The original writing for this assignment is below, but I have re-done the editing to make the blur of the faces different. This is in line with tutor feedback. I think this looks better but may still have an odd look to it.
Introduction to the assignment:
For this assignment, I wanted to create a narrative of a decline in health, from abled to disabled. I chose to do this through the use of old photos and creating new snapshot like images of things I would normally do, but with hints of disability, such as injuries becoming more frequent, walking sticks and wrist supports having to be used within everyday activities, and even including how disability was involved within a milestone in my life of moving into student accommodation with my boyfriend. The mix of old and new photos was partially inspired by ‘The Fae Richards Photo Archive’ by Zoe Leonard and Cheryl Duyne, where they took old photos and created a new narrative from them to create the life of fictional character Fae Richards. I liked this idea of taking old photos and giving them new meaning, especially since it gave me a chance to rediscover old family images, and brought back a lot of joy and sentimentality, and while doing this project, I was able to discuss certain memories of these photos and others that aren’t included with my parents. It gave us a nice bonding experience over these images, but was slightly bittersweet as images such as my ballet ones reminded me of my love of ballet as a child and how I miss doing it, but most likely would never be able to do again due to my disability. I also wanted to make these photos anonymous in a way, as you can put yourself in the picture with this. It gives this idea that this decline could happen to anyone, and those who it has also happened to are not alone. I feel like blurring my face created the anonymity needed for it to be relatable to others too.
Contact Sheets:
New Pics – Annotated Old Pics – Annotated
Photos:
The process:
The process for creating this assignment was a difficult one. For so long I couldn’t think of anything, and I have to be honest and say I did kind of procrastinate doing this, the lack of ideas caused me a lot of stress. When I finally thought of my idea, I knew it wasn’t my strongest idea and this will likely be my weakest work for this unit, but it was an idea I liked and knew I could do.
The process began with me looking through family photos, picking out ones of me as a child which may be able to be used for my narrative. I found quite a few and scanned them (all visible within my contact sheets), but scanning didn’t come out as well and some images have glare, but I tried to minimise that, especially with my chosen images. I then had to think of how I would demonstrate a decline in health, from abled to disabled. I kept thinking of the idea of visibly showing disability would be difficult, it sort of needed to be subtle but sometimes that can be difficult to showcase, so these snapshot like images I made had to show things like crutches, walking sticks, wrist supports for a specific reason. It was showing that injuries become more frequent, these items become just part of daily living. They’re sort of invisible to me but to others they stick out like a sore thumb. I didn’t particularly need to ‘gather props’ because these props are already part of my life. I had to think hard about what I wanted to create/re-create, so just snapshots into daily living, which people do tend to photograph randomly, made sense to me.
The photos I took didn’t need illustrated planning (which hurts to do anyway so I couldn’t really do that) but I did create a list of photos I wanted to take. I struggled to think of what images needed to be taken, so I just included normal daily life. Things like drinking tea, taking photos (now also using an instax camera, which was the main prop I needed to think about, as instant photography is a form of photography I’ve been getting into and enjoying), moving house but also including a snapshot of something that happened recently. Earlier this year I had a small trip down the stairs which resulted in me being on crutches for a period of time, I originally sent a photo to my parents to show them, so I wanted to recreate something similar as it was a big thing at the time, and I couldn’t find the original image. I think with the new photos, the only issue is I needed to have changed clothes, as it’s quite obvious these were taken on the same day, although I also tend to live in the same comfy clothes, so wearing the same leggings and jumper frequently isn’t really something out of the ordinary.
In terms of location, my home was my safe-space. I’m in here a lot, I wasn’t going to travel to the hospital to take a photo, especially in these dangerous covid-19 times, so my garden and home were my focus for my location. I also think the original crutches image was taken when I got back anyway, so it’s not an unrealistic image. Also, in terms of lighting, I really only ever use natural lighting for my images, as I’m not quite experienced enough with artificial lighting, and since a lot of my photos were outside anyway, I was able to use that to my advantage.
With my direction, I believe I was able to somewhat convey the narrative I wanted to. These images definitely show some decline in a way, and I hope it is obvious to all viewers of the series. The images aren’t as strong as I’d like them to be, the series doesn’t perfectly meld together due to the change from analogue photography back when I was a kid to using a DSLR or even phones now. I’m not an expert with Photoshop, so I couldn’t digitally enhance the images or even make my images look as if they were taken with film. But the idea is still there.
When we first look at Paranoia by Christian Sampson as one isolated image, we see a black and white photo of a man screaming. He’s blindfolded and hands are grabbing at him from behind. However, with context, we know that there is much more to this image than just that and makes it easier to read into. But, to begin with, what is paranoia? Web MD
Laura's Learning Log 2 