Photoshoots

Overall, I think my project was really successful. When first given the themes of observe, seek, challenge I thought it was difficult to find inspiration as those topics are very broad; they can be interpreted in many different ways. However, after doing research on all three and educating myself on all the topics I could do regarding the themes, I decided to choose the theme ‘seek’. I was drawn in by the idea of ‘seeking the unknown’ exploring and taking photos of places that we might not usually visit in Jersey, places that have been abandoned. I managed to follow my theme of ‘seek’ throughout my work and carry out a number of photoshoots in different locations all with worthy photos. Although the plan for my project was originally quite challenging as I had doubts about the number of places and subjects Id be able to take pictures of in relation to derelict, abandoned buildings and areas; It allowed me to explore Jersey and find out about these places that I didn’t even know were there. This was the main aim for my photobook, to show viewers the side of jersey that has been abandoned and left to kind of rot in both an eerie and beautiful way.

As well as there being a numerous amount of photos that were worthy of being final images, there was also a lot of images that were ruined in different ways. The biggest negative impact on my images was the weather, a few of my photoshoots were carried out when the weather was very overcast and dull, causing my images to be not very interesting colour and tone wise but also underexposed. Another mistake I made (only on one photoshoot) was having my camera on the wrong aperture setting, this made nearly half my images from that shoot either very black or fully black; I managed to save a few by adjusting features of the image such as the exposure, whites, blacks, shadows and changing the saturation of certain colours. However, even though that was an issue it didn’t effect my project on a whole as I had many other photos from different photoshoots and also I took enough photos in the photoshoot that happened to.

Photobook

My photobook on a whole, I think, was very successful. All my images fitted into the templates efficiently and if they didn’t I was able to manipulate and change the image size on the page to fit well. I like the outcome of the front and back cover, I think this is one of the most important features of the book as it is the first thing you look at, your initial thought on the book. I chose the front cover image carefully as I wanted the perfect image. I decided to choose the most colourful image I had as I wanted my book to stand out, as well as it being bright it also demonstrates what the rest of my book is going to be about. It displays the side wall of an abandoned hotel, the image contains a few windows of which are either smashed or breaking and also rusty railings. The colour and brightness comes from the sunset which was shining onto the side of the building creating a pink hue across the photo. I decided to make the back cover image another quite colourful image to draw attention, but also displaying smashed glass. I wanted to link it to the front cover. The front cover is showing the abandoned building, with all the smashed windows from an outside point of view; and then the back cover is showing a close up of smashed glass so it kind of follows on from the front cover. I decided to make the colour of the spine a dark purple colour, this was because the main colour of the front is pink and main colour of the back is blue, therefore, making it purple just allowed it to blend in a bit more. I then put the title of my book (‘seek’) and my full name on the spine but in a slightly lighter colour then the background of the spine. This was because any brighter colours were overpowering.

References

I was heavily inspired by the work of Matt Emmett and I think I foreshadowed his work a lot in mine. I wasn’t trying to take images that looked exactly like his I just often found similarities as I took inspiration from him. A few of his images I sort of tried to recreate, only when I found myself in situations were my surroundings looked similar to those of Emmett’s photos. I also found the composition of all Emmett’s work very capturing, the different angles and techniques he used, getting into certain positions to take the photos so there were some repetitive motifs in his work such as shapes, lines, colours. I tried to do this in my work but I was working with more lowkey derelict places compared to his of places from around the world.