Assignment 3: thoughts

Assignment 3 is all about monochrome.

My problem is that I think in colour, I see in colour and all my creative ideas seem to be in colour! What to do?

The house project is a good one. It will turn into a substantial piece of work (my first) and is expansive, easy to explain and an interesting typographical study of the area where I live. I don't want to 'waste' it by converting a selection to mono and using them for this assignment, because i'm worried then the larger, colour project won't be as strong. So that idea is out.

Next  I thought about a personal project focusing on my elder son, who is almost 3 - a kind of a 'day in the life'. This would work except that he is so colourful and interested in bright colourful things (I have some great photos of him eating raspberries, playing with lego etc, not good ideas for a mono project), so that is out too.

I also had the idea of the 'selection of infinite views', but I'm not happy with how this is progressing (I will post some images on my blog soon) and I don't feel like the project is clearly defined and I'm not sure of the direction I want to go with it.

I have also thought about a portrait project, mainly of my husband. As we get older I can see we are changing and want to capture this. But I'm not a people photographer and I think this will result in quite a forced project that won't really be 'me'...

Then I thought about a documentary project of people working at the farm across the road from where we live. This idea has potential. I shot some images last week, though have not managed to get them onto my computer due to some technical issues with my card reader. I have probably got four or five good images from my first outing, and the advantage of this project is that it is close by and easy to access, though slightly challenging with a baby in tow... Thinking about my tutors suggestions of project definition:

Succinct: A documentary style portrait of the farm; volunteers and staff working.
Expansive: Well as long as I live here I can capture the different aspects of 'work at the farm'.
Managable: Good location and easy access for the public.
Readily contextualized: Well I should research similar projects and get some ideas of what to capture.

Documentary has a history of being captured in monochrome, which means that this idea is well suited to mono. This enables the subject matter to come across strongly and not be swamped with colours. I can concentrate on form and structure in my images instead of worrying about colour. Though I can use the colours carefully if I want to enhance part of my image and then tweak this in post-processing afterwards. I will continue to think carefully about this project and start some research and see how it goes. In the meantime I will have to think of other potential ideas in case this one doesn't work!

Houses (first mockup)

An example of a first mockup below for my house project:

I'm pretty happy with the first version above, it's a little awkward getting the sizing right but I have got it eventually.

I have avoided images with cars, and also carefully chosen houses with the sun incident on the front of them as this gives a more interesting image and the sky is a deeper blue. I have also slightly increased the saturation of the blue using the sliders in Lightroom.

I will probably take a break for a while on this project as I concentrate on thinking about what to do for Assignment 3: Monochrome.

Houses (colour)

I have had a (very helpful) suggestion from fellow student Eileen, to present these images in colour series instead of monochrome. Of course that would mean it was not appropriate for Assignment 3, but as I am trying to think beyond just the course and into my own personal projects, this is not a problem for me. I can see what she is saying - the bright colours of the houses contrast nicely with the brilliant blue skies so common here in Queensland, and it is bold and uniquely Australian. Of course I still think the mono images have punch, and the blue skies contribute to this also... Hmm, what to do. Below are two for comparison, mono and colour.

I think this second set of houses decides it for me - the colours of the roof and windows are just so vibrant! Though I still like the mono image too... decisions, decisions... I guess it comes down to the fact that I think I'm a colour photographer at heart. Though I quite like mono images, I'm still very strongly drawn to colour and all it's vibrancy.

Looks like it's back to the drawing board for Assignment 3 (no worries, I have lots of time!), but onwards and forwards for this exciting 'house' project! I am also busy doing research into this field of photography which I will blog about soon. I plan on re-shooting some images and starting to group them together in preparation for arranging them in a grid which I think will be the most effective way of showing them together - similarities and differences. Looks like I'll also need to bring them into Photoshop to correct some stray verticals that are still a bit wonky after being corrected in Lightroom. I don't  think you can do perspective correction in Lightroom, though the ability to rotate the image slightly is very useful.

Houses

I now have about 30 good images for this project. It is nice to finally have a coherent, cohesive set of images that really do tell a story about the neighbourhood where I live.

Below are the 21 images that rate above 3 star for my system. I am having some doubts about the 'labelling' of these images, that I was thinking of doing. I have the idea of labelling the houses with a self-attribute, such as 'mum', or 'photographer'. I'm wondering if this is a little clichéd  But it does mean something to me, and I recognise the feeling of identifying with others as being similar, but also different, but I'm worried I'm trying to put too much into it by adding the labels. Perhaps I should just let them stand on their own?

So far I have 'optimized' the colour version of each image, done some preliminary straightening (some of the hills are quite steep here) and done a little cropping. I have purposely tried to not choose houses with cars out the front (on the street) as I think it distracts from the image.

At the moment I have only done one version of the mono, in a high contrast dramatic black and white, but I need to experiment with this more.

I am feeling very happy with the images thus far, but am a bit unsure about the idea of the self-portrait... I need to do some more thinking over the next few weeks. I also will need to experiment with getting some images printed, perhaps on different paper for mono, and think about my framing...

