Photography: Contact sheets, Kingston, Westfield, Joe and blank shoot.

During my shooting days I decided to explore different areas that I remembered in my journey. The first shoot I did was at Kingston Maurward college, this is the first college that I went to when I left school. During most lunch breaks there was a pond behind the cottage that I used to go to when I was 16. With my contact sheets I decided to gather a lot of images of me sitting on the long bench, eating my lunch. However with the shoots in different angles, taking self portraits and establishing shots. I felt personally that they were not necessary for my documented series. Some of the images I did not use due to composition, some areas in the photographs I took were overexposed and some images depth of field were not up to my standards. The first image I used for my documented series was a photograph of the cottage I went to, taken from a low angle. By using a low angle the building portrays an intimidating perspective, I felt that the composition of the photograph was perfect for me as the building is the main subject that I wanted. The second image I used for my series is the long bench from behind the cottage. I decided to take a mid shot, adding a shallow depth of field with just my coat on the bench. In my opinion, the photograph is quite personal to me as it was a time where I was severally bullied. This is where I used to go to escape and cry as it was fairly secluded from people. With this shoot, I decided to include myself into some self portraits, however most of the images of my face were out of focus. At that time I felt that it was not necessary to include myself in the photographs as it would make it feel too simplistic for readers.   cs-kingston-1cs-kingston-2cs-kingston-3cs-kingston-4cs-kingston-5

For the Westfield shoot on the same day, I managed to get into contact with one of my old teachers, Mr Halloway. Revisiting Westfield school, it felt exciting for me to meet new and old teachers. For this shoot I wanted to recreate a specific memory that occurred when I was little. For the shoot I wanted my teacher, Mr Halloway to give me a piece of chocolate, having myself under the table feeling frightened. I decided to take other photos of myself sat at one of the desks where nobody was around me. Staring at the camera, this would represent how I felt emotionally during my time at school. In the contact sheet I have provided I did not use any of the images as I did not feel that they were powerful enough. I also felt that I was making the shoot a bit simplistic.wf-contact-sheet-1wf-contact-sheet-2During the following week I arranged to do a re-shoot with my teacher and I took some more photos of the table I sat and hid under and also some emotionless self portraits of my teacher. Personally I felt the shoot went well as I felt relaxed and engaged with my teacher during the photo-shoots I undertook. For the two images I want to include in my series is the table and my teacher feeling emotionless as I feel they would correspond to each other quite well. The two images will represent the start of my journey and it will allow my readers to ease into my photobook series.

MH reshoot CS.jpg

During the next shoot with my best friend Joe I wanted to include the people that I’ve met along the way, including people I have lost as well. I felt personally that it would be relevant to include people into my journey rather than focusing on myself. The shoot went well as I was able to capture Joe’s calm and collective emotions. Firstly I decided to set up the shoot in the living room, by using artificial lighting I got the right lighting set up I wanted. I took many photos in different angles so I could choose images that appealed to me for the series. Some of the images I took for tests really helped to get the right white balance for the images. I managed to get a warm colour for Joe’s shoot which was what I was looking for to brighten the room. Very few shoots I dismissed due to overexposed shots of the wall lights and underexposed shots making the wall seem dull.

Joes CS.jpg

 

For the constructed girlfriend shoot, I used my friend “blank” to be a model. For the first image I wanted to capture the place where we shared our first kiss. As a couple, me and her used to go to the movies quite a lot however, I did not want to construct the image in a way where it feels cliche. Initially, I wanted to take the photograph facing towards a amusement sign rather than taking the image in overused locations such as at a restaurant, indoors etc. For the second image…

Leave a comment