Blog 3

The better lives themes have made me feel more engaged on the context of my work. I chose contemporary portraiture photography as I wanted to hone my skills on using digital and analogue format cameras.

I was inspired by John Lau’s lecture on cultural responsibility and also discussions I had with my peers on contemporary portraiture photography, I wanted to reflect on my own culture and heritage when responding to the given brief. I decided to approach this by photographing my relatives in Ireland. This is something I chose to do as I’m proud of my Irish heritage and it is a place where I feel welcomed and happy and place I can call home.

I thought this was a great response to the theme of culture as in Ireland, family is important and a lot of time spent with loved ones at home. I reflected on a book called “Golden Days in Donegal” which is written by a member of my family on his Life growing up in Ireland and I was inspired by the pictures in this book and sentimental value that they had. My way of responding to this was to photograph my family and reflect on the memories that I’ve grown up with in Ireland since I was very young girl.

I reflected on the spaces that I was photographing with the aim of capturing the sentimental value that I feel within this space, for example the kitchen is a very important space, this is because it is a place where people would gather and is one of the most lively rooms in the house.

Being such a rural area I was able to photograph outside of the home, admiring the untouched landscape that looks out onto the Foyle and the Irish Sea.

After unfortunately spending a short time here, I was unable to capture further pictures of local friends and family and the area that is very close to my family heritage.

I was inspired by a photo series “The English at home” By Bill Brandt, I thought the images were an authentic way of portraying home life, and the domestic differences between a working-class and upper-class household. These images inspired the photo series that I captured in Ireland, I felt connected to the old furniture and tableware in the house making me reminisce on what home feels like in Ireland. Reflecting back to the lectures on contemporary portraiture photography, I feel that I have learned more about the context of what I want to photograph and thinking about who it is that is in the image and what they represent. This is a project I will be returning to in the future as I feel there is a lot more I would like to look further into.