Assignment Four: Image and Text

The topic of coronavirus and lockdown has been at the forefront of conversations over the past few months, and understandably so. However, I feel these discussions have certainly reduced over time, as most people have accepted the situation, and adapted to a new way of living – for the time being anyway. In the early days of the pandemic, when interacting with certain individuals’, I found their viewpoints on the matter to be fairly reserved. Of course, this was an unforeseen circumstance that quickly developed into what we are experiencing today, and even more so than now, was a period of utter uncertainty on many levels. I often wondered if, fear of the unknown, was the catalyst to these responses – or the lack of – and it became a coping mechanism for many, to not openly talk about their thoughts and experiences of lockdown.

For this assignment, I reached out to individuals’, whose lockdown stories I knew very little, or nothing about, and asked them to share their opinions on the matter. In the hope of receiving open, and honest feedback – unlike before – I requested they record their encounters in audio form, as I felt the perhaps daunting task of a face to face discussion, may result in information being withheld. In total, I collated eight stories – though only chose six to produce a total of seven images’ – and was pleasantly surprised by how in depth, truthful, and different they were to one another, reconfirming that though this is a global problem, the situation is very much a personal experience.

Not knowing in advance what was going to be said, I was unable to generate ideas for my photographs’, until all the stories had been listened to. A commonality that was discussed, related to the outdoors, and as I came to realise the significance this particular aspect of lockdown had on the participants’, I chose to depict within my images’, elements of nature. Though, there needed to be a recurring theme throughout the series, I wanted to make sure that the subject matter varied between photographs’. I believed by incorporating into the surrounding landscape, an item that specifically related to a selective part of the spoken text, I would be able to achieve this. However, I understood that each of the viewpoints discussed, would have to be different from the next, in order to make the process of selecting an appropriate item easier. And, though, this has no relevance to the relationship between ‘image and text’, by showing both natural and ‘man-made’ objects, juxtaposition between the two has been created. As I wanted the spoken text to add meaning to my images’ – rather than be descriptive of them – I tried to ensure that the items I selected, didn’t mirror the ‘words’ in literal form – though this wasn’t always achievable. This would also make certain that the intended narrative remained open for interpretation, making for a more meaningful project.