Statement of Intent
- elle walker
- Dec 19, 2018
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 28, 2019
Planning the shoot
I am in the process of producing Old/New, which is a reflection on my life following leaving my former career in mortgage banking. It will be a series of between six and eight images, with the first image showing a number of items to represent my old life – work bag, work clothes – progressing to items I use in my current role as a student. There’s an even split of images taken at my home and at college and one or two taken in Birmingham city centre.
It has been shot in digital format, using a Fujifilm X-T20 and an iPhone 6 and it will be edited in colour. At this point I’m still trying to decide exactly how it will look in terms of colour, layout and size because some of the images I originally envisaged didn’t turn out as I had hoped. Because of this I had to revise my shot list and re-shoot some of the images.
This type of layout would be best suited for a gallery, as the viewer would need to see all images simultaneously.
Reviewing the shoot
My first shoot was outdoors between 6.30 am and around 9 am. At that time of the morning there weren’t as many people around as I’d anticipated, which I needed in order to capture the bustle of a morning commute. By the time the foot traffic had increased, I’d been outside for three hours and the sun had started to rise, which meant I wouldn’t be able to capture the early morning look I was aiming to achieve. It was a bitterly cold morning, so I stopped for a break and planned to revisit Birmingham again, but at a slightly later time, when there would be more commuters around.
The shots I’ve taken so far at college are very uninspiring, with the exception of one or two taken in the darkroom. The safe light has added extra interest, so I hope I can keep that and avoid over-editing it.Those taken at home were shot in available light over two days. The first day was very dull so I need to shoot with a slow shutter speed, whilst the second day was very bright, so the shutter speed was increased. A tripod was used on all of those shots with a self-timer of 2 seconds as added protection against camera shake.
At the Women, Power, Protest exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, there was a piece by Dr Susan Hiller entitled Ten Months 1977-1979 in which she shows her changing body throughout the course of her pregnancy. The placement of the images is interesting, because as her pregnancy advances, the images are placed nearer and nearer to the ground, signifying the growing weight of her body. I’d like to attempt something similar, by having the sequence of photographs growing in size, to represent the growing of my creative self.
I have decided that the images in Old will be half the size of the images in Newand the colour palette will be different in each, with Old having very subtle tones, whilst New will be very colourful. This should assist the audience with understanding the meaning in the photographs.
I’ve been experimenting using Fujifilm’s film simulations as opposed to the standard colour profile. Fujifilm says “Images shot with CLASSIC CHROME generally have low color saturation and full-bodied tones”[1]. Though Fujifilm recommend Astia for subjects in motion ““ASTIA” is designed to be used under little or no lighting and subject in action”[2]I like the soft tones it gives, which I hope will emphasize Old– little colour and no vibrancy. I want to explore the use of colour to evoke mood.
I still have one or two shots to add and when they're done, I'll produce another contact sheet and start editing the final images.
I’ll review and evaluate more as the project is edited and printed, but for now, it really is a work in progress.
[1]https://fujifilm-x.com/global/stories/film-simulation-classic-chrome/
[2]https://fujifilm-x.com/global/stories/the-world-of-film-simulation-episode-5/
Reviewing the shoot – update
All of the Old photographs were shot with the Fujifilm X-T20, whilst the New were shot with an iPhone 6 and all of them were post-processed with Adobe Lightroom. Time limitations were an issue which is why New was shot on the iPhone. The conditions on the day that photographs 5 and 6 (bottom row, middle and right) were taken was cloudy with dull, flat lighting which made it difficult to produce the sense of vibrancy I was looking for.
I do like the overall desaturated, subtle tones in Old as it represents my old life.
My favourite is the first image (top row, left) as I really like the subtle lighting and the placement of the bag and shoes. The images were printed on A3 lustre paper, which gave producers red, rich deep blacks.
I'd had fears that I should have re-shot the second image (top row, middle) as it wasn't as sharp as I would have liked, however, Lee Friedlander's photographs were often out of focus. The out of focus person enhances the feeling of movement, which is something I wanted to be present in both photographs were there is a figure present.
All of the Old photographs were shot with the Fujifilm X-T20, whilst the New were shot with an iPhone 6 and all of them were post-processed with Adobe Lightroom. Time limitations were an issue which is why Newwas shot on the iPhone. The conditions on the day that photographs 5 and 6 (bottom row, middle and right) were taken was cloudy with dull, flat lighting which made it difficult to produce the sense of vibrancy I was looking for. I do, however, like the overall desaturated, subtle tones in Old.
Evaluation of preparatory work
As the project progressed, I made the decision to change the number of images from eight to six, as I wasn’t happy with the quality of them. I should have spent more time on researching photographers and considering different editing styles.
I'd tried a number of editing styles, one of which was this 'glitch' style. At the time, I thought that the style was somewhat aggressive and not really representative of how I wanted my frame of mind and life to be represented, but with hindsight it might have added a different edge to it.
Evaluation of final work
I should have attempted to produce the work as per my original intention: eight images, with Old being smaller and tightly cropped, which would have provided a greater comparison to the larger, vivid New. The crop of the final picture in each row isn’t symmetrical and feels disjointed.The overall piece lacks punctum and studium: the first picture has pleasing light and negative space but the images are not dynamic and don’t draw the eye in to it.
During the group crit, I received the following feedback;
- The narrative does not exhibit an obvious timeline, so the viewer would have no way of distinguishing between the past and the present. A further comment was that there was a strong contrast between the images.
- The desaturated colour was an interesting signifier, which hinted at an unsatisfying life
- One of the weak points was that there should have been more images; this had been my original intention.
- A suggestion was made that the project could have been presented in a linear format, reading from left to right, with the images becoming gradually more colourful at the end.
This is very much a case of “interesting idea, poor execution”. I feel that this is one of the most mediocre pieces of work I’ve produced, but the process of research and constant evaluation by my peers and my own self-reflection has been invaluable, which should see far more successful and innovative work being produced in the future.
Going forward, as the course progresses and as I spend more time on my own personal shoots, my technical knowledge will increase which should see a more successful and satisfying outcome.
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