Initial Research

It made sense for me to combine the two briefs for FMP (Final Major Project) and the South Africa brief, both in the way of a realistic timescale and also to ensure that i produced the best possible outcome for both.

In a way this has made it more difficult for me in coming up with initial ideas, because i have to satisfy two briefs, the FMP being very open and the South Africa brief being open but the emphasis being on showcasing an aspect of the Northwest in a postive light.

Firstly i thought of producing photographs in Blackpool, with it being a very 'typical' english sea side town and envisioned old couples by the sea eating fish and chips, elderly ladies having tea and cake, candyfloss stands, men in kiss me quick hats etc....

This was inspired by images such as these by Martin Parr:

Although some people think that Martin Parr mocks a certain level of society in these images, i like his matter- of- fact style of photography, although i would have to be careful to portray people in a fairly non-judgemental way.

After looking at this I decided that it was more important to research South African photographers as it would be interesting to see how they see things as this would affect how my work is viewed in Cape Town and I need to see what kind of work is being produced there.

This work is by Joao Silva from the Bang Bang club, a Portugese photojournalist based in South Africa and part of the bang bang club:

Kevin Carter was an award winning South African photojournalist. This is his most famous photograph for which he won the Pulitzer prize. Its truth is still disputed and to this day contraversial.

I also looked at a photographer named Roger Sedres who is based in cape town and works as a photojournalist there, here are a few examples of his work:

It struck me that his work is more contemporary in style than i imagined. I suppose it would be unfair to think that because someone lives in a developing country that their practice would reflect this in quality. I wouldnt say I necessarily like his work but i think it has given me an insight into the type of Photography that is being produced in Cape Town.

Lizane Louw

This is another photojournalist I found, based in Cape Town. Her work is much more in keeping with my photographic style so I found it interesting to look at her work and what she is doing.

The below image I think is really powerful, this has shown me a glimpse of how talented some of the Photographers are in Cape Town, this motivates me more to produce something that will impress people at the exhibition.

Rashaad Staggies' daughter was shot in a police raid, in Bonteheuwel.

The mystery shots that landed Ingrid Jacobs in hospital with two wounds in the stomach was allegedly fired by the police. The incident happened when the police raided a well known tik-den in Safraan Street in Bonteheuwel.
An official attempted murder docket was opened, after it came to light that one of the bystanders filmed the shooting.
Igrid was watching the raid through metal plates serving as a wall when the shots were fired.


The police arrested 10 alleged drug dealers and confiscated illegal substances and money. Six grams of tik with a street value of R2 000 and R1 800 cash was found.
The investigation continues.

Preparing for the Exhibition

My Exhibition is planned for 27th January at 6pm and now i have permission to hold it in the Atrium in the University centre, and have secured funding for the Frames from Platform 2- Christian Aid, i needed to select and edit my final images.

With some help from Andy i began to edit the images i was definitely going to include, he brought up a few things that i hadnt considered (mainly because i have never done an exhibition before) such as aspect ratio, so after finding out the mount size of the frames i was buying we could put this ratio into Lightroom so that it was cropped correctly for printing. I had been de-saturating my images slightly but have now decided to keep the work contemporary with full saturated colour which shows a true representation of what i saw.

I have now edited and selected my final 12 images which are below:

Iquitos, Peru- Short Film

After arriving back from i attended a 3 day workshop with Platform 2 and decided to set about presenting my photographs and finding a way to show people some of the terrible issues i had been faced with.

I decided to make a Short Film using stills which could be posted to you tube and seen by the general public, i would advertise this on facebook and through Christian Aid and hope that i could show people the poverty and sadness that i had seen.

Whilst at the workshop i started making my movie, and realised this completely tied in with the Photojournalism brief, so i have kept this in mind when producing the video and think it adds to the brief in offering some more back ground information. Although my final Photo Story is on a different topic, this video shows another story and shown in a way that the general public will find it easy to understand.

I needed more information so i could produce my film with the most accurate facts and information as possible, so researched the issues facing the people of Belen which is the Market town in Iquitos, Peru. I had already done my own research by asking local people whilst i visited the town but thought it would be more accurate to back this up further.

I found this video on you tube really interesting as it discussed all of the issues i had come across and showed a programme that was being used to help combat the struggles of these people. The main issues were:

-A huge problem with violence because it is such a poor area

-Malnourished children feeding from waste and catching deseases

-No jobs or healthcare

-Child Sex slaves very common in Iquitos

-Child Abuse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS7GazpIf8I

My video is shown below, although the link further down the page takes you to facebook for a higher quality.

This Video can be seen in higher quality at

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=500949325615&ref=notif&notif_t=like

Final 8 Images (First Selection)

Arranging a Placement

The People of Belen Market

One idea that i want to explore is to show the Photo Essay for this brief on the people i photographed in Belen Market in Iquitos.

This was not only the place that affected me most and compelled me to photograph everything, but where i felt most empathy for the people and their situation. Its impossible to compare the different levels of poverty i experienced in Peru, but there was something so significant about the people here and i produced some of my best photography in the short time i was there.

Photojournalism

The Brief

Before leaving for Summer we were advised that we would have a Photojournalism brief when we started the new year. Richard asked that we read magazines and books and in general tried to prepare ourselves for the new brief.

