End of Year Exhibition: Twenty14

I have created a photo book to accompany my displayed images at the exhibition in order to showcase my full body of work for this project. I created the photo book using Lightroom and Blurb, chronologically ordering my images as the activities occurred to visually tell the story.

Geoff, my father, has worked night shifts since I can remember and his 11pm ‘mornings’ were a daily occurrence in my childhood years. This, combined with an interest in the world after dark and a passion for photojournalism formed the basis of my project.

In this series, entitled, ‘The Last Shift, I have created a photo essay using the theme of ‘A Day in the Life’ documenting my father after his return home from his last night shift after being made redundant. I also attempted to explore Geoff’s on-going health issues, as I am interested in portraying widely experienced circumstances in society and their impact on the individual. My intentions for this project was to yield effective images that develop an understanding of unemployment, health and the related issues that are featured in my project.

In February 2014, after travelling home to Chesterfield, I made my way to my father’s house and began shooting in the early hours of the morning, which is evident by the use of light and shadows within many of my images. The photo essay was shot using a Canon DSLR and available light to further emphasize my aim of capturing the reality of Geoff’s life in the most truthful and objective way possible.

All images have been printed in monochrome to strip the colour from the scenes and allow focus to fall on the subject matter. Black and white is also consistent with the genre of photojournalism and aesthetically it works well with the high contrast of the images.

Please give me as much feedback as possible, both positive and constructive.. thanks!

Initial Edits

After my shoot, I reviewed my images and made basic edits using Photoshop and Camera Raw. This included; adjusting exposure, clarity and contrast as well as utilising the dodge and burn tools. I have yet to crop my images, or convert to black and white which is how I plan to display my images. After Easter, I will be developing the negatives that I shot on film and print them in the darkroom. I will also be scanning them onto the computer and editing them using Photoshop.

Below are a selection of images from my shoot that I have made initial edits to (note that they do not have an order to them yet as I plan to present the photographs in a photo essay format, which will not be evident until final edits are made and images are presented together).

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

Final Major Project and Critical Study

I am currently working on my Final Major Project (FMP) and Critical Study assignments. They allow me the opportunity to develop my skills in decision-making, problem solving and communication, integrating the skills and knowledge that I have developed in the past two years on the HND course.

For the I am required to select, plan, implement and evaluate a project of my choice - that is within my chosen specialism of social documentary photography - and present the outcomes in the end of year exhibition. I must also evaluate my own practice through a critical analysis as well as writing a 3000-word essay focusing on an area of contemporary photography that interests me.

So far I have been exploring initial ideas for the concept of my FMP and these include;  

• A day in the life
• Exploring mental health issues
• Social/cultural/economic aspects of society
• Analogue photography
• Travel and shoot different areas of the UK
• Double exposure
• Mobile photography
• People at work
• Significant memories
• Change
• Public displays of affection
• Nightlife
• 'From where I stand'
• On the road 

Below shows a range of images I have found online that interest me and inspire ideas for this project...