Statement of intent
I aim to produce a project demonstrating my ideas, creative work and reflection based around the theme 'conflict'. At the end of this product, I will choose my best photographs and show them so they can be easily viewed.
For my initial research I will start looking at conflict photographers, at the moment I only have one to look at which is Don McCullin
as he has made powerful pictures which are related to conflict, he's most known for taking pictures during war while showing what's happening behind the scenes. I feel I will be able to gain lots of inspiration from his photos, one of the photos I've found which I really like is called 'West Hartlepool 1963, a man walking towards his work at the Steel Foundry' which I've come across while researching his work.
When I was given the theme, my initial thoughts were more strongly towards poverty and bullying as I felt I could relate to them. After thinking about the topic more thoroughly I realised there are many more routes related to conflict in which my project could go down like war, power, money and even racism or any type of stereotypical topics.
To show progression I will start with taking basic photos of bullying and progress from there into poverty, war etc and then progress into complicated subjects like greed or power.
I would like to use a wide range variety of camera settings within my work like depth of field or white balance to experiment how I can get the best possible outcome.
Once I have finished all of that, I will use Photoshop to create anti-bullying posters and experiment with different setting like distortion, black and white, using different fonts etc. I will then show each process with a ducklink program in case you want to do it yourself and also prove that I've made it on my own.
And finally, I will write down an evaluation to conclude what I have done on this project and explain what my point of view was while I was progressing during this topic and once done, go back to the work and see what I can improve to make the work even better like maybe add more information, correct mistakes or even add another mind map.
For my initial research I will start looking at conflict photographers, at the moment I only have one to look at which is Don McCullin
as he has made powerful pictures which are related to conflict, he's most known for taking pictures during war while showing what's happening behind the scenes. I feel I will be able to gain lots of inspiration from his photos, one of the photos I've found which I really like is called 'West Hartlepool 1963, a man walking towards his work at the Steel Foundry' which I've come across while researching his work.
When I was given the theme, my initial thoughts were more strongly towards poverty and bullying as I felt I could relate to them. After thinking about the topic more thoroughly I realised there are many more routes related to conflict in which my project could go down like war, power, money and even racism or any type of stereotypical topics.
To show progression I will start with taking basic photos of bullying and progress from there into poverty, war etc and then progress into complicated subjects like greed or power.
I would like to use a wide range variety of camera settings within my work like depth of field or white balance to experiment how I can get the best possible outcome.
Once I have finished all of that, I will use Photoshop to create anti-bullying posters and experiment with different setting like distortion, black and white, using different fonts etc. I will then show each process with a ducklink program in case you want to do it yourself and also prove that I've made it on my own.
And finally, I will write down an evaluation to conclude what I have done on this project and explain what my point of view was while I was progressing during this topic and once done, go back to the work and see what I can improve to make the work even better like maybe add more information, correct mistakes or even add another mind map.
Conflict
Analysing an image using the 5Cs
Context
This photo was taken by UNICEF, a non-profitable charity that saves children's lives that were born into conflict, every two seconds a child breathes in a conflict zone. The image clearly shows a family with young children in a difficult situation which clearly links with the ethos of UNICEF.
Among refugee and migrant children on the move, the risks of newborns and mothers are especially acute. Worldwide, more than 16 million babies were born into conflict on 2017.
This photo shows a family fleeing across the former Yugoslavia and the mother has just given birth a month ago and is still in a lot of pain. UNICEF are using this image to flag up the plight of children caught up in conflict.
Among refugee and migrant children on the move, the risks of newborns and mothers are especially acute. Worldwide, more than 16 million babies were born into conflict on 2017.
This photo shows a family fleeing across the former Yugoslavia and the mother has just given birth a month ago and is still in a lot of pain. UNICEF are using this image to flag up the plight of children caught up in conflict.
Content
The photo is fairly recent as it was taken in 2015 during the conflict in Yugoslavia.
As you can see, the picture is not black and white, it has a dark shade of colour showing that it's empty and that there is nothing there. However there are flashes of red from the man's coat and the women's dress that creates a contrast to the dull background. In my opinion the colour red suggests a sense of danger which adds drama to the picture.
