This week, I had to hand in my work that I have done so far for this project. For the project, our task is to have two final colour prints, alone with contact sheets and research based on six different artists of my choice. The projects theme this semester is based on Portraiture. Many ideas come to mind when looking at portraiture and how I can interpret it in my own way.
After brainstorming many ideas, I narrowed it down to three main ideas:
1) People holding an object which represents them (eg. a guitar)
2) People and their careers- work environment
3) Dressing up in peoples clothes- comparing to what they looked like in old photos.
During a group tutorials and talking about my proposal, I decided to go with my second choice which was to look and people and their work environments. Once I chose my final idea, I started looking into a number of photographers who have done work similar to my idea. I eventually came across John Londei, a photographer who did a series of images called ‘Shutting Up Shop’. This series is based on owners and employes being photographed outside of their work places. For fourteen years, he focused on this project ( alongside others) and looked at vintage shops in particular. As well as that, he photographed tobacco, tea, music and other various shops.
Using a medium format camera for the first time was quite scary ( due to the fact I had never used one before!). However, once I had done one roll of film I found it easier as I went along. Doing colour prints this time around is much more complicated than the black and white darkroom. On the other hand, I enjoy it more because I get to learn more complicated stuff, and i’ve discovered more techniques that are useful such as the use of filters.
Overall, I felt that my final two images related to John Londei’s work. I preferred one of the images to the other, but I am hoping to improve that in the future.
Representation 