Throughout this process I have tried a variety of different print ideas that could be potentially my final piece prints. The images in the groups are not in a particular order, they’re just grouped together for visual purpose.
These six images I thought might work together, I wanted to portray my family in different situations/ moments with also a mix of some still life images too because I quite liked the idea from the work of Toledano’s series ‘Days with my father’ however I think these images are not that strong together because I feel that the two still life photographs seem a little random with the four other photographs, maybe if they were more of a balanced mix between the two types of images it might look better or to only have images of my family. And also the four other images, even though they illustrate different moments of my family, together I’m not sure that they flow with one another whereas I think other images might.
With this selection, I think they work a little bit better than the first six as I feel they flow more because they’re all based in the same room, showing different moments that have occurred in the living room; relaxing on an evening, having a work related chat privately, morning discussions and having a small family catch up. But I feel like they’re needs to be a few more images, maybe 8 instead of 6 to portray the project idea more fittingly. I also feel that I need to have individual images of my immediate family incorporated in too, to show them individually away from the family to illustrate them as an independent person and not to only be identified as one.
Stepping back one, with the idea of now having 8 prints instead of 6 which was an initial thought at the beginning of the project, I thought I would try in an 8 print arrangement the idea of infusing photographs of my family and still life type of images that portray parts of the family, but I’m still unsure as I think there needs to be more images of the subjects together and individually. Also I feel like there are stronger images that I could use instead of the images that aren’t of family members, and even though we class our cat as a member of the family, I don’t think the image of Millie (the cat) is a strong image compared to others. So from this I think I will just be selecting and deciding between photographs of family only.
With the next few groupings of images, there is some slight tweaks between selecting which 8 images as I felt that all the images worked but thought that some images were just a little bit stronger of photographs that were of similar subjects.
These 8 images I feel reflect different sides of my family nicely and the different relationships there are as well as individually. I like all 8 images again as it shows a variety of situations/moments between the subjects, however I feel like the third images of my nana and aunty, seems a bit odd next to the rest as they’re not in any of the other photographs in this grouping, so I think another image involving the two with another family member might make the image fit more nicely, so I think I’m going to revisit back to my images to see which print of my aunty and nana with another member should be a part of the 8 prints and which photograph it should replace.
So in this arrangement I decided to change the sixth print which was a image of my parents and brother in the living room having a discussion with a photograph of my aunty, my nana and brother, again in the living room, on the sofa having a conversation because I felt that this image included the third print more in the assemble and that the previous photograph wasn’t as strong or wasn’t as necessary in my opinion to the other prints. I also didn’t want to lose the third photograph from the group because I find it to be an interesting and pleasing image portraying the engagement between mother and daughter even though they aren’t my immediate family and I find my nana’s expressions and gestures in the photographs to be charming in a sense.
With the photographs of my mum and brother individually, I think are too similar to be in the same assemble so I think I’m going to look back at my other images and consider if there is another individual print of either one of them to replace the existing one in this selecting.
In this selection, the one change I have done is, replacing the eighth photograph of my mum with another image of her that is different to the one of my brother. The reason I switched the print of my mum was because I simply had another image of her on her own whereas I didn’t of my brother that I thought was good enough to be a part of my final piece. And with this different photograph of my mum, it depicts a different viewpoint and composition to the rest of the other prints in the arrangement.
While looking at these images, I’m starting the think that the second print of my parents in the kitchen talking is starting to look and feel that it isn’t as fitting with the other seven images because it is in a different room and of the colour of the image, the blue of the window blind, as the rest of the images all have the colour purple in common, and the same with the print of my brother but in the image still only just fits because of the colour cream which still connects with the cream in the rest of the photographs. Therefore I think I am going to experiment with another image instead of the second print to see if it makes the aesthetics of all the prints together more complimentary.
Within this new assemble I decided to change the second image of my parents in the kitchen to an image of them in the living room because I feel that this image suits the other seven prints by portraying similar colours. I chose to keep the subjects the same as the previous photograph as to me, it’s nice to captivate and portray the relationship between my parents/ a married couple and even though in this print my parents have a different expression to the previous image, I still think this expression in this photograph to be as pleasing because their giving each other eye contact and they’re close together, it’s quite an intimate shot.
