[SEM3] Week 1 06/06/2022

The elements, parts, plans, drawings, and ideas for the final master’s project.

Project 1 (medium format film)

Concept:

As the 20th Century saw the shift from economies based on need to economies based on desire, advertising – along with marketing, branding, and schemes like planned obsolescence – became the essential engines that drive that desire. I am critical of the desire-based economy in that it has led to excesses in production, pollution, consumption, and spending that have damaged the planet; established a reliance on high levels of consumer debt; and contributed to the wealth disparity we are seeing in the 21st Century. I am also concerned with the psychological effects this type of propaganda has on people’s minds. I’m interested in the ways in which we communicate as a culture – particularly in terms of text, image, objects and graphics presented in public space. I seek to understand the effects these elements of our landscape have on our shared space.

Thus, this project is rooted in an underlying interest in the nature of power. With the removal of all traces of text from the photographs, the project explores the manifestation of power between large groups of people in the form of public language. The absence of the printed word not only draws attention to the role text plays in the modern landscape but also simultaneously emphasizes alternative forms of communication such as symbols, colors, architecture and corporate branding. In doing this, it serves to point out the growing number of ways in which public voices communicate without using traditional forms of written language. Essentially, this project deconstructs systems of communication found in public space. The photograph has been stripped of literary language, leaving a visual language of only light, color, and shapes.

Technique:

Take out all the texts in post production and have the texts appear in the photographic space without 3D photographic perspective. Place it right next to the original image.

Presentation:

8×10 photo prints

Project 2 (35mm & medium format film)

Concept:

Everything around us dead or alive mysteriously takes on many variations, a seemingly dead object comes to life through light and color or by its surroundings. I’m trying to convey a sense of neo-romanticism by photographing landscape, cityscapes and even still life. These photographs connect with the passage of time. They are documenting the dramatic capacities of lighting and color and how lighting and colors can be used to convey a sensation or mood.

In addition to that, this project focuses on discovering and capture scenes where they convey the sense of abandonness throughout my trips around the UK.

Presentation:

A 8×10 photo zine.