My Photography

Greetings.

I would like to call myself a street photographer. During the final year of my degree I decided to go back to where my heart is within the field of photography. After my much experimentation and generally bad ideas in the 1st two years of my degree I thought it was time to shine. The ideology of being a street photographer harks back to my original research on my A-Level of which I was heavily into the likes of Walker Evans, Bresson and Paul Strand. Quite why I took myself away from my favoured area I long to find out. But here I am back where I belong, photographing the Streets.

It was over the summer between the 2nd and 3rd year of university I shot a couple of out of date Fuji Velvia 50 film, i set out with no particular goal or aim, just roaming around the city of Plymouth capturing the city as I saw it. Initially I established that Colour Slides, particularly this one was far to contrasty for what I was after. It was only then that I realised that I should be listening to what the tutors told me and that whilst listening I could actually learn something.

Apart from the last two modules of the third year of which I was still experimenting with work and indeed camera formats. The grade for that project was suffice but I knew something had to be done in terms of actually getting the grade I wanted.

With a few Ideas floating around from the 'Year Three Launch' I decided to take my photography to a much more regimental stage. I had finally figured out that digital photography was not for me. Not that it was too simple but the ability to shoot away without thinking about the true technical aspects of the so called 'photographic image'. I wasn't a stranger to film but I had neglected it, in favour of this easier form of photography.

Initially in the 2nd to last major project of which the credits were inevitably higher toward the end of the course I knew something had to be done to ensure I put myself in good steed to achieve a decent grade. Using the formats of 645 (using the Mamiya 645 Pro) and 6x6 (using a Hasselblad 500 c/m) I set out to capture the facades of the shops around the city of Plymouth. The word facade was the word I choose in the 1st project in the 3rd year, although for that I was shooting womens faces as the apply their make up?! to show how they look at themselves differently after the mask of make-up was removed. As with everything I did in my degree up to this point I did it without any real commitment, thus not getting what I should from the course.

With the two different cameras loaded and ready to go I set out to capture the shops of Plymouth, initially I was using Fuji 400 Pro H film because I knew how temperamental the weather is this part of the country. This was a cop out, shooting in sunlight with 400 ISO film?? It was only after this point I realised the technical aspects of film. I started using Kodak Portra 160 VC film to this day I haven't turned back.

So for the following 9 weeks I was shooting predominantly in sunlight as my understanding of research, sunlight and film all had a unique relationship between them . . .