Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills
All images were hand held with a crop sensor DSLR, all taken in manual mode.
As it was a journalistic piece I have got closer to the subject remembering the Robert Capa quote “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”. Obviously just getting close doesn’t improve the picture but for a journalistic piece the message needs to be conveyed reasonably quickly.
Looking at the EXIF data of my selects I am surprised to find that I took the ‘poppy’ image at f22 and still managed to achieve the blurring of the sign. I guess it was due to how close I was to the poppy and the fact that it was quite bright and so needed a smaller aperture. There was also a breeze and I needed a fast shutter speed.
The contact sheets show that I had exposure issues early on in the shoot which is a reminder to keep an eye on the light meter when in manual mode.
Most of the images taken for this assignment were candid however I did ask two of my subjects if it was ok to take their picture and also asked them to go back and walk past me once more. The image of the lady with the polling sign arrows pointing at her head appears to be the most ‘posed’ but in fact was a quick grab shot as I was being asked to move on by a polling station official
Demonstration of Creativity
Creatively, I have returned to a subject that I used last year for the EU referendum in assignment 2 of EYV. The brief and emphasis of the first part of the course on documentary led me fairly quickly to politics as my subject. This was my first return to taking images of people since my Square Mile assignment in April 2016.
Nobody expressed a problem with me firing off shots as they entered or exited polling stations. Unlike last year when I wasn’t actually taking pictures of people but a lady took offence anyway for me being there with a camera.
I have concentrated on the colour palette of red and blue when identifying a shot and in my decision making for the final selects. The vibrancy of the red poppy and the ‘Priti Patel’ (government minister, Witham MP and leading Brexit chearleader) sign make this the strongest image and most creative.
I feel the least creative are the ones where smiling people are the subject. Although they do have a place in the set as they are important to the message I want to convey.
Context
I specifically researched Don McCullin for this assignment and the film about his work gave a great insight of photojournalism. Although he was predominantly a war photographer and the film’s emphasis was about his presence in war zones, I found the aspect of his relationship with his editor fascinating. It highlighted how much journalism has changed in the last two decades. McCullin was trusted to capture the scenes however he wanted without any editorial influence. At the point that changed he moved on.
My assignment examines how it is possible to take multiple images but pick the ones that match the chosen editorial message. This is quite a powerful tool when consciously selling a message to an unsuspecting public. Although with the increasing number of people getting news from social media and online outlets this lessens that impact. In fact it has led to people only reading and seeing things in their own bubble which has its own issues with bias.
Quality of Outcome
My images are not dramatic and do not convey emotion or distress. They are fairly mundane and would be stronger when sitting alongside text in a newspaper supplement. I would be interested in mocking up an example layout but currently have no publishing tools that are efficient enough to make the exercise worth while at this stage.
I have shown the images to peers where initially they were unsure until I explained the brief and my idea for them being in a newspaper supplement article. Even so it does suggest that they may not be as good as I think. I have enjoyed the exercise and chosen a subject that I am interested in which hopefully comes across in the outcome.
Martyn Rainbird 