Photoshoot 3: Work Record -

Work Record - 

Plans:

⧫ I will capture images using a polaroid camera (Fujifilm Instax Mini 8)
⧫ I will capture images using a digital camera (Canon EOS 450D)
⧫ I will edit the digital photographs using Photoshop CC 2014
⧫ I will compose all images on an A3 sheet

Hope to Achieve:

What I hope to achieve for this photoshoot, which is taking a deviation from the original examination plan and returning more so to my preparation shoots, is to create a physical experiment with both digital and polaroid photographs that combine to create a photographic installation that demonstrates my exam topic of connected images but also my theme of identity. This shoot will focus on the identity of family and older age where I will use documentary photography, a technique often employed by David Shama, to capture the subjects who are my grandparents.

I am hoping that my finalised pieces will show my development as a result of my preparatory shoots and also my preparatory research in that I am returning to an earlier idea with some adaptions.

Actually Achieved:

I was mostly happy with how my photoshoot turned out in that the polaroids and digital images work well cohesively and thematically. For instance, not only does the aesthetic work there is the idea of polaroids being an older form of photographic medium when contrasted to digital and as such a link could be made between that technique and my idea of contrasting young and old, friends and family.

I am much more satisfied with the finalised aesthetica of these images as they are more aesthetically pleasing and they utilise a photographic skill which is one of my personal favourites; that skill is documentary photography.

Progression: 

This was a third exam photoshoot and I am much more happy returning to the style that I had explored in my preparatory shoots with some adaptions and as such I plan on continuing it into one final photoshoot. My final exam shoot will be connected to this shoot in that they will both study identity through age and relationships except that my fourth shoot will focus on youth and friends instead of pensioners and family. As an extension of this, both the above photoshoot and my next one have or will study gender identity as a tertiary idea despite it not being the central focus of my work.

Process - 

ISO: Various
F/ Stop: Various
Shutter Speed: Various

(Some variations of the process include my use of curves and levels, exposure and brightness and contrast and also cropping using the square ratio tool)

Final - 

This photographic compilation piece focuses on family, old age and gender collective identities. For instance, the photographs depict my Nan completing her daily tasks as a wife, mother and grandmother who is retired; these roles are often domestic due to the socialisation during a different century which has resulted in variant norms and values. My Nan is shown cooking, baking, gardening and caring for family members. For instance, the polaroid of the vanity table shows the multiple portraits of grandchildren on the side and this is a symbolism of family duties. There are many other implicit links to my themes throughout the photographs. This series was to show how collective identities are often interlinked and cannot be seen objectively from one another. As such I wanted the images to be interlinked and use mediums to help form the connotations. For instance, the combination of digital and polaroid camera together is not simply an aesthetic choice but also to draw upon the ideas of age and development over time which is a connection between this shoot and the follow up shoot 4.  

Moreover, the above photographic installation piece is the second part of shoot 3 and follows the same ideas of family, age and gender. The above photographs depict my Grandad going about his jobs and hobbies. The images show various aspects of his life; for instance the motorbike is a project that I and my Grandad have worked on together for a friend of his. The hammer seen in the polaroid is a link to his past as the handle had previously broken and was re-made in 1979 by my Grandad in his workshop which is the shed seen in the photographs. As such, I wanted to show stereotypes and also implicitly contradict them in that my Grandad looks after the Grandchildren too and that I, as a female, can understand engineering and such. I also contradicted some of the mainstream ideas about age in that my Grandad is very able to use a smart phone and tablet and as such I wanted to convey this in one of the photographs. 

Both my Nan and Grandad have very interesting identities and have also helped hugely to shape me and as such I wanted them to shape my photography project and link them with my preparatory shoots and ideas of scrapbooking the important aspects of my life that help to form my own identity as much as their own.