Overview
This proposal sets out my plans and intentions for the project that will
form a dominant part of my work for the Level 3 Advanced module of the degree course on Photography with the OCA.
My intention is to produce a portfolio of images that will be
incorporated into a photo book, describing both my mother’s battle with severe
clinical depression during the last few years of her life and my relationship
with her during that period. The images will be presented for assessment as A3
sized photographic prints. It is also my intention to produce a multimedia
presentation, incorporating video, in order to document her story whilst
re-visiting some of the places that were important to us during her final
years.
I plan to combine archival and current photographs, in order to produce
multi-layered images that attempt to portray the mood and emotions during a
dark period in both of our lives, in a way that I hope will resonate with viewers.
I intend to do this by using digital double- and multiple-exposure overlays
although I may use other techniques, such as photo-collage and photo-montage,
as well. Single photograph images have not been ruled out at this point.
This is a very personal project and is one that I will use to try to
come to terms with the guilt that I feel at not having done more to help my
mother during the last years of her life. As such, it goes beyond the confines
of simply being produced to satisfy the requirements of a module of the degree
course – I would have carried out this project anyway. Nevertheless, it is
critical that I should make every effort to engage any viewer with my
photography in such a way that they can identify with the issues raised and
empathise with the subject matter.
1
Aims
and objectives of the project
Aims:
- To create a portfolio of photographic images, documenting
the final years in the life of my mother following the death of my father
in 1995, her battle with severe clinical depression and my relationship
with her during this period.
- To use the project as a means of coming to
terms with the guilt and regrets that I feel, for not having done more for
my mother at her time of greatest need.
- To develop the skills needed to produce a
strong picture story about a very difficult, personal subject that cannot
easily be documented by the use of text alone or through the use of a set
of single photographs.
- To tell the story in a way that encourages
empathy and understanding from the dispassionate viewer.
- To produce a photo book, combining pictures
and text, in order to document the last few years of my mother’s life and to
act as a suitable memorial to her.
Objectives:
- To experiment with digitally combining
archival and new images in order to produce double- and/or
multiple-exposure images, photo-collages or photo-montages in order to
document different events or periods in my mother’s later life and my
relationship with her during this period. The experimentation should be
unrestricted and wide-ranging and will inevitably encompass techniques and
ideas that I have not investigated before. The use of single images
(archival and/or current) is not, however, ruled out.
- To produce final images that capture
atmosphere, mood and emotion and that encourage the viewer to empathise with
the subject matter.
- To relate the images to the text that will
accompany them in the photo book.
- To produce a portfolio of images that can be
turned into good quality A3-sized prints that are suitable for exhibition.
2
Rationale
Imagine being
elderly, perhaps in your 70s or early 80s. You live alone in a large house in a
country village. There are no shops there and you can’t drive. You know a few
people in the village but you’re not easy to get on with and prefer to keep
your own company. You have children but they live a long distance away and have
jobs and other commitments, so you only see them at weekends – if you’re lucky.
You have one or two hobbies, but they don’t get you out of the house. The world
at large has no interest in you. You could just about cope with all this if it
weren’t for the fact that you are also suffering from a serious, chronic
illness – severe clinical depression. The illness manifests itself in many
ways, but most obviously in the form of very low mood (“feeling depressed”) and
extreme anxiety. Now imagine that you are my mother, Mary Johnson.
For this project I
want to tell the story of my mother and her illness, as well as my relationship
with her, from the time of my father’s sudden and unexpected death in 1995
until my mother’s death in 2007. Her illness profoundly affected her close
family, whilst it made her own life almost unbearable. I want to tell her story
for a number of reasons, but particularly because I want to show, through
prose, verse and imagery, the effect that depression can have on peoples’
lives, to draw a line under the guilt and regrets that I didn’t do more for my
mother whilst she was alive and also to act as a personal memorial to her life.
I
had been contemplating this project for years. Initially I had thought of just
using prose, but this would have meant hardly anything to the “outsider”, one
who is not familiar with my family. By choosing to develop it into a
photographic project (with accompanying prose) I am setting myself the task of
trying to portray my mother’s illness and my relationship with her in a way
that will create a mood and hopefully provoke empathy with the viewer. This is
a difficult but exciting challenge, which fits in neatly with the principles
and expectations of a final year course in photographic art. I believe that a
series of individual images, whether archival (taken between 1995 and 2007)
and/or current, will not provoke the necessary viewer reaction, so I have
chosen to produce images in which two or more archival and/or current images
are digitally combined in order to produce an appropriate juxtaposition of
subject matter. The techniques used to produce these images will require much
research and experimentation in conjunction with further photography, both in
the area of Yorkshire where my mother lived and at and around my home. At this
stage I do not know in which direction my work will go, but I hope and expect
the final images to possess an original and distinctive style.
The
images (I plan to produce around 20) will form the project portfolio. Each
image will be loosely based on an event or a period in my mother’s life, which
in turn will be described as a piece of text that will accompany the image in a
photo book. Because of the extreme sensitivity of the subject matter I may, as
I go along, place a greater emphasis on dealing with the general topic of
clinical depression rather than the specific case of my mother’s illness. I may
also place a greater emphasis on its effect on my own life – we will see.
