BLOG FEED PART 1 – DOCUMENTING PEOPLE IN THEIR 20’S

In my last project I photographed the behind the scenes of a photographer. This was to show the working process of a photographer. The project was interesting but unfortunately did not go as planned. For this project I want to carry on taking documentary portraits as this is one of my main interests. When deciding what kind of portraits to take, I thought about what was personal to me and what I was feeling. HavingContinue reading “INITIAL IDEAS”

I have started to look into subject research to have more of an understanding before I start looking more into visuals. I think it is important to understand the topic so I can be clear in the message I am trying to portray. I will start by looking into articles and text that support my ideas. From these articles I can find information that I can come back and look into more detail in theContinue reading “INITIAL SUBJECT RESEARCH”

I am going to create a sort of mood board with photographs that have inspired me and photographers I can research. This will give me a page to look back on, to help influence my own work. I first looked at Somewhere Magazine on Instagram. I have followed the page for a while and like the range of portraits they post. They have there own little stories that make them interesting. Rineke Dijkstra Michelle SankContinue reading “VISUAL INSPIRATION”

I experimented with my ideas of taking photographs of people in their 20’s. This was to begin shooting and start to develop a style. For this shoot I took photos of my boyfriend who’s main hobby is gaming. Even though he has a full time job, gaming is his interest so I think it represents him more than anything else. We tried to take photos while he played on his computer but his room wasContinue reading “EXPERIMENTAL SHOOT 1”

I decided that another experimental shoot would be useful. Through this project I will be photographing different people in different places. Although the first shoot was successful, I need to try more in different location and lighting conditions. For this shoot my friends had met at a friends house. This was the perfect opportunity to practice a shoot without much planning. It was night so I had to rely on ambient light that was availableContinue reading “EXPERIMENTAL SHOOT 2”

The relationship between photographer and subject can be just as important as just the subject being in the frame. Even subconsciously, you are portraying your own thoughts on the subject into your work. ‘The subject usually faces the camera, and the contrast between subject and photographer hangs palpably in the air that separates them. It is across this agreed-upon distance that all sort of power relationships and tensions between or among the people involved areContinue reading “THEORETICAL RESEARCH – RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHOTOGRAPHER AND SUBJECT”

It is important that I understand the message I am trying to portray in this project, therefore subject research is essential. From my initial research I understand there a lot of different challenges being in your 20’s and many changes. What I have always found interesting is that 21 is the age you are defined as an adult. 18 brings a sense of independence as you are legally allowed to more things but I thinkContinue reading “SUBJECT RESEARCH – BECOMING AN ADULT AT 21”

Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer, known for her portraits. She produces large scale. She looks into different groups of people, such as adolescence, bull fighters and women who have just given birth. The large, simply composed portraits mean the viewer can really engage with the subject . The series I’m most interested in is her Beach Portraits. She explores young people from around the world, posed on a beach. Like what I am exploring,Continue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH- RINEKE DIJKSTRA”

Michelle Sank is a photographer based in England. Her work is a social documentary of the human condition. She looks into issues around social and cultural diversity. The first series of hers that I am interested in is ‘Sixteen’. She was documenting what it is like to be 16 now. She focussed on Cornwall where she could explore the economic poverty and physical isolation. The series is really interesting as she incorporates text with it.Continue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – Michelle Sank”

For this shoot I was inspired by Michelle Sank’s work. This is still initial stages of my work so I used my house mate as my model. So far I have shot in interior locations, so I am going to try exterior images. Sank’s ‘Teenagers Belfast’ project consists of portraits taken outside and this is what made me intrigued to try this. I used our house as the location as it was familiar space forContinue reading “SHOOT 3”

I am going to research more into mental health of people in their 20’s. From my initial research it was clear that there was a struggle with mental wellbeing. This is a really important subject and probably effects a lot of the people I will be photographing. Mental health commonly emerges in late teens/ early twenties. Many people I photograph will probably have their own struggles, mostly hidden. Like from the other research I haveContinue reading “SUBJECT RESEARCH – MENTAL HEALTH”

Environmental portraiture has always been a popular genre of photography. It can establish the time or place that the image was taken, giving the viewer an insight into the context behind the image. When you view a portrait you automatically begin to look for clues that indicates who they are as a person. But these clues are often found past the main focus of the model. The location, whether it is natural or man madeContinue reading “THEORETICAL RESEARCH – ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS”

