For each location, take one or more photographs that attempt to capture the users point of view. Consider height, orientation and lens focal length (which controls the angle of view)
Given that a 50mm lens on a full frame body / 35mm camera best reflects or field of view then this combination would seem a good approach to performing this exercise.
In my two following images I've tried to reflect upon my current situation and thoughts. The first image reflects the viewer as a passenger, a large version of image will allow the viewer to read the sign and understand that its a hospital and the path the passage into the hospital. The second image reflects on fears for the future of injuries that don't recover and an independent form of travel.
Image 1
Having recently had surgery on my knee, the feeling of sitting in the back seat of my car being driven to the hospital for physiotherapy was very strange. Whilst on occasions I am a back seat passenger, performing this on a regular basis as my knee recovers reminded me of my childhood where I shared the back seat of my parents car with 3 brothers. The view point is so much different from the driver's position, it feels obscured and I almost feel slightly out of control. I took several images and chose this as it reflected better my feeling of enclosure, loss of control and restricted view, something I don't feel in the driver's seat. For me the car just felt a medium for transporting me, a completely different feeling form that when behind the wheel and this is the feeling I hope to convey to those who view this image.
I've converted the image to mono so that colour is removed and hopefully focus given more to the position of the viewpoint with its restricted view. Using a shallow depth of field I've wanted to express that my attention now on the hospital, not the car
Image 2
I've taken a possibly controversial image and one that could generate some threads of discussion. I've interpreted the exercise brief for this image slightly differently. For this image the view is from the observer of the 2 mobility scooters parked outside a pub and of the thoughts the scene may generate within the viewer. The observer is "looking slightly down" which perhaps reflects the first thought that any other observer may also have and how judgemental that may be.
My thoughts at the time of taking these images is that having had 5 knee operations on the same knee as a result of a previous footballing career is of what the future may hold for me in later years and how the method of my transport may change. This is the connection I'm trying to give to the viewers of these images; that they are a pair. In addition, no matter what life gives you, it doesn't always need to stop you doing what you may enjoy.
Assumptions can be made about the mobility scooter drivers and no doubt they enjoy the social aspect of a pub as much as anyone else. However a moral dilemma can be considered regarding an assumption of how much socialising is performed and whether the drivers will use their scooters to return home. Certainly the riders will not let their disability get in the way of what they want to do.
Again I've converted this image to mono and applied a vignette to help isolate the pub and the scooters so that the viewer is directed, if direction is needed, to the connection between mobility scooters and the pub. Additionally as a pair of images they need to have more connection as a set.
Exercise Learnings
1. Charlotte Cotton's book "the photograph as contemporary art" gave me better insight to having messages contained within images and the story telling in art photography.
2. The view point is important in the creation of an image and whether this image is observational, judgemental, or voyeurism can perhaps be inferred from this
3. A question I have in contemporary art depicted as a photograph is the method in how one blends art with story telling and is the photographer's message or vision when creating the image the same one that the viewer receives when viewing the image. Perhaps this is down to the skill of the photographer and the complexity of the message this wish to pass on with it.
4. I will consider much more how I can bring semiotics within my images.
5. I feel I am learning, my pace and consistency needs improving
6. I'm reading multiple books currently, one includes "The Photographer's Vision" by Michael Freeman
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