Proposal Of Ideas

An interest in history and exploration of places has lead me to a theme of ………………I think that this theme will give me the opportunity to work across different genres of pho­­tography including: landscape, digital manipulation and surrealism and portraiture.

I would like to be able to look at places that have been a victim of decay over time, thus changing the appearance of the building through abandonment and state of disrepair, bringing together the past and the present. This is just a small aspect of my personal investigation as I know I will not be able to visit these places on a regular basis; however I wish to show my photographs through a travel diary of someone from the Victorian times. For example, visiting places that have great historical meaning, particularly in the North East as it is the area I have always grown up in. I can visit places like Beamish and Whitby to take photographs and give the sense of a journey through my photos. I feel that displaying my work through a diary will be a good way to add context and narrative to my images, which will lead up to a stronger final piece.

Throughout my personal investigation I plan to experiment with the use of equipment and editing once I have taken my photographs. To do this I will make use of tripods, Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut, Digital Negative development and manual camera settings. I think that by doing this I will develop my camera techniques and further improve my experimental aspects of photography.

I have taken inspiration from local photographer Paul Anthony Wilson, who owns ‘The Victorian Image’, photographing people in the style of photographs that would be taken in the Victorian times. Although I do not plan on a heavy focus on portraiture I like the way he recreates a Victorian image and I think I will also be able to learn a lot from the landscape images he has taken too.

I feel that possible outcomes from my personal investigation can include stop motion videos, which could contribute to a video style journal that is created through photographs. I would like to look into creating post cards for the different places I visit with a vintage feel (something that is likely to be bought in the past, not in the present day to fit in with my theme). Prints can accompany my possible outcomes to strengthen the vintage style images I will have created, either in the form of a simple print, or a poster style advertisement for the places I have visited. This will allow me to enhance my professionalism skills in Photoshop to create a final outcome that looks authentic.