Future Project Ideas

Now might be a good time to step back and do some thinking and note taking for future projects. I have been busy working through the exercises and thinking carefully about what my next assignment topic will be. I have some ideas, that I have mentioned previously on this blog. They are:

A selection of infinite views
Photographs all taken from one (small) location to emphasise the variety and scale and interesting viewpoints that can be achieved from just one geographical location. I had thought to entitle/label each image with the orientation it was taken in and time of day. 

I have already started taking photos for this project and have a couple that I like. I'm not sure it's interesting enough as a project, even though I find it interesting... This would be a monochrome project as I search for shapes and patterns. It is a possible contender for Assignment 3.

Houses/Self-Portrait
This project focusses on my reactions of having my house 'open for inspection' every week and what my house says about me. I am investigating this by photographing the front of other peoples houses, in a consistent manner, and then assuming that the people who live there, share similar 'characteristics' or labels as myself. I am going to title each image with a label that I have put on myself (e.g. Mother, Geophysicist, Photographer, Gardener). This comes back to the theme of 'we are all the same, yet all unique', and investigates how we present to the world through our possessions, in this case, our home.

I really like how this project is developing. This is a contender for Assignment 3. I think the houses look quite interesting in black and white, and the shapes and patterns are more dominant than in the colour versions. If it is to be a successful series, then I need to consider being very consistent in my processing. If the labels are to be such a big part of the image then I need to add them in using Photoshop as part of the border of the image. I will need to experiment with font and layout to get the best results. Not having done this sort of project before, it will take some time and careful planning.

In order for this project to be a success, I have to do some careful research and consider the important of other peoples work in this area. I don't want the project to be a 'what the???' and so need to make sure that the images match the text very well and that the project hangs together as a whole. If that means re-shooting or reprocessing at any point then that is what I have to do. I don't want the concept to become greater than the whole.

Gay Marriage
This is a hot topic in Australia. It is constantly being brought up in parliament, and then shot down again. I have some friends who are gay and I believe that everyone should have the same rights, which include getting married if they want to. I wondered about a photographic project of gay/lesbian couples in their own homes, or going about their daily lives, doing all the same things that heterosexual couples do. This would emphasise that they are just the same as us, and therefore should have the same rights as us (I realise this is quite simplistic). The problem with trying to depict people doing normal everyday things is that they look normal and everyday and thus might not make an interesting photography project! Nonetheless, it's on my list of possible future projects.

This project would require approaching people (possibly using some online tool like Gumtree) and going to their homes or a mutually agreeable location and photographing them. I think this is probably outside of my ability at the moment, given my responsibilities at home. I think this project will have to go on the backburner.

Road trip
We are planning a sizeable road trip next year, probably taking between 3 and 5 weeks. This will be a big challenge with a 3 year old and 6 month old, but we are both keen to see more of Australia and it seems like a good time for us. I would love to document this trip in detail, picking out all the little things that are not typically photographed by 'mums with camera'. That is, the good, the bad and the ugly side of things! I'd also love to do a Martin-Parr-esque style documentary of the people we meet in the little towns of Australia, as we would be focussing out travel in these towns. And to capture the scenes of life along the way. This would be quite a large project that ideally I would make into a book at the end, I also envision including our 'diary' which I hope to keep with our 3 year old - of pictures drawn along the way, and notes/stories about our adventures, which I would then scan or photograph when we are finished the journey.

I will need to do some more research for this project - look at other peoples work online, perhaps purchase a few photobooks with this theme to know what to look for, and read up about the towns that I will be visiting. This will be a once-off opportunity so I want to be prepared for it.

Architecture of Southbank
The Cultural precinct of Southbank is quite important to Brisbane's history - it was born after the Expo in 1988 and really has marked the city as a modern, cultural city in Australia, which it was not considered previously. As a result, there are many interesting modern buildings in Southbank, an area where I love to photograph. I have thought to go and try to capture the fascinating designs of some of these buildings and do some graphical edgy (monochrome?) images of this area.

I have already taken some photos of this area at night (for Assignment 1) and did some research at that point for architectural photography. I would need to revisit this prior to taking more photos of the area. I would need to make multiple visits (ideally) at multiple times of the day/night which may be slightly challenging.



In summary, I'm going to include the suggestions made by my tutor on well executed mini-projects, to remind myself of what I'm aiming for. I need to ask myself if the above projects can fulfil the brief.

It is succinct - easy and clearly able to be described in one or two sentences. This means you are unlikely to get unnecessarily involved in considering ways to develop your creative response to the brief you have set yourself.

It is expansive - allowing you to develop your core idea in a number of ways, each able to offer different directions and interpretations, so affording the possibility of returning to this subject matter.

It is manageable - planning and executing the assignment is not so great a task that you are unnecessarily distracted from your core aims, to practice your photography.

It is readily contextualised - you engage with accessible research material. This allows you to appreciate the creative and conceptual approaches available to you with the project, supporting a number of possible creative approaches to develop your project