I created a blog in which I hoped other creatives would follow, which displayed my experiences through the COVID19 lockdown as a student photographer. The blog included experimentation with new techniques and using resources at home to aid in photography. The blog showed my process in creating work, and the behind the scenes shots of me in a documentary style. Using my most successful images, I then created a photography book. The book highlights the best of my work throughout this project. The book was designed to be a collection of what I have accomplished over the lockdown, hopefully inspiring others to pick up their motivation through photography.
Style/Influence My style for this project was a mix of documentary photography and portrait photography. I worked using a blog post as this was something that most photographers/creative have access to view. The style for my documentary images was taking influence from an Instagram page called @lifeatsixfeet, The Six Feet Photography Project. Their online portfolio included submissions from other photographers who were photographing their experiences during the COVID19 lockdown. The page is taking submissions internationally. Their style of photography often works literally with the phrase “six feet apart” as that is roughly how far the camera seems from the subject. I took influence from this in my documentary style as when I was photographing myself in any of my processes, I would often photograph from 6 feet away. As the work comes from a range of different photographers, the styles differ between images. However, I was most influenced by the images were the subjects seem unknowingly photographed. This concept helps to keep the situation real and raw. Therefore, when I photographed myself, I would set my phone up somewhere filming me doing whatever I was at the time. I would then use the video to get a screenshot of an image. I worked this way as it allows me to work more naturally, rather than posing for an individual photograph. In terms of my portraits, I took most of my influence from Tim Walker and images on my explore page on Instagram. I wanted my images to seem glamourous and colourful, which I wanted to show through props, makeup and backgrounds. Being limited to who and what I can work with, I was not able to create as many studio shoots as I would have liked to. However, I still managed to create portraits at home using an at home studio, and webcam phone calls. I was lucky enough to get into the studio the day before the college closed, therefore I do have one studio shoot in my work. The style I tried to keep consistent between shoots was facial props (makeup, gems, pompoms etc...), highlighting a distinct colour that stands out and having a tight crop on the image. Looking over my best images which I displayed in my book, I see that I have exceeded my expectations of what I thought I could create. I believe my series flows nicely, and you can see my style represented in each image I created. Budget/Materials Due to not having resources readily available as they would be if I were at college, I was limited to what I could work with, and what I could encourage others to work with. I had a small at home studio kit to work with, which was borrowed from the college. This allowed me to set up a studio space in my bedroom and photograph my model. While not everyone has these resources to create a studio at home, most photographers do. I hoped my work would have motivated other photographers who have the resources to make the most of it and shoot from home. Materials such as acetate, gum bichromate elements and photographic paper were in limited supply while I was working with them. I eventually ran out of the acetate and gum bichromate elements, and to order them would have been a cost that I did not have the money spare for. With other responsibilities such as car insurance, road tax and rent to pay, I could not order more of these materials. This would also be the case for some of my audience. Some may be furloughed with less wages and some may have lost their job, so it was important to note that not everyone has the money available to buy extra things for their photography kit. I tried to work with materials/software that anyone could use such as Photoshop or other online editing software, as again, not everyone can afford certain things. I worked with a range of materials and techniques such as lumens, gum bichromate, studio, location portraits and webcam shoots. This was because I wanted to give the most variety to my reader to what they could try out for themselves, and what they could take influence from. I tried to be broad with what I worked with so anyone could find something which fitted their budget, materials handy and their style of art or photography. Audience As I spoke about in my project proposal, I was aiming at my audience being other creatives who work with or want to work with art or photography. I hoped that people who were viewing my blog would either learn something new which they could try at home or spark some form of creativity for them to inspire their own work. While it is difficult to tell whether people took influence from my work, or learnt something new, I do know that people enjoyed the aesthetic of my work. This is from multiple comments on specific shoots and certain images. I believe I managed to direct my work to other creatives. Strengths Throughout this project, one of my main strengths has been my research/influence sources. I found myself constantly finding new influences and styles while browsing social media. This enabled me to use a range of sources from different platforms, which gave my work the most variety and diversity. Another strength I have is my editing skills. As I now have Photoshop and Lightroom on my computer at home, I have been able to play around more and improve my confidence. This has enabled me to work more efficiently with online