Evaluation

Final Major Project – Level 6

Evaluation

I feel that this project has been a great learning experience for me.  When I first started the course the last thing that I wanted to do was portraiture because I didn’t have the confidence to sit behind the camera and give instructions looking directly at somebody that is watching me set up equipment.  I wasn’t comfortable with the equipment and nor was I comfortable as a photographer.  I avoided portraiture projects and opted for still life.

As I researched images I found myself drawn towards digital colour photography that reflected culture and was inspired by the images of famous photographers like Steve McCurry and Senol Zorlu, this inspiration gave my work a new direction and I felt more comfortable with it possibly because of my own family cultural background.

I feel that my earlier portrait images really had very little expression and that was purely down to my own lack of confidence as a photographer.  The images were out of focus because I felt that I wanted to take the photograph as quickly as possible and not be seen with a large camera for too long.  I feel that I had to overcome this fear when I was given one of the old manual 6”x4” film cameras, as there is simply no point and shoot with one of those things although it did produce the best images.

For my brief I intended to do portraiture as I felt it was strongly linked to wedding photography and during my assignment I did try this, however, I found that wedding photography was more staged and commercial and because people were dressed for an occasion it changed the whole environment and only reflected wedding culture and was far from portraiture.

I took photographs of women and men of different ages and from different Asian backgrounds but found that people that had originally migrated from villages in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh still had strong traditional values and didn’t want any images of themselves anywhere that would be seen to be disrespectful to them and decided not to look at the camera.  I did initially see this as an obstacle but having thought about it afterwards realized that after all it does reflect a strong culture which is something that I was trying to capture in the first place.  I am now comfortable with the images that I have but feel that I still want to produce more images of a similar nature but with the cultural backgrounds such as the images from Pakistan.

I like new technology and used digital equipment (Canon 6D) for this project using both outdoor natural light as well as flash and also studio lights for the indoor shoots.  I feel that I need to prepare better for outdoor shoots especially when it rains (as it can’t be avoided at all times) and if I am to take on any commercial projects or try and create more creative images by using the weather to my advantage.