping. This is a sort of experimentation where I will be able to see how much time I spend on myself daily/weekly, and what difference it makes to me. When discussing this with my class, everyone thought that this was a good idea so I planned to go ahead with it. However, when I thought about it more outside of class, this is something personal to document, that others may not pay much interest in. If I am generating ideas that would be displayed in an exhibition/gallery, I need to create something interesting and exciting, and I am just not sure this idea is. When talking to my peers about the concept of portraiture that my whole project is based off, I expressed how I would struggle to get models for my ideas and some ideas were going to be hard to follow through with due to the Coronavirus. One of my peers suggested that I still follow through with my idea of photographing daily, but include the current topic of COVID19. Instagram is currently a massive platform that photographers are using to document the current issues in the world, and create a community for others to get involved in. As no one is able to go out and find a variety of things to shoot, or find models to shoot with, many pages are inviting others to create a collaborate project with multiple submissions. I love this concept as it helps to give people something exciting to do during this difficult time. It also creates a warm community, reminding people we are all in this together. Six Feet Photography Project One page called Six Feet Photography Project (@lifeatsixfeet), invites photographers to document their daily lives during this time of social distancing. This is page which is inviting people all over the globe to take part. The intention of this group is to investigate what the meaning of distance is. Six Feet strive at encouraging photographers to connect deeper with their daily lives through the tool of a camera and community. Six Feet is currently a very small page on Instagram, but the more people that get involved, the bigger portfolio they have. I am very intrigued with this project and I am passionate about taking part. What is interesting about the work they have published so far is that alone, the images are very simple, without much going on. So without knowing the context, there is not a lot to look at in the images. However, when knowing the context of social distancing due to the COVID19 pandemic, it causes you to look much deeper into the images. For example, in the image on the left, you simply see a shadow being casted by light through a building onto grass. The building and surrounding area seems very quiet and isolated. However, knowing the current situation, I can imagine the same image with children playing on the grass in the sun. I can picture how the image may have looked when life was normal. This image helps to express the isolation in the world. As the image is taken from a distance, this also helps to emphasise the concept of social distancing, looking from a far. The image on the right is in contrast to the one on the life. The left is an outsiders point of view, while the right is an insiders point of view. Again, without knowing the background, this is simply an image of a man washing his hands through a reflection in a mirror. When knowing the context, advice given is to wash your hands often for 20 seconds to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Therefore, many celebrities have been taking part in challenges where they show themselves washing their hands for 20 seconds. In this image, I can imagine this man is washing his hands to stay healthy during this time. This shows evidence of people doing their part to contain the spread of COVID19. Materials I am interested in taking part in this project to help build a community. I will also try photographing my own daily life during this pandemic, including any social distancing, washing my hands and keeping updated with government advice. Individually, these images may not be very interesting but as a series, they will tell a story and provoke emotions. I will shoot on my phone camera as this keeps to my everyday life and I will be able to photograph often and quickly. I will also try different editing apps to create a memory style image by adding haze and grain. This helps to signify that we are moving forward, gradually in the right direction, and soon, these images will all just be a memory. Diane ArbusDiane Arbus was an American photographer who documented people through portraits. Her subjects were often on the outskirts of society, which gave her work much variety. From circus performers, to the mentally ill, to transgender people, the work consisted of documenting people who may not "fit in" to society. Through her documentary work, she questions the subject of identity. Often quite controversial, her work is recognised by intimate, black and white portraits. Arbus began her documentary photography in 1950's where she would explore the streets of New York, using the people she came across as a way of representing it. I see the struggle that she dealt with her mental health through her photography. By photographing and documenting others who struggle to be accepted by society, I see Arbus using this as a way to relate to others. In 1971, Arbus committed suicide. Arbus' work is inspiring as she made people who may not feel accepted in their daily lives, be a part of something different and something new, encouraging them to be happy in who they are/want to be. This is something I would like to take and use in my own work. Due to COVID19, many people are at home feeling unmotivated and alone. By documenting my ways of staying busy and keeping creative, I hope to inspire others to do the same and feel part of a community. I plan to experiment editing my images of documentary in black and white to work in the same aesthetic style as Arbus, and give the work a past feel. Testing To first explore the idea of shooting how COVID19 affects my daily life as a student photographer, I began research by going about my daily routine and documenting it, without the affects of COVID19. I did this by taking a photo from my point of view every time I did something which I do daily. This included simple things like waking up, opening my curtains, making my bed, brushing my teeth etc... As you can see, the images alone are not very interesting. This is because I feel as though they do not have meaning to them. As I mentioned before, I did not want to document my daily life as this would be boring for others to see. I took these photographs using my phone camera. However, it was important for me to document what I do, so I know what is different now. Comparing my routine to what it was, to how it is now, there are major differences. One major difference being how I continue being a student, working on my project, but being limited to being at home. I initially felt very disheartened about continuing my project to my full potential. However, the concept of documenting how to continue what I would do at college, but at home instead has inspired me to try new methods and play with new materials. Therefore, I began documenting how I continue being a student, and trying to push myself further with a new way of working. To do this, I started photographing myself from a different point of view. Instead of photographing my point of view, and how I see things, I started photographing myself further away, so I could see how other see me. I wanted to do this so it fits in with the concept of the Six Feet Photography Project. But also, to show evidence of me really trying new things and working differently. I hoped that this would inspire others to stay motivated in their university work/job work by seeing me work, despite the situation. Again, I used my phone camera to take these images as I was occasionally using my DSLR in the image. I tried to photograph myself on different days, showing me doing different tasks as I wanted to show that this is an ongoing situation at the moment, and I am constantly adapting. I intended for the images to be from an outsiders point of view, so I set my camera up a few metres/feet away from me. Photographing myself like this/having my photo taken like this did make me very uncomfortable. In the images, you can see I am in lounge clothes with no makeup on, as I was constantly in the house. I did not want to put makeup on/dress like I was going out as I wanted to keep the concept of this shoot real and raw, emphasising how I am working from home. A lot of the time, I had to prop my phone camera up somewhere and record myself for a couple of minutes and screenshot the clearest moment. I did this so it looked as least staged as possible. Although the background in my images is often messy, I wanted to show the reality of working in a different environment. Despite the images being unflattering and bad quality, they provoke certain emotions for me about isolation. Looking at the images makes me proud I have been able to adapt with new ways of working, and most of it being independently. However, it also makes me a bit upset to think about how different my life is, and to actually see me living differently. Testing EditingAs I mentioned in my Diane Arbus research, I wanted to test editing my images in black and white to give them a documentary style. This also allows me to work closer in the style of Arbus. To convert the images to black and white, I used the camera raw filter and made slight adjustments to the colours. I then opened the image onto Photoshop and made necessary adjustments in the curves. Due to the images being taken on my phone, I did lose some quality while editing which made them more pixelated and grainy. However, this made the images look better as it gives a more authentic feel that they were taken in the past.
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