Final blog post

I wanted to conclude and analyse my progress so far on this photography project, and also discuss some ideas which I might think about in the next half.

 I feel I have achieved some good results so far- I have quite a lot of results from various cities, and I always seem to end up getting quite a few photos, most of which are in focus and show a wide variety of people. I am also fairly happy with my idea, it can be talked at in depth and can link to many other ideas, which is good for development. The photos all also seem to show what I am trying to say about behavior around photography, which is good; further than this, there are many other things which I feel can be linked to my work about private/personal, analogue/digital and a whole host of other issues and ideas which would be really interesting to use the project to investigate. 

 I want in the future to do several more things with the cameras, to try and get people to act in certain ways. In some places, I want to leave a white board and a marker and get people to write how they are feelings- this might look more into construction of self- people are asked to question their mood and to decide the to be truthful or not. In another place I want to try a similar thing but get people to write their hometown; again, this taps in to self-construction. (probs do this one in London, seeing as it is so multicultural) I want to try and leave cameras in less touristy places also- parks, bus stops etc- this might get people who are less interested in the selfie. There is one last thing, which I am doing atm, which is leaving them in a place where there is a “disaster”- the flooding in Oxford. I’d like to see how people react to cameras when they are not on holiday too. Further than this, I am looking forward to leaving cameras in Berlin when I visit in February, and seeing if other nations react differently. (I am pretty sure they will, but it will be interesting to prove)

The project started as a much more hard hitting social movement sort of piece- I wanted to focus on a group of people who did not have voices. I liked this idea because it was interesting and sad, but I now realize how hard this sort of thing is to do- charities are so difficult to work with, and it is hard to get access to vulnerable people because of regulations and rules. I also am not sure how well it would have gone; the project could have been a bit brutal. There was definitely a significant change after I found several disposable projects online- the disposable camera project and the postal project in particular, which gave me a whole new way of looking at the project. This is when I decided to change my idea and do something a bit more light- the thing I am doing now. This idea actually has huge numbers of places it can go, probably more the first, so I am glad it devolved into this. I was impressed by people enthusiasm to take part and their niceness in not stealing the camera. 

I was interested in the results of the project; so many families, and children, sensible looking adults and tourists alike are so happy to take part in the project. As I have discussed in essays/presentations etc, this is in relation to fear of not being represented, fear of controlling representation, and need to be shown and constructed in the media. Further than this, I think photos have come to be a way of taking part in reality, and by taking photos with my project, they are taking part in my reality. I quite this idea, and want to build up a massive load of photos to demonstrate these, and other, themes of my final piece. 

Other than experimenting with new ways of photographing, I would also like to try new ways to display. I think the display will be very very important for this project; at the moment, it will just be 5000 photos. I need to work out a significant way of displaying which says what I want with the themes, and also looks nice. As you can see at the start of the project, I was interested in more multi-media street documentary interactive stuff- I dropped this for a bit because it was quite stressful to do this. However, recently I have decided I want to try and make some kind of interactive online gallery in which I could create something with all the photos. I want the people who are in the photos to see them, and I want to create a community, etc. I’m not sure how it would look, but there are hundreds of great examples which allow for soundscapes and such, which I would like to experiment with. I am very glad of a lot of my research here for giving me lots of ideas; I will try and stick this these. 

I think this project is quite creative and original, and I’m happy with how it is turning out. I also feel like, by looking at how everyone else is acting, I am changing as a photographer and as a photographed subject- now I think how I am posing, and also think about what I am taking a photo of much more. (I might even take photos a lot less too) However, I think last term I didn't adhere to any sort of schedule; it is integral this term that I stay with the schedule I have made, or else I will not get enough photos for the final show. I also need to make sure I don't stop reading and researching; these two things were really important for giving me ideas as well as backing up and grounding the ones I already had. These are two things I definitely need to keep up with.

Finally, I also made a film, as a way of showing the hand ins for tomorrow, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DF-Sr1PokU&feature=c4-overview&list=UUXBEYyvM4WxNTlPQ50Ql1sA

I was quite happy with this video; it shows everything I wanted, and is in depth. I also like that it captures the people taking the photos, and then shows the photos; this shows very much the process and result of posing. I didn't have much time, so I wish I could have more examples, as well as having less wobbles and a slightly better sound. However, I think it demonstrates my point and shows the process, result and grounds it in theory, which is exactly what I wanted. This is a good middle piece.