For this project we’ve been tasked with coming up with the theme ourselves. The concept of that worried me because I was worried I’d be overwhelmed by the freedom to choose whatever I wanted. So my first task was to narrow down what choices I had.
For me the best way to narrow ideas down is to get all of them out on paper and if the past few projects have taught me anything it’s the best way to do that is a mind map.
As you can see the mind map while presenting ideas wasn’t going well, but one idea sprouted when properly thinking about what was meant as theme I thought back to old projects and what the themes properly meant. I concluded that the themes weren’t what was in the photo but what the photo was about, but I was looking at it the opposite way around. Now with this new way of thinking I went for a new and more simplistic approach to generating ideas, just a small list.
I came up with 3 themes all very closely linked but still exploring different things. The first was stories and to me that meant the adventure being written, the process of event to paper in time with events, like someone turning their notes to a tale. The second being legacy, the idea of the time after the story, not too long that it’s a fairy tale, but long enough where that grand adventure is only remembered by pages in a book, the legacy it leaves. The last theme is Myths, the stage of a story when enough time has passed that the tale isn’t believed to be real, all that remains in the pages of the book and nothing else not known to anyone that it actually happened but believed to be just a story, a myth.
Research-Slinkachu
The first of my photographers I’m researching is Slinkachu. Stuart Pantoll or as he’s known as online, Slinkachu is a photographer who uses miniatures, small little figurines from train sets in placement of real people. Using these miniatures he creates small scenes like snippets of a video or movie, all with the intention of telling a short story. The stories he tells through his photos try to show how melancholy it can be to live in a big city, being shown not just through the scenes but also through the titles. Once he has finished with his photoshoot he then leaves the scene there as a public art display, giving his fans to see it in person and people to just stumble upon it. By doing this he aims to make the people living in the areas he visits to be more aware of their surroundings, to notice the small details.
Now the reason I’ve chosen him for this project to research is because of his ability to tell stories through his photos, no words other than a title needed. That’s something that fascinates me and also inspires me, to be able to tell some form of story through one image is incredible, getting so much out of so little.
Research- Gregory Crewsdon
Another Photographer I’m researching is Gregory Crewsdon, Born in Brooklyn in 1962 and became interested in photography at the age of 1 when visiting the Diane Arbus retrospective at the museum of modern art. He studied and graduated from new York’s SUNY purchase school and the Yale university school of art. He now directs Graduate studies in photography at Yale. Crewsdon became interested in the narrative told by photography and how it differs from Film and writing, with it being a frozen moment in time and the open ended questions that can result from it. He likes how ambiguous the stories told from photos can be.
I’ve chosen Crewsdon for two reasons, 1 his work interests me similarly to sliknachu with telling stories through his work however crewsdon works with Human models which, in my opinion, gives his work a more emotional effect compared to Slinkachus. Having real people gives you much more control over expression and body language and that can go a long way in story telling through a visual medium.
My second reason for choosing him is his reason for taking photos for doing what he does, the interest in Narrative and stories and wanting people to be intrigued by the narrative he’s weaving speaks a lot to me. Also choosing to use photography to explore the challenges from it really interests me.
https://independent-photo.com/news/gregory-crewdson
Shoot plan 1
For this first shoot I want to focus on one of the three segments of stories I came up with, this one being legacy, the aftermath of the story. So I’m going to draw inspiration from a game I’ve been playing called Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild.
My aim is to use aspects from both Slinkachu and Crewsdon, drawing inspiration from Slinkachu with his use of figures and props instead of people and Crewsdon with his use of ambiguous story telling
I want this photo to tell the story of a long forgotten warriors sword, left in a location, but make the viewer question why, is this just where the warrior fell? is this where the warrior left his sword after one last battle? or does it mean something much more? Those are the questions I want the viewer to ask.
Now that I’ve finished this shoot I have a few issues with it. The sword doesn’t feel right, it feels like it sticks out too much but not enough at the same time, I think I was too focussed on the environment compared to the real focus of the picture the sword.
If I do this again I want to focus more on perspective, making it look how I want on camera compared to on location. Angle my camera to make the sword seem longer and have it dug further into the ground so it doesn’t look edited in.
Photo essay
A photo essay is a series of images put together to tell a story, originally invented by W.Eugene smith in 1948. I’m wanting to try this out as it could be a possible good format for my story shoot displaying the story as images one after the other like an evidence board. For this shoot in particular I want to make it look like the perspective of me at age 4 walking around the park I went to as a child, having the camera close to the ground and having the colours more vibrant to resemble the way a child sees the world.
