FDPH202 - Visual Narrative (Start Date: 25th September 2012 - Deadline 11th December 2012)
For this assignment brief we were required to produce a body
of work that develops our creative skills within the photographic practices,
the theme of this brief is called visual narrative this meant being able to
communicate a story through any visual medias, in this case Photography. The outcome had to be a visual sequence of
images that clearly relate to our chosen themes, minimum of 8 images.
For my idea I chose to focus my body of work on reality and
memories. Pinning two realities against each other – differences between life
and death looking at how objects and places, become an important form of remembering
and to show how these objects/clothing become significantly more important to
us, once they existed without its original owner. For this body of work I
wanted to create a series of eight images, using four dresses and four
different locations, with and without a model, placing her within each
location, and then photographing the dress without her presence.
I went onto look at relevant research and influences to fit the theme of my project which involved looking at Christian Boltanski’s work, particularly his installation piece called ‘Personnes’ consisting of a large pile of clothing which above a crane claw hangs and takes from the pile and drops into smaller piles of clothing. This piece explores the forms of remembering and consciousness using clothing as identification, using the viewer’s imagination to create the people.
A photograph of Christian Boltanski's installation piece
I also
looked at the 1998 film called Sliding Doors which alternates between two
parallel universes, following two different paths. I thought this was really
interesting to watch, it really emphasises on how unpredictable the reality we
live in is, how it is unknowingly changing all the time. Our futures are
influenced by every decision we make, but also by decisions and actions of
others. The only certain aspect is death.
I did a total of eight shoots for this assignment, completed
four photo shoots of the dresses being worn by the model in each of the four
locations. For this project when photographing the model I aimed to capture her
in a natural organic way. I wanted her pose to seem genuine not staged, so that
the memories I created with my camera feel tangible to the viewer. The idea
behind the four photo shoots of the dresses left in the landscapes, was to
create a sense of loss in the images without her presence, drawing focus to the
clothing and how these objects encapsulate memories and ideas – just like the
photographs. Clothing share similar characteristics to people as time passes
they become fragile, the material qualities change and eventually degrade. I
think that’s why vintage clothing makes such an interesting subject matter,
because without maintaining it; it will perish.
The Final Series:
Image Series:
Katie Minchin Photography © All Rights Reserved
As for presenting or displaying my work as an exhibition
piece I have shown the images of the dress with and without the model in this
organic location of wooded area to mirror the atmospheric mood created in the
photographs. I have avoided putting next to one another as I think by
displaying the photographs of the first dress in the location on its own next
to a photograph of the model in a different dress/ or dress in landscape as it
would show an obvious stylistic link but an ambiguous link by mismatching the
‘model’ images with the memory images.
Bringing the installation piece into a Gallery - in an organic form. Reproducing the atmosphere created in my images.
