The more engaged I am in what I do, the better the outcome of the activity, it stands to reason that this applies to my photography as well.
I've now spent quite a bit of time engaging with (in) my local market; I've even travelled further afield and visited other markets in the hope of inspiration. I've taken some nice pictures, but that's all - they're nice. I'm not engaged by them and when I've finished looking at them I don't actually think any further or want to ask any questions. There is definitely something missing...
Assignment 1 - produce a small photo-essay that our demonstrates your engagement with the lives, experiences and histories of your local community and its people.
How do you engage with a community? There are the regulars, the real characters, but not enough of them to make a complete portfolio.
Without knowing your community, how can you share their experiences? Reading about other photographers development their photo-essays, engagement and trust takes time to build and until such time, the photographer is always someone on the outside looking in.
Without trust, how real is anything shared? How relevant or meaningful is anything shared? Does it matter? Is a good portrait image of a vender appropriate for this assignment - time, date, location, name, goods sold. Would this be enough to document the market?
No comments:
Post a Comment