Tobais Zielony is a German documentary photographer. He explored communities around Europe. He has a lot of interesting project where its as if he is telling a story about a group of people. They include, ‘Car Park’, in which he captured listless young Brits in a desolate urban landscapes. Another project ‘Curfew’, shows the destructive boredom from youths in one of England’s poorest urban areas. ‘Jenny Jenny’ is a eighteen month project Zielony did ofContinue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – TOBAIS ZIELONY”

Doug DuBois is an American photographer known for his portraiture work. He makes documentary work of different people. The series I’m interested in is ‘My Last Day at Seventeen’. It is of teenagers in Ireland as the new generation of Irish. The project started as a month long residency and turned into a long term project. In the residency, he was taken to neighbourhoods by the teenagers he was photographing. He went to different areasContinue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – DOUG DUBOIS”

Unfortunately I lost the photos of this shoot due to a faulty sd card. I shot photos of my housemates over the course of the day, they were doing everyday activities such as cooking, working, watching tv. I kept with the documentary approach, they knew I was taking photos of them that day but I would take them at random times so they were not as aware. As portraits they were good sue to correctContinue reading “SHOOT 4”

These first few weeks have been really beneficial for experimenting with ideas. The subject research has helped lead this project as I now have a good understanding of people in their 20’s and what comes with it. This has helped me photograph not just as a photographer documenting a scene but also with empathy to their situation. From visual research I have experimented with techniques and I now understand what doesn’t work. The theoretical researchContinue reading “SUMMARY 1”

James Mollinson was born in Kenya and grew up in England. His work has been widely published throughout the world. A well known series he created was ‘Where Children Sleep’. He displayed it as a book, where on the left page there was a portrait of a child, on the oppisite page is an image of where they sleep. He went across the world documenting these people and the places they call home. It isContinue reading “JAMES MOLLINSON – WHERE CHILDREN SLEEP”

This is the first shoot I have done with my latest idea of focusing on people in their own environment. As I still wanted to experiment with techniques I chose to photograph two of my housemates so there was no pressure to get it right first time. My tutor recommended to try and do the shoot in about 20 minutes as this would be good when I am in other peoples houses. I used aContinue reading “SHOOT 5”

Martina Mullaney was born in Ireland in 1972. She lives and works in London. She has a series of work made in 2005. It is of large scale photographs of slept in beds of homeless people in England and Wales. It is interesting how she has approached a common and sensitive subject in a unique way. It is intriguing and emotional as you can see the dirty and worn mattresses and begin to wonder theContinue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – MARTINA MULLANEY”

I have already researched Michelle Sank, but since changing my style of photographing there is another one of her projects that is useful to look at. ‘My.Self’ is one of her projects where she documents the diversity of young people living in an area. Especially what it means to be a young person in todays society. She says ‘the subjects were photographed in their bedrooms so that the objects and decoration within became metaphors forContinue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – MICHELLE SANK”

I am doing research into peoples personal spaces and what it means to them. I am focussing on bedrooms at the moment because the age group I am focussing on are less likely to have their own homes. This means the main space they can call their own is their bedrooms. I read an article about what your bedroom says about you, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/1cd61c5f-4784-4a12-ac88-ae6e0c8c4bad. Without even meaning to, your bedroom can give you so many indicationsContinue reading “SUBJECT RESEARCH – PEOPLE AND THEIR SPACES”

For this shoot I visited a married couple who lived in their own house. This already is quite a contrast from people on my previous shoots. Not being limited to just one room also allowed for more locations for the portraits. I used what I learnt from previous research to lead this shoot. From Michelle Sank’s work and subject research about people and their spaces, I have made sure to try and include items thatContinue reading “SHOOT 6”

I did another shoot the next day without time to research more but I kept in mind the importance of the objects in the frame. In this shoot I shot a couple who were living together in his parents house. They shared this fairly small space in his family home. It was actually quite similar to my last shoot, he was a big gamer and had his gaming set up on the desk. While sheContinue reading “SHOOT 7”

Ida Kar was born in 1908 and photographed mainly in London where she mainly took black and white images of artists and writers. Some of her work was of the artists and writers in their working environments. It is interesting as it is their own creative spaces, so they probably felt more comfortable. It had more depth and context as well as for Kar it was her ‘her personal experience of bohemian circles in ParisContinue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – IDA KAR”

For this shoot, I took photos of Meg in her work place. She works in a small bakery. When deciding where to shoot these photos we decided on here as this is where she felt comfortable. As she works a lot she might even spend more time here than at home, so this is a more accurate representation of who she is. I shot on Nikon D800 with 24-70mm lens. In all my shoots soContinue reading “SHOOT 8”