Overall I’m mixed on this shoot, I managed to do what I set out but it feels lack lustre and I think that’s in part due to the weather, it was cloudy and raining and made a lot of the environments feel drab. Doing this shoot again I would choose a day where the weather compliments the area better.
Shoot 2, Black and white
This shoot is inspired by Ansel Adams, born 20th of February 1902 Ansel Adams is well known for his stunning black and white landscape images. He wanted to conserve the natural landscapes in his images as well as the wildlife. With these shoots I want to capture the feeling of his images, they’ve always been so impressive to me. I personally am not a black and white nature fan I think A lot of natures beauty comes from the vibrant colours but Ansel Adams managed to capture the beauty even in black and white.
I must say I’m not happy with how this shoot turned out and that’s in part with the location. The sky was Gray already and so it looms blank in the images and the landscape just wasn’t interesting enough. If I were to do this again I’d make sure the weather is good but more importantly make sure the location stands on its own despite the weather.
Shoot 3
This shoot I want to focus on the concept of legacy. Quite honestly this will be a practice shoot, gauging the angles and posing I’ll need for any future shoots using this figure. Also seeing if using the studio for the figure shoots and editing it into location shoots, however I don’t think that will work.
I’m using Slinkachus as my inspiration for this shoot, using his style of using figurines and miniatures to tell a story, however unlike him I’m focusing on the idea of legacy or myth, finding this figure like a statue to some ancient saviour of a world but old and forgotten, no meaning to be found behind it.
shot using a honey comb light filter in a studio it was a quite different type of shoot than I’m used to, despite that I love how this shoot ended up, visually that is. In terms of my aim with the narrative of the soot that is completely lost, however a different idea comes to mind, having these pictures represent the imagery people would have in their mind when hearing the story, it shrouded in darkness with its eyes glowing like the light at the end of a tunnel.
shoot 4
For my fourth shoot I want to work on getting the voltron figures from my previous shoot and take them outside, seeing how well I can get them to blend into their surroundings but still stand out.
Slinkachus figurine shoots is my basis for this shoot, trying to emulate how he makes the plastic figurines work seamlessly into the natural world.
This shoot turned out well, I’m hoping to be able to make it look more worn and old like a relic instead of something pristine.
shoot 5
For this shoot I’m planning to make a kind of test for my final piece, I’ve been thinking and I think I want my final piece to be the desk of a writer, an adventurer who has returned from an adventure and is documenting his time. So for this shoot I want to make a mock up of what that desk could look like. For this shoot I’m pulling from Gregory Crewsdon and his use of visual storytelling.
I’m really happy with how this shoot turned out pretty much how I envisioned and this will work as a really good template for the final shoot, the only issue I had with this shoot is the lighting however that shouldn’t be an issue in the final shoot in the studio.
Shoot 6
For this final shoot I’m wanting to go out into nature and get some shoots to us in the final shoot, recreate the first shoot in a different location but using the same prop and use some other props that will show up in the final shoot. Once these images are done they will be printed out and made to look like polaroid’s to stick around the desk.
These shoots turned out exactly as I wanted, now I need to edit these to enhance colours and edit them into polaroid’s.
Creating light beam
I want these images to look closer to the original inspiration so I’m adding a gradient in yellow at an angle, I then remove the white to instead be transparent. Once that’s done I add a gaussian blur to make the edges more soft to look closer to a sunbeam.
Below are the final edits and edited to look like polaroid’s, I will be cutting out the polaroid sections and hanging them up around the desk as well as placed in the book prop like they’re being stuck in or used for sketches.
Above features all the props I gathered to use to decorate the desk set. I set out to to find some old and rustic looking books and props so they look more worn and will add to the idea that this adventurer uses these books a lot.
Shoot 7 final shoot
This final shoot will be a custom made desk set, using the props gathered previously and assembled in the main photo studio. For this final shoot I’m drawing from Gregory crewsdons interpretive story telling shoots and slinkachus use of props and miniature details to tell stories in his photos as well as W.eugen Smiths use of multiple images in his photo essays to create a narrative, I shall draw from that using the Polaroids.
Overall I am very happy with how this shoot turned out, It translated from my mind and plans exactly how I wanted, granted I missed a few props I wanted but I managed to get alternates that do the job I wanted. The small polaroid’s turned out exactly as I wanted and I look forward to seeing them in A1 size. Doing this differently quite honestly I’d have a bit more variety with props, going for more than just old books and I’d be smarter with where I place things. As well as that I’d work on angling to have a higher perspective and get a better view of the book in the centre.