Final Evaluation

Over the course of the year I feel that this project has taught me a huge amount about working as a photographer, both artistically and professionally. Initially, the project started off as a way for me to discover more about how other people live with facial birthmarks; using photography as a device to hear about my subject’s stories and experiences, but has expanded hugely to provide me with opportunities which have extended my skills as a photographer.

Firstly, the knowledge I have gained from working directly with the Birthmark Support Group, and their design agency, Flag, has been absolutely invaluable. Both organisations treated me as a professional working photographer, requiring me to follow their strict brief, keep to deadlines and constantly keep in touch to keep the relevant people up to date with my progress. What this did was give me a taste of what it is like to work in the challenging world of professional image making, and I now feel that I have gained a huge amount of key skills which are very important to have when finishing University.

The challenges I have faced during the project, from arranging travel and accommodation to difficulties with subjects have forced me to become a good problem solver, and have improved my organisational skills exponentially. Importantly too, my own personal confidence was enhanced by doing the project; I begun to realise the importance of making the subject feel comfortable, and my own professionalism and confidence did this. I needed to get to a stage with the project where I felt like I knew what I was doing and what I wanted to produce from each shoot. To achieve this I first visited subjects I had met before, in order to prepare me for visiting strangers. This technique really helped me, and I feel improved the images.

Artistically, the brief given to me by Flag has meant that I am now experienced in producing work to fit in with someone else’s ideas and styles, not just my own. I had to produce a product in return for the funding I received, and this was a brilliant learning experience.

With regard to my own personal project for the University module, I feel I have gone through a great development process and over the course of the year created some work that I am proud of. Initially, I wasn’t happy with the quality and style of the images I was producing. Following a number of tutorials and group feedback sessions I begun to experiment with other ways of lighting the subjects, moving from on camera flash to studio lighting. I started to see what worked best when considering posing and location, and begun to gain more confidence in my work as the year progressed.

The main issues I would address given the chance would be to take more time with each subject. I think that because I was nervous when working with a stranger that I may have rushed some of the photographs, which resulted in some poor results. One print in particular is noticeably out of focus due to an un-calibrated lens, which lead me to replace that particular lens, but if I had taken more time over my work I would have noticed whilst still on the shoot, rather than when printing my final pieces.

Also, technically I would have paid more attention to getting consistent lighting across all of the shoots and subjects I visited. Some of the images required a fair amount of post processing to boost the brightness, which I did not like to do. I should have used studio lighting from the beginning of the project. Usually, I would reshoot, but due to the costs of travelling to each subject I could not charge the BSG twice for my mistakes! However, I feel that I have learnt a lot from this, and given the opportunity to do a similar project would definitely ensure I had every possible bit of equipment and plenty of time to produce the best possible images.

With regard to my research and development, I feel that although compared to some projects, mine does not show a large amount of stylistic development, my image making skills have come a long way. It was very difficult for me to experiment between visits, obviously because each shoot had to be right on the day so I had to quickly find a style that worked and run with it. However, I feel the limited scope I had to try new ideas and develop my work, I did take, and this is represented by my blog.

Overall, I feel that the project was very successful. Given more time, I would have liked to have visited more subjects and taken more care over the technical side of the image making, but I think twelve images is a good number to end on. I am pleased with how much I have learnt about other people’s experiences living with facial birthmarks; the photographs I have produced represent my own personal journey so in this regard the project has been a success. Other than this, I have also learnt a huge amount about working professionally with the Birthmark Support Group and Flag design agency, expanding my skills as a photographer. 

Final Selection and Layout

To get an idea of how I plan to lay my images out, I printed out smaller versions before doing my final large prints. After having played with a few layouts as illustrated below, I felt that this would be the best way to present them. The final prints will be A3 size, and mounted on a white wall (not my wonderful wallpaper!)

Overall, I am pleased with the final selection, and think they would be well suited to a gallery environment with large prints and a short text introduction to the project.

