Evaluation

Areas of Photographic Practice A

I’ve found this module very interesting and I have really enjoyed doing it. It was difficult to begin with because I really struggled to come up with a concept that I felt was both interesting and reflected my word ‘timepiece’. The group presentations really helped me advance and narrow down my ideas and it was also great to see what others in the group were going. I personally working in smaller numbers worked very well for this project, we got to know each other’s ideas well and could see the progress on a weekly basis.

On the photographic side of things I’m happy with my images. They’ve turned out exactly how I had hoped and I feel like I’ve stuck the balance between simplicity and effectiveness. The number of images was something I was struggling with at first. Initially I was looking at 10-15 images and after some discussion I decided this was far too many, I knew I could get my narrative across in at least half of that number so I settled on 6 images and I’m glad I did. I feel I have reached a resolved idea that is in essence a circular narrative revolved around the word ‘timepiece’. I’ve chosen to show the bare minimum of a daily routine of someone who lives a very mundane working life and in doing so have got across a feeling of a repetitive routine in 6 images.

I liked the presentations in this project, it’s a great way to build confidence and learnt to talk about my ideas and take feedback. Having weekly sessions with the same group was a great advantage as we bonded well and everyone contributed in helping me with my ideas.

With this project I didn’t find it particularly useful to research practicing photographers. I focused more on my subject matter and the reasoning for my ideas. I looked into photographers who use narrative and this really did help me early on. It was also useful to look outside photography at films, books etc. that had a circular narrative. Again this influenced my ideas and helped with clarifying what a circular narrative was.

I also found it useful to talk to the group about narratives as I got a different perspective, which helped me broaden my thoughts and appreciate how people would interpret my initial thoughts. We were encouraged to look at photographers, filmmakers, authors; videographers that again helped broaden my appreciation for narrative.

I did enjoy this project and it was nice to have some direction at the start but to then have total freedom to interpret our words ands create our own ideas.

Final Images

These are now my final images. They don't differ greatly from my original images however the clocks show the correct times in order to tell the story. I toyed with the idea of adding in more shots in between but I felt that it was making my message too literal and giving the audience too much. I decided in this project that less was more. I'm very happy with my idea, I think it's concise and I'm glad I've resolved a circular narrative using the word 'timepiece' as a start.

I think in a gallery setting I would lay the images out in rows and show a few repeats of every image as seen below

I think this is a good way of getting the point of repetition across and also showing the passing of time. Each row would represent a new day and as we read left to right naturally, I think this would come across quite easily to the audience. I think I have followed through with my idea and resolved it with a fairly simple series of images. The key for me in this project was not to overcomplicate my idea or images and I'm glad I stuck by that, it's a simple idea that most people can relate to and by using clear, simple images I think it makes my message as solid as it could be.

Synopsis

In our weekly group sessions we've been discussing each others ideas and developing our thoughts as a group. This has been a great way to get feedback on my ideas and talk things out with both tutors and my peers. When talking about my idea it brought up that that less could be more in terms of photographs, by giving the audience less information I would perhaps make my ideas more clear. It was also said that if my idea was to portray the character as having no time outside of work I wouldn't include images of him doing things outside of work Eg, eating, watching TV as this goes against the message I'm trying to convey.

I've scrapped the idea of following someone in the workplace. I think my images will work best if I create them from the start the finish, this way I can control everything in the image and in turn control the message that the audience gets. I've got a few shoots planned this week to work toward my final set of images, after completing the cropping exercise in our other sessions I'm really eager to get out and shoot! 

These were some inital images I took to the group sessions. I was confident that they couldn't be improved when I walked into the session however I walked out with a very different view. Although on a visual level the images were fine, after some experimenting I decided that if the images were cropped much tighter they become instantly more valuable. We've been discussing cropping a lot in the professional frameworks module and so I decided to have a go with my own images and it was very rewarding. I've now decided on a visual style for my images and I'm going for much tighter crops than I originally thought I would. This helps draw the viewer into the scene and again lets me control exactly what they see in order to get my message across.

I'm now going to take this forward and take the others shots to form my narrative, especially my start image of an alarm clock. Keeping in mind the composition and how the images can be cropped to add context.

Symbolism

What is symbolism?

sym·bol·ism  

/ˈsimbəˌlizəm/

Noun The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts.

Symbolism is often used in photography to carry messages across to an audience. Sometimes it's very obvious sometimes it is more subtle but the majority of photographs are to taken to either document a time to influence an audience sometime in the future. 

I have began to think about symbolism within my own photography for this project. A narrative is all about telling a story but how can I tell a story without creating something cheesy or that carries no weight. 

I'm quite enjoying my timepiece project, it's got me thinking outside of the box and it's been a big help to have group talks about my project. Initially I was looking at shooting around 10 images, however after talking with the group it was decided that I could achieve the same message with fewer shots and that the message may actually be more effective if the audience are given less information and have to work a little to see the connotations within my work.

To further help me with my ideas and what my actual photographs will entail I have written a short synopsis that is a quick summary of my narrative. It includes a general overview of my motives and has helped me to imagine my photographs which will help me when it comes to shooting.

Synopsis

"My story only has one character and his identity is not a key element. The focus is more on him as a cog in the machine rather than an individual. He finds himself leading a dull routine lifestyle filled with work and menial tasks.
The story begins with him asleep, he is then woken by his morning alarm; time to get ready for work. The next shot moves onto work, he is clocking into the job he’s had for several years. Once he clocks on, robot mode engages and he becomes a part of the machine that is his work. He has his breaks during the day and then waits for the clock to advance to the time of the day where he is free. The story then moves on to him clocking out of work some time later. He is now free for the next few hours until it starts again. We see a few snippets of his evening routine in this time. The story advances and he is ready for bed and setting his morning alarm. This repeats every day of the week. Clocks and time rule his life. He is slowly loosing the human element and eventually the photos repeat so much that we are only shown the clocks in the photo and not the other elements of his life." 

Feedback from Lawrence and my group was that I should maybe take out a few shots to simply things. It was picked up on that this may be a more effective way of getting my message across. Maybe starting my story with the image of the alarm, moving onto clocking into work and then I need to think of a way to show a large portion of time has passed without being literal and photographing a clock. I think the best thing for me to do is to photograph someone in a work environment and see if I can come up with anything that will be a good way of showing how mundane the job is and how much time has passed. I'm going to start some taking some photographs this weekend and at least get my start/end image and then build the story around that.