Assignment 1, revised selection.

Having taking the time to reflect further on my tutors remarks and rebooking through the images I am revising my final selection.  The reasons I didn’t originally submit these to begin with were:

1. Rushing:  Up until recently I felt so much pressure in submitting my work to someone else that I postponed the final selection as long as I could.  I also believed that as a photographer I was about making photographs and that if I wasn’t out making them then I wasn’t improving or I was wasting time.  In the two years (!) since completing this piece I have changed a lot.  I realise that the final edit and selection is a project in itself.  I no longer worry about someone else looking at the work so long as I have given this stage the attention that it needs, I examine each image now, I play around looking  at the selection as a whole and at each image individually too for technical problems etc.  I read, I take my time and then I submit what I am happy with, what to my eyes represents my interpretation of the brief and what looks and feels right as a set.  As long as I have done this if I receive any feedback questioning my selection or work, and I still do, then I take it as a chance to learn something technically or whatever or else I listen to the criticism and review my reasons for the selection and if I decide that it goes forward as it is then I can lay out my thinking for that and be happy that I have thought about it.
2. Technical issues:  A lot of these images were shot on my phone, I was afraid to put them forward.  I now realise that while they won’t be ever blown up large they can still work at a smaller size.  It is the message, the story that matters rather than the type writer the books were written on.
3. Being too literal:  I had a preconception on what the ‘day’ was going to look like.  I was afraid to trust myself.  Looking back over these now there is a good set of images here, sure some of them are not technically perfect, they were taken on the phone but they tell a story.  I tried to shoe horn the images into that format.  Looking over the shots now I can see that there is a natural flow in these images and I have assembled my day from the images not the other way round.  The day in question follows him as he is being released from hospital.  I recognise there may be some gaps in the story but its a lot better than the original set I submitted.

 

So Here is my revised final set:

 

A Day in The Life.

 

Context:  In 2012 my Dad had a stroke.  To say that it was a shock is a total understatement.  Luckily for us all it was a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) and he was left confused and shaken.  He had speech and memory issues but nothing permanent.  In time his speech returned fully and his memory is good again.  He has changed though, there is no doubt about that.  One aspect of his personality that has changed is that he seems happier, its like a piece of the hard drive where some of the bad experiences were stored has been lost or else the wiring has been changed so that it doesn’t affect him the same way.  This set of images cover a day in hospital, the day he is being discharged and goes home.

This is my opener, it sets the scene, the text lets the viewer know that we are talking about two subjects – my Dad and his health.

 

Hospital means boredom, Dad has always been busy and he doesn’t know what to do with so much time on his hands.

Dad lives alone in Wexford.  The phone is his link to the rest of us.  In the time I spent with him he received many calls from his friends and family every day.

 

Crosswords help fill the time and help with rewiring the brain’s neural pathways.

Healed.

This wasn’t in either the last revision or the original.  The word healed is very prominent here and it fits very well.

There are a lot of changes in his life after the stroke.  He has to get familiar with new medication and new routines.  Its a lot to take in and he is still a bit overwhelmed.

Today he is being discharged from hospital.  We wait and wait to fill out forms and collect paper work.

There are forms to be signed, prescriptions to collect and appointments to be made.

Once we are released we head to the pharmacy to collect the new medication.

His memory is not what it was so he gets confused and can’t remember what to take or even if he’s taken it.  Keeping track & notes becomes essential.

But for now it’s time to enjoy being free again.

He can still enjoy his whiskey but he has to cut down – hence the egg cup.

For now at least life goes on and its good to have a second chance.

Reflecting/ revising Assignment 1.

It is interesting now as I prepare for my assessment to look back with the benefit of time on the earlier assignment and to see how different I feel now to how I felt then in terms of the assignment itself but also in terms of the images and my approach.  A lot has changed in my work which is more obvious when I compare this assignment to a later one such as assignment 5.  I remember back to assignment 1 and feeling very unsure as to how to assemble a set and I constantly fought with the urge to pick what I would consider to be my best image even if it looked out of place in the set.  Now I can see better the flow that must exist within a series and how the images must have a continuity.  I can also see much clearer when I am shooting and what looks right in an image and what doesn’t.  I guess one thing that has changed is that 2 years ago if I took an image that didn’t look right I would spend time trying to figure out why instead of moving round my subject looking for one that did look right.  

I feel now with the benefit of time that I need first of all to show full set of contact sheets that I took for this assignment and perhaps explain the context as to why I was trying some of the techniques at the time.  I will upload the contact sheets to dropbox and add link to my assessment submission.  Looking back now I can see I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was trying to portray.  For intense I shot an entire sequence of shots of my father while he was in hospital that could have served as this assignment but I think I felt this was too easy.

For instance here is one possible alternative:  Option 1:  Discharge day.

The context is my Dad’s hospitalisation following his stroke, he is an active man and has an aversion to doctors and hates being cooped up.

Labeled.

 

 

  

Hospital meant sitting around, filling time.

He lives alone in Wexford so the family stay in touch by phone, friends and family call to see how he is.  

There’s not much to do but Dad likes the crossword so we do it together, it helps with his ever improving language skills.

There are a lot of new things to think about including new medication.

Today though is discharge day and we wait for discharge. 

We get forms signed, prescriptions filled and appointments made.

We head to the pharmacy to collect his new pills.

After his stroke memory is a challenge and Dad has to make notes to remember his instructions and also keep his pills in a dispenser so he can remember to take them.

But on the whole things are not too bad, its good be out of hospital and independent again.

And while he might have to cut down he can still enjoy a drop of his favourite poison.

Life goes on!  The end.

 

I realise now that I actually have two different narratives here in the set of images that I took at the time.  One is as above and focusses on his illness and the aspects of his life that are affected and the other need not make any mention of it at all.

Option 2:  My Dad:  A day in the life.

Context.  

My dad is 70.  He is active and fit, fiercely independent and he lives alone in county Wexford, a rural part of Ireland.  He retired 15 years ago but fills his days with activity.  He lives on a small private caravan park in the only house there.  Although he doesn’t get paid for it he is basically busily employed like a sort of voluntary grounds man.

Breakfast time.  My Dad is a creature of habit.  Each morning the table is laid the same way with the same things.

He lives alone so the telephone is a vital link to the family.

As is the internet.

He has to keep himself busy and occupied and spends his days cutting the grass and working around the caravan park he lives on.

It is autumn so at the moment an obsession of his is collecting fire wood.

Safety would not be his top priority and despite the rest of his family asking him repeatedly to wear proper safety equipment he never does.  

But he is fit for a man of 70!

He never stops.  (Here I have tried to show his vigour by using movement blur)

Not a bad days work!

Dinner time.

The day to day ritual is scared.

The End.

 

In conclusion:  An assignment like a day in the life is an intimate piece.  It needs lots of shots of the subject prominent in the frame.  The viewer or reader needs to be shown clearly and unambiguously what or who the subject is.