Evaluation

Evaluation

The concept behind this part of the project was to capture a narrative through a series of images all about the Northeast of England. My main goal for this part of the project was to show something that is relevant in my life. As I live in the Northeast and have done all my life i thought this would be easy for me, but as well as this i wanted it to relate to the industrial history of the Northeast. This lead me to my dads job as he works at a steelworks in the Northeast this was a perfect concept for me to follow. 

The factors that really influenced me throughout this project was how personal it was to me, and how i could go work with my dad and actually do an on site photo shoot that wasn't just in my room or the studio, and I also think that was what made me so excited to complete this project.

The final outcome of my project does meet the brief requirements because i have created an engaging visual narrative that is all about the Northeast. 

If i was to improve my work i would have experimented with a different camera, i think it would have been good to capture some of the grinding images on 35mm film to see how it would affect the look of the image. I would also speak to the people i photographed more and got to know their story and either use a voice recording of it or write it down as a quote to go with the image.

For this project i had to gain a better understanding of the jobs in Allerton Steel and also gain more knowledge on health and safety in this dangerous environment, The majority of this was taught to me by my dad and health reps at his work but i also did a lot of research on it.

A new skill that i have learnt while enduring this project is not necessarily to do with the photography side of things although it will benefit my photography career. The skill that i have gained is being able to work on commision. As i offered the company the images i took, i knew that i had to do a professional job for them as they would feature on there website and in the reception of the establishment, this gave me a better understanding of commissioned work whilst i was talking to the owner and also taking the images. It also gave me a lot of confidence in working on location. 

On the other hand although i learnt a new skill and work ethic it also challenged me and pushed me beyond my comfort boundaries before now i had photographs people i knew in locations i knew but this time i photographed mostly strangers in an unfamiliar surroundings.

Overall i am extremely happy with the way the final outcomes for this project came out. I feel i met the brief requirements perfectly and i also produced some of the best work i ever have. 

Final edited images!

Final edited images

I was going to wait a day or two to go through the images again before editing them but i have found my final images and decided to edit them straight away. This is because i am super exctied about this project and i wanted to get it done ASAP.

Below are those images:

As you can tell from the last post i have altered the line up and added and taken out images the order they are in now will actually be the order they appear on the powerpoint presentation.

Shortlisted images

First lot of Shortlisted images

I may add or take away images from this these are my first none edited shortlisted images that i have chosen.

Todays the day

Today's the day

Today i am going to my dad's work i have gotten up at 6am to be ready to start the morning shoot.

industrial video

Industrial video

Whilst doing my research i couldn't find an awful lot of photographers who worked in industrial style photography so i decided to search youtube and i found this video that showed a lot of shots of the north east through the media of video opposed to photographs but never the less this video inspired me a lot to get creative with the kind of shots i want. 

Part two narrative photography (north east stories)

Initial direction

For the first part of the Northeast narrative stories i used personal photos of mine to illustrate me looking back at memories. That had an awful lot to do with me and my experiences through college.

So for the second part i wanted to make it also relate to me as much as possible. I started thinking what do i know that relates to my life growing up in the north east which is where i have lived since birth.

As i know the Northeast of England was built mainly because of the industrial work that went on and still goes on there i wanted to capture images that depict the industrial kind of work. This was ideal for me as my dad has worked at a steel works for my entire life and most of his. 

Since the age of 15 my dad has worked at Allerton Steel just like my grandad and the steel works is very much embedded in my family. My dad now has moved up from working on the shop floor grinding, cutting and welding and now works in the offices but never the less, i have many childhood memories of my dad at work, coming home mucky with black hands and even going to work to take him milk for coffees. This to me showed the Northeast way of life and was something i definitely wanted to capture, and the fact my dad works in an establishment that is exactly what i want, the opportunity was too perfect to pass up. 

I had to email the owner of Allerton steel through my dad to ask for permission to have access to the premises. I also offered the company any images i used almost like a bargaining chip. They granted me access and i have a couple of hours over the course of two day (3rd and 4th of March) to capture the images i need. As the area i will be taking photos in is very dangerous i will be taken around with a sight manager and will be wearing protective gear. 

What i am hoping to capture

I am hoping either to capture a day in my dads working life or capturing the life of an industrial worker.

After the shoot

After the shoot

I have finished the shoot and i have been reviewing my shots. I have close to 500 shots altogether i will start deleting the ones that are too blurred to use and then try and narrow them down. I am extremely happy with the way they have come out. 

As a result of the amount of images i have taken and the amount of good quality i achieved i am not going to go to shoot tomorrow and instead i am going to stay home and edit instead. 

