For the Obsessions brief I decided to concentrate on something that is quite personal to me and something I am passionate about. I decided to choose a topic that was important to me because that way I would be more likely to enjoy it, which would result in more interesting images. I based my project on protests because in today’s day and age a lot more people are taking to the streets and standing up for what they believe in. I found this interesting because everyone has their own reasons for doing this and their own opinions on what’s happening in the world today. People also have their own way of expressing these feelings while at the protests themselves. For example, the Palestine protest was a lot calmer and more family orientated than the Anonymous protest that was more anarchy and frustration. I enjoyed taking part in these protest and meeting the people involved. The protests themselves were exciting as there were so many people joining together for one cause that everyone felt strongly about. Everyone was united together in one huge group of people which was amazing as things like that don’t happen as often as it probably should.
My favourite part of the project was going to the Anonymous protest in London on Nov 5th. I found it the most enjoyable because I felt that I fitted in well with the other protesters. It was very exciting because the protesters were a lot more frustrated than the people at the other protest. Also, Anonymous have a reputation for being rebels who stand up for their own rights so the protest saw a lot more action and drama than the Palestine protest. Protesters were throwing road signs and traffic cones at police, setting of fireworks and generally creating havoc, shutting down the center of London for a few hours. This made taking photographs so much more enjoyable and a lot easier. My heart was pumped full of adrenaline and I was running around like a mad man snapping away in my element. Everyone was wearing Guy Fawkes masks to cover their faces and hide their identities. This also made taking photos a lot easier because no body felt self-conscious about how they looked because everyone looked the same, so would happily let you take as many photos as you wanted. Everyone would pose for you. As the mass media doesn’t cover events like these, protesters rely on social media to spread their message. Hundreds of photographers and filmmakers posted up their creations to Facebook and Twitter in order to spread the message further. Because of this, protesters would make themselves visible to any type of lens, therefore helping to create interesting images.
Over the course of the project I was hoping to experiment with different techniques to manipulate my images in an expressive way. I wanted to use different darkroom techniques like dodging and burning, multiple exposures, burning, cutting and reassembling negatives/ prints however after taking the photos, I decided that I would rather leave them as they were because I didn’t want them looking too busy. I felt the images were strong as they were so manipulating them would ruin the photos. I did experiment with text in the zine that I created for my final piece. I was inspired by that chants at the protests. They are always catchy and punchy and they stay in your mind for ages after you hear it a few times. I decided to use the chants within my zine and I experimented with different layouts, sizes and colours. I found this interesting and helpful for the future as I created the zine in more of a graphic design style. I think that creating a zine was the most suitable way to publicize my work as it is small and can be catchy and punchy just like the chants.
If I was going to develop any techniques further in the future I would experiment more in the darkroom. The protests that I attended and they way I wanted to photograph them meant that shooting film wasn’t the most efficient way of capturing the events. I would like to try and use film in my next project because I think there are more possibilities with how you can manipulate the image so it looks how you want it to. I would also like to experiment with a variety of different darkroom techniques, as I didn’t get to try any in this project.
I researched many photographers throughout this project like Jim Goldberg, Larry Clarke, Jean Michel Basquait, Kirsty Mackay , Philip Lorca Dicorcia and Tearney Gearon to name a few. I chose to research these artists for different reasons however I felt like they all contained aspects of liberation and freedom. I also researched artists because of the techniques that they used to help me gain a greater understanding of photo manipulation and how to manipulate images without over doing it. Researching these artists has helped me to create a project that is personal to me with images that I am happy with.
These photographers have influenced me in a variety of ways, however my main inspiration came from Jim Goldberg as he gave a voice to his subjects so that they could be heard. Goldberg made images so that people could see the whole picture, his subjects were misunderstood and by creating this project he has helped people realize that everyone has their own story. This is something that I wanted to achieve in my work. The media don’t cover protests fairly and sometimes they don’t cover it at all so I wanted to give people a way of getting their message across. I wanted my zine to be a platform for people to be heard.
In my opinion the strongest part of my project would be my zine and final prints because I think they communicate a strong message of peoples frustration and disappointment in todays day and age. I decided to create a zine because it suited the project best as zines are a good way to spread a message in a few pages. I decided to include text within my zine because without words I felt like the message wouldn’t be as strong. I chose to use the chants from the protests so that when paired with the images, a small narrative would run through the zine. I also made a few prints of my favourite images to go into my portfolio as the images in the zine are small and I wanted to have the images on a slightly larger scale.
During this project I encountered a few minor problems like bad weather and I struggled to decide on a strong idea for a while. I was also let down a few times by friends who said they would assist me on a shoot and never did. If I wouldn’t have encountered these problems then I would have had a couple more shoots that would have created a more rounded project. I would have had a wider range of images to choose from that would have helped when creating the zine.
From the problems that I came across I learnt that you should never fully rely on someone and also to never fully rely on the weather. They affected my final outcome because I didn’t have as many photoshoots as I would have liked which I think in the end could have made my project more interesting as the zine would be bigger with more images in.
If I had the chance to start the project from beginning I would make sure that I have thoroughly planned the project in detail before starting it, making sure that I had people who would be able to assist me in shoots, people who would model for me and I would plan shoots in advance to avoid bad weather or other things that would affect the outcome of my photoshoots. By doing this I would be a lot less likely to encounter problems and I think it would help me when it comes to thinking about what direction I want the project to go.
I feel that my zine and prints are to a high standard with no faults, however I would have preferred to shoot the Palestine protest again, but with a Nikon D810 instead of a Nikon D3100 as the images look a lot more detailed and powerful with the full frame camera. I would also have liked to use a portable backdrop to drag people off the street and photograph them but I never got the chance because I was let down by assistants however this is something I could always do in the future. Overall I am very happy with the outcome of my project despite that fact I didn’t do everything I wanted to. I feel like my zine is powerful and delivers a strong message that gives the people who are being ignored a way to get their message across in a way that’s easy to understand
Obsessions 