Introduction

For my exam project this year I have decided to focus on the starting point “family life”. I wanted to start with this one as I feel I could go really in depth with it and look into the details of family life instead of just skimming the surface. As soon as I saw this starting point on the exam paper it captured my eye as family is also a very personal matter to me and I feel I could really make something of it. I will be looking into the secrets and the feelings of family members to start my project and maybe carry this on throughout. I want to discover the contrast between what they show to the public and what’s really behind closed doors. My aim is to really pull the starting point “family life” apart and see what I can do with it. By digging really deep into this project maybe I can find out some true emotions of family members, through documentary and natural photography.

First Shoots

To start with I am going to look into human presence and demonstrate the different areas of family life through my photography. I am aiming to photograph everyday things/objects that are included within the household but capture them just how they’re left naturally. I really like natural photography that isn’t staged and so I want to try and find things around the house that could be seen as ‘boring' and make them into an interesting image using the skills I have gained throughout the years of doing photography.For my first couple of shoots to get me started I am just going to walk around the house and see what I can find to create some interesting photographs.

ARTIST RESEARCH

-NICK TODD

Nick Todd is a photographer that has looked into Human Presence. His photographs are very obvious towards the topic; however I want mine to be a little more subtle. The reason I like this photographer is that he photographs human presence that he sees naturally, rather than making the images staged and putting the things together to create the images. It’s almost like he has walked along the road and witnessed these things left as they are. This is what I want to do within my first couple of shoots and photograph things as I see them. These shoots are going to be taken within the home as it will create and produce the first feelings of family life for my project. I have done a collage of images from quality artists within my book that I really like to inspire me towards my first shoot. This is the photograph of Nick Todd’s that I have been looking at towards this project:

This photograph really captured my eye as it’s a perfect example of finding things that demonstrate a person's presence. There is something within the photograph related to them personally and proves they have been there. This is going to be the concept of my first few shoots and even though I’m doing it within the house, the idea of finding things how they’re left still applies and that’s what I’m taking from Nick Todd and his photography. I also like the fact that his photography is very plain and simple; however gets the message across to the viewers. The only thing I don’t really like about his photography is that the colours are very dull; I want to try and make the most of the colour available to me so that I can produce more interesting photographs. It’s all about experimentation and so I will be playing around with the colours and see what I prefer. It all depends on what mood and angle I decide to look at into family life and what atmosphere I’d like to produce within my photography. Within my first couple of shoots I want to try and capture warm colours, approaching the idea of family life in a positive way and I’ve done some following research on a photographer called William Eggleston whose pictures captured my eye and inspired me through his use of colour.

These are a combination of edits from my first two shoots as they were both focused on the same thing and aiming for similar outcomes...
I gave a really subtle edit to these photographs to give them a bit more character and did this by lowering the saturation; resulting in them not being so bright and having a bit more meaning. Even though I was focvussing on the brighter side of family life within these two first shoots, I wanted to make it possible for the viewer to see both sides; the idea of the darker side of family life and the annoying, hidden things that are going on, along with the brighter side of just natural family living and how things are naturally left around the household which show happiness of a loving home.

 

 

 

While photographing these shoots and thinking about my project I thought about using textured paper towards the concept. This could look really good when printing my photographs as the bumps and lumps within textured paper could portray the hidden, undercover problems and annoyances around the home; things we don't tell anyone else about but happen on a day to day basis, big or small. This idea links to my project really well as I could use wallpaper which is part of the family home. Once I’ve experimented on this paper with a few photographs I've already done, I will take a picture of the printed paper and post it up on my blog.

 

Here are the prints I did on the textured paper:

 

The paper above didn’t turn out so well but that’s because the photograph wasn’t the best one to use. It was very dark and the detail didn’t show up through the texture so I know not to use this one in future.

 

I really love the look of these photographs printed onto the textured paper as it makes them look unique and different. The concept of the texture on the paper being the rough edges within family life gives it a really lovely meaning and idea behind it. I used different types of wallpaper to give different presentations and most of them worked really well. I only collected a few rough pieces so that I could experiment with them. Now that I know they worked well I may get some more to experiment with in the future.

MIXED MEDIA

-SALLY MANKUS

 

Sally Mankus is an American photographer mostly known for her mixed media techniques. I’m researching into Mankus as I want to give mixed media a really good go within this project as I didn’t with the last and she has a really lovely link with using household objects which could fit in really well with my project. As I’m doing “Family Life”, using objects such as handkerchiefs and teabags are all part of everyday life within the family household. I thought this would be a good concept behind my mixed media and once I get my shoots going I could use my best prints within these to edit. I experimented with the teabag technique last year and I really enjoyed it as it's simple but effective. The reason it links in so well with my project is because I'm looking into hidden secrets and problems within the family life and a nice cup of tea is well known for sorting problems. This could be anywhere but tea is mostly consumed within the household. For the teabag technique I'm going to be using photographs from my human presence shoots and see how they turn out. I'm also going to try experimenting with other objects within the house such as teatowels and pillow cases for example. I'm not exactly sure what but I want to experiment with different areas of mixed media and try different things. Cyanotype is one option that I could use to print onto materials.

The first technique I wanted to try again was the teabag technique, as mentioned above. I used the photographs I already had from my first two shoots and they worked really well. I ripped around the edges of the photographs to produce the concept that family life isn't easy going and every family has rough times and edges around the good times. This is what I'm focusing on at the moment and so it links in really well. As already mentioned, the reason I wanted to use teabags and this technique is because it's a big part of the family household in most of the United Kingdom and is a stereotype for making things better.

These are the teabags I produced: