Due to the Government guidelines following COVID-19, and the fact that most of my subjects fall into the high-risk category, I have been unable to complete my desired project. In addition to this, the University closing stops me from using the equipment I need, such as cameras and lights, as I do not have my own. I liaised with my unit leader and thought about ways round this, such as using my housemates at University, however I wanted this to be an authentic piece of work, therefore I have made a U-turn on my project. Unfortunately, I will also have to use my housemate’s iPhone 11 camera, as that is the only alternative to try and complete my project.
Below is my conversation to try and get over the obstacle.
During this conversation, I was thinking of possible ideas I could complete whilst staying home. Due to the ongoing uncertainty of many students, I started to think about ideas around student life and how it has suddenly changed for people during this time. I thought about how students are often represented and the realities of University life. Below, I expressed this to my unit leader.
I mentioned my previous inspiration Tom Hunter and applied that to my new idea. He also gave me an idea of comparing University life to how the actual University portrays life in their prospectuses where it is very clean-cut and staged. I looked at prospectuses such as Solent University and University of Southampton.
Below I began designing my press kit, entitling the project “University of Reality” in the style of a prospectus to tie the idea together. I am going to put a few of the images on the front page.
I have also completed the project statement where I talk about my aims, idea and inspirations. I state the 5 main photographs intention, showing the stereotypes of: mess, laziness, unhealthiness, unsocial and drinking. These stereotypes came from googling the words ‘student’ ‘article’ ‘lazy’ and I found many articles talking about these stereotypes such as “Students aren’t actually lazy and don’t spend all day in the pub” from Metro.
My first image is ‘unsocial’ where it shows a student playing video games in their dark, dingy room rather than socialising with housemates. This is a common theme around students. I played around with the image and thought it would be effective if I kept the subjects in colour and the background black and white, to show them absorbed into the surroundings.
Metro,. Students aren’t actually lazy and don’t spend all day in the pub, June 2018. Available from: https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/07/students-arent-actually-lazy-dont-spend-day-pub-7612184/?ito=cbshare