It's set in what seems like a deserted place as there's only a house and four people escaping that area and maybe conflict itself.
The photo is made up of a field, people and a house to show that people having to leave their homes.
It makes me feel sad as they show sad facial expression as they're frowning and all looking down. To me this helps to show that they're having to go through a tragedy and having to tread through a muddy field carrying their only belongings.
As you can see, the picture is not black and white, it has a dark shade of colour showing that it's empty and that there is nothing there. However there are flashes of red from the man's coat and the women's dress that creates a contrast to the dull background. In my opinion the colour red suggests a sense of danger which adds drama to the picture.
It's set in what seems like a deserted place as there's only a house and four people escaping that area and maybe conflict itself.
The photo is made up of a field, people and a house to show that people having to leave their homes.
It makes me feel sad as they show sad facial expression as they're frowning and all looking down. To me this helps to show that they're having to go through a tragedy and having to tread through a muddy field carrying their only belongings.
Composition
The focus point of this photo is the four people with the women being central to the picture, there's a diagonal line from the bottom right corner to the top left corner which draws my attention to the people's faces which shows suffering and depression.
When I see the image, I see two-thirds mud and one-third sky and as you can see, the mud has footprints in implying that
potential hundreds of other people has been there in the same situation as those four are in, this means that it can happen to anyone at any time.
You can see a house of the right side of this photo blocked by what seems to be dead trees with no other house in sight immediately suggesting that they're alone at that moment and it wouldn't be a healthy place to live or it might not be their house and might have to live with other people. I like the photo as nothing important in this photo is not blocked by anything or anyone and is using composition perfectly.
When I see the image, I see two-thirds mud and one-third sky and as you can see, the mud has footprints in implying that
potential hundreds of other people has been there in the same situation as those four are in, this means that it can happen to anyone at any time.
You can see a house of the right side of this photo blocked by what seems to be dead trees with no other house in sight immediately suggesting that they're alone at that moment and it wouldn't be a healthy place to live or it might not be their house and might have to live with other people. I like the photo as nothing important in this photo is not blocked by anything or anyone and is using composition perfectly.
Comment
I feel sad from this photo as there's people trying to get through life but can't because of a reason that might be out of their control demonstrated through their facial expression and their body language showing how depressed they may be.
However I still like it as it shows what these people are going through and might make us think 'how can we fix this?' as we want to make everyone happy and have a good time.
In my opinion, the strengths in this photo is the facial expressions (looking down, sad), the use of composition is done correctly and they used a low ISO to make the picture more grey.
However I still like it as it shows what these people are going through and might make us think 'how can we fix this?' as we want to make everyone happy and have a good time.
In my opinion, the strengths in this photo is the facial expressions (looking down, sad), the use of composition is done correctly and they used a low ISO to make the picture more grey.
Connection
I feel that I can connect with this photo as I like the message and meaning that the photographer took as it shows what some people are going through with regards to conflict, how they have to go through it without giving up.
It's connected to conflict as it's set in a location which is almost empty with just one house, a field of mud and a cloudy sky, it's also connected as it shows grief, sadness and depression just from their facial expressions alone.
Another connection it shows is the lack of colour, most of the colour on this photo is brown, blue, red, black and white.
Red symbolizing danger and anger, brown and white symbolizing emptiness, black symbolizing darkness and death, and blue symbolizing with sadness and depression which are all related to conflict.
The depth of field feels just right too as it shows everything in the photo even the background.
It's connected to conflict as it's set in a location which is almost empty with just one house, a field of mud and a cloudy sky, it's also connected as it shows grief, sadness and depression just from their facial expressions alone.
Another connection it shows is the lack of colour, most of the colour on this photo is brown, blue, red, black and white.
Red symbolizing danger and anger, brown and white symbolizing emptiness, black symbolizing darkness and death, and blue symbolizing with sadness and depression which are all related to conflict.
The depth of field feels just right too as it shows everything in the photo even the background.
