Notes.

I started to think about what I was doing with my work and realised I wasn't doing anywhere near enough. I wasn't sure where I was going or why I was even doing the work that I was doing. Why was I photographing this one boy? Was it because I thought it would be an easy subject? The truth is, I had no idea what to do with this first project. I'm not into fine art at all so this project has been a real struggle from the start but I'm not doing my art foundation course anymore and I've got to do this myself. I knew that by photographing Sam, he would be available whenever I needed him to be and I know that he looks good on camera. This obviously wasn't a good enough reason. I couldn't just photograph someone because I know they would look good on camera, but unfortunately I'm so used to doing fashion photography that I'm ignorant to the fact that there's more to photography than people looking fantastic. 

Although one thing that I've learned from looking at artists like Nan Goldin is that those people are not random people who have been caught in the moment. They knew she was photographing them; for all we know, they didn't start off as her friends, they started off as people she was employing to photograph. This of course, is just an idea. I'm sure Goldin is just as real as every other artist. 

Therefore I believe it is okay to pick and choose who I want to photograph, whether it's because I like the way they look or whether I don't like the way they look. As long as they fit into the idea and concept that I want to capture then that's fine by me. 

With my model Sam, ignoring the fact that he's available and easy to photograph is that realistically he is a boy growing into a man. This is what I wanted to capture, events of a boy becoming a man. It's the perfect time in his life to capture him on camera because he has just moved from the home he has lived in from being a child, to a new city, not knowing anyone and practically doing everything by himself. Something that everyone goes through at one point in there life. I want to capture the different kind of emotions and create a case study about this one person. 

Crit Feedback

I need to decide which route I want to go down after the crit today. Nan Goldin pretends she is a fly on the wall when realistically, why would anyone let someone photograph them shagging if they didn't know she was there and so on..? She has to put herself in these shocking positions and find situations where she is welcome. 

Do I want to go down the route like Diane A where people can look at the camera and engage or do I want to do a Goldin and be anonymous? How shocking do I want the images to be? I could explore much more intimate imagery with Sam to show how strong the relationship between the subject and the photographer is. I couls also shoot from strange angles like I am looking down on the subject or through a window and so on to become that fly on the wall. 

Artists to look at - 

Nan Goldin 

Diane A

Richard Billingham.

Crit November 7th 2011

The images are a way of exploring the lives of the people around me. I wanted to follow them and see what their reality is. How they live their lives day to day. I looked at the way Nadar started to document people and the way Nan Goldin photographed the vast cultures around her in a completely different light. She used a much more documentary type technique to create her portraits where Nadar didn't have these options and simply took portraiture for a documenting level to a fine art level. I wanted to meet in the middle of these two photographers as I don't want my images to represent documentation but I don't want them to just ooze shock value. They are there to explore the lives of my friends, family and maybe strangers to illustrate their lives, personalities and the people they are to the world. 

A few of my favourite landscape images so far from the current project 'Reality'.

Following the young man around I capturing more scenes from his everyday life to try and connect with him and figure out what kind of person he is. 

This subject of reality has really got me stumped. What is reality? In our tutorials people are going on and on and philosophy and a load of other crap. I'm simply following this young man (my boyfriend ssshhh) and capturing his reality in a documenting format. Quite literally by capturing every angle of the specimen before I begin. I'm shooting in colour on 35mm then processing and printing myself in the snazzy colour darkroom at London College of Communication (I'm learning fast).

A few images exploring reality. I chose to be real simple about the whole thing. I'm now at University of The Arts London and the game has got much harder so I'm sticking to what I know for now. Portraiture & fashion. It's my first crit on Monday and to be honest I have done very little. It's a lot different being in now and again compared to last year when I was in every day!