not quite c+c but more advice on where to go with this project.

serjical_strike

hello

i havent posted anything here in a long time but constantly lurking and checking out all your great work but now i was wondering if i could get some advice from you all. i dont necessarily want a C+C as im happy with the images, style and approach that i have towards this project. im kind of looking more for where i could go with it and how i could expand it and make it better.

im a second year photography student in cork and this was for a 6 picture story we had to do. it was recieved pretty well in college and i like the pictures and enjoy shooting this so i will be making it into a larger body of work for the end of year.

i have a brief written to go along with the images explaining why i wanted to shoot this and her circumstances but ill put that after the images so that it doesnt influence your view on them.

so here are some of them..













so thats six of them but there are more on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/serjical_strike/

Brief.

with the loss of a loved one do we give up or carry on, hoping to retain some resemblance of normality that we may have once had.

for my grandmother after 52 years of marriage i dont think she is the woman she once was.

when i think of my grandmother in the years my grandfather was alive she seemed very confident and outgoing. she was always out of the house, chatting to neighbours or going to town to get her hair done and getting her everyday things done, yet now this has all stopped. now when i look at her i find it hard to see the woman she once was. i wonder if perhaps she has lost her confidence since my grandfathers passing, maybe deep down it was my grandfather who gave her this confidence and now that he is gone so too is the confidence to carry on like before.

when i set out to make these pictures i didnt want to impose a sense of sadness on the images or viewer. i took them in a way that felt natural, never forcing or searching for a sad image to explain my grandmothers situation. i decided it would be the viewer who would ultimately decide wether the were sad or not.

i wanted to capture what it would be like adjusting to living alone, living this new life she has found herself in. i followed her going about her day not leaving the house yet always looking out in one way or another.

Lee B.


so thats the brief and pictures, i know its long and i apologise for that but i think the text explains the reason for me taking them.

these were all shot on a rolleiflex 3.5 tlr with kodak portra 400 and mostly with tripod.

(sorry for the bad scans and awful crop but it was rushed on the last day of college before xmas.)

thanks for looking and sorry again about the amount of text.

TL;DR... pictures of my grandmother, whos life has changed so much this last year and a half.

any comments at all are welcome

dazftw

You could photograph more people in the same situation? It might be difficult to find people who would be willing but it would be worth it.

It would highlight the issue these people face when losing a loved one at that age.

Great pictures.

melekalikimaka

I like the photos, but the artist statement I am not so sure about

'when i set out to make these pictures i didnt want to impose a sense of sadness on the images or viewer. i took them in a way that felt natural, never forcing or searching for a sad image to explain my grandmothers situation. i decided it would be the viewer who would ultimately decide wether the were sad or not'

I agree with this and it works in all imo except the first image, maybe in print side by side that would be different.

'i wanted to capture what it would be like adjusting to living alone, living this new life she has found herself in. i followed her going about her day not leaving the house yet always looking out in one way or another'

I dont see this in the images, this images to be are looking at the past not the future and I would imagine more images showing change or contrast from her life with your grandfather in it.

I like the images, but i liked them more before i read the statement, as it throws if off IMO a little.

dunphy3

serjical_strike wrote: »

hello

i havent posted anything here in a long time but constantly lurking and checking out all your great work but now i was wondering if i could get some advice from you all. i dont necessarily want a C+C as im happy with the images, style and approach that i have towards this project. im kind of looking more for where i could go with it and how i could expand it and make it better.

im a second year photography student in cork and this was for a 6 picture story we had to do. it was recieved pretty well in college and i like the pictures and enjoy shooting this so i will be making it into a larger body of work for the end of year.

i have a brief written to go along with the images explaining why i wanted to shoot this and her circumstances but ill put that after the images so that it doesnt influence your view on them.

so here are some of them..













so thats six of them but there are more on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/serjical_strike/

Brief.

with the loss of a loved one do we give up or carry on, hoping to retain some resemblance of normality that we may have once had.

for my grandmother after 52 years of marriage i dont think she is the woman she once was.

when i think of my grandmother in the years my grandfather was alive she seemed very confident and outgoing. she was always out of the house, chatting to neighbours or going to town to get her hair done and getting her everyday things done, yet now this has all stopped. now when i look at her i find it hard to see the woman she once was. i wonder if perhaps she has lost her confidence since my grandfathers passing, maybe deep down it was my grandfather who gave her this confidence and now that he is gone so too is the confidence to carry on like before.

when i set out to make these pictures i didnt want to impose a sense of sadness on the images or viewer. i took them in a way that felt natural, never forcing or searching for a sad image to explain my grandmothers situation. i decided it would be the viewer who would ultimately decide wether the were sad or not.

i wanted to capture what it would be like adjusting to living alone, living this new life she has found herself in. i followed her going about her day not leaving the house yet always looking out in one way or another.

