Assignment 5: Making it up - planning

The Process

Spurn Point is a four mile long, thin strip of land separating the North Sea and the Humber Estuary. Due to recent flooding, part of this wild and varied nature reserve has collapsed, making parts of it only accessible at low tide. Tidal defences in the form of large chunks of concrete and stone, lean on each other to form tiny caves. I chose to use this location to represent the general decline to local neighbourhoods.

In order to set up this shoot, several things had to be considered. The most vital aspect was to study the tidal calendar as the location I had chosen is totally inaccessible at high tide, and pools of water remain for a few hours after. The weather was also important, as, although we were all happy to work in most weathers, a heavy rainfall would have made the caves too flooded to work in.

Having chosen two potential weekends, I put out a request through social media, getting a good response from some keen volunteers, quite excited about creating characters and providing props. The tide tables gave a window between 9am and 3pm for our shoot. Avoiding midday sun, I chose to shoot in the morning as the light would be shining into the caves; by mid afternoon, the sun would have moved behind the caves, creating too much shade for a successful shoot. The chosen day, being warm and cloudy provided filtered lighting for the shoot.

Inspiration for the scene set up came from Domenico Dolce’s ITALIA IS LOVE! Campaign for Dolce & Gabbana. Several small groups of people are brought together to create one combined scene; the different activities separate the characters while their proximity brings them together. I have aimed to emulate this idea in my setup.

Costumes and props were used to create a homely scene in and around the caves and a group of volunteers played the parts of my chosen characters. The matriarchal character far left has a look of the strong women featured in wartime art, particularly the “We Can Do It!" propaganda poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943. The low used perspective gives a sense of power and worth in the face of adversity.

The characters, on the surface appear happy with their lot but the difficulties can easily be seen; the rock hard bed, tiny tin bath and lack of electricity symbolise some of the discomfort experienced by the real victims of gentrification. Individual shots were taken of each character, however the combined image evokes that sense of camaraderie experienced in the face of shared difficulties.

Further Information

As some London residents are forced out to the cheaper surrounding counties, those most at risk are tenants in need of social housing, who risk being moved as far as Newcastle, under the threat of being declared intentionally homeless. Statistics on deprived areas of England shows the damaging impact of some of the poorest people in the country. Steve Folwell discusses the changing face of ‘generation rent’:

“While we can laugh off the advertisement for a cupboard under the stairs, the shortage of affordable housing means that our perception of what is normal has become worryingly skewed. It’s forcing people to reconsider their ideals of space and reevaluate what’s really important and necessary.” (Folwell S. 2015)