Self Portrait

Having given it some thought over the last few days, and following feedback from the group, I have decided that a self portrait would be a good way of ending the project.

Here it is!

Pieter Hugo again...

Having taken another look through Hugo's work, one element that stands out for me is that he includes himself in the images. His self portrait at the end of the project is really effective in wrapping up his story.

I think this is definitely something I should explore to find a way of visually wrapping up my project, as I feel that I am part of the group of people I have chosen to photograph. This project has been as much about the people I have visited as my own personal journey of discovery to find out what it is like for other people to have lived with a birthmark.

Potential Layouts and Presentation Ideas

Now I have a number of usable images, I need to consider how they are to be laid out. There are a number of ways that I am considering:

Diptychs - The two images that I like from each shoot could work together as a diptych, printed large and shown on a wall.

Text - There is potential for this project to be confusing for the viewer if there isn't accompanying text, so one option is to have a short page, perhaps with quotes or information about the subject alongside each image set.

'Mugshot' Grouping - Having looked at the work of Pieter Hugo, Thomas Ruff and Eileen Perrier, I have begun to realise that the closer cropped shots of my subjects are almost as strong, if not stronger than the images that are wider. I feel that they still capture a sense of identity and character, but you can still clearly see the birthmark. As a result, these could be presented together, as a group, laid out in a line on a gallery wall. The prints would have to be fairly large to have the intended impact.

When I get my work printed, I plan to experiment with these layouts to see which works the best.

Thomas Ruff - Typology/Portraiture

Now I am coming to the end of my project, I have begun looking at the way other artist present their work. Thomas Ruff does a series of portraits which could be regarded as typological in style, which interests me.

As with a lot of other artists I have looked at, and similarly to my project, he employs the head and shoulder crop in his images, and I think these work well together as a group.

Subject Visit Six - Brian - BSG Photos

I think that this set of final images for the BSG are the best that I have taken, and show a progression and development of style. I made the most of the natural light available (on Brighton pier!) and utilised the shallow depth of field available with my lens.

I think I have come quite a long way and am happy with this set of images!

Subject Visit Six - Brian

These are the selected images from my final shoot. Due to time constraints and around half of the potential subject I contacted dropping out or being unable to meet me, Brian is my last subject. I do not feel this is a bad thing, I still have five usable subjects and feel that this still represents my journey of discovering what it is like for other people living with birthmarks.

This set of portraits was more tricky to achieve, as Brian's house was currently in the middle of being packed up to move, so I wasn't able to shoot there and use the studio lights as I had intended. I chose instead to shoot in a cafe, but picked an empty spot to ensure the pictures didn't have too many distracting things in them. I had to rely heavily on my camera flash but I feel that they still came out quite well.

Pieter Hugo - Looking Aside

Pieter Hugo does some very interesting work on people who look 'different' - his series 'Looking Aside' is particularly moving.

"In this intimate and unsettling series of images, created between 2003-2006, the artist points his lens at those people whose appearance makes us “look aside”. Hugo’s subjects are the blind, people with albinism, the aged, his family and himself. In doing so, he forces us to confront ourselves and our preconceptions and prejudices, and question why we are so awkward when we encounter people who are unusual in some way. In these frontal declaratory portraits, we see what we usually choose to look at from the corners of our eyes"

I especially like these images because, as with most of the artist I have looked at that are relevant to my project, the subjects are photographed in a straightforward and unflinching manner, leaving the viewer to make their own assumptions. Hugo doesn't attempt to represent the people as miserable or as being negatively affected by their differences, which I feel is very important. 

I also like the close cropped style, and am glad that I took images in this format for each subject I visited!

Subject Visit Five - Emily - BSG Photos

I feel that I am doing well now with the style of images I am now producing for the BSG project, and my images are conforming to the style that Flag require.

Subject Visit Five - Emily

The most recent visit I have been on is to Emily in Liverpool. This is the first shoot I have done in a while, so am pleased to have managed to organise one after being let down by quite a few people.