Don McCullin
Don McCullin is one of the greatest photographers that still lives to this day, for the past 50 years he has proved to be a great photojournalist. He has documented the poverty of London's east end and the horrors of warm in Africa, Asia or the middle east.
He has also proved to be an adroit artist capable of beautifully arranged still lifes, soulful portraits and moving landscapes, he is known to take photos of what happens during a war zone. He was born on the 9th October 1935 and he is age 82
This is one of his photos:
He has also proved to be an adroit artist capable of beautifully arranged still lifes, soulful portraits and moving landscapes, he is known to take photos of what happens during a war zone. He was born on the 9th October 1935 and he is age 82
This is one of his photos:
Context
This photo was taken by Doc McCullin in 1963, this was taken at West Hartlepool and is called "West Hartlepool 1963, a man walking towards his work at the Steel Foundry". This was captured when he was aged 28. The reason why he chose the scenery is to show the realities of war and what countries/people go through during these time periods. This was taken to show how much we're harming our world. He has an autobiography on his site saying this:
"Don McCullin is one of our greatest living photographers. Few have enjoyed a career so long; none one of such variety and critical acclaim. For the past 50 years he has proved himself a photojournalist without equal, whether documenting the poverty of London’s East End, or the horrors of wars in Africa, Asia or the Middle East. Simultaneously he has proved an adroit artist capable of beautifully arranged still lifes, soulful portraits and moving landscapes.Following an impoverished north London childhood blighted by Hitler’s bombs and the early death of his father, McCullin was called up for National Service with the RAF. After postings to Egypt, Kenya and Cyprus he returned to London armed with a twin reflex Rolleicord camera and began photographing friends from a local gang named The Guv’nors. Persuaded to show them to the picture editor at the Observer in 1959, aged 23, he earned his first commission and began his long and distinguished career in photography more by accident than design.
In 1961 he won the British Press Award for his essay on the construction of the Berlin Wall. His first taste of war came in Cyprus, 1964, where he covered the armed eruption of ethnic and nationalistic tension, winning a World Press Photo Award for his efforts. In 1993 he was the first photojournalist to be awarded a CBE."
(I have used Google to find this quote and I've found it at this website: https://donmccullin.com/don-mccullin/ "
"Don McCullin is one of our greatest living photographers. Few have enjoyed a career so long; none one of such variety and critical acclaim. For the past 50 years he has proved himself a photojournalist without equal, whether documenting the poverty of London’s East End, or the horrors of wars in Africa, Asia or the Middle East. Simultaneously he has proved an adroit artist capable of beautifully arranged still lifes, soulful portraits and moving landscapes.Following an impoverished north London childhood blighted by Hitler’s bombs and the early death of his father, McCullin was called up for National Service with the RAF. After postings to Egypt, Kenya and Cyprus he returned to London armed with a twin reflex Rolleicord camera and began photographing friends from a local gang named The Guv’nors. Persuaded to show them to the picture editor at the Observer in 1959, aged 23, he earned his first commission and began his long and distinguished career in photography more by accident than design.
In 1961 he won the British Press Award for his essay on the construction of the Berlin Wall. His first taste of war came in Cyprus, 1964, where he covered the armed eruption of ethnic and nationalistic tension, winning a World Press Photo Award for his efforts. In 1993 he was the first photojournalist to be awarded a CBE."
(I have used Google to find this quote and I've found it at this website: https://donmccullin.com/don-mccullin/ "
Content:
This landscape picture was taken from McCuffin to show what would happen to society if it was just full of factories, poverty and just a barren wasteland. In this photo I think it is showing us a northern industrial landscape from the 1950s-1960s, this landscape is all black and white with no colour to show that life is hard for other people living there.
The title change the way we see the image to show what would happen if everyone on earth worked in factories and how hard life would be as a whole.
In this picture I can see smoking chimneys from a sea of factories, in the foreground and is just a empty wasteland with a broken fence right beside that man, you don't even see any cars on the road or even other people. In my opinion this suggests a hard life and lots of people may have died from these turn of events.
What the message shows is that this is just what life is for some people, a barren wasteland with no one to communicate and the only sense of enjoyment is working at a factory.
