Technical and Visual

I think the technical quality of the images is high.  I used a fixed 50mm lens on my full-frame DSLR and the shots were taken with very wide apertures to throw the background out of focus, typically f2.0.  In all cases the focus is sharp on the subject’s eyes, which is where I wanted it to be.  This is critical to get right, on some of the shots the focus can be seen to fall away even on the person’s ears so a small mistake would spoil the shot.

Visually I am pleased with the consistency of the images, it is clear that they are a set, and it is clear where the scenes are located.

I considered black and white simply to see what it looked like, but there was no creative reason to make the change and I felt that the conversion detracted from the greens of the garden setting.

In Set 3, which is my choice of what I think is the best individual picture for each subject, it can be seen that there is mix of orientations.  This was a mistake on my part.  I had thought about orientation before hand but during the shoot it slipped my mind and as a result, I have a mix.  What this has done is prevent me from creating a final set of what I think are the best individual images as I feel the set works better when the images are all the same orientation.  I have got away with this mistake as I still have a good set but this is something to bear in mind for the future when creating new images that will ultimately become a set; it might save having to discard a favourite image to achieve the set I want.

Quality of Outcome

I am pleased with the quality of this assignment on two counts.  

Firstly each image within the set achieves the aim I set out to achieve, it shows the individual in the context of their environment which for the typology I have defined “Gardeners of Eastcombe Allotments” is the allotments themselves, and it shows a hint of the subjects’ characters.

Secondly, I am also pleased with the way the images are clearly part of a set.  All are framed similarly and each person is holding something related to the gardening.

Since taking the shots, I have realised that I am fortuitous that each of the images meets the criteria as I did not take any spare shots.  If anyone had blinked or if the focus had been slightly off the eye, I would have had to switch to the other set.  This is a lesson I learned on Assignment 5 for the Context and Narrative course where I was not so lucky but on this assignment, I was so glad to get the ‘trauma’ of approaching strangers out of the way that I did not take the time to take multiple shots.  I need to remember to slow down even if I feel under pressure.

Creativity

The technique I adopted to take these images seems to have worked well.  I spent time talking to the subject and getting to know them before I started to take the images. Apart from putting both of us more at ease, this enabled me to get a feel for the person’s character and I heard some fascinating stories about their backgrounds.  The man in “Man holding strawberries, Eastcombe” turned out to be an Associate of the RPS and a photographer for the RHS, which made it all slightly daunting to take his photographs! With their character in mind, I then directed the subject into a specific pose that I thought reflected what I had learned of their personality. 

This technique is a whole new process for me and one that I have never attempted even in a studio setting where one might expect it to be used.  I was surprised at how willing everybody was to have their photograph taken and how non-traumatic the whole exercise was once I had got over the hurdle of asking the first person.  This will be an assignment that I think I will remember for a long time and will serve to re-assure me when having to do something similar – but I feel that is the whole point of the assignment.

As a thank you to the subjects for agreeing to pose, I offered to produce a print.  Everybody was quite excited at this prospect and it was said as genuine gratitude rather than as a bribe or manipulation; it is a part of the process that I will always try to incorporate.

Context and Research

The inspiration for my typology approach, and the consistency in framing comes from August Sander and his works, particularly the type “The Farmers” (Tate, n.d.).

In terms of the technique I used to get to know the people.  I was first inspired by listening to a talk by Martin Parr (Parr, 2019) where he described how he approaches people, explains what he is doing and would like to achieve and how he gives them a print as a thank you.  I think without this, I may have just clumsily asked the person if I could take the photograph, rushed through it and left. This would have prevented me understanding their character and getting the poses that I wanted so it is good learning.

I also found the write up from fellow OCA student David Leverett (Leverett, 2018) very useful.  In his blog post, he has extracted a set of basic principles to follow when approaching strangers.  His source is a youtube video from Street Style Toronto (Street Style Toronto, 2016) which is also useful to watch to see the techniques in action. Watching this gave me the confidence to approach strangers.  A technique in the video that I did not follow was to hand out business cards to allow the subjects to go and look for themselves at the end product.  I think that this is something that I will do in future; because my subjects were found at Eastcombe Allotments, I will be able to find them again to give them their prints but this will not always be the case.

Bibliography

Tate. (n.d.). Five things to know: August Sander – List | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/august-sander-5319/lists/five-things-know-august-sander [Accessed 29 May 2019].

Parr, M (2019) Photo London: Martin Parr. London [Lecture at Photo London, Somerset House,  16 May 2019] 

Leverett, D. (2018). Research – How to approach strangers for photos. [online] David Leverett. Available at: https://davidleverettblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/how-to-approach-strangers-for-photos/#more-6308 [Accessed 13 Jun. 2019].

Street Style Toronto (2016). How to Approach Strangers. [online-video] Available at: https://youtu.be/uJnAkWq6Ur0 [Accessed 13 Jun. 2019].