19th April 2016
Thinking about the way I want my images to be presented, I had an idea to create a photo book. This relates to the context of my images because the name of my project is “REAL” and I am wanting to portray relationships in the truest light. I also had the idea of creating a “perfectly imperfect family album” after getting feedback on my work from my tutor. This really clicked with me and my project idea and desires of portraying something authentic. I have been exploring this idea throughout my project of how the typical family album always portrays everyone in their ‘best light’ – or so society calls it. We see in physical albums but also in social media, how everyone has to paint a smile on and look like everything is perfect when the reality is that it isn’t always rosey. I wanted to oppose this idea and show the real moments of how people interact with one another and share in all moments – good and bad, and celebrate life as a whole. Here is the front and back cover of what the book will look like:
Another aspect of having the images in a book means that the viewer has to physically pick the book up and open it, taking care turning each page and really looking into the book at the images. There is an intimacy within this method – that I feel having the images big on an exhibition wall in frames would not create this same intimacy. There is also an intimacy in looking at other peoples family albums as it’s a representation of the life they share together, so I liked this concept and incorporated it with my idea.
This book will be on show at my end of year show in June – as I am planning to put images in it from throughout the whole of my project (including last semester) so I didn’t think it would be suitable to hand in for this module (as it would have images in it from the last module). I also feel like I photographed a lot of strong images over Christmas towards this idea of ‘real family’ last semester.
In my final images for this semester I am aiming to show at least 2 people in each image because I feel that the focus is the relationships between people and their connection, capturing the realness of that. However within this ‘family album’ there will also be singular portraits included, as their would be in a regular family album. The difference with this portraits will be that they are not posed, as they usually are in common media.
Another presentation idea I have had for the exhibiting part of the end of year show is having 3/4 shelves up the wall (if this is possible with the resources we are given) and having my images presented quite small – either in acrylic blocks or frames. My reasoning behind this would be because in the family home usually when, say, Grandma has all the images of her family and grandchildren presented, they are either in/on a cabinet or presented around the room on shelving or other surfaces. So I wanted to include this traditional homely feel but then switch it up by these images not adhering to the typical posed shots e.g school photographs of grandchildren that would usually be seen upon these shelves.
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- Inspiration – layout – thinking about end of year show
I am looking forward to presenting my work and for people to engage with my concept!
oliviafayewilford 