The hardest part throughout the entire process, was trying to think of an idea that would be worthy of an end assignment, and ultimately, the final piece to a larger body of work that concentrated on the Coronavirus and lockdown. I knew the importance of making this project a self-reflective piece, rather than documenting other individuals’ experiences, which I’ve done numerous times in previous assignments. I certainly feel from the ideas I had during the planning stage, this was the most appropriate to end my Identity and Place journey, and reflecting on my work, I’m incredibly pleased with what I managed to achieve. I believe this assignment demonstrates my progressive learning throughout the module, and I hope shows evidence of the improvements I’ve made, to the areas of my photography that needed to be addressed.
Producing images’ with the correct exposure, I found to be rather challenging, and made the entire photographic process incredibly time consuming. I found that trial and error worked best in this instance, and only moderate knowledge of the exposure triangle was required. When possible, I photographed at night, in order to get the exposure times I needed, and also because the bright, white screens from the devices were more noticeable in the final image. Obviously, a tripod was required, because of the length of the exposures, and the use of a shutter release with locking device, enabled me to have my camera set in bulb mode, which certainly gave me more flexibility during the shooting process. I decided to present my photographs in black and white, as I wanted to be true to Hiroshi Sugimoto’s work as much as possible. I also felt that when viewing the images in monochrome, they became more reminiscent to ones memories, which certainly strengthens the intended narrative. Though, compositional techniques are always an important factor to consider, I found I was quite limited in how I could use the elements effectively, and I was more concerned about the placement of the ‘people’, and where the devices should be located.
There was always going to be a level of creativity surrounding this assignment, due to the nature of the photographic process. However, in terms of the props used to create the ‘bright light’, I found myself quite limited in this regard, and often found myself using the same device multiple times to create the desired effect. Though, I felt these were justified, on one occasion, in particular the bathroom scene, the device did seem out of place. However, on reflection, I really don’t know what else could have been used as a substitute. I think the most creative aspect of the series, is demonstrated in how the people within the scene are depicted. I took full advantage of the long exposure times, to create these ghostly apparitions, which were done intentionally to help strengthen the notion of ‘time’. Because of the long exposures, I understood that we – the people in the photograph – would only be ‘captured’ once motionless, which allowed us to move to different locations within the scene without being detected, so to speak. This took a bit of direction, but once we had practiced it a few times, and got a better understanding on how long we should be still at each ‘location’, the results started to improve.
One thing I considered was, if at all, how did the spoken text strengthen the overall narrative. When we look at Sugimoto’s work, it’s obviously visually stunning, but, most viewers’ should be able to see past the beauty, and interpret the intended meaning correctly. I would hope my images’ generate the same response, and my verbal story acts more as a supportive element, rather than solidifying the narrative altogether. In regards to the voice recording, I’m very happy with the end result, as I had a few issues with my video in my last assignment, but feel this one is much improved. Identity and Place has been a relatively short journey for myself, however, I’m now looking forward to starting level 2.
Iain Barbour - BA (Hons) Photography 