The title change the way we see the image to show what would happen if everyone on earth worked in factories and how hard life would be as a whole.
In this picture I can see smoking chimneys from a sea of factories, in the foreground and is just a empty wasteland with a broken fence right beside that man, you don't even see any cars on the road or even other people. In my opinion this suggests a hard life and lots of people may have died from these turn of events.
What the message shows is that this is just what life is for some people, a barren wasteland with no one to communicate and the only sense of enjoyment is working at a factory.
Composition
The photo is using a rule of thirds technique as a man is on the left walking forward with his back turned towards a camera while a broken fence and field is on the right. The focus of this picture is the factories in the background since it's in the middle, I see two thirds of the ground and a third of the sky. You can see a road with no cars on the far left, a broken down fence and a field in the middle and right, a huge amount of factories in one area near the top and lots of smoke coming out of the chimneys from the factories at the very top in the sky.
You can't see the man's face and there's no one with him, even though the picture is in black and white, he's wearing bold black clothes which makes him stand out from the background. To me, it immediately suggests that he's lonely and may have no friends or even family. He could be a factory worker doing his daily routine of going to work, his dark clothes could represent the factory grounds and the darkness of the job, he's constantly working in a dirty environment and hence, lots of CO2 smoke comes out from the chimneys, polluting the environment around it.
The scale of the composition is that it favours the right hand side because there's more going on with the broken fence and factories, the rubble on the floor and the muddy field beside the fence.
The focus point of this image is a perspective, as we can see as if a person was seeing this through their eyes. The photographer used a large depth of field with a tripod as we can clearly see everything in site like the smoke, chimneys from the factories and the factories themselves. My eyes are drawn to the man in black as it stands out the most compared to the background.
You can't see the man's face and there's no one with him, even though the picture is in black and white, he's wearing bold black clothes which makes him stand out from the background. To me, it immediately suggests that he's lonely and may have no friends or even family. He could be a factory worker doing his daily routine of going to work, his dark clothes could represent the factory grounds and the darkness of the job, he's constantly working in a dirty environment and hence, lots of CO2 smoke comes out from the chimneys, polluting the environment around it.
The scale of the composition is that it favours the right hand side because there's more going on with the broken fence and factories, the rubble on the floor and the muddy field beside the fence.
The focus point of this image is a perspective, as we can see as if a person was seeing this through their eyes. The photographer used a large depth of field with a tripod as we can clearly see everything in site like the smoke, chimneys from the factories and the factories themselves. My eyes are drawn to the man in black as it stands out the most compared to the background.
Comment
I feel hopeless from this photo as it might show what will happen in the future if we don't take care of it demonstrated from the large amount of factories, the broken down property and a man who seems to be alone and isolated maybe even suggesting a corrupt person higher in power in control of that country only offering factories for its jobs, what draws my attention is the male on the left side since it stands out the most which makes it feel even more isolated since he's one of the only sign of life on this photo since most of it are factories or anything related to corruption.
However that doesn't mean I don't like this photo, in fact I really do like it as it shows what could potentially happen in just a few years if it kept going the way it was.
However that doesn't mean I don't like this photo, in fact I really do like it as it shows what could potentially happen in just a few years if it kept going the way it was.
Connection
This connects with conflict as it's black and white, everything is broken down and there's factories as the eye can see.
This is related to conflict as a whole nation would be filled to the brim of factories, broken down structures and depressed people. This will connect with what I'm thinking of an idea for conflict and that would be bullying, most people has or had experienced bullying in their life at school or even at their workplace and they handle it in different ways. I'm going to show the physical side, the mental side of bullying and even do cyber bullying.
It would inspire my photos as it's related to the same topic that I am writing through, I really like how they portrayed a message just in this one photo showing what loneliness is, how its like to work in a country full of corruption and power and what a wasteland earth will be in just a few years time if we keep it up like this.
This is related to conflict as a whole nation would be filled to the brim of factories, broken down structures and depressed people. This will connect with what I'm thinking of an idea for conflict and that would be bullying, most people has or had experienced bullying in their life at school or even at their workplace and they handle it in different ways. I'm going to show the physical side, the mental side of bullying and even do cyber bullying.
