todays the day!

final hand in today!
and my prints will be arriving from print space today! SCARY!

to sum up this project, here are my overall thoughts and my conclusion....

For my Final self-directed project I decided to produce portraits of people with red/ginger hair.  I was influenced by my previous body of work that I produced, in which I looked at the topic of twins.

I am interested in showing genres of people and looking into how people can be put into stereotypes, such as the stereotypes people associate with being a twin or having a specific hair color.  

My photographs were taken in various locations between Bristol and Sevenoaks, the majority of my shoots were taken on location with a select few shots utilizing the studio space.

Often at the start of a project I find that I am overwhelmed with thoughts and ideas, as a result of this enthusiasm I find that I can, on occasion, not put enough thought into my process and the technical aspect of my work at the beginning. Looking back at my work I find that my first shoots are rarely successful, this is frequently due to lighting/colour problems. This issue is prevalent in my most recent project with the use of indoor lighting.

If more time and thought was allowed at the beginning of the projects, with respect to deciphering what I want the images to depict and represent, then time wouldn’t be wasted, particularly with regard to the models, who agree to be photographed and lend their time.

I felt at one stage in my project that there was no clear connection between shoots and as a result the project felt very disconnected. This was due to small changes being made throughout this body of work; the most predominant, perhaps, being the change of style of which I photographed my subject. Originally I had hoped to focus on fashion photography, however as the project progressed I felt that the imagery I was producing would not fit into this genre, the focus therefore shifted to portraiture.

Towards the end of my project I decided to also shoot in black and white, and, on the final shoots, also use a green filter. This decision gave my project a purpose and a reason and the use of large format strengthened this.

I feel that the overall outcome of this project is strong, but that the project as a whole could have been improved through more technical consideration with each shoot.

During this project I tried to improve my time management by creating plans, however I found that I would rarely stick to a specific plan. If more time was allowed to manage and plan each photograph, and the project as a whole, I believe that I would of created a stronger, more rounded body of work, and a better standard of photography throughout the duration of this project, as opposed to only having strong images towards the end of the shoots.

The research that I have gathered has been mainly from websites, along with visiting a lot of exhibitions and reading various photography magazines. I feel that I could have done more research without the use of the internet by reading through more books; however I had difficulty picking out the relevant sections and parts to read. This is something that I need to work and improve on, had I managed my time more effectively perhaps I could have put time aside for reading more, which would result in my project being contextualized more thoroughly than I feel it is.

The skills I have achieved within this body of work mainly lie in the knowledge and skills gained in using large format and the confidence I have gained in this medium.

As always I began this project digitally, and then moved onto medium format. After discussion I was then persuaded to experiment using large format in a shoot. I found this process thrilling and really exciting to use, this process also improved my photography skill base as well as improving my eye and knowledge of taking a portrait. The thought process and time taken to capture each image was something I found refreshing and extremely beneficial for me. My frequent use of digital can often result in the images being captured mindlessly, with less thought going in to what I was shooting. This is very evident through this body of work.

Large format photography was so enjoyable to me as it gave me more control on the final geometry of each image I took, along with the perspective and the areas of sharpness within the photograph. So much time is taken on a single exposure, and so much effort is invested in it that you're compelled to think each shot through carefully in order to produce a good image. This stepping back allowed me to finally produce two very strong portraits.

My knowledge and skill base for developing my own negatives has also strengthened; this choice of medium has allowed me to scale up my images to a size which I never expected to see my prints in (A0).

My Photoshop skills have greatly improved mainly due to the editing of my final images. I have learnt about the difference of a subtlety and the difference the smallest change can make to an image.

Creating a website and specifically a blog has allowed me and forced me to be more reflective and analytical of my work, and although I would say this is something I still need to improve on, it is also fair to say that this is something I am learning to become better at through time and has significantly improved from previous years.

My final outcome is completely different to what I had originally thought it would be. Firstly because I never envisaged producing black and white images and secondly the scale of the images (I never thought I would produce such massive prints). The final outcome changed when the images I had produced weren’t strong enough, lacking in depth of meaning.

I feel that I have finally found myself and my style within this body of work. If I had more time I could have improved even more and gone on to produce a strong coherent body of photographs.  The process of large format has given my final images a finer meaning and context.

If I were to complete this self directed project again, I would of managed my time more effectively and looked further into the planning and technical side of the project. One thing that is significantly lacking in my body of work is group critique, although I received feedback from various tutors, I seemed to miss receiving group critique of my work which is something I think is vital and helps in contextualizing the work more efficiently. 

In conclusion I personally feel that my project was a success in the end. ‘In the end’ being the most significant part. The process part of this project is what brought my work together and without it, I would of concluded with a very empty body of work.

Although my time management and process should have been slowed down and could have been improved upon much earlier I am ultimately happy with my final two images and final shoots. I feel that my final images are very strong and are the starting point for future portraits I would like to produce. The knowledge gained through using large format is unforgettable and is a process that I intend to use in the future and from now on.

I am now at the point in my photography where I should be showing my work and getting my work ‘out there’. As discussed earlier, I feel that during this project, particularly nearer the end, I was producing strong work, some of the strongest portraits I have produced from the past 3 years.

As a result I finally felt like I was at a point where I could start to think about my portfolio.  After looking through all of my various shoots I started to think about which images I felt where the strongest, this resulted in a mix of both color and black and white images.

I felt that it would be a shame to not have a printed portfolio however after consideration, the cost of this would have been too significant, on top of the cost of printing my final images, which is where I felt my money was better spent at this stage.

Because of this I also began to consider how the cost of a printed portfolio would mean that I would want my photography/ images to be worthy of the money spent. As I am only now at a point where I feel I have found my niche and process, I believe that my imagery will continue to grow and become stronger from here. As a result I feel that I need to allow myself more time to create a strong, coherent body of work before I consider a printed portfolio.

As a result I have chosen to use my website as my portfolio. This allows me to continuously alter what I am doing and allows me to get feedback on my work freely, which at this early stage in my career is a very important thing. The use of my website has allowed me to try out various styles of representation and therefore allowed me to be creative and make decision about how I want my ‘brand’ of photography to be seen. This, in turn, shows the viewer more about me than a printed portfolio would. Undoubtedly a printed portfolio is something I will definitely look to produce and I feel is vital, as seeing a photograph as a print and digitally is completely different, with the print being clearly superior to digital imagery.  However, this is something that will take time and I will only consider doing once my work is strong enough and once it has received sufficient feedback and critique.