Evaluation

For this module, we had to work to one set brief, and one project of our own choosing. We were assigned to look at the topic of re-photography within a given area in Salford, as well as being given the opportunity to either conduct an interview with a professional, secure a work placement for the length of the module or work with Barclays in producing their staff portraits. Here, in this report, I will be concentrating on my development and what I have learnt from this module.

I used Nicky Bird as my main focus of research for this brief, looking at her work on re-photography and how it directly influenced my practice and ideas. I wanted to capture the common misconception that the landscape around us is constantly changing. I replaced the modern day view, with an archived image, and lined the two up perfectly to show how they have remained similar over the course of 60 years. I learnt a lot technically from this module, as I had to concentrate on the angle and direction that I was capturing the shot from to make sure it lined up correctly in postproduction. On the other hand, I did not spend enough time on each photograph, and took a lot of photographs but from the same angle. This did not help as when I arrived back at University to begin editing, I realised that all the images I took of one of the locations were from the complete wrong angle. This meant a lot of time was spent in Photoshop trying to correct this error, which could have easily been avoided on location. I can safely say that my Photoshop skills have improved significantly throughout this module, as it has been a long time since I have used Photoshop for anything other than correcting the skin of models from personal projects.

I originally planned to work towards to Barclays brief, capturing portraits of their apprentices in fun and exciting ways. The meeting went well, and I befriended a group of girls who liked my idea and thought I was a fun person. Having to speak to people in a formal situation (as we were made to “speed date”), was a big thing for me, as although I look like the sort of person who would have no problem talking in a public place, my anxiety usually takes over and I struggle to communicate my ideas. This project fell through in the end, as a few members of the group were not contactable and the others left the apprentice scheme for personal reasons. Instead, I decided to conduct an interview with a freelance photographer, for means of learning more about the freelance industry and if it is the correct career choice for me. I sent my interview questions to Erin Trieb, who is a photojournalism photographer who documented the war in the past few years. She also runs a scheme called the Homecoming Project, helping people who have just come from the war and are struggling with depression, or people who are left behind whilst their significant others are deployed. We spoke over Facebook briefly and organised an informal chat over Skype for a few days later. The time difference of her being based in the USA and me being based in the UK, as well as her work commitments and my University and work commitments meant that we could never agree on a time we were both awake and free to chat, and eventually she stopped responding to my emails. Instead, I emailed a good friend and professional with the music video industry, Samuel Andrew Fenton of Fentonography.co.uk. His work has always interested me, and linked more closely with my overall career aspirations of wanting to be a advertisement and fashion photographer, as well as my hobby of filmmaking and scripting. I am glad I ended up having to conduct an interview as part of this project, as it really pushed me to not give in when someone says no. Erin Trieb obviously became too busy to help with this project, which was not a problem at all. However, I did not give up at the first hurdle, and continued until I completed the task.

My final images turned out better than I expected; because of the nature of this project and my lack of knowledge on the subject, I thought my images would turn out to be unprofessional looking and look out of place in the gallery situation. The re-photography images are my favourite images that I have produce this academic year, and I am proud of my progress.