3
My Personal
Practice
This project is totally different to anything that I have tackled
before. It is very personal to me and the most important issue is that I should
handle the subject matter (my mother, my relationship with her and her illness)
with great sensitivity and total sincerity. Beyond this, however, the project
does give me the opportunity to experiment with techniques that I have long
been interested in, namely the blending of two or more images in order to
produce photo-montage, photo-collage and double- or multiple-exposures. In this
case I will be blending archival photographs (mainly family portraits) with
photographs taken specifically for the project. Whilst the project is
essentially documentary it will incorporate street photography, still life,
portrait and landscape images: other genres have not been ruled out.
The 20 portfolio images will be based on specific events or periods in
my mother’s life between 1995 and 2007. I have already planned a photo book and
written 20 pieces of text to accompany each image in the book – the text
provides a starting point for me to develop each image. My current intention is
to prepare a “free form” 20 line poem for the book, in which each line of the
poem relates to one image and its accompanying text. In contrast to most
photographic projects, therefore, this project starts with a book and a text
story and uses the text to inspire the production of the images, rather than
the reverse.
Whilst this project is very much a “one-off” I hope that I will be able
to use the skills developed during its course in order to integrate blended
images into my photographic practice, as I try to develop a unique photographic
style.
3.1. Capture:
I plan to use digital capture with my recently purchased Nikon D7200 SLR
camera. Two other SLR cameras (Nikon D90 and D7000) are available, if required.
I normally photograph in shutter- or aperture-priority, occasionally using
manual settings under extreme or difficult lighting conditions. I capture in
(Raw + jpeg) (see “Post Processing”). Some images may be captured using a
“bridge” camera (currently a Panasonic FZ200) or a compact camera (currently a
Panasonic Lumix FZ200), when the situation requires. Archival images were
captured on a variety of film and digital cameras. The quality of the images
(some of which were digitally scanned) is variable – many would be unsuitable
for printing as “stand alone” portfolio photographs, but could still play an
important role when combined with contemporary images.
3.2. Post Processing:
I currently process images using the Adobe
“Photoshop Elements 8” software package, but am considering upgrading in the
future, possibly to the latest “Photoshop Elements” package together with Adobe
“Lightroom”. I will process the raw images from the Nikon cameras using the
Nikon View software. In order to retain as much detail in the images as
possible during processing I will try to capture them so as to minimise the need
for cropping. I will use the highest quality settings available. Likewise, in
processing, I will attempt to retain as much detail as possible in the image
and minimise modifications (changes in tone and contrast, sharpening). I am
currently minded to produce most, if not all the final portfolio images in
monochrome.
3.3. Production and Printing:
I have already made a 3 day visit to the area of North Yorkshire where
my mother lived (48 hours of photography) and it is now clear that several
more, possibly shorter visits will be required over the coming year as the project
develops and I get a clearer picture of what additional images are required. I
will also be carrying out some “still life” photography at home, using objects
that are relevant to the story, and some studio work. Additional self-portraits
will be required. Whilst I already have a library of digital and digitally
scanned “archival” photographs from the period I will also need to sort through
my archive of photographic slides and select and scan relevant ones in order to
build up a bigger archival library.
Because I am retired I have
plenty of opportunity to do location work. Because most of the photographic
work will be executed outdoors the weather will be important. The short days
and inclement weather of my recent (November 2015) visit were far from ideal,
but on the other hand the images of the stark winter landscapes of the
Yorkshire Dales (in particular Nidderdale, where my mother lived) will provide
mood and atmosphere that I intend to project into my final image set. Other
seasons will provide different opportunities and longer working days.
Towards the end of the project I will investigate different types of
print paper at A4 size, in order to establish which is the most appropriate for
the types of image that I have produced. If, as anticipated, the images are
produced in monochrome this will undoubtedly affect my choice of paper. However,
the use of monochrome is by no means a certainty at this stage.
4
Outputs
For the first two assignments I will send single and/or composite images
by e-mail or dropbox for my tutor to review, together with planning documents
etc. Research will be posted onto this course blog, where it can be monitored by my
tutor. This research will also be printed out and submitted for assessment at
the end of the course. Images for later work (assignments 3-6) will be posted
to the tutor as prints (A4 sized).
The prints will be reviewed regularly. I may choose at a late stage to
replace some of the earlier portfolio images with better or more relevant
images, prior to printing at A3 size. Once image choice has been finalised I
will select a few images for test printing, before getting the final selection
of 20 images printed professionally at A3 size.
The self-published book is likely to incorporate 23 images and a similar
number of pages of text. Previous photo books have been successfully produced
using the commercial organisation “Blurb”.
The multimedia presentation will be produced using “Windows Moviemaker”
software, with video input from my SLR cameras and sound input using NCH “Audio
Essentials” software.
Printing Cost
Projections:
Test prints
£60
20 A3 prints £12.00 per print £240
1 small test photo book £40 £40
1 final photo book (50
pages) £40 £40
Total cost estimate £380
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