December 2015 – William Bush

Before I start explaining this project I would have noted that the dictionary definition of home is:
“The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.”

For this final brief I had so many ideas in my head, because to me the word ‘Home’ can mean so many things, in its simplest form home is where you feel comfortable and at peace, but to others it can be simply be where you are living at the moment in time. Coming to Uni technically has changed my home, but i don’t feel this way. My original idea involved a pig heart and taking the idea of ‘home is where the heart is’ and playing on this pun, but there was a moment that changed my mind. I was walking home one day and i saw in the window of a flat giant white letters that spelled out the word ‘Home’ and this then inspired my idea, since to that student who put that up, that room was there home, but to me my flat was not home, so I knew I wanted to show more in this project.

All my life I have lived in the country, I was raised in the country, spent all my school life living in solitude, excluding some horses and alpaca, but for most this would be annoying since there would be no entertainment, but for me this was way more than fine, I loved it, living the middle of absolute nowhere. The peace and tranquillity of the country side is so exhilarating and at the same time so quite, living there is such a different experience to living in the city. So my ideas for this project were totally overwhelming, I had to narrow my mind, i knew Lincoln didn’t feel like my ‘home’ but i knew that when I was walking through a park that it felt so much more like a homely environment then any bed or games consol could.
Still thinking about this concept I travelled home, not knowing what would take my eye, if anything, but it was at this point I started thinking about photographers who had much experience in scenery and shooting wildlife, luckily the two photographers i found were very helpful in showing me not only the absolute beauty of the country side, but also the lasting effects of the photographs themselves.

Adem Berton

Ref: http://www.adamburtonphotography.com/

Bill Atkinson

After viewing all these different images of multiple countryside’s I knew that i had to take a walk around Evedon (my village) and photograph what truly inspired me about my place of childhood. Since I think that a lot of our memories that are linked with home stem from our memories, which personally is very easily triggered by the smell of a newly blossomed flower or the sound of the wind rushing through the leaves of a tree.

I took roughly 30 images, I was thinking of myself of a professional when I took these, I merely wanted to gain an understanding of my ability and also the scope I was trying to capture in these images, luckily I was so surprised that my nature photography had proven successful. But this project was about the idea of ‘home’ so I then made the choice to pick the photos that mean the most to me as an individual and hope that when you read this you understand my decision

Final Images

This close up of a bug was me experimenting with many different styles of shots, this extreme close up is a reminder of the wildlife that i grew up around, it is just one element that makes the ‘home’ experience for me.

This picture reminds me of the walk to school i had to take, its anouther part of my life and of my ‘home’ experience. I love how the water fits so perfectly still in the middle of the green.

This is my house, which i think does needed to be added just to give some context to these images, an average shot, but it still holds a special place in my memories.

This picture is very dilibrate, since i have never been in this church, and have always shyed away from it, therefore when i took this picture i sheilded myself using nature, which i think made for a very good image, showing the green nature against the old church yard.

Gates and feilds; the wheat the feilds produce, this is all just so homely to me and this is why i had to include it, i knew i wanted just a few crops in sight, just to have that nice foucs around them, making them the subject of the image.

Finally we have the autumn leaf, floating on the water in blissful silence, to me I really do imagine this leaf being more than just any old leaf, it is symbolic of my home, it’s so calm and it changes through the seasons, but it will always be there in some form, like now, i am away from home but when i return there will still be leaves and there will still be my family, and on a more morbid note, when they do pass i will still think of Evedon as home, it holds grand memories and feelings that i cannot feel anywhere else.

Home is about what we as a person define as our place, that place where we are at our calmest, we are able to put our guards down and embrace our environment and surrounding. I love how everyone can view one topic slightly different, I just see it as being very green indeed.

For this brief I knew that this would be the most traditional style of photography I would be dealing with, which is not a bad thing, since with the other projects I have been a little different, this one I knew that I wanted to try lots of styles but through lots of practice and research I knew that I wanted traditional portraits.

My research had to start with one of the most famous portrait photographs of all time, Afghan Girl, by Steve McCurry which is totally stunning to be gazed at, yet I think it’s more the expression that I am very interested in when it comes to inspiring me for this project. Emotion has always been a tricky subject in photographs, since telling somebody to “say cheese” seems a little redundant and fake, and never really produces a convincing photograph. Posing for photographs does have its place in the photographic world, but personally for pictures that focus on somebody’s face there should be a focus on the natural, unaltered human face. Personally I think that when a photo is taken it is to convey a message about the people in the photo or it can be styled and therefore showing the photographers abilities.

Source:http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text

His work as a whole has been very helpful in enhancing my abilities to determine how powerful one simple expressionless face can be.

Another inspiration for my final pictures came from August Sander who incorporates more of the body into his images, but the types of people he photographs and the amount of detail he puts into every single picture is why I feel so inspired, looking at his works show me that every single image has a story to it, and this is one of the reasons I love photography; every image and person in it has a story to tell.

Ref: http://www.artophilia.com/artists/august-sander/

Ref: http://onlyoldphotography.tumblr.com/post/27624298910/august-sander-member-of-a-nuremberg-student

These photos show such power in the emotions on the people’s faces, this is why my final images show emotion in there expressions, maybe not on the same serious tone, but I do like to have my own unique spin on every single picture I take.

For these four photos I tried to range my abilities as a portrait photographer:

This photo of myself was a way of seeing how I personally would react to a natural picture, since i wanted to have a very neutral face in this picture, because a fake smile would never mean as much as a natural blank expression. I captured most of my chest because i think a portrait would be more than just the face, but the natural state of the body under a camera. Being in the sunny outdoors in a cool hat, it is clear from all elements that I am in a good environment and there is a warmth emitted from this picture, but I love how after all this there can still be this very static look of camera-shy awkwardness, and that is what surprise pictures are all about.

With this image i started to play about with the idea of using a black and white filter to enhance my images, since in this photo there was a lot of natural light, which good for a normal image for this project proved to be problematic, since it was drawing to much attention away from the person in the photo. Solving this problem was easy since when the black and white filter was applied it totally changed the whole image, making it a lot more vibrant and putting all the attention onto the model. The colours are much defined so as well as solving a problem adding this filter has indeed improved this image. I decided on not having my final images in a filter is because of the limitations it gives, i like to have lots of creative freedom, when black and white colours are very constricting.

Now this picture i took to mess about with higher angles in my photography, portraiture is very subjective, so this image to some may look a little evil, but I think this just explores how different emotions can be captured by the simple raising of an angle, it just goes to show how remarkable the human face can be, just one simple change can make a massive difference.

For this photo I wanted to have a close up of a face, more like magazine cover or a photo shoot, just to experiment with the idea and features of somebody’s face being a lot more dominate to a photograph.

Final Images

My final images are showing true expression, this is the reason I love them so much, it is my ideal portraits, since there is real emotion shown, through smoking and smiling, you can see it on their faces, that real genuine emotion, I think this brief was a success as i tried a range of styles and techniques and my overall final images are completely honest with themselves and the viewer, which for me in integral.

Month: December 2015

‘Home’

Portraiture