Final Exam Photographs
Evaluation
For these photographs, initially decided that i wanted to create surreal photographs of situations which were unlikely to occur. I used objects such as umbrellas and old telephones and placed them in backgrounds such as parks and very snowy areas.
I used acetate to print out about 40 different photographs of people, objects and backgrounds. My aim was to present an idea of ‘meetings’ between photographs and how situations considered “weird”, “surreal” or “unlikely” may still be classified as “true” encounters. I tired to create very unlikely surreal situations similar to the Arnold Layne music video such as someone using an old telephone outside a windmill. I feel that these photographs would again encourage people to think about whether these are real encounters and to what extent are photographs too surreal to feel as though you are encountering the person/place through the photograph.
I varied in the colours as i wanted the photographs to look very disorientated and so the acetate ranged from black and white photographs to very bright and saturated photographs. As i was building these “fake” experiences, I could change the composition of the photographs, creating a stronger appearance. Some photographs were upside down and layered onto each other in the same way to emphasise disorientation but also to make it more confusing and interesting.
Symbolically, I feel as though I have managed to demonstrate a mix of questions on encounters however i do not think it would be easy to decipher without some explanation towards this. The photographs consider a philosophical issue - whether or not we ca have ideas or encounters of things we haven’t directly experienced. If possible, we could have encounters of many considered impossible situations through photographs and have a connection with the places/people, even if they are unaware of such.
End of Project Evaluation
On the whole, I am quite pleased with my initial photographs - this is because I carefully considered which style of photographs could be the most effective expressing the level of symbolism I was aiming for. In my first set of initial photographs, I wanted address the issue of objects which we ignore daily which are quite interesting even though at first they appear dull. In my second set I attempted to present these photographs in a colourful way by brightening buildings taken mostly in the financial districts in London. However, I am more pleased with the third set of photographs i have as they present the a different symbolical meaning of meetings/encounters/experiences between models and viewers and what aspects would i need to consider to ‘break’ these connections and make these encounters unlikely.
I feel that found it difficult to start the project and find the right theme to go through with however the more i experimented, the clearer my creative boundaries were. The developmental photographs of my first and third set of initial photographs helped me the most in considering whether i wanted my photographs to be surreal and sombre or quite documentary. I changed the theme of photographs i was following a lot and this helped me a lot deciding this as well.
I looked at photographers who had used similar techniques and symbolism which i was aiming for and this definitely inspired me in creating these photographs. I found it was very difficult to decide on what techniques were best to experiment with and the research of artists and photographs assisted me in knowing how to present different emotions and symbolism through aspects such as colour and composition. I felt i looked at photographers who are very unique and original with the way they take their photographs. This encouraged me to create photographs very different to pictures i have taken before; for example my colourful London photography inspired by photographer Ted Vancleave.
I am very happy with how my project turned out; I feel that I managed to answer to the brief successfully by considering all three aspects (encounters/experiences/meetings) in ways which are not too obvious or too vague. I feel that my final outcomes were original and represented the kind of development i was approaching throughout the whole of my project. I would have like to create even more of these photographs however, and used photoshop to create even more surreal situations.
If i had more time, I would experiment more with the aspect of experiences and probably developed this with my London photography. I would have like to look at photographers such as Ansel Adams who take photographs of amazing places but create dream-like photographs.
