Evaluation

The concept around this project for me became clear for me after only a tiny bit of research opposed to the last project where i really struggled to figure out what i would base the entire thing on. Looking at portraits that are already out there it became evident that there are different interpretation you can achieve that cross over into different styles, such as fashion and documentary. I decided early on that i wanted to achieve a more natural, documentary style portrait, to achieve this i also decided early on that i wanted the subject(s) to be strangers, at least for the most part.

The factors that really influenced me during this project was seeing the portrait style used with documentary in the cases of images i saw in wonderland magazine a few of which i used as examples.  Both the group portraits and single portraits within the magazine, helped me figure out the look i really wanted to go with. I liked the idea of shooting outside against urban backdrops such as sky, brick walls and shop shutters. The images within the magazine, although i knew they were models hired to be in the shot. Made me look at them as if they were taken by a friend in a relaxed environment or candid or even just chance encounters, which is why i decided to go more with images of strangers so they were infact chance encounters.

If i was to go back to this project in order to improve the work i've done i would have taken a lot more dark slide out with me especially when shooting with the 5x4 field camera. This is because some of my negatives didn't work out right leaving me without enough time to shoot more resulting in me not capturing full length images, the majority of my images were mid shots. This in return means a certain aspect of the brief wasn't met. But this is an error on my part because i know film photography is unpredictable and its not always certain you will capture the image perfectly sometimes the image will be fogged etc. Looking back i should have thought ahead it is better to have more images than needed than too few.
Also with the images i have put forward in the black and white part of the project i felt that my smaller prints could have been a lot better, the negatives were quite gray which left my images looking gray all over and the whites were not white. In order to change the tones in the prints I did use a 5 filter to bring out the whites but i wasn't 100% happy with the finished result. I felt that a lot more time could have been taken to show the best of my ability in the dark room.

A new skill i have gained, isn't really a new skill for me however i feel i have improved upon this skill massively within this project. Just like the last project i brushed upon the fact i gained skills in talking with the subject of my photographs, in the case of the last project it was my grandparents so it was an easier transition but in this project is was infact strangers, i felt more comfortable talking to the strangers and actually approaching people which this time last year was a terrifying prospect for me.

This assignment challenged me quite a bit more so with shooting color film, as i stated previously i have only really shot color film using a disposable camera i am in no way shape or form used to loading color film or shooting color film using a hasselblad, i have used a hasselblad with a digital back but not with a film back, i also have never printed color images in a dark room before where as i am very familiar with how black and white darkrooms work as i have used them since the age of 13/15. Also not being a fan of the dark in my personal life i am proud that i was able to print in the color dark room which is completely pitch black it doesn't have red lights like the black and white darkroom.

upon reflecting upon this project i feel happy with the images i have put forward, but in some cases i feel i didn't achieve the best results, i felt that i am capable of much better like my previous projects.