Final Essay

Final Evaluation:-

Overall, I believe my project was successful as I explored my theme of nature through documentary photography in a variety of ways; some of these ways include using landscape photography, macro photography and the multiple exposure technique. I believe that mid-way through my project I noticed that I wanted to focus more on macro photography, and creating abstract environments using organic objects therefore I believe that my shoot numbers 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 are my best as they all explore the medium of macro photography on various types of fruit and vegetables. By focusing more on macro photography this allowed me to see everyday household objects in different ways to which I am used to. 

My shoot number four was my first macro shoot, however I didn't explore the object of a pepper effectively as I do later on in my shoots; consequently I would consider my shoot number eight as my first proper macro shoot. For my shoot number eight I used a low key lighting technique, which varied from my shoot number four whereby I used a higher key lighting. The use of  low key lighting allowed me to create darker environments which corresponded more to Nadege Meriau's work. For this shoot I photographed a pepper again, but this time I wanted to try and create a cave-like structure through the use of the lighting and how I cut the object so it could stand up. I believe my shoot went better than my shoot number four, however I still had room for improvement involving the studio lighting and how I set this up. 

My shoot number nine was one of my best shoots from this project, as I explored the unusual object of a seasonal squash due to inspiration from Nadege Meriau's photograph of a pumpkin. Within my shoot I wanted to investigate how caves can be created in unusual objects, I placed a snoot pointing in through a hole in the back of the squash in order to achieve more depth within my photograph to enhance the cave-like goal I was trying too achieve. I believe this shoot was a success as my images are extremely effective, whilst being evidently better than my previous images in other shoots. Additionally, my images can be more closely linked to Nadege Meriau, who was my inspiration for this shoot as a whole. 

My shoot number ten was not one of my strongest macro shoots as I chose to explore a seasonal squash again further, as I believed that I didn't exploit it's full potential in my previous shoot; however I don't think that this shoot was as effective as my shoot nine is, due to the fact that the innards of the squash was harder to carve out, subsequently this made it harder to create a cave structure within the object, as it was compacted with stringy particles. I do not believe this shoot is as effective as many of my other macro shoots as I also rarely explored different angles of the photographs within this shoot therefore all my images are quite similar which is also why I do not have many straight images from this shoot. 

My shoot number eleven took the focus off cave-like structures and focused more on the ambiguity of what I could create using the fruit of a pomegranate, I shot this shoot in the studio and focused on how I could make this object appear gruesome, like decaying flesh, as the red colouring of the object worked well as blood. By creating the connotation of the fruit linking to flesh, I wanted to show how these two things can be associated as fruit is living- much like us, and just being it might not have flesh and bone like us doesn't mean it is not living. I used a low key lighting technique in order to highlight the negative connotations I wanted to portray in my shoot through the dark colouring, as this would create an uneasy and ambiguous atmosphere in the viewer as they wouldn't be able to predict what could be in the background. 

My shoot number twelve used macro photography to focus on the texture of the outside of a cabbage, I chose to convert this shoot into black and white in order to highlight the texture and shadowing created more than if the image was kept in colour; moreover, if I left my images in colour it would make it easier for the viewer to work out what the object was in my images, which is not what I wanted as I wanted to create ambiguity. My images appear extremely dry, and the veins on the leafs stick out predominately suggesting that this environment is struggling for water- linking to the overall issue to deforestation and pollution as there's not enough water for this dry landscape. Additionally, there's no trees seen in the image, despite the lines that spread across the images looking like roots from a tree. I believe this shoot is extremely successful as the images are ambiguous, and create questions in the viewers head which was one of my main aims. 

My main aim for my shoot number thirteen was to look at decaying organic objects, instead of healthy ones which I had looked at in all of my previous shoots. In order to conduct this shoot I allowed a few days for the pomegranate I used in my shoot number eleven to go mouldy, whilst also letting some lemons go mouldy in order to explore the connotation of death. I believe this shoot was effective s by exploring how the objects decayed it also made them more relatable to humans, as we too decay when we die, therefore this creates an interpersonal link between human life and this object. In order to explore the death connotation more I used a low key lighting to create a dark background from which I could work from, the dark background creates uneasiness in the viewer as they don't know what may be lurking in the background. This shoot was also influenced by Nadege's images of undergrowth, to improve my shoot I could have had light coming in from above, which would suggest that this object is in the 'underworld', and the only way out is to go up. 

Some of my other shoots prior to my mid-project evaluation were weak as they didn't have effective connotations behind my images, unlike my later macro shoots which all link and have deep connotations; unlike my first seven shoots which don't all link as well as my later macro shoots do. I believe this was because initially I wanted to cover a broad variety of different factors which contribute to 'nature', whereas I eventually focused my project onto macro photography and how to explore nature and ambiguous environments through this. 

