When we were given the brief for ‘Home’ we were asked what the word home means to us and how we would convey this through a series of six photographs. To me, when I hear the word home I think of my hometown in Kent and the surrounding areas that I used to visit all the time. Home is a place in which I feel safe and makes me feel secure. Home is wherever my family is, and my closest friends are also like a home to me. Lincoln is a new home for me as this is where I spend most of my time. For this brief I thought of taking images of my dog, as he is a significant part of my life at home. Tracey suggested taking images from his point of view for the brief, and this gave me a good idea as to what I wanted my series to look like.
I wanted my series to be a visual representation of going away for a while and having a good time, but then that feeling of security once you are back ‘home’. As I wanted to use my dog, I thought about doing the series of images in a ‘day in the life’ style in which the images are from my dogs point of view when he is being taken for a walk. This is to represent the feeling of isolation and insignificance that you can sometimes feel when you are away from what you call home. At the end of the pictures he will be back where he feels safest, with his family.
During my research for another brief, I found a series of images by Keith Arnatt that gave me further motivation to try out my idea of landscape photography. His series entitled ‘A.O.N.B. (Area of Outstanding Beauty)’ definitely gave me some extra ideas and knowledge of images that I could take for the home brief. His photographs are all in black and white, and I may try this out when I decide what images I want to use for my final piece. His images bring about the feeling of being alone and isolated, as there are no people or animals in them, and this was an idea of mine when exploring the topic of ‘Home’ – as when you are not where you feel safe, you can feel extremely alone and intimidated by your surroundings.
Another photographer that I looked at was landscape photographer Tristan Campbell, as I knew that I wanted my landscape photography to be of nature. He primarily focuses on taking images of woodlands and forests, and as I live near these I thought that I may use these as a subject of the photography. The majority of his images are in colour, and this was something that I was planning on doing when I first started thinking of the brief. However, since my research into Keith Arnatt, I am not sure whether to have my images in colour or black and white. I think that I should make all of the images one or the other so that the images flow together. I like using natural light for my photography, so taking photos of landscape is something that interests me a great deal.
The photographer Ansel Adams inspired my landscape photographs, as I like the way that he experiments with black and white. When looking at his images I feel that I am isolated, due to the perspective of the photographs. This is something that I want to apply to my work.
His images, as they are of nature in black and white, make me feel lonely and sad. These are emotions that I feel when I am not at home, and I hope that my images have this affect on other people.
I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to photograph the area, whether I would do the images from the point of view of my dog or whether to include him in the images to add something extra to look at. I think that when he is in the images it takes your attention away from the scenery and I am not sure whether I like this or not. I prefer the images without him in but I am not convinced that they represent what I want them to without him in them. I really like the image of the lake with the trees reflected in the water as this does make you feel overwhelmed and small, just as I want some of the images to be.
Final Images
References
Tate (2015) Search art & artists: Keith Arnatt. Available from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/search?aid=666&page=5&sort=date&type=artwork. [accessed 26 March 2016]
The Ansel Adams Gallery (2016) Original Photographs by Ansel Adams. Available from: http://shop.anseladams.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=71. [accessed 13 April 2016]