Ideas & Planning

Ideas

Idea 1:

My first idea for this final major project is to do a documentary landscape piece on artificial landscapes, i.e. man made landscapes. Within this I will incorporate a series of natural landscapes as well to show a contrast between the two. My intentions from this project are to bring light the effects that we have on our environment and how much we alter them to suit our own needs. 

I quite like the basis of this idea, however, I do feel that it is quite similar to my previous project Earth Stories, due to the fact that is based around mans impact on the environment. I believe it would be in my best interest to do a piece of work unlike any other I have done before in order to challenge myself and expand my photographic experience and knowledge.

Idea 2: 

My second idea is to do a highly surreal/fine art conceptual piece based around previous life experiences. For instance, I wish to create a series of images that depict key moments of my past with a heavy surreal/fine art element to them. I want to add this surreal/fine art element as I do not wish to describe to the viewers what these images are depicting I wish for them to draw their own conclusions, I intend on the images themselves to hold the story and the audience can try to unfold it. 

This is one of my favourite ideas as I feel I could really loose myself in this. Nonetheless, I do feel that I have already done a surreal body of work where I added underlying connotations into my work, so perhaps it may not be the best idea for this final major project. 

Final Written Proposal: Idea 3 

For my FMP I intend on doing a journalistic piece on the issue of homelessness in the UK, specifically Brighton. I plan on documenting how bad it has become and what is being done to help and prevent it. In doing this I hope to convey the good and the bad by combining both facts about how bad it is and the success in recent years from charities and organisations etc.
I want my work to not only inform and educate but to create a sense of empathy for the people living in these conditions and give them an insight into what it is really like in their daily life. Unlike most photojournalism I do not plan on using the deadpan aesthetic as I want to link in a fine art element into my work. What inspired me to go down this separate route was the work of Lee Jeffries (an amateur English photographer). His work is solely based around homeless people around Europe, USA and the UK. The approach that he has taken is using the homeless people as the subjects of his art not documenting any part of their lives. What I want to do is incorporate this fine art style and a solid amount of written work to create the journalistic factor to my work.

I intend on undertaking a series of test-shoots on both film and digital, experimenting with medium and large format film as well as learning new Photoshop techniques to see what effects I can gain through digital images. For each of my test shoots I plan on taking a series of portrait shoots, each including a wide range of different people and lighting techniques to show a diverse amount of faces and effects. I also want to practice with different darkroom techniques, such as; lith printing, cross-processing and double exposure, so I can compare whether I prefer the effects given by digital manipulation as apposed to darkroom.

With my idea of showing both the good and bad side of the homeless problem in the UK, I intend on using both black and white images, to convey the bad, and colour ones, to convey to the good. I am aiming to produce two black and white images and two colour both of which to be printed around A2 size and framed.  Alongside my images I wish to create a short film documenting my time and experiences throughout the project, starting off with the bad side and ending with the good. Within this video I hope to include a few time-lapses, facts and videos of me working. What I am aiming to achieve by including this video into my work is to help enhance the meaning and story behind my work and educate the viewers into the problems at hand.    

I have already started to make a time plan for myself so I know what I need to get done and when to do it. I intend on doing most, if not all, my research before the Easter holiday, i.e. looking into photographers, researching the problem, contacting organisations etc. so that during the Easter holiday I can visit Brighton and finish off the practical side. In doing this I will return from the Easter with all my images taken and stories written in draft, so I just have to edit and finalise my work within the final few weeks.

Final Written Proposal - Idea Mark 2

“We become aware of the void as we fill it” – Antonio Porchia

For my FMP I intend to recreate a period of my life through a series of fine-art/ conceptual images that symbolise the different mind states I went through and what it was like for me.  I do not intend to be totally open and disclose every detail of what happened. However, I will give a brief insight and then allow my images to do the rest of the talking.  I want the people viewing my images to come to their own conclusions, I hope for it to me as much of a journey for them as it was for me. My main aim throughout this project is to put into perspective what happened and how far I have come since then. This is very much a project for myself, yet I hope for my images to tell a story and capture people’s attention and imagination.
Each of my images will be individual to their own emotion they are portraying, even though altogether they will tell only one story.  The images will vary between portraits shot either: in studio and/or location, location shots both rural and urban, depending on which works best for the image. There will be six images in total to make up each stage.
The six stages are as follows:
·         Outsider – this image will be to symbolise the feeling of not fitting, i.e. “the black sheep of the family”. I plan on using this saying literally and using a solemn black sheep amongst a field of white sheep to symbolise this.

·         Acceptance/Led Astray – this will be to depict being accepted into a group with a sinister edge to show the feeling of being led astray. How I intend to create this within my picture is by using a forked path within a woodland or city. By using a forked path I hope to symbolise the fact of having two choices, one bright and prosperous and the other more inviting, yet dark and sinister.

·         Lost From Reality – for this stage I want to portray the feeling of being detached from reality, unaware of the surroundings. This was the first image I imagined creating when I got this idea into my head. What I hope to create is a scene where a character (symbolising me) is stood in the middle of a shopping centre while loads of people are a blur around him from using a long exposure.

·         Anger/Paranoia – this image is going to be one that I shoot in a studio as the technique I wish to use will work best there. I want this picture to show the realm of delusion I had entered into, driving myself mad from paranoia and gaining an intolerable rage that I almost embellished. I want to use a long exposure in the studio of someone moving their head with their hands next to it. Whilst they do this I will repeatedly flash the lights, thus freezing each movement.

·         Hidden – for my penultimate photograph I want to capture the feeling of hiding away from the reality as I believed it was evil . I want to combine two images for this shot, one being a person hiding away in a cupboard and the other being a shadow of what looks like a demon creeping towards the wardrobe.

·         Action/Escape – my final image is to symbolise and summarise my journey and how it has been a long winding road yet I have come out the other side clean and clear. To create this I intend to shoot it on a winding road going through the moors.

   I have had a number of inspirations for this project, some recent and some go back to during the beginning of that part of my life. My main inspiration was a film, ‘Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind’. The story of this film is not what inspired me, instead it was one of the main characters, Joel Barish (Jim Carey). The reason for this is because his personality and social status reflected that of mine at the time.
Another inspiration for this project is the work of Adreas Poupoutsis. Among the vast array of his images is a series of images all based around hidden identities.  I thought it would be a good idea for me to try and emulate this work in my own as it would help to reinforce the feeling of not knowing who I was.
I plan on shooting my entire project on digital even though I would have loved to do it on black and white film, I simply will not have enough time to do so. Nevertheless, I will convert the images into black and white in Photoshop and attempt to make them look as if they were shot on film.

  


     

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