My creative process begun in the first few weeks of the unit. We were asked to bring in an artefact or photograph that had some sort of connection/meaning to us and to tell the class why. I took in a photograph of my two grandma’s holding me as a newborn which I also have a tattoo of on my inner arm as I am very close with them, and within the last year have both been fighting cancer. I wanted to create something that had deep personal meaning to me so I could use emotion and my own reality to create something unique.
We were then shown work from photographers such as Johan Willner and Tom Hunter who really stood out for me, particularly Willner’s ‘Boy Stories’ (below) which depicted his own childhood and resonated with my idea of portraying my personal experiences too.
Hunter’s ‘Holly Street Residents’ (below) inspired me to think about the setting of my series. Photographing someone’s home can be quite intimate as that is their own space personalised to themselves, which is a good way to incorporate deeper meanings and messages.
Holly Street Residents Series
I then put my two inspirations together, to come up with the idea of portraying illness I have experienced within my family as this has had a big impact on my life. I wanted to show them now, in their own space which they love. For example, one of my Grandma’s loves to garden, so similarly to Hunter’s Holly Street Residents, I want to photograph her in the garden as it also shows that she can do what she loves despite fighting pancreatic cancer. This will be a series of 5 of my family members; my brother who fought meningitis and to be photographed in his bedroom, my other grandma who fought breast cancer in her lounge with her dogs, my grandfather who had a pacemaker fitted building in the garden with his dogs and my auntie who has had a series of ectopic pregnancies in her kitchen with her 6 month year old son.
Like Hunter, I want to keep the shoot very simple and using the natural lighting which comes with the location. I also want it to look slightly staged with the subject looking at the camera as they are doing an action (e.g gardening). I plan to go home 20/03 for a test shoot, then shoot on 28/03 with Canon 5D mark iii/iiii, a reflector and soft box.
HUNTER, T., 1997. Holly Street Residents Series Available from: http://www.tomhunter.org/holly-street-residents-series/
WILLNER, J., 2012. Boy Stories Available from: https://www.johanwillner.com/boy-stories