- What I'm going to do.
- How I'm going to do it.
- My method/approach and why
- Don't forget prints (three of them)
- Styles and inspirations (use photos)
- Discuss aspects of photography in relation to your prints. Ethics, Denotation, Connotation, Representation
Photography
Project Proposal
My
creative project will be a following a portrait/documentary approach to photography,
where I aim to tell a personal 'picture story' (Bate, D. 2010, p.46) of my
father. I want to capture his identity that I have interpreted as his son; I
shall follow his everyday and leisure activities as an eyewitness. I shall also
be incorporating aspects of lifestyle and personal photography to my autobiographical
array of images in order to enhance its visual narrative in order to create
trust between photographer and observer since "storytelling photography
relies on a blend lifestyle and documentary approaches to shooting in order to
capture authentic moments." (Roa, E. 2015) I want to have some editorial
control over the construction of the images in order to produce my own personal
interpretation about my father's character to my audience through visual
elements and codes within the images, being wary of their authenticity. I chose
these combined styles to approach the project because I have a strong
passion for filmmaking and documentary storytelling and I want to
further explore "the creative treatment of actuality." (Grierson,
J. 1966) coined by the founder of documentary film, John Grierson. As a
photographer, we can choose to manipulate reality in order
to express certain meanings and ideologies about a subject through
the semiotics and construction of the misé-en-scène. The aspects that I will
creatively alter for the project are the components that define portraiture
photography, an approach to photography that I have never attempted before, so I
thought it would be good to challenge for myself in this field.
The
main purpose of my photography project is to trigger a vast array of thought
and discussion for the viewer about their own father and their interpretation
of how capturing someone’s everyday activities can shape an understanding of
their identity, with regards to the class and culture of the human subject. I've
chosen the focus for my project to be on my own father, as I believe when other
people observe this, it can be perceived as voyeuristic. I will take up the
role of being the 'eyewitness' to the events that occur in my father's life
during this project as this will reinforce the concept of voyeurism and create
a contract of visual trust between photographer and audience since the aim of
documentary photography is "to make the spectator into an eyewitness." (Bate,
D. 2010, p.59) The images that I shall capture will be personal to my family
and me by taking something from the private sphere into the public gaze.
Therefore, these images will serve a ‘visual pleasure’ to its audience because
photographs “which depict a normally private or taboo activity and a subject
apparently unaware that they are being photographed, are more explicitly
voyeuristic.” (Sontag, S. 1979 p.11-14)
"Portraiture
is more than just a picture, it's a place of work: a semiotic event for social
identity." (Bate, D. 2010 p. 67) The essence of symbols and signifiers in
my project will be vital in connoting characteristics and creating assumptions
towards my father’s character. The elements of portraiture that I shall control
as the photographer is the selection clothing and locations that will also play
a crucial to the representation of my father’s character since “clothes signify
something about a person’s identity, though the context in which they wear them
– that can also be influenced by the setting – also infers a message about the
depicted person. (Bate, D. 2010, p.78). With regards to the location presented
in the image, settings provides context for the viewer. For example, I will be
using locations such as my home, my father’s workplace, pubs, parks, leisure
centres and so on to contextualise my father’s identity because “the location
and foreground figure form a relationship, a juxtaposition that is crucial in
framing how we see them.” (Bate, D. 2010, p.79) Therefore, I shall have to
carefully select locations and possibly gain permission to shoot in certain
locations as well as being wary of the garments my subject chooses to wear. The
connotations and denotations formed from the elements within my images is an
essential part of creating my desired narrative of my father’s identity. I will
aim to selected fundamental signs and symbols within the settings and
construction of my photographs which will make simpler to decipher when
observed by my audience. Composition will be important in forming a
relationship between observer and the observed on my project. I have attempted
a range of long and medium shots which are visible in my test prints, however I
want to attempt a more close-up angle in the shoots to make a more personal
connection between myself and my subject that will in turn, create a closer and
friendlier relationship between subject and observer by being positioned. On
the other hand, I realised that by doing this, it takes away from the visual
narrative construction I want to manufacture as the focus of the images become
more about the face and expressional elements of portraiture photography – I
want a cohesive balance between all these elements
One
of the inspirations for my project to focus on my own father came from Richard
Billingham's book Ray's A
Laugh (Billingham, R. 2000) This photographic chronicle
is about Billingham's family that have been torn apart through poverty and
alcoholism. His camera closely follows his father Raymond, a chronic alcoholic
living with his wife in a tower block estate in Birmingham. The photos capture
reality with no pretence, however, they possess a formal awareness using
symbols and metaphors to construct meaning from the misé-en-scène within the
location, through what the family own, how they dress, the objects they hang on
their walls or pile up on tables, their furniture and ornaments and so on.
