I took
the opportunity of a weekend’s babysitting to create my first assignment. My
own teenaged offspring love having their younger cousins to stay and relish in
the excuse they provide to relive their childhood. Climbing trees and making
dens are fast becoming a thing of the past so when it comes along, they grab it
with both hands.
Great fun
however comes with great responsibility; the other side of the story I have
chosen to show is the passage from child to adulthood, those moments when the
older children change from friend to carer. Such relationships change
intermittently and often with such subtlety, no one notices. As evening draws
in however, young ones tire and the caring role becomes more prominent.
A walk
in a nearby village provided the backdrop for our photo-shoot; I knew from past
experience that we’d find enough fun activities to show the brighter side of
having cousins to stay. I wasn’t sure how many ‘carer’ moments would occur
naturally so I prepared my models for a bit of acting. Despite moving around
very quickly and getting in each other’s shots, I was really impressed with
their willingness and ability to act out given situations.
On the
way home, the youngest cousin brought some great opportunities for real life
caring shots, as she grew too weary to carry on.
Although
street photography is more commonly used in an urban setting, I took some of
the learning from this genre for my assignment. I approached the task using
only one lens, my 50mm, 1.8 prime for several reasons; Henri Cartier-Bresson
believes that retaining a fixed focal length can help to develop an instinctive
knowledge of how a photograph will look, 50mm producing images almost as the
eye sees made this an obvious choice.
I chose
a black & white format for my images in order to focus on the facial expressions
and body language without the distraction of colour. I had chosen to take the
photographs during the evening golden hour to add some interesting lighting.
However, the change in light during the hour and movement between the shade of
the woods and the full light of the riverside led to a set that didn’t feel
cohesive. Converting to black & white solved any colour issues while
slightly improving the effects of motion blur gained due to the slowly
diminishing light. Working with a combination of young children and potentially
moody teenagers meant that I had to work quickly and capture moments with
limited time to think about settings and perspective. In some cases, I asked
the children to pause or repeat a motion, however these images did not make the
final cut. I felt that truly candid moments by far outweighed a technically
perfect image.
My first
set shows the four playing freely, good friends together:
The
second set shows a change in dynamics as teenagers care for their younger
cousins:
Evaluation:
Demonstration of technical and visual skills
Although I feel that most of my images are well balanced, I wasn’t
quite prepared for the challenge of shooting in such low light with quickly
moving subjects. This has led to some images having inadequate focus and motion
blur, most notable in Leg up and Stones. Had I chosen a high ISO, the images
may have had more grain but the blur would have been dramatically reduced. I
made the decision to use black and white for these images due to inconsistent colouring
due to reducing light and changing background.
Quality of outcome
I feel that the message is represented quite well in this set; the
difference between friend and carer is subtle and can change in an instant but
can be easily seen when comparing images such as Monkeys and Stones. The three
final images show a clear narrative of a young child becoming too tired to
walk.
Demonstration of creativity
In order to be true to my developing personal voice, I have chosen
images that show active emotion and tell a story over those that are
technically more perfect. Although some of the shots were set up, I have chosen
those in which they look the most candid. For me, it is important to photograph
who a person is rather than merely what they look like. For this, it is
essential that they relax in order to show emotion in facial expression and
body language. In order to achieve this, I encouraged the children to play and
choose areas to be photographed. This method comes with technical risks such as
motion blur but can produce more genuine, candid shots.
Context
This assignment has been produced using knowledge gained in my
study of street photography, particularly that of Henry Cartier-Bresson. Aside
from his views on the decisive moment, I used his approach of using
only one prime lens. As well as retaining a fixed focal length can help to
develop an instinctive knowledge of how a photograph will look.
Bibliography
Gibson, D.
(2014) The street
photographer’s manual. London, United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson.
Golden, R.
(2008) Masters of
photography: A complete guide to the greatest artists of the photographic age. United Kingdom: Sterling Pub Co.
