Final Evaluation

When this project started, and i was given the 5 initial starting points, i thought that weather would be the best route to follow. But then when i tried to plan for weather shoots i realized that the weather is unpredictable and so it was almost impossible to plan a shoot in advance. During my initial shoot i tried to capture the current weather which was cold and damp, this limited the amount of photographs i could capture as it is hard to show this form of weather in an exciting way. This also made me realize that this was the typical British weather which i assumed would be consistent through several shoots and so it would limit the amount of photographs which were individual. After my initial shoot i decided to reconsider my chosen option.
After looking at the different mind map's which i made at the beginning of the project after receiving the initial starting points. I decided to go with evidence as i felt it was such a broad topic, which could be followed and developed in several different ways. As it was such a broad topic, it made it easy to plan for shoots and to find a large amount of objects/items to be the main focus of my photographs.
My first planned shoot was to go out and look for evidence that people had been there, this has a wide span of photograph opportunities as it could range from litter, to cigarette butts, footprints or objects discarded/ broken . I captured quite a lot of photographs as i found the shoot fairly simple. 
As my shoots continued from the evidence of people to buildings, vandalism etc i felt that i was struggling to continue on this route of damage etc as i was finding it difficult to come up with different ideas. I decided to focus on life experience as i thought this would be an interesting sub-topic. 
I began by focusing on male and female and so simply shot portrait photographs of different models, i then shot objects which fell into the feminine and masculine gender domains, things such as motorcycles, magazines and make up. Then whilst doing my photographer research i stumbled across Bobby Adams and i felt his work was inspiring as it showed the contrast of age on a person and between the genetics of two people from the same bloodline. I wanted to incorporate this into my own work. I decided i would take photographs of a few different models against a blank wall and use these to create work inspired by Bobby Adams. I put two models next to each other and this shows the contrast of genetics. I also took a self portrait and edited it next to one of me as a child, this has a similar overall effect as that of Bobby. 
My last shoot was one which focused on a subculture, this simply means a group of people with particular hobbies and intrests. As well as focusing on the life experience side of it i also wanted to bring in some of the tones of damage and vandalism from my earlier work. I went to an area which is a regular spot for people to hang around and participate in certain activities. By capturing the remains of one of these gatherings it gives an insight onto the type of people whom were there, 
Overall i feel my shoots for this project have been successful but if i was to improve on one thing it would be to take more photographs as some came out blurry or sometimes there was just not enough there to pick a good amount of straight images which made it harder to pick my best images at the end of the project. 
I felt my 5 hour exam went well, i travelled to Camden in London and i got loads of street art and other interesting objects/ buildings which correspond to the shoots at the beginning of the project. I felt i captured a lot of photographs which were of a good quality to use for my final pieces. 
On the other hand, i found the contextual work hard to keep up with. This project was totally independent compared to unit 1 and so it was quite a shock to the system. I found the research log difficult as i did not know how to find the photographers who took the photographs which related to my project, However with support from my peers and Paul, i used my time in class efficiently and got the work i had to do at college complete whilst leaving certain pieces to do at home that did not require the software on the college macs.