The purpose, aim and overall goal of this project was to reflect on my adaptation as a photography student, in terms of my knowledge and my technical abilities. A brief was assigned, stating that the project was to be entirely down to the student in terms of what it’s about, how they might go about shooting it, what equipment they might use, what obstacles they may face, and how they organise this unit as a whole given the amount of time they have to complete it by. I believe that I have managed to accurately achieve these goals in my Final Major Project and in my overall final image, and believe it to be one of my favourite outcomes of a project in my few years as a photography student.
I was initially stumped as to what I could portray in my final project when told that it could be about anything I would like. My first mental ideas were along the lines of a portraiture shoot of my peers, as when asked to focus on something I am passionate about, my immediate thought was to base my project on sexism, homophobia or racism, three topics that I am very adamant about preventing and raising awareness of. However, I realised that my I had already done a few of these shoots in my first year of photography, and as a result, such a shoot would not show my progression or adaptation as a photographer. My second idea was to simply take pictures of the Northern Lights as I knew that I would be attending an Iceland trip with the college in the weeks following the beginning of this unit. Again, however, I found this quite simple and not stretching my skills, especially in terms of the post-production stages of my work (i.e Photoshop, basic/professional editing). My third idea, however, was one that I had decided both fit within the requirements of my brief, would show my progression as a photographer, and would be a task that I would immensely enjoy, making it the perfect idea for my Final Major Project.
I’ve always been fascinated and interested in the existence of the ‘photomosaic’. A photomosaic, as explained throughout my project, is a collage of photographs that combine to create one large photograph. This idea is a modernised version of a very old form of art called a ‘mosaic’, in which small stones would be placed together to create one large picture. I also knew that I wanted to somehow incorporate the Northern Lights into my Final Major Project, as it is such a special and unique experience to behold, and would be a shame for it to not be a part of my work. I decided that a combination of these two ideas could work really nicely, and thus set to work figuring out what could be portrayed in the photomosaic and how it could show my progression and adaptation as a photographer since I began this course. I realised that the majority of work that I had completed over the course of my life as a photography student has been documented somewhere on the internet, and is therefore accessible and could easily be implemented at some point in the process of creating my final image. This allowed me to form an idea where the progression of my photography knowledge, skills and overall abilities can be shown in my actual final shoot.
Before I actually created this image, I needed to do much research, planning, experimenting and general practicing, as this final image was going to be shown in an exhibition at Harlow College, and I wanted it to look quite professional before it was made public. I researched multiple artists, whose work was similar to the outcome of my Final Major Project, such as Robert Silvers, and Emma Biggs, who both worked on various types of mosaics in their career. I also kept a bibliography of sources that I used when conducting this research, which came particularly in useful when I would take a break from researching, and come back to it at a later time, needing to find where I was getting my information. Whilst Biggs and Silvers were both technical artists, both of whom helped me discover and adapt my knowledge on mosaics as a whole, I also researched two photographers whose work could be described as ‘conceptual’. These artists were Eric Cahan, and Tom Hussey, who both could easily be linked to my project through multiple aspects of their photography projects. I found all of my research to be very helpful, and created image bank solutions and artist responses to show my understanding of the feelings and meaning behind the particular artists I have researched.
When it came to the experimental shoots, I had multiple ideas that I wanted to try out before I even attempted to create my final image. The majority of these experimental shoots were related to the creation of photomosaics and thus are very much linked to what my final image is supposed to represent. Other experiments that I created during the Final Major project include photographs of the sky, photographs of mosaics from around the world, and photographs of the Northern Lights that I captured on multiple days during the college trip to Iceland. Out of all of my experiments, my favourite is an experiment where I did a step by step set of instructions on how to create a photomosaic, using screenshots of Photoshop to show and prove how I achieved each stage and came to my result. I also love the fact that my experimental shoots took place in three countries for this unit: Iceland, Italy and England.
After the completion of my artist research and experimental shoots, I knew that I would need to begin my final image. So, as planned, I used my blog from A Levels, and my WordPress posts from the past two years to orchestrate a collage of photographs that show both my progression as a photographer and also have somewhat of a personal nostalgic feel to them. Once I had completed the basic template, I then moved onto editing the Northern Lights image that I had chosen to be the background image of this photomosaic, knowing what to do due to my earlier experimental shoot focusing on the post production stage of a Northern Lights image. Combining the two images using the correct Photoshop tools that I had learned over the course of this unit, (and having written instructions concerning how to do it, and being completely knowledgeable about this type of photography), I finally created my final image. The final result can be seen below:
Although I am quite happy with my image, there are a few imperfections that I would improve up if given another chance at this unit. For example, I found that I was unable to create an image with the correct opacity to satisfy me, wanting both the Northern Lights image and the photo collage to be equally visible. Peer reviews that I collected stated that I should make the collage part of the image more see through than the background image, so perhaps this is what is preferred from an audience’s point of view. I have printed off my final image, and it is distinguishable in terms of what both the background image is, and the photographs within the collage that are easily noticeable, however, the fact that my final image did not turn out exactly how I wanted it is quite a shame, and I will endeavour to achieve all of my goals in future projects and experiments that I will take part in, especially at university. I found this entire unit quite challenging, and also felt quite a lot of pressure, given that my final grade is based off of this project more than any other unit in the course. However, I think that I managed to achieve all that was asked of me, making sure that I completed the tasks and goals that were necessary in order to pass the course. If I were to do anything differently this time, it would perhaps be to conduct more research and add more experimental shoots than I completed for this unit. Overall, though, I believe this unit went quite well, and I now anticipate the exhibition that will take place later this month.
dylanmannhazell 