This assignment is carried out during the peak of the lockdown required in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  During this time, the government had created the phrase ‘Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives’ and repeats it on television many times a day.  This assignment is inspired by the first part of that message ‘Stay Home’.  I also wanted to build on Assignment 3, window.  In assignment 3, my window was an insight into what I saw through my own eyes.  In this assignment, I decided to turn the lens onto myself.

One of the things I have learned during Identity and Place, is that photographs improve with age in terms of their interest value.  Thinking of that learning, I wanted to capture many of the things that have become mundane during this time as society has got used to being stuck at home.  I think that in future years, when the world has got past this pandemic, we will all have stories to tell the next generations and I would like to think that these images will support that.  

This being an assignment inspired by words, I also took the time to incorporate some text into my images, the prime example being the alarm clock image which shows the 6 o’clock alarm turned off and the 7:30 alarm on.

Presentation wise, I have chosen not to caption the images beyond the text that inspired the series ‘Stay at Home’.  I made this choice because I want the text to do more than just describe the image, I want the viewer to read the caption and for it to prompt their own memories, jogged by the image, I want them to remember how they dealt with that particular aspect of life, or to wonder at it if it was before their time.  This is a choice that came from my review of Aubrey Wade (see here) where I found that the captions contained so much information that I stopped looking at the image.  

Lastly, to present the images as a set, I have created a montage which is framed by the red and yellow that was used on all of the signs that depicted the slogan that has inspired this set.

Montage

Images

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