Assignment 1: Draft Submission

This assignment is the first time I have ever photographed a set of strangers who were posing knowingly, therefore not just in passing in a street for example. I found that it was fairly terrifying approaching the first subject but that it got easier as I progressed. I also found that taking time to talk to each subject, getting to know them, before taking my shots helped both me and the subject feel more at ease. As a way of saying thank you, I also offered to bring a print for each person. All of this approach is how I recently heard Martin Parr describe how he goes about engaging with a subject for a posed portrait when he was talking at a Photo London seminar (Parr, 2019).

For the assignment I decided to employ the typology method and chose to photograph “Gardeners of Eastcombe Allotments”.

For each subject I took one photograph framing their face and one from a slightly wider standpoint so as to show some context for each subject. I also took care to take the same framing decisions for each image in the same manner as August Sander, paying particular attention to the position of the horizon in relation to the subject and the correct focussing on the subjects’ faces.

The contact sheets at the end of this draft assignment show three sets of images. Set 1 is the close up portraits, Set 2 is the broader perspective and Set 3 is the combination of what I think is the best image of the two for each subject. Set 4 is a black and white version of Set 1.

Whilst Set 3 contains what I think are the best images, for the sake of a consistent set, I felt it was necessary to select a set of images that were of the same perspective. I have therefore chosen Set 2 as my assignment images and these are shown individually below. I chose to remain with the colour images and discard Set 4 as I have no reason to switch to black and white for this assignment.

I have chosen Set 2 because although I actually prefer Set 1 as a set of images of the people themselves, I feel that Set 2 shows more context and therefore helps to emphasise the typology aspect of the set. There is also a consistency in that each subject is holding a tool or something about their gardening whereas this is not common (or at least not visible) in Set 1.