Possible Methods

I have been feeling somewhat lost within this project and finding it difficult to actually start. Focusing on so much research has really helped me though, it has persuaded my mind to think of different ideas and look at my subject from different perspectives. I am sure that I want to produce some sort of snap shot imagery and am not so much interested in the idea of images as constructed as Larry Sultan, however I would like to take a couple nice portraits, moreover I still need to produce a lot more research some of which needs to be on portraiture. Looking at Billingham’s work lead me to take a shining to the thought of using a disposable camera and still may buy one to try it out. The difficulty I am having in using a disposable camera would be the final presentation of my work. Would it be in the form of a book or an exhibition? Neither seem to work greatly just yet in my head, the fact that Billingham’s work looks so great with such mediocre quality relates to his subjects and how interesting they are on their own. Furthermore I think if his images were taken on some big expensive camera they wouldn’t be the same, because it’s almost as if the quality of the images further reflects the quality of their lifestyle, as patronising as that may sound. I’m frightened of the fact that if I capture images of my brother using a disposable camera they just won’t look right. However my thoughts tend to contradict in respect to the poor quality images perhaps relating to our student lifestyle and to the ‘family album’. My uncertainty has refrained me from producing work which essentially makes absolutely no sense what so ever and tomorrow I will be buying a disposable camera I will just snap away and see the results, if they work they work, if they don’t they don’t.

I have however also thought about taking the images using Polaroid film. This so far is my favourite idea, which is unsurprisingly the most expensive idea, its utterly hilarious how things always work out that way. I have bought myself a relatively cheap Polaroid camera in aid of starting this experiment. I bought a camera because the medium format camera available in stores is way too heavy which means I won’t be able to just move it around and take quick snaps as I please, it’s also too apparent and looks too expensive which is more likely to distract my subject from being himself. I have also bought some PX600 film, which has not yet been put into my camera because I haven’t got a clue how that goes in and I don’t plan on trying it out myself, I’ll get someone who knows what he/she’s doing to show me. The film I bought is black and white, I always say I don’t see the point in documenting images in black and white if it’s in aid of romanticising them because I don’t think there is any need, reality is in colour so I like capturing the reality. However Polaroid film costs and absolute bomb to be perfectly honest and going black and white made it slightly less unaffordable and because of that I’ve justified the whole black and white issue to myself, I’m not romanticising the images or trying to make them look more artistic it’s just an unaffordable medium. I will just have to see how the photographs turn out and whether or not I like them to be honest, it’s difficult to comment as of yet because I have no idea what they are going to look like. What I like about Polaroid is its association with family and friends, kind of like the relation you make when you look at pictures from a disposable camera. In addition to this I have also thought about the white boarded and being able to add text to my images similar to Glen Erler however much more concise because there isn’t that much space. I like the idea of jotting down little captions and titles to the images with a felt tip marker; it makes them more homely and fun. So far I imagine such images would be finally presented in an exhibition, however time will tell, in fact I don’t even know if I will be running with the Polaroid method, so far it’s just an idea but my favourite one as of yet, only the results will tell. I am conscious of just how bad the quality is going to be though, I am happy to have poorish quality images same way Billingham does, however I have  still have to see just how poor the quality may turn out, so fingers crossed.