Blog 3 – Project Outcomes and Personal Development

Throughout my time in contemporary photography, I have developed multiple skills that will help me in the future when photography in my own work as well as considering my subject when taking photographs. The projects that we looked at within this unit consisted of portrait photography. This really broadened my perspective on what portrait photography actually is. After looking at multiple artists and photographers and what their chosen subject was behind the camera, it showed me the meaning and the depth that a photograph can have. During my project I really wanted to focus on the body as my 3D Effects degree is very much based on the body and the practical nature of this. I wanted to shoot my body in uncomfortable and strange ways to show how I was feeling on the inside during lockdown and how it feels to overcome this challenge. I also took to taking photographs of my family and my surroundings during this time, and even though I have had no photography experience or any background in taking photographs, it really pushed me out of my comfort zone to take the most authentic photographs that I could take. I decided to stay away from obvious aspects such as taking photographs of pets or usual surroundings. I much rather preferred to see what I could do with my own body and how I could portray this to my audience. One of the aspects of the course that I particularly liked was uploading my work onto Padlet (an online platform that we could all see our own work on) and it was really lovely to see all the different perspectives that people had taken and how they had explored the brief that we were given before the Easter term. I could see that other people were using their bodies an unusual ways and it’s always been a fascination of mine to explore this topic but I’ve never really known how to; so from taking this Better Lives unit, I now have the experience, the tools and the knowledge to really push this concept forward within my own work and explore what it means to be human in today’s day and age. Because of my 3D background, this will help me acknowledge and understand the subject more that I am photographing, as well as looking at how my pieces translate through a camera and how they look to an audience other than myself. I think this is very important as it’s a skill that is definitely needed throughout my career but also in the near future of my final major project and how that will be presented to my co-workers and my tutors and the people who have come to see it. Overall this unit has pushed me to go out of my comfort zone whilst giving me the knowledge and experience that I need to push my work forward and really think of unconventional ways of presenting it.