Evaluation Of Final Outcome

The brief that was given to me at the beginning of this project was based around my personal study theme, which at the start I chose it to be a documentary on Nature. Within this theme I had to enhance my images through experimentations and new methods of working, both including finding out new techniques to use in the darkroom and using digital software. 

I started this project by taking photographs of plants as I was going to do a Documentary on Nature. I decided to stay away from the idea of taking landscapes as I live in the city and would be quite hard to find natural landscapes to photograph. I wanted to incorporate graffiti into my photographs so I changed my Documentary to Nature vs Urban Beauty. This way I was able to take photographs of both wildlife and graffiti.After taking various photographs of plants and graffiti I felt that the images were not 'documenting' what I wanted them to. So, when it came to creating a mind map for my final outcome, along with the plants and graffiti idea, I also came up with the idea of 'Nature' being shown through the naked body and 'Urban Beauty' being shown through a clothed body.

Once I had decided that I was going to use a naked and clothed body for my final outcome, I began to look for photographers that used similar subject matter within their photographs. After a little searching, I found Bill Brandt's work which really interested me as his photographs of the naked body, in my mind were captured beautifully.

From the outcome of my images, I think that when I was taking the photographs, the lighting I used and the directions I pointed the light in worked well. I was happy as I felt that the contrast between the black and the white in the photographs helped to define and highlight my model's body. This made the photographs more prominent and made them seem as if they were protruding off the paper due to the hard light. Also, I think that the photographs that I had reversed worked really well as they almost look like photographs from an old film. The photographs that I selectively developed were very fun to create and I feel that they perhaps add a sort of character to the images that the reversals and the positives do not show as vividly. In my outcome's entirety, I am very pleased with how my photographs have come out and the results I have achieved.

If I was to improve my final outcome, I would print some of my photographs on bigger photographic paper so that I had both enlarged and small images next to each other. By having a few larger images, I think that it would make the piece more dramatic and possibly even make it seem more real as the photographs would be closer to life size than the ones I produced. Also, I feel that I could of taken more close ups of certain parts of my model's body so that they was a contrast between close up views and distant ones.

If I was to create more enhanced images in the future, I would definitely focus on different darkroom techniques as I find these the most interesting and enjoyable! I would dabble using digital editing techniques but I do not feel as accomplished once I've finished editing an image compared to creating an image in the dark room. Also, as I am not very confident when digitally editing my photographs, I get quite agitated which sometimes I feel effects the outcome of the image. Due to me enjoying using the darkroom and the processing chemicals, to me my images seem to come out better. Overall, I really enjoyed this project as it stretched me to think outside of the box; I started by taking photographs of plants and graffiti which then led me on to the human body in its natural and urban form.

For the new project, I am unsure what exactly I want to do for it but I will definitely be using the same theme and hopefully extending the boundaries of what I have created so far.