I have found it difficult to come up with interesting ideas because they must all relate to a single theme. This in itself is not difficult to find inspiration for, its that my ideas are often unrealistic and I'd consider the images I have in my head to be almost unobtainable considering my current ability.
I have a desire to not only pass the course but to do something interesting and push myself as far as I can to get the best possible results. I'm torn between simplicity and doing something I will be really proud of if it comes off. I am undecided at this point but my initial ideas for themes are:
- Generations
My idea was to shoot members of my family of varying generations going about their daily lives. I consider this to be a fairly safe idea, it doesn't really get me too excited but i feel as though I can achieve this with my current skill set.
- Horror
I thought I could shoot mostly at night and use shadows to create spooky images. Most of my inspiration comes from films and I would love to create images that give the same sort of feeling you get when viewing a scary movie. The negative thing about this is that given my current skills I would find it hard to get the images exactly how I want them using minimal light.- Crime
- Gangs
Initially I thought it would be great to venture into near by cities at night and capture real life gangs. However I'm not Ross Kemp and I think not only would I struggle to get great images but it could be a little bit dangerous. So I was thinking of using some of my friends and staging gang related scenes and portraits of mock gang members. This idea is doable but has become slightly less appealing because I ideally would really like to capture true life images.- Politics
The idea is to create images that have a political message relating to the current time. The main inspiration is the current governments cuts to spending in certain areas that could create hardship within fa
families from poorer backgrounds. The problem is that I would need at least six images with a hard hitting message behind them and this could really strain the ideas pot as I only have a couple in my head.
Hey Ian, you have some really great ideas here!
ReplyDeleteHave you looked at Nicholas Nixon’s work? He has photographed his wife and her three sisters (Brown Sisters) annually for decades, really lovely images! I know you don’t have the time to do this but it’s worth having a look at if it’s something that you’re interested in!
I love the idea of shooting spooky images at night. I would suggest having a go a shooting some stuff and see how it goes. I wouldn’t rule it out completely but if you’re feeling uncomfortable about it then you could always wait for a later assignment to explore the idea more?? I would definitely give it a go…invest in a tripod or maybe borrow one if you can! We can talk about it more next week. You really need to be shooting something by this point though and developing your ideas more.
The idea of capturing “gang life” is very interesting, but I’m with you on the danger aspect!!! Have a look at Tobias Zielony’s work, he photographs young people in their given environments, mainly in the public space. There’s a huge amount of youngsters that have nothing to do in the evenings, I think that would make for a really interesting piece of work and probably wouldn’t be quite as dangerous!
All your ideas are fab, I would suggest picking 2 or 3 and then doing a shoot or follow them up and see where it takes you. It would be good for you to be a little clearer in the next few weeks to give you time for reshooting etc, you don’t want to be rushing, it’s good practice to set yourself time limits and work to them the best you can :)