FINAL 12 IMAGES

As my project draws to a close I will document my final 12 photos and analyse the meanings behind each one and how it relates to my project, judging the effectiveness of each one and the whole as a set.

Video Call

This is the first photo in my project. It's vernacular and amateurish quality introduce my theme instantly, it's not a perfect photograph, with lots of noise, dark colours and off centre framing. I love this photo as it captures an unconventional way that we made memories over this past year, online, with restrictions on in-person occasions. The photo was interesting for me to take as it allowed me to explore different styles of memory making and opened my eyes to different forms of capturing and making memories.

Hometown Exploration

These three photos are all separate images, but as said previous work together as a triptych in my exhibition. They portray the memories I made when revisiting places across my hometown that usually I wouldn't stop and appreciate. I think these photos work well together as they capture the freedom I felt during the end of the third lockdown, I spent more time by myself, therefore learnt a lot more about myself as a person. I made memories on these walks by capturing photos and reflecting on the all the old memories I'd made in these areas in the past. The middle photo includes my shadow within the frame, therefore forcefully including me within the scenario and making it more of a self reflexive piece. It frames me as the focal point, clearly taking a photograph of my surroundings.

Hometown Exploration (part 2.)

These two photographs again are separate and work together as a diptych this time. Again, they're of my hometown but you can see more people in these photographs and I capture the more tourist side of Lytham St Annes. Tourism is such a huge part of my hometown, especially during the summer, with the arcade games, ice cream shops and beach being a huge feature that I have regularly visited over my 20 years there.

I love how these photos work together, mostly in terms of their colour tone and temperature. Part of me thinks they look almost like photographs you'd see on old postcards, with the sun leaking through behind them. This brings the nostalgic tone that I'm aiming for in these particular photographs.

Grandparents House

Again, these two photos are separate and work as a diptych. The images were captured at my grandparents house in Yorkshire, a place where I've spent a lot of time over the years, a place that feels very homely and safe for me. This is the point where restrictions were beginning to lift, and we could visit people in our bubble as long as we remained at a distant and safe. The first photo captures my two sisters mid conversation sat comfortably in this familiar space. I included the second image as I think it gives context to the first, with the inclusion of my grandad. Both photographs capture my family in raw and authentic situations as I hid my camera and only snapped a shot when no one knew I was going to, making the images appear more documentary and real. I think this style works well especially in the last photo as my grandad is seen peering over my sisters shoulder inspecting what she's doing on her phone, solidifying the relationship between the two.

The View From the LSTV Office

This photo was taken as restrictions continued to ease, and I moved back to Leeds. Taken out of the window of the Leeds Student Television office, a place where I spent a lot of time just before Coronavirus really hit us. I found the view out of the window particularly interesting as campus is so desolate compared to how it used to be before March 2020. The lines of the window represent the barrier to the outside and how this barrier is slowly being brought down, and in turn, our memories start to go back to conventional memories, spending time with a group friends in the pub and park etc.

Hyde Park Collage

This is a complete different style of photo than the previous ones but I think it explicitly represents my themes in terms of sharing and storing memories. I wanted to think of innovative ways of displaying the photos I'd taken and this came to mind, as it is a practice often seen among a lot of young people, particularly students. These are the classic memory photos that are often seen among analogue photography. All of these photos were taken in Hyde Park over the course of several sunny evenings spent with friends. I wanted to document my memories as things started to return to normal and experiment with analogue photography when doing this. I think they work together as a cohesive image so wanted to combine them together.

Friends at the Pub

These two images are separate again but work as a diptych to conclude my project. The vernacular style is seen again with the poor quality photo that's dark like the first one (again taken on a disposable camera). I like that these photos close my project as they resemble the ordinary memories we often capture with disposable cameras. The images work together as they capture the movement of my friend when she goes to cheers the drinks together, giving the photos more movement and narrative. I love that the final photo was taken on the end of the film, with the light leak almost concluding the project and bringing back the theme of analogue photography that has run throughout the project. It ends my project on a positive note, with the cheers resembling the shift back to ordinary memories and spending more time with people in person rather than online.