I still feel that even though I do like the photograph of my mum on her own because it fits aesthetically with the other photographs, there’s apart of me that likes the other print more, maybe because it shows a different side of my mum that isn’t in any of the other images and that I find the mirror reflection prints to be that little but more intriguing as a viewer. So I’m considering changing the eighth print back to what it was previously.
This last selection idea, I think is the one I’m going to be choosing for my 8 photographs for my documentary final piece. I’ve decided to choose these 8 images because I feel that they portray my initial concept of showing what my family is like in an honest light, portraying how they communicate with one another, daily routines, conversations, comforts, how they like to relax at the end of the day. I think aesthetically the photographs are similar and complimentary with one another. I understand that possibly images 5 and 8 might seem as those they fit the other prints because they’re taken differently in the sense of not being captured in the living room like the other 6 photographs and that they two images are too similar but the photograph of my brother is the strongest print that I have of him individually and to me it is a nice viewpoint, seeing what he is doing in front of the mirror rather than if the viewpoint was of the side of him looking into the mirror, it wouldn’t be as engaging. As for the image of my mum’s reflection in the mirror, I personally find this photograph to be more compelling than with the other print of her sat watching Tv in the living room, I feel this image to be more personal and intimate as well compared to the previous image. It is similar to the fifth image however I think this photograph is a stronger shot of my mum and that it does just fit within this assemble because it is similar to the print of my brother.
The reason for the first print is, it portrays an genuine night in the living room, dad coming home from work relaxing with his work shirt off, checking his phone for emails, updates and the news, while my mum tends to sit and watch Tv next to him or like illustrated in the print, giving attention to the cat, fussing her or playing with her. I think the composition and viewpoint create a enticing image.
The second image, like mentioned above, I find to be quite an intimate image between the two subjects and I like the viewpoint and the space surrounding them within the frame. I feel as though this is one of the stronger images I have taken from all shoots.
The third print, I think is a captivating image with the gesture of my nana’s hand and expression, for me it is what grabs my attention and then way they engage with one another interests me. The composition of the image is tighter than others in the sense of the subjects filling the frame, concentrating on them.
The photograph of my dad, is an interesting shot, capturing him talking on the phone, I feel so though the image shows part of his personality/characteristic as people can act differently when they’re on the phone to then what they are like in front of you talking. He looks quite relaxed and in a way sophisticated by the way he is sitting and with the lighting and composition aiding to this.
The sixth print, as mentioned before, I chose to help make the third image fit with the rest of the photographs and I think this is a nice shot of family members getting together to catch up of not seeing each other for a few weeks and their body language being comfortable and engaging with one another creates a inviting image.
And the other image to talk about, the seventh photograph of my dad and brother on the sofa, both in each others company yet engrossed within their phones, I think its a intriguing print that illustrates nicely within families that you can be in the same room as one another and not socialise with each other and I think the viewpoint makes the image that more stronger than other images.
The final images in no particular order:
Also to mention, as you can see some of the photographs have a small white board on the sides of the images, this is from cropping the images and sizing them to be 12×8 so the image doesn’t get stretched to fit the frame the white boarder keeps the image in proportion while being the 12×8 size.
Presentation of Final Piece:
For the presentation of my images and to meet the brief, I’ll be printing the 8 photographs at the size of 8×12 and mounting on a3 card. And I have chosen to mount my prints on a white card as my images I feel it will give my images a polished overall look and will be complimentary to the colour and tones within the prints.
As previously mentioned above, there are three images from my chosen final prints that have a small white boarder on the sides of the images, this is because cropping and then sizing the prints to be 12×8 without having to stretch the photograph, however when cutting my prints (as they were printed together on one sheet) I made a thoughtless mistake while cutting the photograph of my mum’s mirror reflection, it wasn’t until after I cut one of the sides of the print that I realised that I had cut off the boarder so as a result of this I had to cut the other too and didn’t have chance or time to get the image re-printed so this image is now smaller than the rest unfortunately. With the other two prints that have a small boarder I have left them on so they’re still the same size as the rest of the photographs. I’m a little annoyed with myself for not realising before I cut the print as when looking at the mounted images together it is obvious that the print is smaller than the rest, which you can see above.