Chosen FMP Idea

Based on my areas of interest, documentary photography and photojournalism, I have chosen my final idea for my Final Major Project. The project is a combination of People at Work and A Day in the Life, exploring a range of different aspects of my chosen subject; my father.

Aims: I have explored the idea of creating a photo essay using the theme of ‘A Day in the Life’ and after generating different ideas, scouting for subjects and undertaking in-depth background research I have decided to shoot ‘A day in the Life’ of my father, Geoff. My initial ideas involved photographing an individual with issues that affect their lives greatly and I am interested in exploring different aspects of society. Therefore, I chose my father as my subject due to his on-going health problems, recent redundancy and old age.

I initially planned to undertake two shoots; one at Geoff’s house documenting his day-to-day activities and another whilst he is working during one of his last shifts – he delivers newspapers in batches to petrol stations, newsagents and other locations that will then sell the newspapers to consumers. I wanted to depict the widely experienced circumstances (redundancy, health issues and old age) to an audience, evoking emotion and creating poignant images. However, due to not being granted access to the warehouse, loading bay and drop-off points I had to undertake just one shoot at his home. To overcome this, I decided to shoot Geoff on arrival home after his last ever shift up until he went to sleep a few hours later. This posed problems in itself as it didn't leave me with much time to shoot, however I feel that I captured the best images I could with the time restrictions I faced.

I have been eager to explore this idea for a while as I have always enjoyed seeing other photographer’s photo essays and the stories they portray. I am also interested in exploring economic aspects of society, as I am aware of the state that the UK is in regarding unemployment rates and the aftermath of the global financial crisis. My intentions for this project is to yield effective images that develop understanding of unemployment, health and the related issues that will be featured in my project.

Other aims I wish to achieve through completion of this project include;

• Creating a sense of narrative through my images to convey to an audience
• Constructing a story via setting the scene, introducing my subject, capturing the action and activity as well as portraying the end result of the project
• Creating images that tell my subject's story successfully without the aid of text or captions
• Digitally manipulating the images from an unemotional perspective - to gain images that tell the story rather than technically perfect images that do not
• Convey my subject's story and emotions that I experienced
• Raise awareness of the understanding of current employment issues within our society