Lee B.


so thats the brief and pictures, i know its long and i apologise for that but i think the text explains the reason for me taking them.

these were all shot on a rolleiflex 3.5 tlr with kodak portra 400 and mostly with tripod.

(sorry for the bad scans and awful crop but it was rushed on the last day of college before xmas.)

thanks for looking and sorry again about the amount of text.

TL;DR... pictures of my grandmother, whos life has changed so much this last year and a half.

any comments at all are welcome

youse shade,or soom out,have you tried to view same photos in nono.

artyeva

''i wanted to capture what it would be like adjusting to living alone, living this new life she has found herself in. i followed her going about her day not leaving the house yet always looking out in one way or another.''

hmm.. unlike melekalikimaka i do see this in the images. i saw it instantly actually. in fact i think it's the hardest of your 'intensions' to miss. so i think on that aspect they're very successful.

i do agree that the first one... i dunno... it doesn't gel with the rest of them.

and lastly i'll just say this -i like the image where she's looking out the widow and having a fag the most. as both a smoker and someone who doesn't always have the confidence to be the life and sould of the party [or, like your granny, leave the house, some days] i can connect with that photo. i don't know exactly what's going on in her mind in that shot, but i can see a lot of it in that shot. ya know?

aside from all that - as images - as things with colours and shape and light - i like em. and i think they're much better in colour than they might be in black and white. granny's houses have a texture and a colour all of their own and i think the images are the better for it.

thanks for sharing them.

magicbastarder

artyeva wrote: »

and lastly i'll just say this -i like the image where she's looking out the widow and having a fag the most.

i'd say it's easily the best shot of the set.

sineadw

serjical_strike wrote: »

when i set out to make these pictures i didnt want to impose a sense of sadness on the images or viewer. i took them in a way that felt natural, never forcing or searching for a sad image to explain my grandmothers situation. i decided it would be the viewer who would ultimately decide wether the were sad or not.

Hmmm... I love the images, I really do, but I'm not sure this part of the brief makes sense. I get that you don't want to force a sad image, and ultimately *every* image's story is enforced by the viewer through memories and codes of understanding, but you put them there to be deciphered. You suggest. And in this case in particular you have a huge vested interest. This is your own family's story. I'm not for one minute advocating images of grief or a forced narrative. I'm just saying that in my eye, your idea of being an impartial documenter might not be the best way to go forward with this, nor am I sure it's working in the first place.

Perhaps you *have* to invest more of yourself into the project? Not place yourself within the frame, but yeah I suppose at the same time doing exactly that. If your grandmother is stuck in her grief, is there a chance for the project to grow? Maybe you need to intervene, even photographically?

Again though, I love the set. I think it could really go somewhere. For me so far though, it's a single instant in time. It has no movement or narrative yet.

(That all sounds very callous. I'm very sorry your grandfather died. And your grandmother is having such a hard time adjusting..)

EyeBlinks

I love the photos, including the extra ones in Flickr.

At the start I too thought the first image jarred a little from the rest, but I've looked at them for ages and don't hold the same opinion now.

It reminds me very much of Julian Germain's - "For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness", a great book and now available again in reprint.

I think it is working great so far and then where to bring it? One possibility might be to involve some shots from the outside, like the world looking in on her, or visits from friends/relatives or even involving yourself. Whilst I'd be loath to copy anyone, the above book's use of old snapshots is particularily effective.
You probably have much better ideas yourself though.

Have you considered where it might go, if she starts going out a bit again?

Projects like these need extraordinary amounts of time and dedication. Time is the one thing that will break what Sinead sees as "a lack of movement or narrative" . I think it's there and just needs to be teased out a bit more.

Really love the work. Well done and best of luck with the project.

thefly

Just on the brief. You don't need to tell what we should or shouldn't be looking at or how we should or should not feel. They are powerful images on there own and I pretty much new what the subject matter was about without reading the brief.

