Perception.
In this photo I've used lines from the architectural structure of a building, curb and hazard pole along side some car parking spaces. This creates multiple points of focus which lead the viewer in different paths around the photo. theres 2 paths going directly towards the horizon and one going to the left which has warnings/hazards. translating that into my life the two paths going towards the horizon are the ones where i will go to university. the central one is the path i will be taking if i go straight from college. the one created by car parking spaces represents the path i will take if i decide to go traveling because ill go somewhere (park up) and then pursue university however, with more difficulty because i won't have the support and depending on how long i travel for, i may not have the motivation to go. with represents the container which is blocking the majority of that path. the path going to the left, with the warnings signs represents either me going for an apprenticeship or trying to make it as a professional in the BMX industry. both of these are extremely risky because for one I'm not getting any kind of qualification from either and the chances of making it as a professional in BMX are very slim.
each and every path at the moment is equal in my eyes regardless of the warnings or the motivational issues. its over the next 1-2 months where the decision will become clear on which path i will be pursuing.
Education.
Here I'm using a 8mm fisheye lens with f/5.6, shutter speed around 80-100 and ISO 3200. This photo highlights the main focus in my own and the foundation years lives at the moment, which is UCAS. Its took over our lives and for me not being in the foundation group makes it that bit harder because I'm constantly back and forth between years groups. Comparing my work to theirs and trying to implement their work ethics into my own whilst at the same time not completely distancing myself from my own year. On the left theres a second year student (my year) and on the right theres a foundation student, with me juggling between both years.
The obsession.
Ive been riding BMX pretty much all my life and its hard to capture the emotion in a single photo. All the preproduction, motivation, frustration, excitement and adrenaline that compiles action photos equates to high pressure with minimal reward. Although, its justifiable when you do. The easiest way i can bond both photography and BMX is the fact that its not the equipment you use its the way you use it. i almost use BMX to motivate myself when taking photos because even when it doesn't go right first time its noting your mistake, learning from it then perusing thats key.
In the photo above I've tried to implement the advertising techniques of some high end energy drinks such as, red bull, monster and rockstar. all of these use extreme sports as their branding. However, they all do it in a different way. Monster for example use darker, weathered, high contrast photos which I've tried to implement here. I chose Monster because i personally liked the style of their advertising and the whole persona the brand has in the BMX industry. Less colourful, rough but very raw is the best way i can describe it.
My home.
A small pit village on the boarder between derbyshire and nottinghamshire. most people my age here goes to school till the age of 16 and then gets a job in a trade of some sort. I'm slightly out of the ordinary with regards to being creative and having that mindset. Here I'm sat looking in from a distance. This because its easy to get caught up in my own life and be very selfish without ever intending to be. Simply overviewing everyones lives from a far really allows me to clear my head, re-motivate and start over. I also found its a great cure for artist block and its a good way to practice self evaluation. Looking from a far also gives me that bit of extra confidence when i need it because as silly as it sounds its almost as if I'm looking down on people as almost a godly figure and notifying areas in which i could make a change whether that be physical or mental.
The techniques I've used are pretty basic as I've tried to make the horizon as parallel as possible with the horizontal edge and I've used a MACRO lens to get the focus on the foreground. The reason I've decided to focus on the foreground is because although id like to sit back and think about everyone else's lives before mine, its just not practical.
Humans as a raise strive for change. This can only be achieved by putting yourself and your beliefs forward. Which is the reason I've gone down the creative career rather than a more industrial one. Being creative has not only made me accept change but push for it. 5
Commitment. Basically me and approximately 15-20 other BMX and skateboarders rode from 9pm till 9am. During this session people showed what different characteristics people had whilst they were tired. I can't talk from personal experience that its extremely difficult to concentrate whilst tired.
In this photo I wanted to capture that fatigue everyone was feeling. I made sure I got the detail on the subjects faces and captured the hand/arm, pole silhouette. This is important because it shows the person is that tired they need the support. The bikes also play a key role in the composition as they are symbolising that we've all given up and in the far right you can see the skatepark, empty.
Our battle. Here is a shot from a bank holiday where we went put to ride knowing that it was going to rain. I made the most of the session by pushing the rider and motivating them even though we had a limited time riding. The whole focus in this photo was to capture the battle between the bad weather and progression. Using a very traditional composition for action sports was a must. Focusing on the skateboard making the ledge in the fore ground out of focus. Although our sport is growing rapidly this composition highlights how unseen our sport still is. I also liked the fact that the ledge is out of focus but you can still see rust and weathering. Forcing us to adapt form spot to spot.
The sky's the limit. This is a little snap shot of an abandoned building. The photo was took around noon so the sky has no detail which I like because it adds mystery to the photo. The fact that there isn't a roof on the house also translates nicely into keeping an open mindset. To help that aesthetic I used an 8mm fisheye lens which gave a much wider field of vision. I desaturated the photo is because I wanted to show tones rather than colours because this photo is all about the thought process and isn't just a pretty picture. Much like conceptual photography where the idea forms the final piece.
This photo is also meant to show the levels of progression in life, the floor represents the people who are happy with where they are at, the walls are people who are climbing and bettering theirselves, the sky represents the innovators and people who are constantly progressing. This is key for this photo because I wanted to show the comparison between open and closed minded people.
Movement and balance. Showing the constant stop start life of London. I used a slow shutter speed so it would show some of the movement trails but not to slow because it wouldn't blur the people who were stood still. The first time I took this photo I tried taking it without any tripod or grounded surface and it came out far to blurry simply because I'm not steady enough to get a clear shot at this shutter speed. I scouted the area for 5-10 minuets just looking for a flat, stable surface to rest my camera on whilst taking this photo. Settling for a bin. The point in trying to make is balance is the first thing we learn growing up and somewhere along the way is forgotten about. Balancing life between work and play can be extremely difficult which is why I've chosen photography because then work becomes play.
This is a photograph of a piece of work from the hyundai commission, tate modern. The piece is called 'Empty Lot' and is a large geographic sculpture using soil from different parks from around London. Nothing is planted in the soil its just well lit and watered. The whole point of the piece is so that each triangle changes from one week to the next provoking questions about the cities effects and changes on nature.
I also think that each triangle looks as if its pointing directly towards you, almost as if the photos directly addressing the audience. Quite obviously trying to highlight natural change. translating that into my life, i think change is needed for me to grow as not only a photographer but a person as well.
Metamorphosis. This photo is of a sand cast I made for a project where I question what is sculpture. Through I look at different methods of presenting sculpture and decided to photograph each sand cast. This combines both a 3D and digital medium creating some very interesting work. In the photo I tried to use a common portrait composition and method just so it would be easy to recognise. Using a high f/ really brings out he detail in the face of the sculpture. I didn't really care much for the background of the photo because in traditional portrait photo graphs the background tends to be very basic and out of focus. the main focus of this is to combine and transform art to create something original.