Luckily for me, Documentary and Photojournalism is the area of Photography that i am most passionate about, i had already been reading BJP and Foto 8 and was also reading Don Mcullin's autobiography for the 2nd time as he is one of my favourite photographers.

I knew that with me travelling to Peru for three months in summer, this would give me the perfect oppertunity to get some photographs that i could use for the brief, so tried to cover as many different aspects of life in Peru as i could, and conducted interviews and did further research in addition to this to help me build a picture story for each occasion.

 The dilemma for me, was that i have over 3000 images and have covered so many issues that i didnt know where to start.

We had to show our Pecha Kucha to the class this week so i edited some of my work and chose my favourite 20 out of them- although they didn't form a particularly obvious picture story this was more a case of me showing my work than anything. This has given me a starting point for putting my final images together.

Here are the images i chose:

I noticed that i have quite a few photos of people sleeping, although not all of them are shown here, and after a discussion with Richard i plan to research photography and sleep further.

This woman was lied asleep on what i assume was her market stall in the bustling and ancient Belen Market. This market hasn't changed much through the years and still holds much history and the most quaint and fascinating stalls i have ever seen, from jungle medicines to animals skulls and snake skin, you could find anything on this market, especially things considered to be quite magical. Despite it being an 'Aladdins Cave' it was also home to some of the worst poverty i had seen in Peru, it was a very poor area and many of the market sellers lived on the market, starting as early as 4am to prepare their goods and set up the stalls. When i visited the market it was around 3pm in the afternoon and it had very much wound down hence the people sleeping on the stalls when everything was sold. There were still hundreds of stalls with plenty to buy but many of the sellers were eating lunch or sleeping by this point. It shocked me that they could eat and sleep in these conditions, there were dead animals in the street as i walked through, complete with vultures ripping apart their flesh and the most pungent smell of what i can only assume was meat or rotting flesh, it is unthinkable that people could live in these conditions day in, day out yet still seem unphased by it.

The 'typical' Peruvian working class people, always sporting miserable expressions, despite the fact that they are rich compared to their neighbors in the shanty towns.

A rareity.This little girl was smiling out of a car window whilst we were stuck in traffic and i had my camera in my hand photographing other things, i saw her and then stopped as my 'english' upbringing makes me cautious when photographing children. But as i hesitated the mother smiled at me and lifted her up closer to the window giving me reassurance that she wanted me to take a photo, this isnt about the photograph itself but more about the opposite attitudes of peruvian parents compared with parents in England. Peru could be said to be living in the past for so many reasons- this is one reason but in this case i think living in the past could be a good thing compared to our over-obsessive suspicious english view on photographing children.

Another woman sleeps in the market outside her shop

This lady didnt want me to take her photograph so put her head down, but i really like the result.

A traditional Jungle home in Iquitos.

This very special lady was sat across the road when i was out one day, i had paid a taxi driver to take me out to take some photographs as it was so dangerous to walk around with my camera and i saw her and asked him to stop the car. I crossed the road and actioned with my camera to ask for her permission to take a photograph, she smiled and nodded at me. I took a few photographs because i was really excited by her look and wanted to make sure i could get the perfect shot. This is one of 5 i edited.

A little child trapped- 'behind bars' in the village i lived in. When i walked past each day he was always there.

We were strongly advised not to photograph the police or soldiers whilst in Peru, but as usual i didnt listen and took the Photograph anyway with my excuse to my supervisor being that if you dont take risks you get no where in life, he didnt seem to impressed!

This photograph to me, reminds me of a particular issue, rather than what the photograph depicts. The man seemed to have some kind of special need or autism from watching him walk along, picking up bits of food off the floor. The men sat nearby playing cards on the street were laughing at him which i found really sad.

For me this highlighted the lack of education about special needs and learning difficulties; i had been to a special needs school and learned there that this was a little known subject in Peru.

This photograph is one i hold close to my heart. The man got onto the tiny combi bus i was on, and started to sob, no one reacted at all and left him to wallow in his own misery. My friend got up and gave him tissues as and attempt of affection and we had tears in our eyes seeing this personal display of emotion. I fought with my conscience for several minutes before photographing the man, the last thing i wanted was for him to see me, as he clearly had enough to worry about other than me with a camera in his face! So i used my zoom so that i could photograph from the back of the bus, using my coat as cover for my camera i took a few careful shots until i got the one i was happy with, all the while with butterflies in my stomach because i was so anxious to properly record what i was seeing. I wanted a photograph that would compell people to feel for him and his situation, which was almost certainly poverty, although may not have been the reason he was crying.

This little girl had been on the street with her mum earlier in the day, dancing for money and carrying bottles of water up and down for her mum. She was in a nearby cafe eating a plate of rice when i took this photograph.

A man was peering through the window in the cafe whilst we were eating, then when i raised my camera he would hide behind the shutter then move back into view again as if he was teasing me, he continued to do this  for so long that i managed to catch his face in the window.

A little girl i photographed in the Jungle, she was part of the Bora tribe who we visited and she was selling handmade jewellery that the tribe had made, this was their only source of income. They spoke very little spanish as they spoke a rare jungle dialect of the area.

After showing my presentation i received some positive feedback and developed a better idea of what i needed to do for the brief. From speaking to Richard i also decided that i definitely want to do an exhibition of my work. More information on this will be continued in my Work Based Learning posts.....