Self Evaluation

Self-Evaluation

International Markets and Contexts:

This brief has been one that I have really enjoyed taking part in and I hope it shows in the work I have produced for it, although when we were first given the brief I was worried about not having an interest in it or not being able to produce any work of value, but over the course of the weeks I have grown to get the maximum enjoyment from it and it has been very enjoyable.

My Approach:

I kind of knew what my idea was, and where I wanted to head with this project as soon as we were given the briefing. As I mentioned above, I was a bit worried about getting caught up in the work or not being able to produce anything. In the beginning I initially planned to document both aspects of the money scale, the wealthy businessmen against the homeless men of Manchester. After a bit of consideration I decided to just stick to the homeless aspect of it, and now, I’m glad I made that choice.

At first I thought I had set myself up to fail, as speaking to anyone I don’t know is usually something I steer well clear of!

I knew I had to bite the bullet and get my work done as I had chosen to do this series and the days were passing by. Although I was rejected by the first man I approached, a Big Issue seller, I wasn’t put off too much, and so I stopped and spoke to the first man I photographed. Question answered, images shot! Not such a big thing after all!

Once I had shot my first images, I knew it was something I could get into a lot easier and so my work carried forward, and my confidence grew rapidly. ‘All they can say is no’.

Technical Side:

I knew I wanted my final images in black and white from the start but never thought about playing about with cropping them in any way. Once I had a play about with the first images I had shot, I knew then that I wanted them all to sit in the same way.

The weather being nice helped me gain all the natural light I needed, which was a bonus as I think a big flash gun would have been rather intimidating.

Overview:

Looking back over my final images, I can say I’m 100% happy with my final outcomes, some more than others but as a whole I feel they are some of the strongest images I have produced to date and I’m very pleased with how I've approached the brief as a whole. The brief has given me a great deal of confidence in being able to approach people on the streets and speak to them, something that I need to build on much more if I’m going to be the best I can be as a documentary/street photographer.

I think this is a body work that I would like to carry on after this brief is over and to try and build up a series to possibly hold as an exhibition in a few years, maybe? 

Developed/Final Images

Here are my final images for this brief...

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I have my favourites out of this body of work, it's plain to see that some are stronger images than others, this is partly due to running out of time and I feel a bit disappointed about this but I think because they work as a set, it can be overlooked slightly. If they were single images, I don't think I could be as happy as I am with the full set.

My Chosen Category

With our theme for this festival being Economy I have chosen to create a series of images on homeless men around Manchester.

The series is based on homeless men, purely for the fact that finding homeless women on the streets is very rare, for what reason I'm unsure.
I think approaching men would make it a lot easier for me to photograph, and for them to agree to be photographed in the first instance.

I aim to get all my images shot in black and white as I feel this is the best way forward for this series, I don't see colour doing them any justice.

Update: 

Having got my final six images, I can say now that I am 100% happy with the outcome of this brief as a whole. I know some images are stronger than others but overall I'm happy.

Feedback Session

Having had our first feedback session, I'm a lot clearer in where we need to be heading with this brief now. At the start when we had our initial briefing I was pretty lost as to where we were supposed to be heading with this brief as a whole, but after speaking with Jason/Karin today, I now know what I have to be doing and can continue to bring my work forward.

I need to get out with my camera and start getting some initial test shots done to see where I can strengthen them in my next feedback session.

First Test Shot

So on my first shoot I headed out into Manchester and had a walk around the city centre. The weather was pretty kind to me that day and gave me plenty of natural light.

On my travel in to uni everyday I see a Big Issue seller on King St who I knew would make for a good portrait so I headed in that direction. I spoke to this chap but because I didn't have any money on me to buy a magazine he declined my photo opportunity! Homeless men 1-0 Mikey... Lesson learnt.

After continuing my walk I came across this man, Ged. After speaking with him for a few minutes, explaining who I was and what I was doing he kindly agreed to let me photograph him and ask him a few questions for the brief.

I think the first close up image works really well but I don't like the full portrait image. I don't think it tells anything about the story I'm portraying and he could of been anyone. I will have a play about with the images and try a bit of cropping to see if this will give me a better angle on the image(s) and theme. 

Q. Sakamaki

Q. Sakamaki, ‘Financial Crisis’, 2008.

Sakamaki is a Japanese photographer who moved to New York in 1986, where he started off working as a writer before turning to photography. His work started on the Lower Eastside of the city where he documented the anti-gentrification protests. 

The theme we will be running with for our festival this year is ‘Economy’.

I came across this body of work by Q. Sakamaki when doing my research to find a suitable practitioner who could be brought forward as the main act at our exhibition.

I have decided to run with this body of work as I feel it’s a perfect match for the theme we’re hosting and Sakamaki is a well-rounded and experienced artist when it comes to this topic.

This work was shot in and around Wall St, New York in October 2008, when the collapse of the stock market was at its worst. With the USA recording their biggest loss on stocks in a one day fall since the ‘Black Monday’ crash in October 1987, the scene was set for many photographers and journalists.

Our theme of ‘Economy’ has kept the exhibition open to entries that can cover a range of ideas and perceptions from financial to social, political to environmental; it will always be something that will in some way have affected us personally.

Our Chosen Festival and Theme

So after researching into the other festivals, we've decided to run with the New York Photofestival. I really like the urban setting for this festival. Holding the shows in the industrial spaces is something that is appealing to me in my personal view and I feel the work we're all aiming to exhibit would sit perfect within those spaces.

Our theme will be: Economy.

I think the openness to this theme will give us with enough areas to cover without us creating final pieces of work that are too similar. We all know where we want to head with our final outcomes so now it's just up to us to get out there and start creating some initial shots to take into our feedback sessions and then working from there.