Last week I took some time to reflect on my project so far. I decided that it’s important to establish what it is I really want to say through my work. Looking at a short article about Luke Saxon’s work, also inspired me to really think about what I want to gain and achieve through this project. I often struggle to express meaning through my work. For me, photography is about taking photos that I like, whether for any particular reason or not. However, I do want to give the people viewing my work something to really think about this time.
I talked briefly about my ‘Grandad’s Shed’ project at the beginning of this work, and how it held a lot of meaning to me because it’s a place that sparks many nostalgic memories of childhood, family and growing up into the person I am today. In a way, I want this project to do a similar thing for myself. As I’ve discussed before, Nigel Shafran often talks about the way we place objects being a huge insight into who we are as individuals. By photographing these objects around the house, I hope that this project will be a representation of me and the people I live with, in a very subtle way.
Most importantly, however, I want this body of work to be a message to other people. I want to remind people that our social media driven world often causes us to forget the little details of life, which some might argue are the most important things. When it really comes to it, life is not about the magnificent moments that we photograph for social media and don’t really take in, it’s about all the little, seemingly insignificant details that make up the day. Ultimately, I just want to remind people that there is beauty in everything if you look hard enough. I want to remind my viewers of this, and also myself. When I’m having a hard day, it’s nice to look back on these photos and reflect on why everything in life is important and remind myself that it doesn’t matter if today wasn’t new or special or memorable; there is still always something to appreciate.
I’ve also been looking at a lot of research for my dissertation recently, which covers issues such as why photography might not be considered an art and how the medium is somewhat loosing its significance as an art form. I want to remind people of the power that photography can in making something ordinary look beautiful.
These are all points that I strongly want to get across in my work, not only in my blog but also through my images as well. I think it’s important to remind myself of the reasons I am doing this project in the first place, so that my final work has a substantial point to it.
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