The photos within the series seem to have a theme of open spaces, whether it be physically capturing a wide shot of an environment or positioning subjects in the frame so that they are surrounded by their background. I think this is a clever compositional technique to emphasise the feeling of loneliness. My favourite image is of a man drinking in front of a snowy caravan. I love the colours within this photo, the contrast between the light blue sky and the man’s pale amber outfit is striking against the white snow. This neutral-toned colour palette suggests a feeling of tranquility, which is also mirrored in the relaxed posture of the subject. I think this is further emphasised by the way this photo has been edited, the warm tones remind me of old film photos found in a family album, it gives me a comforting sense of nostalgia. However, the composition of this image could also connote a voyeuristsic quality. The way the subject and caravan have been framed by the surrounding trees and car, could make the viewer feel as though they are hiding behind these objects, watching this man continue with his day-today activities of drinking his coffee or tea. 

https://phmuseum.com/louiseamelie_aljazfuis/story/off-worlds-74cd88f017?v=g#g

The series has been arguably captured with an objective quality, the subjects have all been photographed at an eye level vantage point, the same distance from the camera having similar poses, with a neutral lighting set up. The distorted faces remove the subject’s identity and therefore a viewer’s ability to relate to them emotionally in a traditional way, reflecting the concept of the project well. That being said, these photos are still subjective, some subjects are captured with different coloured clothes and backgrounds, hinting at a deeper narrative and perhaps a sense of individuality despite the similar format. This is emphasised when viewing these images as a collection, visibly being able to compare them side by side encourages the viewer to question the context of these photos. Additionally, the physical alterations made to each photograph could build a sense of connection between the viewer and photographer. Having a handmade element intertwined within this project communicates a personal type of expression, allowing the viewer to identify with the photographer and perhaps the distorted subject as well.

https://phmuseum.com/news/constructing-new-identities-on-social-media

The photo containing the two chairs is one of my favourites. Their vibrant nature combined with the lack of visual interest in the rest of the image, encourages the viewer to consider the story they are involved in. The way the two chairs are positioned could make the observer contemplate the relationship between the two people who sit in them. This links to the smaller, archived photo positioned on the yellow chair. It displays a man and a woman, echoing the two people who might own the colourful chairs. Additionally, the main photo has been taken using flash, suggesting an authentic documentation mirroring that of a paparazzi photo. Exploring this project has pushed me to think about how I might suggest my own narrative through the objects I want to photograph.

https://www.deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org/en/collect/artists/jana-bissdorf.php

The photograph of the yellow and brown room with the six red chairs has a strong colour palette and overall symmetry reminiscent of a Wes Anderson movie. The leading lines from the tiles on the floor and walls draw the viewer’s eye to the chairs, which have been left askew to suggest human existence. Fitting with the theme of a movie, this image reminds me of an American diner scene, a place where people would go to catch up with friends or take a break from a road trip, perfectly reflecting the photographer’s concept. Although this aspect of the photo could make the image seem fictitious, the technical elements of this photo suggest actuality. The wide depth of field ensures we see every detail, and the straight-on angle and neutral lighting mimic how a person would see this room in real life. I really like the idea that Klose has used photography, a medium which allows moments to be captured or ‘paused’ in time, to depict spaces where people also go to pause and take a break from their busy lives.

https://www.deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org/en/collect/artists/matthias-klose.php

I think my favourite image is the one of my mum sat in her arm chair. I like that only her face is blurred, I think it could encourage the viewer to take a closer look at this image which might be perceived as normal at a first glance. I think the shutter speed has effectively concealed enough of her face while also allowing slight aspects of her features to be seen. I also really like the composition, the amount of space around her gives the viewer a chance to establish a larger context and narrative. Additionally, the wide depth of field allows the details in the bookshelf behind to be explored. I think taking this approach of a wide depth of field when photographing my mum’s environment or objects will be useful to convey the idea of a narrative. 

I’m happy with how this shoot went and it’s allowed me to grasp a stronger idea of how different styles of photography can influence the way an image is understood. This will be useful in future shoots when thinking about the best ways to represent the themes within my images. 

