Project Evaluation

For this project I have taken my film from different viewpoints including; on the floor, eye level and looking down from an eighth floor window. I chose this theme because every bodies view on life is different, varying from just height to how people have lived.

The main artist influences I have had during this are; Alexey Titarenko, Tom Wood and Rui Palha. The artist’s work I have looked at shows different viewpoints such as from on the floor and looking down at people, researching their work has helped inspire my own photographs.

I feel as though this project has been successful because I have followed the brief to create my prints. Although I may have gone slightly off genre by choosing rural paths to photograph in contrast to the urban streets which are typical of 'Street Photography.'

My work could be improved by using the filters while I am printing as some of my prints look washed out and mid tonal, there is not a lot of contrast within them. Would also need to push my comfort zone limits, as many opportunities have been lost due to me not having the confidence to press the shutter.

This work has been taken using a film camera with HP4 black and white film, all of my rolls of been taken on ISO 400 so I have used the standard 1-3 developing method, not using push/pull. In the darkroom I started exploring filters and how to split grade, but I still need to practice more with these.

One major problem I encountered was my lack of confidence while out shooting; this is something I am continuing to work on. Another problem I had was while shooting my final roll of film the camera I was using broke as the shutter jammed this meant instead of getting thirty six exposures I only have twenty six.

Halfway through the project we had a group critique and evaluated each other’s work and I received many positive comments about my work. Plus some constructive criticism about my prints being slightly out of focus, which was because the enlarger lens was broken and when I reprinted them with a different lens they were in focus. I also got a comment about where I should go with my next shoot and that was a success.

I feel I developed skills in both printing in the darkroom and exposing photographs while out shooting. The camera I have used throughout this brief has not had an in camera light meter so I have used an analogue light meter however it was not very accurate so I have managed to estimate the aperture on my photographs.

The assignment has challenged me to push my confidence and start to ask people if I could have permission to photograph them. A few of my rolls have the back of people’s heads because I did not feel comfortable photographing them.

If I were to do this project again I would try exploring more locations for my shoots, I would also try photographing people while I am on the bus, I was not sure about the bus policy on doing this so I have not done so.