editing software. The last strength that I have noticed within myself over the past few months is my time keeping and organisation. I always ensured to know my deadlines, and know how much time I had for certain tasks. This allowed me to submit work on time, while also not giving myself too big of a workload. Weakness My main weakness throughout this project has been my motivation. Being in a different environment and working with limited resources caused a lack of creativity and motivation within me in my studies. I felt stuck on where to go next and what I could do. To overcome this, I was constantly researching and finding new influences that kept me excited about my own work. Timescale As mentioned in my strengths, my organisation skills and my time keeping skills kept me on top of things. In March when the college had closed, I knew how much time I had left to complete my FMP and which tasks I needed to prioritise. I completed my planner at the start of the project which was useful to look back on and see if I am on track with where I planned to be. Mostly, I was always on track with what I was planning to do. The timescale never proved an issue for me in my project as I always felt I had sufficient time to complete work to the deadline and smaller deadlines. I have submitted my work on time, to the best quality that I could have. Presentation The initial plan was to have the work displayed in a gallery at the Custard Factory in Birmingham. However, due to current circumstances, changes had to be made. This meant that students had to use online resources to display and document their work. This is a new task for me as I had always previously printed my work and had physical, paper copies of it. To present my body of work, I found it would work best to display on my blog. I already had a photography blog set up with a good format and layout. The blog allows my audience to navigate easily around my blog through different pages and posts. I have also been able to promote my blog through my Instagram, which other creatives follow. This work displayed includes my planning, experimentation, research and final outcome. It is all displayed neatly and the format is organised well. I would use blogs in the future to display work. Book The outcome of my photographic book exceeded my outcomes to what I ever thought I could create. The content of the book is filled with my process, explanation and outcomes. The creation of the book provoked an unexpected sense of pride within me that my work is book worthy, something bigger and deeper than a picture on a wall. The book perfectly represents me, my photography and what the topic is based around. Being only 14 pages long, the book perfectly sums up the highlights of my project. As this is an online book and not having the intention to print it, I did not have to consider how pages/images may distort once sewn into a spine. However, changes would need to be made if my book were to be printed, as some images would not work well, for example page 13-14. Despite this, I am very content with my book being easily accessible online. This book looks neat, professional and creative, and I am very pleased with the work I have created over the past few months. What more would I have done? Models/Studio If I were able to still be working from college, I would have liked to complete more studio shoots with a wider range of models. I would have liked to have created more male model shoots using different props and different backdrops. I would have also liked to use other female models for beauty shoots as they would all have different features such as skin texture, eyes and mouth. I would have liked to see more variety in my work in terms of who I work with. Overall, I would have liked to see more variety in the faces seen in my work as this keeps it new and interesting to look at. It would have also broadened my skills with photographing different people. However, this was not possible to do after the COVID19 lockdown. Therefore, I was only able to photograph my sister, and my boyfriend over video call. I also hoped to work with different equipment in the studio to create different looks such as harsher lighting, colour gels and new lighting attachments (octobox, snoot, honeycomb etc...). This also would have given me more variety in my work and allowed me to choose which one worked best for the look I wanted to create. At home, I have been limited to using a beauty dish, with or without the diffuser. I had hoped to deepen my knowledge in the studio through experience and experimentation. Location In previous projects, I had photographed on location which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would have liked to photograph my models on location in areas such as parks, shops etc... This would have helped me to get a better understanding of location photography in terms of appropriate equipment and settings. However, due to government guidelines stating to only leave the house for essential means, I was not able to do this. I was limited to photographing in my garden as a different setting. As the weather in the UK has been perfect for outdoor portraits, I am disappointed I have not been able to make the most of it. Film I had hoped to work with film in my FMP in order to use a range of materials, and also build my confidence in working in the darkroom, as this was one of my weaknesses on my career plan. I had hoped to work with black and white 35mm, different types of colour film and a medium format camera. However, this could not have been possible as I would not have the resources to be able to get the film developed and had prints made. To do this at home would have been very much out of my price range and there would be no space in my house. I am disappointed I was not able to work with film more in this project, but I hope to have more chances to in the future.
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