To say this assignment has come at the wrong time is a massive understatement. The pandemic affecting the whole world currently – Covid19 – means all of my initial ideas are no longer possible, and I’ve had to rethink my approach in order to keep not only myself safe, but others too. I understand that taking portraits of people at this present time – other than my family – might not be sensible, or possible, and I’m finding it incredibly challenging to think of a theme that is both interesting and creative that I can do from the confinements of my own home.
During my feedback session with my tutor regarding assignment one, we discussed briefly the topic of environmental photography – the process of taking portraits of individuals’, usually in their working environment. After doing some additional research, I thought this would be a theme I could consider for this assignment. My idea would see me steer away from what a traditional environmental portrait would depict, and instead, I would photograph my subjects’ in a home studio setting, which would consist of a white backdrop and studio lighting. I understood that this method wouldn’t have met the brief I was trying to achieve, and knew I needed an additional element to support the portraits’. I had an idea of recording a sound bite from each of the subjects’ places of work, where the viewer would have to be reliant on the sounds to form a conclusion on where that individual worked, for example, a restaurant. I still think this idea is interesting and one I hope to undertake in the near future when normality resumes. Until considering this theme, I believed that I had never done an environmental portrait before – but this isn’t true. Scrolling through my personal archive, I have in fact done many. Below are some examples of my environmental portraits.
Before the government tightened their policies, which effectively saw the country go into lockdown, I had a few ideas that specifically focussed on the effects the coronavirus has had on other individuals. I hoped to use some of the photographic methods I had learnt in ‘Part Two’, as well as incorporating some of the rules and regulations enforced by the government within my work.
Inspired by ‘Residents of June Street’, by Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr, I liked the idea of photographing subjects’ in their homes to reinforce the notion of ‘self-isolation’. I planned to produce five portraits’, depicting different sitting rooms belonging to individuals of the same family – specifically mine – who have taken it upon themselves to self-isolate. Each image would’ve been supported by text stating how many days they have been in isolation and the reasons why. I did takes some images – more for test purposes – but felt the whole process wasn’t working for me and ultimately, I wasn’t happy with the results I was producing. At the time, I didn’t give up on the idea entirely, but understood something would need to be changed if I were to proceed with this theme.
GB. England. ‘June Street’. Collaboration with Daniel Meadows. 1973.
Another idea was to take portraits’ of those who have unfortunately lost their jobs because of the Coronavirus. I actually know at least five people who are now jobless as a result of the pandemic and thought this would have been a good way of highlighting this specific issue that has affected so many across the country. The portraits’ would have effectively been tight head shots, as I wanted the viewer to purposely see the emotions on the subjects’ faces. To help generate their true emotions at the exact moment the shutter was pressed, I planned to ask each subject the same a question, “Without telling me, how do you feel?” I also wanted to apply the 2 metre social distancing rule, which at that point had just been issued, but perhaps wasn’t being fully respected. Taking the image from exactly 2 metres away from each subject, whilst using my 60mm macro lens, would offer an interesting dynamic to the series as all the portraits’ would have the same perspective and help me achieve the ‘tight head shot’. But on further consideration, and again, after a few test shots, I felt this wouldn’t work either ethically, or logistically, and had to abolish the idea.
References
Magnum Photos. (2014). ‘Martin Parr – GB. ENGLAND. June Street. 1972’ [Online] Available from: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Martin-Parr/1972/GB-ENGLAND-June-Street-1972-NN162445.html
Iain Barbour - BA (Hons) Photography 