Occasionally, the image construction can be seen to tell a picture story about
Raymond. Take a look at Appendix 1, it's a photo of Ray sitting on the edge of
a bed, his head downcast, the ever-present bottle beneath him with a door key and
some unwrapped slices of bread laid just out of reach: "this is his life
sentence." (Haughey, A. 1997) This technique is something I wish to infuse
in the construction of my own images to tell a story about my father and his
lifestyle through the misé-en-scène.
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Appendix 1 - Raymond in Ray's a laugh [Billingham, R. (2000)]
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Another
one of my inspirations for the project was the work of photographer Tina Barney
and her book Theatre of Manors where
she also, like Billingham, photographs family and friends in their homes.
However, Barney's subjects are rarely ever smiling and tend to have sombre
expressions in comparison to the subjects in Billingham's work, subjects also
tend to have a direct gaze with a strong awareness of the camera, thus the
images appear to be part-artifice and part-spontaneity to the viewer. What
inspired me about Barney's photos is not whom she photographs, but how she
constructs the image around the subject. She creates a navigational space in
her images where as a viewer, we are invited to enter the space with our eyes
and navigate the room around the subject, looking at objects on the shelves,
furniture and ornaments and relate those to the subject(s) she is
photographing. I want to emulate this portrait photographic technique used
by Barney into my portrait-documentary project and create a navigational space
in the various settings that I shall be photographing my father during his
everyday activities to connote certain ideologies about his character. I will
force the viewer to make assumptions about my father’s character via the four
elements of portraiture stated by David Bate "each element affects another
in the overall potential of the meaning." (Bate, D. 2010, p.73) For
example, look at Appendix 2, it of a photo from called "Mom's Dinner Party
(Barney, T. 1997, p. 43). Here, the subject is placed in a dominant central
position in the frame, yet are eyes are drawn to look around the room and we
begin detect tentative clues and construct stories about the central character.
Similarly in Test Print 1, I used a similar style of approach with the
composition, with my father placed central in the photo, yet we are more
attracted to look at his clothes and surrounding rather than his expression.
Creating meaning through misé-en-scène and semiotics will be a key style of
approach to my photographs.
 |
| Appendix 2 - Mom's Dinner Party in Tina Barney: Photographs : Theater of Manners [Barney, T. 1997] |
As
my project focuses purely on my own father, I have to be aware of how I
represent him to my audience, and the ethics behind it. I want to creatively
inform my audience about my father’s character, being a part of the
middle-class British population, whose life may be unfamiliar to them. My
project could be interpreted as a criticism, celebration, reform or support in
terms of how I visual exhibit my father’s identity; however, this is also
dependent on the viewer’s background in how they engage and understand the
meaning of this project. In some of my photographs, the subject will express an
awareness of the camera since these are personal images and they have been
“specifically made to portray the individual as they wish to be seen” (Wells,
L. 2015 p. 138) In fact, the images will portray the individual from my own
understanding of his identity, showing my father from a son’s point-of-view.
The semiotics within the images will connote meanings that could be perceived
differently amongst viewers. For example in Test Print 2, you can see my father
in a science lab/classroom setting wearing a lab-coat, engaged in teaching a
lesson. However, other viewers may observe and deconstruct a totally different
meaning from the photograph – he could be seen as a doctor or a technician or
something totally different altogether. I will have to be wary of the
connotations that could be composed from the misé-en-scène and what and the
different perceptions they could produce.
I
intend to yield to a deep and meaningful insight into my subject’s life,
revealing his identity through his everyday activities, positioning myself as
an eyewitness to the events. Everyone has at some point had a father or father
figure in his or her lives and these photographs may generate different feelings
for different people as well as different ideologies regarding my father’s
character and personality. Viewers may be able to identify with his lifestyle,
others may question it, but this is all depends on the cultural context. My
audience will be forced to gaze into my subject’s personal life and construct a
story about his character. Overall, I hope to construct a personal, positive narrative
of my father by documenting his lifestyle in portraits. They will serve as
memories for me and the rest of my family by capturing my father in his
day-to-day and leisure activities, which according to Jessica Thomason “will
not only depict what his life looked like, but what it felt like.” (Thomason,
J. 2016)
Bibliography
Barney, T. (1997) Tina
Barney: Photographs : Theater of Manners, Zurich: Scalo
Bate, D. (2010) Photography: The Key
Concepts, Berg: Oxford, New York.
Billingham, R. (2000) Ray's A
Laugh, Zurich: Scalo.
Grierson, J. (1966) The
First Principles of Documentary, in
Forsythe Hardy, ed., Grierson
on Documentary (London: Faber & Faber)
Haughey, A. (Winter 1997) Ray's
A Laugh: Review in Source Magazine: Issue 10 [Vol. 3 Number 4]
Roa, E. (2015) Storytelling, Available at: http://www.littlefishphoto.com/storytelling/ (Accessed: 10th March 2016).
Sontag, S. (1979) On Photography, Harmondsworth: Penguin
Thomason, J. (2016) What
is "lifestyle photography"?, Available at: http://jessicathomason.com/what-is-lifestyle-photography/
(Accessed: 14th March 2016).
Wells, L. (2015) Photography:
A Critical Introduction (5th Edition), : Taylor & Francis
Appendix
Production Time-Scale
Easter Break:
My
father will be going away to the Isle of Wight with my mother for a few the
first week of the Easter break before he heads off to the Lake District to do
the Annual Hills and Ales week trek with a few of his friends during the second
week of the Easter break.
During term-time, the only days I can commute to and from London to carry out
photo-shoots is on Wednesdays and weekend. This is due to academic and
employment commitments for both my father and myself. Therefore, I aim to go
back to London once a week a carry out a photo shoot with him. Frustratingly,
my father isn’t available for a majority of the weekends from the Easter break
until the end of term. Thus I will have to travel and carry out a majority of
the shoots on Wednesdays.
Week 8: 4th – 10th April
Wednesday
Shooting Only – Location: Home
Week 9: 11th – 17th April
Wednesday
Shooting Only – Location: Pub
Week
10: 18th – 24th April
Weekend
Shoot – Location: Outdoor Activities
Week 11: 25th – 1st
May
Wednesday
Shooting Only – Location: Family Outing
Week 12: 2nd – 8th
May
Wednesday
and weekend – Any reshooting can be done this week
Budget
My project will force me to commute to my
home in South-West London for every photo-shoot; therefore I'll need to book
trains in advance to save money. If I do travel to and from London once a week,
it will cost me just around £10 per return journey.
In regards to possible props needing to be purchased, my father said he would
cover the costs to an extent. For example, one of my shoots will take place in
one of my father's favourite local pubs in which he shall be drinking ale,
another may take place at my local leisure centre which admittance will need to
be paid. My father will cover these expenses.
With the prints for the final assessment, each A4 print will cost around
£1.50-2 and when the time comes, I will have to decide whether to print it via
the university's resources or to use an external printing provider where I will
have to also pay for the post and packaging for the prints.
Overall, I assume to have a budget of £50 for the expenses of the entire
project.
Equipment:
None of my shoots will need the use of a
studio setting, since life events do not occur in a studio I will be using
natural lighting from the locations in which my shoots take place. However, I
may use a flash gun and light meter for certain shoots that take place indoors
and increase the amount of artificial light in the scene, but I will shall be
wary of the amount of intensity I use with the flash as I want the settings to
appear natural.
I have my own DSLR - Nikon D40X available to use for the shooting, but I shall
be using a Nikon D7000 mainly - If I am unable to book out the D7000, at least
I'll always have a back up camera. I will also need a tripod for the camera
when shooting.
List of Equipment:
- Nikon D40X -
Nikon D7000 - Basic camera tripod - Nikon SB-800 Flashgun
-
Memory Cards/USBs - Light Meter