I went to another work place for this shoot. I was taking photos of Jason who works as a chef in a pub. The kitchen was not that big but we found a lot of locations and angles to experiment with. He was quite busy as he had to keep working so I took photos as he worked. This meant a lot of images are of him not looking at the camera, but when thereContinue reading “SHOOT 9”

So far I have done some successful shoots and have refined my style for this project. Seeing them as a series I like that they are all quite different. I was worried that using different angles and composition would not fit well as a series but I think it emphasises the differences between these people and makes it easier to see the comparisons. From feedback from tutors they have said that on a few theyContinue reading “SUMMARY 2”

Adrienne Salinger is an American photographer who in the early 90’s created a photobook where she took photographs of teenagers and their bedrooms, the series is called ‘In My Room: Teenagers in Their Bedrooms’. She said ‘bedrooms tell stories about us. They become the repository for memories, desire and self image’. This supports the same idea I have been trying to portray in my own work. She chose teenagers as it is a stage whereContinue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – ADRIENNE SALINGER”

I have narrowed the ages I am photographing to mainly 23 as this is the age I will be next year and from people I know there is a lot of differences in their lifestyles. I am going to allow a year either side to include people who have only just turned 24, or people who are 22 but birthdays are soon. Having these extra years either side will allow me to connect with moreContinue reading “SUBJECT RESEARCH – BEING 23”

This shoot I photographed Jordan who was a gamer. He had a gaming set up in his small bedroom. This was one of the most challenging shoots I have done, purely because of the lack of space. His desk was in a corner with walls either side and a tv behind it. This left me with very little space. Adrienne Salinger’s work has inspired mine for 2 reasons. Firstly visually, in this shoot I hadContinue reading “SHOOT 10”

In this shoot I photographed Chelsea in her bedroom. Straight away I knew the shoot wasn’t successful as I wasn’t getting any good photos. It was a small room so she sat on her bed which was next to a window. This allowed just enough light in but it was an overcast day so didn’t create any interesting tones or shadows. There was not much colour in the room so the image appears quite dull.Continue reading “SHOOT 11”

My tutor, Jess Lennan made a series called ‘Two Cities’. As part of this series she took photos of people in their environments. The images are similar to what I am aiming for. The series explores the cities of Exeter and Plymouth as a juxtaposed narrative. The portraits in the series is what I am particularly interested in. The subject is posed in what appears to be their own homes. They look into the cameraContinue reading “VISUAL RESEARCH – JESS LENNAN”

We had a group tutorial were we displayed our work on the wall. We would guess the context of peoples work without them saying anything about it. Afterwards they would explain their project. This was interesting to see how others interpreted my work. I printed mine off mainly in 8×10 as I was unsure what size I wanted. I printed one off larger in 10×12 to see how it looks slightly bigger. My plan hasContinue reading “GROUP TUTORIAL”

In this shoot I photographed Tom in the gym. He spends a lot of time in the gym deadlifting so it makes more sense to photograph him at here rather than at his room or work. In this shoot, the relationship between me and the subject was completely different to my other shoots. It was in a weightlifting gym which for me was quite scary, which made me more uncomfortable, this really did affect theContinue reading “SHOOT 12”

Due to Corona Virus and university closing I am unable to complete this project. As there is a lockdown where you can only go out for shopping and exercise, it is not possible or safe to go to other peoples houses to shoot. This is gutting as this project was going well and I had a lot of people ready to photograph. With the photos I have already taken, I am going to edit themContinue reading “UPDATE!”

My images did not require much editing in post production. I simply correction exposure, colour balance and saturation. Some required more adjustments than other but it was all the same process. Firstly I spend time adjusting mainly contrast, highlights and shadows. I played around with the settings until the image looked correct. I also went through the other tabs such as Detail and the colour settings. One setting I apply to every photo is vignetting.Continue reading “EDITING”

Although I can not exhibit my work, I am going to research and decide how I would display my work. I had already decided on my paper which I would print on, I would print on Pearl paper on the large format printer. I was not able to print larger since my tutorial where they recommended printing bigger. I would not want it much bigger, so I would probably print around 12×18 size. We wereContinue reading “EXHIBITING WORK”

Considering the circumstances, I am happy with how this project went. I would of reshot a few images and photographed many more people if I had the opportunity. I have a list of people I can photograph in the future, so at some point I think I will be able to complete this project. I enjoyed this project as it was challenging but exciting to always be shooting in new locations. It was difficult notContinue reading “PART 1 EVALUATION”