Your Book- Generating Ideas for Final Major Project
Now that I'm on my Final Major Project, I have the opportunity to pick my own project. whilst choosing what I do, its important that I do something that I'm passionate about as well as something that I'd enjoy doing.
Since I can do anything, I really struggled with coming up with ideas of different projects I can do. Whilst making sure it was something that is going to last 3 months long and will be interesting, but also I want to produce my final project in a book, so it's important that the idea is strong and that the pictures flow well together. This will help tie the book together and gets the message across to the viewers as well as be interesting to them.
to help me narrow it down I made a mind map of different ideas I thought about doing.
Idea 1
My first initial idea was to extend my Farmers Market Project from the 'connections' project. This would document one of the veg companies, by showing the story of where the veg has come from. Starting with the growers sowing the soil to planting the seeds, to then harvesting the veg, to finally preparing it to take to the market. Ending the story with it arriving and the customers buying it at the market.
Initially I thought this would be a good idea, as it would show an interesting way to extend my previous project. This would also educate the viewers as it shows them behind the scenes of where the veg from a farmers market comes from. However as I thought about it some more, I realised it would probably be quite hard to get access the farm as I'd have to contact the owner and get permission to shoot on the premises. Also a big issue I'd have is getting there as its outside of London and I don't drive, so I'd have to rely on someone to drive me there to take the photos.
Idea 2
My next idea to document the Gladden Brothers restaurant chain. Similar to the precious idea in terms of going to their farm in Surrey, to document the growers growing the veg to picking it and prepping it to go to the restaurants that the Gladden Brothers own. Ending it with people eating the food.
I feel like this would be a more interesting idea compared to the previous, as it would show a farm to table restaurant which is what the Gladden Brothers specialise in. As I have a contact who works at one of their restaurants, it would make it easier to get permission to go to their farm and photograph their workers. The only issue is with the FMP project it has to last 2-3 months. If I went through with this project I feel I could complete this idea in a few weeks, then have to fill in the remaining time by repeating the progress of photographing the different stages of the chain, which after a while would get boring.
Idea 3
Moving away from my two food ideas, An idea I had was to photograph interesting things that were Blue. I thought this would be interesting and creative project as it would include a range of different things from a person with blue hair to dark blue sea with a light blue sky. Since Blue is my favourite colour I thought this would make this project more personal and fun.
Since this would be photographing objects and people and not the progress like the other two projects, I could make this project last longer and keep it fascinating by adding more unusual things. However the only issue with this project is since it would be a range of blue objects and etc, expect them all being blue there would be nothing else linking the objects and etc together. To see if this idea would work I did some research to find pictures of the types of items I'd like to photograph, This would enable me to see whether this was a good idea to pursue. When I looked at my selection later I felt that they all looked a bit random next to each other and didn't naturally flow together.
Idea 4
Moving onto a different idea, this time focusing on showing hands through the ages starting with a newborn/ babies hand and going up to an elderly persons hand. Again I thought this could be quite an interesting project, as hands are now one of the only ways that can show a persons age.
I really like this idea of photographing hands as its something different and could be quite interesting. However I'm unsure on whether to present them in this idea of showing them through the ages. As to me it is too basic and wouldn't be interesting to the viewer as it would just be a snapshot of someones hands, also doing it this way would limit me creativity when it comes to capturing the shot. Keeping hands as my subject I'm going to think of better ideas in how I can portray them in a creative and interesting way. That would help to inspire me to keep shooting the subject, and also be appealing to the viewer when they look through the book.
To help me with this I'm doing to do another mind map but this time have hands in the middle.
Doing this mind map has really helped me expand my ideas of how I can portray hands. As I want to make this project interesting and unique, I've decided that I want to photograph a variety of people doing different jobs with their hands e.g. baking, builder and etc. Since I have a disability in my hands, I want to make this project more personal by showcasing some people who also have disabilities with their hands. Including these people in my book I hope it will show the viewers these amazing people and what they can achieve in their job roles.
Now that I've got an idea and subject for my project, my next step is to do some more research into photographers who have done similar projects. I'm also going to start sketching out some ideas, which I hope will help me to figure out how I'm going to pose my subjects in the shots whilst making sure that they all link together.
