Reflections Photography Evaluation

This project has been an interesting one for me, as the contrast from where I started with my idea to see what I ended up with is stark. From my beginning of thinking about image glitching art to represent broken memories, and my experimentation with that type of photography I knew I wanted to do something along the lines of that:

However I got stuck in a dead end trying to figure out what to shoot, and how to develop the idea further. After a conversation with Rosie I found that my idea had stemmed mostly from my own experience of confusing layouts of houses I have lived in, having moved around a lot. From then I found inspiration came quite easily. However I still think there is something in image glitching, and feel I could do something more with that in the future.

Once I had my idea, everything came quite naturally, and I didn't really have any problems until I came to shoot. I had access to houses I used to live in, but I didn't manage to get around to them all as I only had just over 24 hours to get to around 8 houses, so I had to compromise in some areas of my photography work, using photographs I already had of those houses, and taking photographs of a friends' house which was very similar to one of the houses I wanted to photograph. In hindsight I think I should have either gone back to shoot, or taken more time out to go and shoot my photographs fully.

In post-production is where I spent most of my time, and I felt that part of the project was the part I enjoyed the most, as I have already lined out in a previous post (which can be found here) I found playing around with different settings really interesting in terms of how different they could make the photographs look, and I spent a good number of hours just trying to get something I was happy with. One thing I thought was a particularly good decision on my part was shooting in RAW, so I could take the photographs into lightroom and adjust the photographs to make them look quite similar. It really made the whole post-production side of the project much easier, and less stressful than it could have been.

Having yet to hang my work in the assessment space, I can't really comment on the arrangement of the work too much as I have yet to see how they will be perceived. However, I do think the blueprint I fashioned added something to the piece, another layer of understanding which I think was essential for the audience to know to fully appreciate the photography. Saying that, I don't think the photographs are too dependent on the blueprint for understanding. They just provide information about my thinking behind the photographs, though I feel they could easily insert their own meanings to them as well.

Overall I was pleased with what I managed to come out with at the end of this project. The only real regrets I have is wanting more time to shoot, and spending so long on trying to figure out what I wanted to do for the project. Although I am happy with what I have done, I feel as if maybe they could have been even better had I realised sooner what it is I wanted to do. What I've learned from it, is that I mustn't get stuck with one idea, and explore other areas surrounding that idea too, so I don't miss something that could potentially be quite a good idea.