You Are Here:
This if the final brief of the module and the aim is to respond the notion of home. “Home” can have different meanings to different people. Some people relate the idea of “home” to being with their family and friends, for some it’s where they live or the hometown they grew up in or it can even be a memory. The idea of “home” means something different to everyone as it is whatever we believe it to be and it is out own opinion.
My idea of home in Hull is Hessle Foreshore/Humber Bridge Country Park as this is where the majority of my childhood memories have been spent and even in Lincoln I am often reminded of the place I call home. The country park is filled with wildlife so this is the aspect I decided to focus on for this brief. For each individual image I use they are all related to a memory I have from the place I grew up and spent most my days and the place I refer to as “home”. Hull is often portrayed negatively, however that’s not how I picture the city at all’ this may be because of the fond memories I have had growing up there and the images I have captures express my idea of home.
For this first image I captured a man walking his dog through the nature park, reminding me of the times I spent in the country park in Hull surrounded by dog walkers. I am pleased with this image as I the trees create a border around the man in the frame which strengthens the focus on the man and dog in the centre of the image and makes the image more appealing, the image was taken just as the sun was beginning to set and because of this the lighting casts a shadow of the trees on the pavement and I believe this made the image more interesting and works because it doesn’t take the focus from the models.
George Shaw was one of my main influences for this brief as his work for “My back to nature” was as personal to him as it was to me as in his work he used locations that he was familiar to him growing up. The images he took in the woods portray the type of area he lived in perfectly. For example the images he captured of porn magazines, dirty mattresses and graffiti in the woods, create a negative or sketchy/shady atmosphere to the location in his images. These images influenced me to really think about the way I wanted to portray “home” in my images, as I wanted to show Hull in a good light, I knew to avoid graffiti and litter to avoid the negative stereotypes of Hull. I believe I did this successfully by focusing on the beauty of nature and happy memories, I made my images inviting and compelling by capturing my images in warm natural lighting that made the colours more vibrant, which was the opposite to Shaw’s work as he used dark colours and lighting.
George Shaw art:
Another photographer I came across was Jiekuan who is an amateur travel photographer and his photograph taken at Bukit Batok Naure Park I found useful. The trees in the picture form a border and only allows the back light from the sun enter through the centre of the image, the rest is slightly shaded. As my images are going to be focused around a nature park I decided to research photographers of this theme and Jiekuan was the photographer I found most appealing, his images are vibrant and the composition and framing of his work are aligned to have a main focus which is useful to my work and I have tried to apply this to my work as I believe it creates a stronger image.
Jiekuan:
My images:
Wildlife and nature has always been a memory of the country park at home, the park has multiple lakes and rivers where people and there dogs could play and there was often animals in and around the lakes, therefore when I came across a swan resting near a river I captured the image in order to apply it to this brief. For the composition and framing of this I wanted the swan to be the main focus of the image therefore I used the view finder to help align the image, the background of the lake I was planning to crop in post production however decided not to as I believe the reflection in the water caused by the strong natural lighting from the sun created a unique and compelling image and it allows you to take notice of more than just the model in the frame. Along my walk through Lincoln I came across a weeping willow tree that had grew next to a river which instantly brought back memories from home as a child of swinging on the branches with my brother and sister in the parks. Just like the image of the swan, this picture has a reflection in the water this was caused by the beginning of the sunset lighting and the water.
The buds on the branches of this tree remind me of home because of the conker tree that grew in the country park, for this image I focused the camera only on the bud and the branch in the foreground leaving the background blurred and out of focus. The image of the rocks in the water reminded me of home as in the lake at the Hessle Foreshore park it had stepping stones you can use to cross to the other side. For this image I played with the angles and chose the final image from a higher angle looking down through the banister posts on the bridge, for this image I made the camera only focus on the water and the stones in the background, which was the opposite to the first image of the tree bud as the focus was in the foreground.
The final and my favourite images of the brief I captured my friends laughing and having a conversation by the side of the river in Lincoln, which reminded me of my hometown and the time we spent at Hessle Foreshore together as we are all from Hull, we would spend hours in these parks with other college friends before we moved away. The lighting in these images casts a shadow across the body of one my friends and once again there is reflection of the trees in the water caused by the sunlight which altogether made the models and the background of the images as interesting as each other, the ripples of the water in the background add texture to the image as it shows movement in the water and therefore movement in the images. The emotion of my friend laughing you can see from these images I am pleased with as the emotion looks more natural and not just a staged model picture, I captured the photograph when my friends were not expecting in order to get the most natural form and this gave me a strong image with natural emotion. I believe the angles in these images look as though you’re looking through the eyes(POV) of another person(or the photographer) in the conversation and this emphasises the pureness of the image.
