University: Year 1

University: Year 1

It only seems like a few months since I received my letter of acceptance from Brighton University, now I’m third of the way though! Since enrolling, the fashion side of my photography work has taken a bit of a back seat. For the duration of the year we have been working on 18 summaries, 2 essays and 4 main projects, as it doesn’t really match with the style of my other work I have decided to show them here as opposed to my website!

Project 1 – Portraiture:

For my first project I was compelled to stay relatively within the bounds of fashion by combining previous work with new portraits. I decided to take a set of imaged from previous fashion photoshoots, I then shot again with the model in a new context, this being their rooms. I wanted to portray the models as they are in their regular lives outside of fashion. Presented as a series of paired images in a two by four grid in the order of room/set. I decided to present the images of the models in their rooms in black and white, this was to contrast them from the original images but to also focus the work on the model and their emotions without the distractions on colour.

Project 2 - Landscape:

For my second project I decided to take a more experimental step. I didn’t want to just shoot regular landscapes as I found it difficult to find any meaning at the time. I decided to create a set of snapshot style Polaroid photos taken from a collection of screenshots I took many years previous in the virtual worlds within a specific video game. It gelled with the theme of holiday snapshots because I spent a lot of time playing it as a child and it is now inaccessible, an environment that has passed by with the progression of time. I also chose to shot the images using instant film to bridge the gap between the virtual and the actual. The physicality of the images obfuscated a certain amount of the digital evidence that was visible within the original screenshots such as the aliasing along the edges of the objects in the scenes.

Project 3 - Document:

After the second project we moved on to semester two and a less broad remit. For my third project I decided to investigate and catalogue a series of murders that have occurred around the BN area of Brighton. Using a combination of news archives and public police reports I was able to plot a set of homicides on a map of the area. After collating the information I then went to each of the locations and shot a photograph of each scene. For my final presentation I displayed them along with the map of locations that I had created.

Project 4 - Fiction:

For my final project of year one I wanted to continue in similar vein to my previous project by focusing again on crime, this time specifically fictional crimes scenes. I put together a series of five case files containing detailed documents such as coroner’s, fingerprint and scene reports. As well as this I included photographs of the scenes along with images of the fabricated evidence and linked correspondence. For the presentation of this final project I decided to fabricate an office environment by adding a lamp, map and laptop to the scene, this combined with the case files completed the feel I was aiming for.

Now, time for summer and some fashion shoots! :D