I decided, as I didn't know much about her home, to take a set of studio lights to give me the most options when it came to shooting. I feel that this was a good choice, as the images are much better exposed and improved in general. I am now usually only shooting the two images, as I know what I am after with each shoot, and this keeps the time the subject spends in-front of the lens down so they don't feel uncomfortable.

Eileen Perrier - Grace

Whilst I have had a lull in visits I have been conducting some more research into artists that deal with subjects that are 'different'. I find the work of Eileen Perrier interesting, particularly the series 'Grace' which looks into people who have gaps between their front teeth.

Although this is more common than people with facial birthmarks, I still feel it is relevant to take influence from her work.

I have been unable to find more than this grid of images, as her work is quite hard to come by, but I like the uniformity of the images. The subjects are all looking in the same direction and smiling, which I like. I think that her work could influence me, as I have been taking head and shoulder shots of each subject and I feel that these are fairly strong. Perrier's work retains a element of character and depth, despite only showing part of the subject.

Mid Point Summary

I have hit around the middle of the term, and feel that I ought to post something relevant to the progress I have been making despite not taking any new pictures recently!

I have been in touch with the Birthmark Support Group a fair amount and I am finding it more and more difficult to find people that are willing, and able to appear in my project. I have had numerous people let me down, or simply not able to make the dates. I had a visit planned to Tunbridge Wells for example, but got stranded in the snow and had to call it off!

However, I feel it relevant to point out all of the things I have been learning about working as a photographer with a 3rd party organisation:

- This project has taught me to remain professional at all times; I am in constant email contact with the design agency, and the members of the Birthmark Support Group. It is my responsibility to ensure they feel they are getting the product they are paying for, and their valuable funding is going to the right place! I have to fill out and return expenses forms with full invoices and receipts and organise my travel. I feel that organisational skills, professionalism and self-promotion are absolutely invaluable when working as a photographer, and this element of the project is really teaching me a lot, fast!

- The organisation of each visit is a very time consuming and long process - I think I underestimated the sheer amount of emails, phone calls and text messages I would need to send to each subject! However, I feel that I organising the logistics of each visit, both of those I have already been on, and those I have planned, has taught me a huge amount. 

- Working with strangers is something that I have limited experience with, and I feel that this group of people could potentially be more vulnerable than your average member of the public. Having a birthmark, as I have found out from personal experience and from talking to other people, can be a stressful thing to deal with. I am pleased that my attitude when approaching my subjects has lead to successful visits that people have felt comfortable with - as this could have potentially been an issue!

I feel that not only is this module pushing me as an artist to create visually interesting and meaningful work, it is also making me a more rounded photographer and teaching me some invaluable skills which are necessary to survive in the world of professional photography.

I have a number of potential visits upcoming, so will be posting my progress shortly. 

Subject Visit Four - Alison

The next subject I visit is Alison, and have taken everything I have learnt from the previous shoots and applied it here. I found myself not needing to take as many photographs as before, as I was much more clear on what I needed to get.

I am now just aiming to get the two main photographs, which I have displayed here, as I feel that these two formats are working the best for me. Due to the nature of the location, I was forced to use flash quite heavily, but the images are still quite dark. I will attempt to rectify this in post production, but I think when on the next shoot it will be useful to take a set of studio lights with me.

Visit number three! - Sophie - BSG Photos

Despite Sophie not really fitting in with my personal project, I feel that she could still fit into the other project for the BSG. I took a set of photographs of her outside a local cafe, with her friends, in an attempt to get her to look more natural and fit in with the brief I had been set.

I feel that these photos are the best I have produced so far for the BSG project, and feel that I have captured a happy set of natural looking portraits that I am please with. The images that worked the best when I photographed Jacki, my previous subject, were the ones that employed shallow depth of field and I think that this is the same in this case. 

With every shoot I go on, I feel that my work is developing well, and I am ready to move on to more subjects as I feel comfortable with what I am doing, and the style of image I am trying to achieve.