successssssss

Finally, I have some photos. I devolped the photos from the street, and they have come out very well. Here are a few from each "shoot"

There were quite a few things which i felt as I was looking at these photos, whic I want to reflect on:

1) Excitement; I had no idea what I was going to see. The nature of analogue photography, and "found photography" as it were, means that I had no idea if the photos worked correctly with exposure etc, and I had no idea who took photos, what they would show, if it would be focused. This felt like finding a secret treasure of moments and people I didn't know or see.

2) Creepy; Lookng through posed portraits, couples, families, friends all of whom i did not know, I felt like a bit of a creep- collecting these little moments, moments of happiness which had nothing to do with me. I felt like a voyeur, without even meaning to.

3) Confusion; who are these people? Why are they taking photos of themselves with a camera they found on the street?! Especially of their children. I could be anyone, using these photos for anything. This showed me a sort of trust in people, a trust that I am using these photos innocently, and nicely. I didn't put on the card where the photos would be, and this was more confusion. These people had NO idea what I might be taking the photos for. I liked this, they were contributing with no idea of outcome. I was thinking maybe the "innocence" of the disposable camera might help this, or that we're all USED to the idea of people documented and watched.

4) Interest. Again, who ARE these people? Its so easy to read into them, but I have no idea. They could look happy, but not be. I feel connected without knowing them.

5) Happiness; The aesthetic of the photos is wonderfully grainy and badly exposed, and this defines for everyone a stereotype of "street", down to earth, realistic- which it is and it isn't. I'm eliminating the photographer, and letting people photograph themselves, which in turn means that the photos are badly produced, but arguably more "real", less set up and closer to reality. But this arguable.

Street photography taken to its finest form; this is a camera on the street which asks people to interact, and people will or won't, and they document themselves. Interestingly, most document themselves in quite a conventional way- posing, or like instagram, which is also amusing, as this is a disposable camera, the "original" instagram.

I am going to do even more photos over the coming weeks. I hope to have 10 rolls (120ish photos) by christmas, which I can use to make something to hand in. I was also thinking about making a facebook group for the people, so they can access the photos they have willingly participating in.

so, I need to do a lot more reading for this, as well as trying to decide what I might do with the photos when I hand in. I was thinking an interactive map, with soundscape, but this is pretty extreme, I'm not too sure about it. For my final piece, I was hoping to maybe set up a dark room, and put the photos on the inside walls, as well as people having the chance to develop their own photos. What I need to focus on now is getting a good backing of theorists, and deciding how my project will look when I hand in in January.