It would inspire my photos as it's related to the same topic that I am writing through, I really like how they portrayed a message just in this one photo showing what loneliness is, how its like to work in a country full of corruption and power and what a wasteland earth will be in just a few years time if we keep it up like this.
My ideas for my conflict shoots
My plan
Locations for my shoot
First shoot (first location)
First shoot (second location)
First shoot (third location)
BestIt's the best photo because...
My model is showing good facial expression and the use of composition here is done well, I also used a shallow depth of field here as well. |
WorstIt's the worst photo because...
It's really dark as I wasn't using a correct white balance or ISO and composition wasn't used. |
These are my locations for my second shoot
Second shoot (first location)
Developing my ideas by trying out different locations and a different model
Best photo Worst photo
Third shoot
I had to rush taking these pictures as I didn't have enough time to plan out the third shoot.
Poster
Work done on photoshop
Final design ideas
My ideas for these posters
The reason why I've done posters instead of any other idea is because it's the basis on what I want to do in my future projects and what I feel will be the best place to start, posters are a really good way to start off since it allows me to expand/express my ideas from there and continue developing any other potential themes/ideas. These posters are supposed to represent a boy who has been bullied in a physical/mental way which allows other people to relate what's happening in the picture and what they can do about it if they're in that situation in the future by calling ChildLine with the phone number given above.
These posters have also allowed me to test Photoshop tools as this was the second time using Photoshop and I didn't know what any of the given tools did and because of that, I experimented with layers to see if it was successful. This project has expanded my knowledge and introduced me to the basics of what it is as a software and as a tool.
These posters have also allowed me to test Photoshop tools as this was the second time using Photoshop and I didn't know what any of the given tools did and because of that, I experimented with layers to see if it was successful. This project has expanded my knowledge and introduced me to the basics of what it is as a software and as a tool.
My final Evaluation for Conflict
The project we started with conflict, I started with a mind map with all of the topics related with it like poverty, bullying etc and I then improved from there with war, power, corruption etc.
During this project the part I enjoyed the most was taking photos of my model related to the topic and using Photoshop with its 'new adjustment layer' to manipulate and experiment what I can change for my outcome, I duck-linked the process of how I got to my final design, I have also used different fonts and colour for my text to show different emotion like being serious.
During this project I have learned to use different camera settings to change atmosphere like depth of field and ISO as I don't want it to be too bright or too dark and I also learned the basics of Photoshop, in the past I have never used it and I realise how important Photoshop is in photography.
What I would like to develop on my next project is to make my final design more professional and to do that I would need to experiment with different options on Photoshop, what I would also like to develop is travelling to different locations for different atmosphere for example in a city or in a countryside
By researching photographers that focused on conflict, they have shown me that it isn't about blood or horror to get my message across, It's about the atmosphere, facial expressions and the story behind it.
Overall I enjoyed expanding and experimenting with this topic as it got me up from the fundamental basics and start tackling on major topics/themes (like conflict) that plague around the world.
During this project the part I enjoyed the most was taking photos of my model related to the topic and using Photoshop with its 'new adjustment layer' to manipulate and experiment what I can change for my outcome, I duck-linked the process of how I got to my final design, I have also used different fonts and colour for my text to show different emotion like being serious.
During this project I have learned to use different camera settings to change atmosphere like depth of field and ISO as I don't want it to be too bright or too dark and I also learned the basics of Photoshop, in the past I have never used it and I realise how important Photoshop is in photography.
What I would like to develop on my next project is to make my final design more professional and to do that I would need to experiment with different options on Photoshop, what I would also like to develop is travelling to different locations for different atmosphere for example in a city or in a countryside
By researching photographers that focused on conflict, they have shown me that it isn't about blood or horror to get my message across, It's about the atmosphere, facial expressions and the story behind it.
Overall I enjoyed expanding and experimenting with this topic as it got me up from the fundamental basics and start tackling on major topics/themes (like conflict) that plague around the world.