For assessment purposes, I would like to showcase a piece of work I produced outside to the coursework but links well to my research and the creation of narrative in a photographic series. During the project I was frequently looking at the work of Daido Moriyama and his book “How I take photographs”. I was drawn by his use of a compact camera which allows him to be more incognito when out on the streets of Japan, which he tends to use in a snapshot like fashion. He also quite often seems to use high key and low key tonal range together in his images which creates a reals sense of contrast and tension. I wanted to use this style in a piece of work that was influenced by this visual aesthetic, whilst also having a snapshot feel, and deep blacks jarred with quite harsh, emphatic whites.

Reflection

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

I was keen to explore Moriyama’s way of working and used an old compact camera, Canon IXUS 285, to produce a set of “snapshot” style imagery. I also wanted to investigate a more stark tonal range within the set, and used Lightroom to emphasise the blacks and whites in the editing process. In this instance I also added some grain, not particularly for an aged look, but to create tension and enhance the sense of movement. As can be seen from the set the I wanted to explore a sense of movement, but not from using a slow shutter, but emphasising it through perspective and viewpoint. I believe the images have a nice a certain visual impact, and interesting results in what is ultimately a photographic experiment.

Quality of outcome

The outcome of the series is what I set out to achieve. I wanted to photo sketch a simple narrative idea conducted by some of the research I had undertaken, in particular Daido Moriyama. The theme of the series was to produce images that narrate the story of missing glasses, as we rush around the house trying to get out of the door and we cant lay our hands on them. In this instance I wanted a sense of tension and movement, but used the compact camera in a different way to connote this idea.

Demonstration of creativity

In the context of how I would usually work I do feel that there is a level of creativity in this set of images. Exploring the use of different photographic techniques has enabled me to produce a quite clear narrative. At the time of working on this project I was embracing photo sketching and further exploring personal archival photography and this led me to create this body of work. I condensed the set of images down to 8, and removed some that did not necessarily need to be part of the set, this being a purely personal expression. I also feel this shows a growing sense of confidence with how I produce my final outcomes.

Context

Perhaps a slight nod (no pun intended) to Elliot Erwitt also evident here, with a shot of the glasses on my head, an element of humour leaking into the set, which is certainly unusual for my work. I do I feel overall the context of the images is quite clearly defined, a simple but dynamic narrative is created by use of a tense, jarred sense of movement which is further enhanced by my choice of stark visual aesthetic. The background of the images is clear, photographically influence by the the work of Daido Moriyama, where he often explores the use of a wide tonal range, grain, tension within snapshot style photography. Moving forward from this set of images I have gone further with my development of photo sketching, and now use my iPhone 11 as my personal visual sketch book.