I selected my final portfolio by picking images which all linked together under the heading of 'nature', I chose images from my initial shoots and late shoots as my project overall does link as all of my shoots explore nature, however it's the way in which I explored the theme of 'nature' which varied (e.g. using macro photography, landscape photography...) I chose the images that are in my final 40, as I believe they are my best images overall from all my shoots, and most importantly they all link effectively together and due to this I believe my body of work is cohesive due to me specifically choosing images which flowed together as a  series. Moreover, it's evident within my shoots that I used experimentation throughout my project, as in some of my shoots (4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) I used macro photograph, whilst in others I used landscape photography to explore my theme (shoot number 6), and in others I also explored skylines (shoot 3, and 7.) I believe that my work does form a cohesive body of work due to the fact that all of my work flows and links effectively, despite all of my final shoots focusing on macro photography, with my earlier shoots using other techniques to explore nature, all of my work still falls under the theme of 'nature'. I also used experimentation in the studio through the use of coloured gels, as well as exploring my images by physically editing them and editing them in photoshop in order to try and find what worked best with my images. 

My work has been greatly influenced by other photographers that I explored throughout my research, including Nadege Meriau, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Stieglitz just to name a few. The detailed research section of the project taught me to look deeper into images, into their context and not just the initial image itself. Meriau influenced all of my macro shoots (4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) I took inspiration from her work as she created ambiguous and surreal environments through using organic objects; I chose to try and mimic this through my work by using objects such as lemons, pomegranates and squashes. Meriau's use of low key lighting influenced me in my later shoots to also explore this technique in order to enhance my images further; Meriau's use of lighting also interested me, as she often would have numerous beams of light hitting the object in order to create depth, therefore I too explored this within my images. Cave-like structures are also essential to Meriau's work, therefore I too explored this in many of my shoots (8, 9, 10, 11.)

Edward Weston also influenced me in my studio work, as he too often would use low key lighting in order to create masculine undertones within his images, therefore I explored his work in my research which then influenced my studio shoots(shoot 13, 4), as I focused more on the positioning of my objects, and the angles at which I was photographing these. My shoot thirteen was most influenced by Weston, as I shot a cabbage which he too focused on within one of his shoots, this was my main inspiration and allowed me to focus on the detailing on the outside of a cabbage leaf, which linked to the idea that we don't appreciate these small and simple details of nature. Weston also influenced my shoot number four, however my lighting was not low key enough which would have allowed me to effectively explore the masculinity of the pepper ( I then made sure the lighting in my later macro shoots was dark.) 

Ansel Adams heavily influenced my landscape photography in my shoot number 6, as he focused on photographing nature's beauty in order to champion its preservation to the public; therefore in my shoot number six I explored this by photographing my home town of Waltham Abbey in order to emphasise how the places we disregard have beauty and this should and can be explored- therefore this would also show how we need to protect these beautiful landscapes and prevent pollution and deforestation. Adam's use of tone influenced my shoot as I converted my images into black and white in order to explore the tonal range, likewise to Ansel; also, I explored using the burn and dodge tool which Adam's also similarly used to edit his images. 

Stieglitz was the driving force of influence behind my skyline shoots (3, and 7) as his images of the sky I found deeply interesting as to how something (the sky) so simple could be manipulated into something dark and ambiguous. In my shoot number three I focused on the clouds themselves, similarly to Stieglitz and then edited these images in photoshop into black and white, whilst working the contrast to create a new meaning within the image. I then later on chose to revisit this in my shoot number seven, but I decided to focus on not just clouds, but a skyline and how this can be perceived by the viewer, I often chose to leave any buildings in the way as silhouettes in order to show how they're irrelevant to the sky itself; I also chose to leave these images in colour in order to capture the skies 'natural beauty', without needing to edit this further. 

From my project I have learned that nature can be explored abstractly and still convey a meaningful message, as shown in my macro shoots, which I also believe are my best shoots as they are not 'typical' images of nature. In my initial illustrated project proposal I proposed to photograph built-up areas and show how this contrasts other areas whereby nature is predominant, I believe I didn't explore this aspect as I believed that this didn't have a deeper connotation to this, unlike my later macro shoots which I focused on which allowed my to experiment further and create my own choice of environment within my image, my work progressed as my project itself progressed. I also have learned how to use and adapt all of the  studio equipment I used frequently in my macro shoots, and how to set up the studio effectively for my shoot aim, for example I can now attach the equipment (e.g. snoot) to the lights myself. I also proposed to used gifs in my project proposal, however as I got deeper into my shoot I realised this wouldn't work well within my shoots, as through my mid-project evaluation I chose to focus on macro shoots further and gifs wouldn't have worked effectively here. I also explored the multiple exposure technique in my images which allowed me to expand my photoshop technique, as we also explored this technique prior to our project beginning, I believe this shoot doesn't fit well within my series of images, as all of my other shoots don't include any people, except from the multiple exposure shoot (number 5.) 

I believe that if I had more time in my project I could have explored the technique of gel lighting within the studio further, however I ran out of time within my project and didn't get to explore this as much as I would have liked. Moreover, I would explore more exotic fruits within my macro shoots to create more ambiguity in the viewer as they may not know what the fruit/ vegetable is I would be shooting. I also would like to have focused more on the textured within the objects (likewise to my shoot number 12), as I believe this would allow the viewer to see the objects in ways which they are not used to, for example by focusing in on a strawberry and its skin, in order to create a connotation between this and another object which it looks similar to when looked at through a macro lens. In addition, decaying and mouldy fruit is also what I would have liked to explore further similar to my shoot number twelve, as I believe this gives an interesting aspect on people's idea of what fruit is, and what it should look like, creating slightly repulsive images when the mould surrounds the object.