For this first assignment we were asked to take a series of photographs that “respond to the concept square mile”. This is the concept of finding inspiration in your immediate surroundings. It is a welsh concept that is described in our books by Professor Mike Pearson. The idea of this task as stated in the book is to introduce ourselves to our tutors. Show who we are via our photography. For this task I decided to shoot my current living space. I believe that are bedrooms or homes is a reflection of the person that resides there. So I couldn’t think of a better way to show you who I am. My bedroom is my immediate surrounding first thing in the morning, its my immediate surroundings during my evening wind down, whilst I sleep and whilst I’m writing this. They say that a person is their truest version of themselves at home, so I thought I’d share my true self. Sharing my interests and personal tastes, as they are hinted at throughout my room, my immediate space and these things inspire me. Below is my series of 12 shots that I felt looked and sat the best together.
- My Initial response to the brief?
My initial response was excited. Straight away, upon reading the brief about three/four ideas sprung to mind. Picking which idea to go with was a bit hard as all of the ideas involved some emotional attachment, whether it be childhood nostalgia or the difficult change of recent unsettling, upsetting events. However, I wanted to keep this assignment a little challenging. I’ve spent a lot of time photographing my real bedroom, so I knew it wasn’t going to be much of a challenge. Because some of horrible events, I’ve been forced out of that home and room temporarily. I decided to make the most of that and photograph elements of the room I’m now in. There are hints of me scattered everywhere and it is yourself that makes a space what it is.
- What have I learned from the photographers I researched?
There were two photographers to research for this product, the first being Dan Holdsworth. Holdsworth is a British photographer who takes large scale photos in a digital art style. Some of his work I found to be quite abstract, however what most intrigued me about his work was the tone and the colours of majority of the work I looked at. Majority of his work had a warm, earthy tone to them. I wanted to incorportate this element of his work into my images as I find that warm tone to be comforting and homely. It gives an inviting feel which is what I tried to do with my images. As I’m inviting you to get to know me.
The second photographer we looked into was Tom Hunter. Hunter is a British photographer, his photos are inspired on classic paintings and reworking them. I looked into a series of his photos called “the ghetto series”. This series was photos in of people in their homes. To me this series was showing people making the best of what they had but also how individuals make their space their own. These images again feature a similar warm tone that I mention above. This warm tone I love to see in a photography, I feel it sets a mood and I wanted to incorporate that into my photos too.
- What was my technical approach to the assignment? What techniques did you do to make it?
As for the technical stuff to the assignment, I’m not too big on technical. However I did shoot with 50mm f/1.8 lens for this as I have shot photos of my room with it before and liked the outcome. I love shooting on this lens because I love keeping the aperture open as much as possible because I love that shallow depth of field. I know its not technically such a “desirable” effect in the world of technically photography, but it is something I see as a technique, and do like to incorporate into imagery where I see fit. Also for this, my room might have a large window, but the lighting that comes through it is rather terrible. So I planned for late morning shoot as I wanted to shoot in day light and that Is when the light is at its best. Also, for some of the record shots, I decided to incorporate a little of the stillness and movement project. So I slowed my shutter speed down to 1/15th to get a bit of blur on the record. I thought that’d be a nice element to tie into this final assignment. Lastly, where I was taking a few pictures in cupboards being blocked by light coming in through the window, they did get a bit dark, so I played around more with ISO during this shoot. It’s not something I typically change too much throughout a shoot but for this I decided to do so. I ended up down at ISO 600 in some of the cupboards. But most of the shoot was done at 400 as it was a rather gloomy light.
- My opinion on how I did?
I definitely feel these shots would of come out a lot better had I of been in my own proper room and not one I had to temporarily move into while mine is unsafe. However, considering having to work out the best time to take the shots, and try and look for the best angles for the shots too was a bit challenging. In my proper room, I kind of know the angles to shoot, what time of the day is best to shoot for the light that comes through. So having to plan and figure that out for a new place was a challenge. The photos I feel aren’t too bad however, I think they could have been a lot better, I think after spending more time in this room and as it becomes more myself, I’ll find it easier to capture. I do think majority of the photos fit together in the series, but some I feel are slightly off, I did try to make the feel and fit together even if not all same in colour, I believe they are similar in tone. If I could improve on this challenge it would be to be able to shoot in my proper room which I’m currently unable to go to so. Exploring this current temporary room wasn’t too bad, I might even have to use it again. Its good to try and shoot in different places with different lighting, and atmosphere, as a photographer you need to be ready to shoot in any environment, which is why I was happy to try shoot somewhere I hadn’t before, because I want these kind of experiences for when I do become a professional photographer.
Below is the contact sheet for the whole series of photos that I shot.
Thanks for reading and as always your feedback is welcome.
GPowell OCA Photography 