At the start I chose this brief from the
D&AD because of the quality and diverse briefs which are available from the
D&AD website. When first assessing the brief I foolishly got into the mind
set of “Oh its just another photography brief” and put it to one side for a
good number of weeks and devoted a lot of my time to other work and my input to
the group project.
Now after evaluating and concluding this
brief I fear I have let myself down regarding my devotion and commitment to
this brief. As stated at the start of the year that this brief was our final
one so it should showcase the quality of our research, development and to show
what quality of work I can do. I feel I got into that unprofessional mind set
because of how easy the last D&AD brief was, which I did last year but now
looking back on it I foolishly let my professional standard slip, and I feel I
have not took advantage of the time frame I was given to do this brief.
When starting the research on this brief
I soon found myself struggling because of the style of work which Dazed and
Confused publishes and works in. I feel that calling it a very modern and
surreal style of photography, where the story and emotion behind the image
takes more priority over the actual quality and photographical knowledge, can
only sum up this style.
After seeking feedback from my tutor
regarding the problem that I landed myself in as I only allowed myself three to
four weeks to fully complete this brief. The feedback I got was quite short but
constructive, he told me to simply read and research around the subject, which
was a contemporary portrait. After seeking this feedback this settled my
concerns about this brief but only for a small time. I feel I was so unsettled
regarding this brief due to the nature and style which I needed to work in as I
have worked successfully with people and portraits for a good number of years
but this really pushed me out my comfort zone.
“Where the comfort zone becomes a problem
is when we are stuck in it, when we don’t let ourselves move on with the
natural flow of life. When we hold ourselves back and hide in our comfort zone
we are effectively saying no to life.” Smith, J. (2012)
I knew to get an initial concept for
this brief I needed to conduct a survey which would give me vital information
about what worries the youth of today. I conducted this survey and got back the
information that I needed to justify my reasoning behind this concept. I also
tried another larger sized survey on social networking sites so I could get
more statistics but due to time and possibly the target audience I was hitting,
I was unable to get back any solid feedback on this survey.
I felt it would be wise to look into
practitioners that work in the industry, which do portrait photography and from
this I would be able to learn and see how they do it and to add my own personal
twist on my final image. Overall I looked at seven different photographers which
have made a successful career from working within the field of portrait
photography, I was also pleased to see all different styles from all the
different photographers and to see how they all put their own personal input
into each image to make it a successful image.
I also found it helpful to look into
what a portrait communicates as this helped me to work out how I wanted my
final portrait and how I wanted it to communicate the message of worry, debt
and job loss within the youth of today. The other key elements of my research
were looking at how light effects and change a portrait and how portraits are
seen and described like within the industry.
After this research I felt confident to
start shooting development images for my project. Now looking back I should of
give myself more time to conduct these images as there is a number of different
styles in and out of the studio, which I wanted to experiment with. Yet again I
feel this problem is down to time I allotted myself to do it in, throughout the
shoots I started to develop an idea on how I wanted my final image to be.
I have done a series of mock-ups to test
and try different background to show different emotions within the image. I
settled with what seemed at first as a standard head and shoulder portrait, but
I started adding elements to this image so it would be interlinked with my
concept. The elements which I introduced to the image is a sense of the subject
being blocked into the frame with the letters acting as a wall which the
subject needs to knock down before they get their final goal. These letters are
representing the student debt aspect of the concept, and with me using the
background and environment my advantage I was able to get the feeling that the
subject was unable to get the job they wanted after going through higher
education because of the job cuts and economic crisis which is happening at the
moment throughout the world.
Overall I feel with the problems I have
given myself regarding the motivation and commitment to this project I have
successfully executed the final image to a standard that fits the brief. I feel
it is a portrait that I will use within my portfolio because of the personal
story and the feeling this portrait gives off.
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