Allerton Steel

Allerton Steel

http://www.allertonsteel.co.uk/

As well as researching other photographers work i wanted to research Allerton Steel itself not only because the website itself has images of the shop on there already but because having a better understanding of their company may help me when i go for my shoot. 

Examples of work on the website:

Ian Mcdonald

Ian Mcdonald

http://www.ianmacdonald.co.uk/portfolio/heavy_industry.php

Ian Mcdonald is a well known north east photographer. He clearly recognised that the industry built the north east and noticed changes to the industry over the years. I think this is why his work of the industry's is so powerful to me. The image is shown in black and white capture the dangerous aspects of the job and also the beauty of it too. 

This was my favorite of Ian's work, it shows a blast furnace and a man stood directly next to it. Ian has named this image 'Blowing down a blast furnace for shutdown'. Some times i feel with the bright and colorful lights you can get in the factories and shop floors of steel works and other things but this image the fact it is black and white does not affect the impact of the brightness of the furnace in the slightest.

Michael Molloy - industrial photographer

Michael Molloy

http://www.michaelmolloy.co.uk/industrial-photography.html

Michael Molloy is a London based photographer who has a wide variety of photography to show for himself, such as commercial, portraits, architecture, construction, automotive, interiors, products, industrial, landscapes and aviation. 

I have been looking at his industrial work to inspire me to have ideas and plans of what i want to capture at my dads work.
On Michaels website the first industrial image i saw intrigued me. It was very crystal clear and sharp, it almost looks like an oil painting not a photograph. Another image i saw was held a similar activity to the first image i spoke about but much further away. Both images depict men welding and i really like the look of the photos with the sparks flying.

Evaluation

Project evaluation

My concept behind this project was to physically represent my memories in a single image. I mainly wanted this to be my concept because the entire project is put under 'north east stories', this makes me want to make the project to relate to me as much as possible as i do live in the north east and no one knows the northeast and what goes on there better than someone who lives in the northeast. So making it relate to me is almost effortless. 

The factors that have really influenced me are seeing photographers and images through my research on narrative photography because it lead me down paths I may not have even thought about had I not looked and these images or photographers images. 

I think my final outcome does meet the requirements of the brief because I have captured an engaging narrative in my photography it’s an image showing my memories, showing my looking back at memories that I miss and the reason I think this Is an engaging narrative for the audience is that you can come up with a thousand explanations for the image, the possibilities for the narrative true story could be endless.

I think if I was to improve my work I would have at least try to physically re-enact a photo from a memory I cherish I do feel like that would be just as powerful but I think the way I captured the memory in my actual final outcome is far better.

To complete this project I had to do a lot of research and a lot of thinking to actually just achieve the smallest ideas for a final piece because at the start of this project I was truly stuck for ideas and I thought I wouldn’t achieve a final piece in time. But the research gave me lots of direction to go down to create a final image and I would say that was my main help.

A new skill that I have been working on for a while but used by myself for the first time during this project was captures one. This is the soft ware I used to look at my images from the shoot and determine a final image and also edit the final image.  As I have used this software before I did not find it too challenging but I am glad that I was able to use the software with no complications.

The assignment challenged me a lot because it made me really think out side of the box to fathom ideas because at the start as I stated I had no direction.

On reflection I am happy with how the final piece came out. In my head I had an idea of using personal experiences to show an engaging narrative and to use memories and those personal experiences and I think my final outcome really represents some of my memories.

Final image for my photography and narrative project part one

This is my final image for part one of the photography and narrative project. I chose this because i honestly really like how the hands look, because of the way they are positioned and also because of how delicately Ed appears to be holding the Polaroids. 
In the polaroids you can see 3 people, Ed, Danni and Becca three of my friends from college. These are two days that stick out in my mind for being fun days and they are memories that i do cherish, and i love how as i stated before Ed is holding them delicately and almost pushing them forward towards the camera like you need to look at the Polaroids. 

I didn't really need to edit these photos because i captures the right lighting that i wanted using my external flash, so i only really edited it by sharpening the image.

Shots from my final piece shoot

These are a few of the 100 some photos that i took, i chose these to show before i edited one of them for the final because these are my favorites of the shoot. 

I just wanted to make these photos look like the person in it aka Ed was showing the audience the past memories i've had or my friends have had an i think in these photos i did capture the essence of that and i am very happy with how the all came out really not just these few. 

Now i am going to narrow them down to just one and edit it if it needs editing and then i will publish and show it on my blog.