The film still showing the cat pencil holder and the mug with the man’s face on, is from Stewart’s office, the step-dad of one of the main characters. He’s shown in the film smoking a joint with video games playing on the monitor behind him. He returns a paper to his step-daughter which he ‘proofread’, but she claims he essentially rewrote the essay. From the close-up shot, his superiority is mirrored in not only his ownership of a mug with his own selfie on it, but also that it is positioned in the centre of the frame. The only other object in complete focus is the pencil holder with an illustration of a cat on the front. This could imply ideas around his job and suggest a lack of maturity, which is further strengthened by the out of focus rubbish surrounding the two objects. Without this image’s context, I would assume this has been photographed from a student’s desk, not one belonging to a middle-aged father figure. I think the objective use of soft lighting and a straight-on angle, paired with a shallow depth of field, helps the audience to recognise the main elements of this image and create quick associations. This is an effective technique when considering the image’s media context, a movie only allows these shots to be shown for a short amount of time, so they need to create a fast impact. This approach will be useful for me to think about if I would like to produce a similar effect in my own photographs.

I don’t own a lot of adjustable, small lamps, so I knew I’d need to use sunlight as my primary light source. My first attempt was on a very sunny day and the direct sunlight produced harsh shadows which wasn’t my desired outcome. I tried to diffuse the light by sticking white paper to the window, but this made the room too dark. For my second attempt, I chose an overcast day to ensure softer lighting and added smaller lamps to produce even more light and remove as many shadows as possible. As ‘The Set Up’ shot to the right shows, I also managed to find a white table cloth and position it into a curved shape. My research suggested that this was an effective way to make the background look seamless and allows the light to bounce back onto the object.

I tried to position the objects aesthetically and took photos using my tripod to ensure continuity. As the ‘Before and After Shots’ to the right show, the original photo had some issues. My room and table cloth weren’t wide enough to provide a full white background, and the fabric has multiple wrinkles throughout. I opened the images in Photoshop and used the clone stamp to remove the unwanted background and wrinkles. Additionally, I thought some of the bigger objects filled too much of the frame so I researched how to alter this. I ended up using the crop tool to enlarge the photos and ticked the 'content-aware' box to extend the white background seamlessly. 

When presenting these photos, I chose to group them into small categories supporting a grid-like formation. The first row being articles worn by my mum, the second row being objects relating to her hobbies, the third row being items she uses daily and the fourth being decorative pieces. 

The final outcome of this shoot does achieve what I’d initially aimed for, but I’m not sure if I like how blended the white background looks. I feel like the enhanced and perfected quality of the background borders on looking too fake, and therefore could deter from the objective nature I wanted these images to have. That being said, I definitely prefer it to the wrinkles which I think would be slightly distracting, but I think next time I would use a large piece of white card to avoid these issues. 

Moving forward, I think it could be effective to take portraits of my mum and contrast those more subjective shots with these objective images. It could be interesting to see how I could experiment with this idea and also incorporate all the shoots taken so far with portraiture.

In particular I really like the photo of the women in a green outfit. Due to the low cut of her dress, it could be easy to associate this with societal ideas surrounding scandal and therefore sexualisation, however with this photo I don’t see those connotations. The model seems to have agency within the image, she appears confident in her posture and identity. I think this is further strengthened by the photographer also being a women, which has reduced the appeasement of the ‘the male gaze’. She is not being displayed to be ‘looked at’, she is embracing her own narrative and seems to have control over her actions and sense of self. I think this is interesting considering it is a staged image, but I think the technical aspects of this photos make it seem more natural. The use of flash makes it seem as though the image has been caught in motion. Combining this with the choice of clothing and jewellery, which could express ideas of wealth and sophistication, this model looks as though she has been caught backstage before an event or catwalk. The close cropping also gives a sense of intrigue, encouraging the viewer to wonder what she is looking at and what lies beyond the frame.