Id say keep it shorter. Allude to what they are about but dont be obvoius. What im trying to say is, let the images do the talking because theyre really good.

serjical_strike

hey everyone, thanks a million for the replies, i havent been able to get on much over the xmas and new years to reply.

dazftw - this was brought up in a class review that perhaps i should focus on people of the same age and how they cope in similar situations and its something that i have been thinking about and may do in the future but for now i think my sole focus will be on the one person, perhaps expanding to a much larger project in the future wth more people involved.

melekalikimaka - i was shooting her in her situation now but it always seemed to me that she has been looking to the past, talking to me about things she has done and about my grandfather and how they met, so they always had a sense of the past even though i was shooting her in the present (if that makes any sense) i took down lots of quotes from her during my shooting that maybe i can apply to certain photographs but i have many more to take and i will see how it goes.

dunphy3 - i dont think black and white would work for this, as someone said peoples homes have a certain feel and texture to them and i dont think can be put across as well in b&w than it could in colour and i have to shoot the assignment in colour anyway, this is my first time using colour film and medium format and im enjoying it alot.

artyeva - the very first image to me was the one where people could see her, look into her eyes and maybe connect in some way with her, agreed it doesnt have the same feel as the rest but most of the rest dont show her face or i have it obscured in some way, another reason why i wanted that one portrait in it. the one of her smoking was a random one i took while chatting and not really thinking, i really like the image and it seems to be the most popular with people who dont know my gran but to family they dont really like it, cant win em all

magicbastarder - thank you

sineadw im glad you like them and i agree about the brief, in fact the brief is something i didnt want in the first place but to submit them we had to have a brief. as for being impartial, its the one thing i decided had to be done at the start, not to interfere with her life or make her go outside so that i could get an image of her outside, i wanted to keep it genuine and real to how things really are. i dont think intervening is the way forward as this would be me influencing the process and for myself i dont like changing or influencing this type of photography, better to let it play out and what will be will be.

perhaps you saying it is a single instant in time is exactly what it is, perhaps she is now stuck in this way of life, cant move forward and no matter how much she may want cant move backwards... and its my job to show this another way.. hmmm im not sure, more thinking needed on this part

thank you very much for your reply it helped a lot and im really glad you think it could go some where

eyeblinks - thanks for looking and thanks for liking what im doing.

that link is amazing, thank you for that, i will be looking at these for a while to come

i do like the use of old snapshots and in a way i have started that myself with knowing of julian germaines work, i took the image of the picture frame with my grandmother and her sister. its something i have thought about doing but now apprehensive as it has been done but perhaps i can find a new spin on it somehow.

if she starts going out again then that is the natural flow of things and i will continue photographing her as she interacts with the outside world more and more, something i am confident will happen eventually and look forward to.

as you said these kinds of projects need a lot of time. these images and the ones on flickr were taken over the space of 7 days, a very very short period of time and as i had so little time i am extremely happy with the outcome and it only excites me more thinking of spending a lot more time working on it and seeing the images i come up with. i think it will evolve itself naturally with the more time i put into it. now xmas and new years is done i can get back to doing it. thank you again, your reply has given the get up and go i needed to get into it again.

thefly - i do agree on the part that you have mentioned, it was something i was never sure of but if it was up to me (and it will be for the exhibition) i wouldnt have a brief at all but i had to have one to submit. thank you very much for looking and for liking what im doing with it.

again thank you for your replies they have helped more than you guys know and has given me the confidence to keep going with it and see what the final outcome may be, what ever that is.

now my fingers are sore

EyeBlinks

serjical_strike wrote: »

i do like the use of old snapshots and in a way i have started that myself with knowing of julian germaines work, i took the image of the picture frame with my grandmother and her sister. its something i have thought about doing but now apprehensive as it has been done but perhaps i can find a new spin on it somehow.

I know what you mean. Julian Germain though was far from the first to integrate old snapshots into a project. It's how you do it and relevance, integrity etc thats what's important, not that it was done before.

Nearly everything has been done before, but not in your way

I'd love to see how this evolves.

serjical_strike

EyeBlinks wrote: »

I know what you mean. Julian Germain though was far from the first to integrate old snapshots into a project. It's how you do it and relevance, integrity etc thats what's important, not that it was done before.

Nearly everything has been done before, but not in your way

I'd love to see how this evolves.

this is true, everything is different when done yourself

ill come back and post more when i make some progress, we have a few months till the exhibition so ill be shooting like crazy till then i think and will continue long after i finish college too.