BA (Hons) Photography
Sally Jenkins
RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL
key words:
Personal, Identity, Past, Future, Digitalisation, Social
Platforms , Curiosity, Social Documentary , Voyeurism, Portraiture, Tradition ,
Memories , Subjective , gallery space , Expressive , Contrast , Juxtaposition,
Emotive, Relevant , Gender specific , Public Vs. Private , Panopticon theory , Polemic , tangible, age .
overview /
Topics of Interest(S)
I knew I wanted this project to be both personal and
polemic, as a photography student I feel the need to comment on our ever
developing society and lifestyles. Yet all my work has a personal and
subjective manner. I have a love for portraiture and the majority of my work is
based around this genre of photography. This project like my previous will be
heavily based around this genre making my final piece a series of portraits. I
also like to challenge the notions between traditional and contempry and how with
the constant development of technology there is an unnoticed loss of tradition.
In this upcoming project I want to study the physical becoming digital and
whether through the use of social media platforms our memories should remain
private or become public.
Title
Memories … Who Cares? The digitalisation of
our memories.
INTRODUCTION / RESEARCH
QUESTION
Is there still a place for
tangible memorabilia or have digital platforms replaced the need?
For the
fourth coming negotiated major photographic project module I want to combine a
number of interests that I have explored throughout my photographic career so
far. I like to confront the ever changing realisation that the world is
becoming digitalised, and what social changes might be happening as a result of.
Also I have a keen interest in portraiture and social documentary which will
massively influence the project at hand. As you can see through my advanced
research strategies blogger that I have wanted to include family portraiture in
my work for quite some time and I feel like now is the perfect opportunity to
do so. "We are in danger," Martin Parr wrote, "of having a whole
generation that has no family albums, because people just leave them on their
computer, and then suddenly they will be deleted." I want to expand on
this quote and explore more than just photography but also memorabilia and keep
sakes .
AIMS AND
OBJECTIVES
- I intend to produce a
series of high quality portraits fit for gallery exhibition.
- I will be exploring the
place of memories in modern day society through the use of my own family
and there memories.
- I intend to challenge the idea
that our memories have become public rather than private and investigate
if this is a positive thing or a loss of tradition.
- I intend to investigate if
memory boxes or scrap booking is dead and instead of keeping items/
photographs of sentimental value we photograph them and share it online
instead.
- I intend to experiment with video
and sound alongside my still portraits. I feel that maybe the subject’s
voice or the items them have kept in memory boxes would complement the
imagery and make it more real/ personal to the viewer.
RATIONALE
As I have mentioned above I feel we are in the middle of a
social change when it comes to saving our memories, I feel that this will be
interesting to document .I have asked a handful of people if they keep memory
box/memorabilia and the answers has varied .From birth to early adult hood
parents generally capture, record and store memories of their offspring’s
journey through life. I.e. First birthdays, first day at school, family
gatherings, family holidays etc. As young people make the transition into
adulthood , I’m finding that there is a tendency to start collecting their own
memories which would include first concerts , autographs , love letters
,valentines cards etc. All first experiences without your parents and they
generally develop from there. Through the transparency of Facebook and other
social media platforms is there less of a need to collect object but instead
record images through digital photography,
PREVIOUS RESEARCH
I have started collecting research on my online Blogger. I
have briefly been looking into the phycology of why people collect but I would
like to research this much further when the actual module begins. I have also
looked at social media examples of the digitalisation of our memories through
Facebook, Twitter and Instragram. Pervious to this advanced research strategies
module I have had other projects with similar traditional vs. digital themes so
I have a basic concept on some theory’s for example Roland Barthes, camera Lucida
will be massively influential during my research stages .
GENERAL
METHODOLOGY
I will be conducting this project like every other; I feel I
have a work method that works. Alongside my final series of images and possible
short films I will be keeping an online blog for all my research and
developments. I intend to for this module keep a hand written reflective daily
diary that I can submit separate to the
blog so I can hand in a physical and a digital all based around the subject at
hand. I will spend set hours on library research, online research; blogging and
development which will be pre-determined in my break down weekly planner (see
blogger or print out). Then I will schedule time for test shoots, development shoots,
post production (Photoshop), printing, framing and hanging.
QUALIFICATIONS AND
RESTRICTIONS
So far at this stage
I don’t envisage any restrictions. Even though I will be using my own family as
subjects I will still need to complete model release forms. I have kept this project purposely close to
home to avoid restrictions and so the module can run as smooth as possible. I
feel like my family will be reliable and willing to help in any which way.
SPECIALIST NEEDS - EQUIPMENT ACCESS, WORKSHOPS, TRAINING ETC
I currently own a canon 60D but I will be looking into
borrow a better camera from university to conduct this project preferably the
canon mark D Just so I get the best possible quality image and video. I will
also be looking into borrowing some voice recording equipment form the music or
film departments so that I can conduct a clear interview with my subjects over
their belongings. No special needs ,
workshops or training needed at this stage.
Initial BIBLIOGRAPHY: BOOKS & REASONING
Roland barthes- Camera Lucida
Susan Sontag – On photography
Ian Jeffreys – Photography a concise history
Thomas Hillard – Places to go, People to see
Damian Sutton- Photography, Cinema, Memories
Train your gaze – Rosewell Angier
Initial BIBLIOGRAPHY:
NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES & JOURNALS ETC
The guardian Online
·
Initial
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
WEBSITES & REASONING
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