Initial ideas

The above photographs were taken by myself during a walk around the area in which I live and indeed, spent the majority of my childhood. I decided that I needed to get out and shoot in order to understand exactly what I wanted out of this project, and this was the result. I wasn't to keen on the images, I didn't believe that they worked entirely well but I couldn't put my finger on exactly why this was. At first perhaps I thought that it was down to the fact that I wasn't used to photographing in this way, but after showing my work to my fellow seminar group and tutor, and discussing with them the initial idea of my project, we came to the conclusion that the images were too direct. I have photographed the obvious destruction in my community, and there is nothing left to think about. It "does what it says on the tin" so to speak, there was little else to reveal. I decided that this is not how I want to continue my project, I want to leave a little to the imagination, and I also believe there are better ways to portray my feelings towards the notion of change within my life and particularly the area in which I live without being so blunt. As we have been taught throughout this term to think about "what went well, even better if", I needed to be firm and sit and decide what worked and what didn't, and how I could better myself to produce work that I felt happy with. One aspect of the work I have produced that I think works well is the time of day and how it has created the tones and shapes in the clouds, particularly in the bottom two photographs. Although I am not pleased with the outcome of the work overall, I think that the effect of the dull, dark tones gives the images a dismal and somber feel- which is exactly how I feel when I observe this area. This makes the images much more of a personal reflection of my feelings, something which I would like to consider when creating future work on this project.