Tuesday 29 December 2009

Research

I will continue my research on this subject, both compositional, technical and anything relating to the issue of working, workers and working at night, look more in-depth into the health and psychological issues that relate to this.

I can look at Government guidelines, unions, WHO, NHS, HSE, etc.

I need to look at other photographers who have done this kind of work – photographing at night, workers, etc.
Research into theory also needs to be done.

Simon Roberts' Blog

Simon Roberts has a great blog:

http://we-english.co.uk/blog/

and I will try to make this one as interesting as his. He mentions websites and films (with links, newspaper cuttings, etc that are interesting and relevant to what he is doing.

Funding

Ian mentioned I could get funding for this project, so I will look into this over the next couple of weeks.

Audience

This is a difficult one. I would like as many people as possible to see this work and am not intentionally focusing on one particular audience.

This project is not specific to one geographical community (although I will try to keep it to the North West of England, just for speed and ease of access).

The people I am trying to reach with this work will be affected by (for example) the way a book is marketed and where the exhibition is held.

I need to know how the audience will interact with this work.

Outcomes

BOOK

As yet, everything is still in it's embryonic stage, but obviously the book will be the main outcome of this project. It would be great to have it published and I will try my best with my pictures to give myself a chance.

The size of the book is important and as mentioned earlier, will probably be landscape. The layout will also have to be thought through. I have looked into getting Adobe In-Design and have an very old version of Quark Xpress at home (which I have no idea how to use), but I'm sure this will be covered in class.

MAGAZINE

I can see this project being featured in the Guardian's Weekend magazine also and will try to get it published here at the end of the course.

EXHIBITION

An exhibition would be a great thing to be able to do and will look into this. The venue will be important, so as to attract as wide an audience as possible.

Questions/Thoughts

I have a lot of questions and thoughts about this project.

How many people do I have to find/photograph?

Should I photograph people in the same way?

If I photograph them in the same way, they will all fit together in the book - if done on 35mm, the layout will be landscape. I think this approach is best.

It may be difficult to find everyone who does an 'unusual' job, but I will try and find as many as I can.

I will interview everyone I photograph as I have done with my last two projects. I feel that since I am there photographing them, it would be a waste not to interview them and find out more about who they are and what they do.

I like the fact that people who work at night are kind of 'forgotten' - people who are taken for granted most of the time.

My approach, as always, will be neutral - not 'celebrating' workers and not inferring they have a 'bad time'. Any positivity or negativity will come from the people I photograph - I will try as much as possible to give the people I photograph the choice of how they wish to be portrayed. This may produce something interesting.

MA Project

I have decided to carry over my travel project for the MA. So this blog will be a continuation of the travel blog - http://karenhopematravel.blogspot.com/