I took two sets of photos, the first captured my mum physically holding the old photos and the other captured only her, so I could overlay the old photos on top in Photoshop. I wanted to see how each approach could impact the understanding of the final image and how they might create deeper links between not only my mum and her relationship to the old image, but how the viewer establishes an emotional connection to the photographs. I thought carefully about which old photos to use and their position within the frame while also considering how this might relate to my mums poses and/or environment. 

When selecting the final images, I tried to include both contrasting and complimentary imagery between the old photos and my mum. For example, I think the photo showing the back of my mum, with the old pair of passport photos next to her seems quite complimentary. To me, it’s as though we are seeing her taking these passport photos within the image, she is facing away and the old photo is showing the view from the other side from a different time, it’s like we are seeing another dimension within this two-dimensional image. On the other hand, the photograph of my mum’s profile with an old image of her with her mum and brother outside the supermarket, could be seen as contrasting. My mum is alone in her home with a sparse, plain backdrop, while the older image is depicting a scene of family within a social setting. One image that I think combines both complimentary and contrasting elements is of my mum leaning sideways with the older photo of her home in Libera placed over the top. The landscape outline leads up into the path of her shoulder, suggesting a strong connection between her and the image, but the juxtaposition of the nature against her British home sparks interest.

After completing this shoot and looking at the images, I do prefer those that contain old photos from the photo albums over those containing my previous shoots. This was not my intention and I originally wanted more containing my previous shoots, but I think during editing I realised the older photos suggested more of a narrative and seemed to fit better with the images I’d captured of my mum. On the right are three examples of this. They contain images from previous shoots which I feel don’t work as well due to a disconnect between the object/environment and my mum. The other three incorporate old photos which I do believe contain interesting imagery, but ultimately they aren't as visually pleasing as the photos on the left.

Additionally, a larger amount of the images I found successful are from the set edited in Photoshop. Although I do feel that the images of my mum physically holding a photo suggest more of a physical connection, I found that I had a lot more freedom to establish a visual connection between my mum and the old image in Photoshop due to the editing process.

Overall I’m really happy with the outcome and I do think these images provide the strong impact I’d hoped for. However, because I couldn’t successfully incorporate a lot of my previous work in this series, I want to try other methods of doing this in my next shoot.

I really connect to Jones’ concept and love her experimental approach towards photography and how this pushes her images past their original, flat form. One of my favourite images is of the fragmented woman. The shapes of the smaller cuttings remind me of shards from a broken mirror. Perhaps suggesting ideas around people's perceptions of beauty and how you might view yourself in the mirror, but never see the true reflection of yourself, only a distorted and broken version linking to society's unachievable goals of beauty and perfection. I also think the close crop emphasises a feeling of intimacy, this is further strengthened by the direct eye contact from the model. The viewer is given a direct emotional connection to the women with no further form of context and understands a feeling of struggle or despair from the fragmented pieces and her facial expression. I think this technique is very effective and implementing this within my own work could be useful to establish similar emotional connections.

https://www.rosannajones.co.uk/

After looking back at my project as a whole, I feel as though my images became slightly stronger with each shoot. The first few shoots are my least favourite, most of the photos seem to lack impact aesthetically, this might be because I was a little out of practice and needed time to improve. But it could also be because I prefer portrait and editorial photography, and therefore felt more passionate in the final shoots than I did in the first few. 

All that being said, I'm happy with the outcome of my final images and I'm proud of what I managed to produce under the current limitations. I was worried I would struggle during this project, but instead, being restricted to my home environment forced me to think creatively for my work. It encouraged me to experiment with different technical skills and editing techniques that I might not have tried otherwise. I particularly enjoyed manipulating my images, and although I didn’t end up using them for my final selection, I’d love to develop this approach in the future. Perhaps creating a physical glitch with this method in order to critique another aspect of social media. 

Although I think this sequencing is interesting, I don’t think it demonstrates my concept effectively. Additionally, for my final presentation I need to consider how my photos would look displayed on a wall. With this in mind, my next steps will involve developing my ideas and formulating a better arrangement for my series.