Evaluation

I have produced 15 final images of sign boards that have been blurred out and put text on. They tell a story about a girl that is thinking about her relationship with someone she loved. Overall I think I have done quite well to do so much research and produce those 15 images in a month time. 

I am quite happy with them and I think they do tell a good narrative that can be understood by people easily. To confirm that I have also asked a few people to look at my work and tell me what they think about it and what they think I have tried to show in my photographs. I also think that my idea fits perfectly with the theme time and memory as well as everything that is coming up on the boards are actual memories of the girl that I have interviewed to produce this work. 

I like how I have taken off the colourful-ness of the images by saturating them because they fit so much better with the story. I did try out other effects as well before but I thought, this is the one that fit best with the narrative.

Another thing that I like about the final images is that smudge tool that I have used to get rid if the existing text on the boards. First I tried to blur the text but then it did not really give me the feeling that someone is imagining whatever is being written on the text. This is why I started to try out different things with the texts and smudged it. I am really happy with the results if the smudge. It gives the perfect sense to me that something is being dreamt about or something is not fitting right in the images because obviously no one would ever see such a boards on the roads. 

I think my images would make viewers look twice at them and make them think what is actually happening in the photographs. Another reason for that is also because there is text on them. I personally, when I see short quotes or text in images I do ready it before I move on to seeing other stuff. And than short quotes do always work better than long texts written on a board or photographs.

The thing that I would do if I had more time is definitely go out for more shoots. I had only a month to do all the research and take the photographs which is why I was not able to do as many shoots as I would nor ally do for a project like that. But even with this negative point I am still very happy with my end results. 

I usually struggle quite a lot to think of an idea but this time I have come up with this idea quite fast because I had already been looking at a lot of existing work around. This has also resulted in me actually enjoying the work that I have produced because I knew exactly what I was doing. 

Researching has also helped me a lot moving on with this project. I have done quite a lot of research including for the text that I wanted to write on the boards. I did not want to copy anything from the Internet which is why I decided to write it myself. I looked at what the girl had told me about her story and tried putting myself into her shoes and thought how she'd be feeling when she is in a long drive. The quotes that I came up with are quite short and catchy which I am again happy about. 

Overall, I am really happy with my work and think I have done quite well considering the fact that I only had a month to complete this project. I did a lot of research and came up with 15 well presented final images.

Proposal

As I travel a lot I have decided to base this project on something that could be shot on the road. The reason for that is that I have personally got a lot of memories related to travelling and being in the road. After thinking how I could use my 'being on a road' for my project related to time and memory, I decided to do a narrative. 

I really like images that tell stories so I will be asking random people about their good and bad memories. It will give me a better idea of what I could shoot for this particular project, 

I decided to carry on my theme of dreams/memories. I will be doing this through photographing different sign boards wherever I go during the time of the project. I don't want the main aspect of the photograph to be the sign boards but all the images will have a signboard somehow.

The feeling of my images is sad because the story that I have decided to show in my images is not a very happy story. It is about a girl that was in a relationship with a guy that did not end how she wanted it to. 

It is very important for me to give the audience a sense of sadness I. My images. I do not want them to be too colourful because the story is obviously nothing to be happy about. This is the reason why I want to try out different effects such as the low saturation or even turning the images into black and white and see what I come up with. My work might give another feeling to others people because of maybe where they've been shot or where the sign boards are leading to. It can also make people feel different because they might have felt or experienced the same things in life. It will relate to what the viewer is thinking, doing that time or maybe with the past.

I will be expressing the feelings of the girl with those sign boards by adding text on them. I will get rid of the actual text on the birds and add a few quotes that will tell the whole story to the audience of what the person is going through and how it's feeling.

They will be related to time and memory because obviously they will be telling about the girl's memories with her special person. I will be editing them in a way that they look a bit dreamy. I will check what fits best with them according to the feel of the image. 

I want to blur the image in a way that it would be clear that it is not something that is actually happening but something is being imagined. I will try out different effects and put them on my blog and see what works best with my idea. 

I have researched many photographs that helped me so much to produce my own work. I did not have a particular photographer that I have followed or tried to copy but I have already looked at many imaged where photographers have shot sign boards and made their work look so interesting in different ways. One particular website that is really helping me is one that has all the famous good looking roads. It showed me different ways how I could make roads look so interesting and pleasant to look at. 

I will still be doing a lot more research including photographs of roads, sign boards, quotes that I could use, how I could add feeling into my images and so on. 

Another page that really interest me and inspired me to do this project is one on Instagram called humans of New York. It is about someone that goes around the city and takes images of random people and asks them some good or bad memory about their lives. It is so interesting to know how you could get so much interesting stuff from people just by going around and asking them. This was the main reason why I chose to base this project on someone else rather than myself. 

I will be producing a total of 15 images. I will be presenting them neatly in a photo box and I will make sure that they look professional. I will also add the screen shots of the book that I would make if I was going to publish it on blurb. I have one month to complete this reassessment work which means that I will have to make sure that I manage my time well and get all the work done on time. I will do a lot of research between the shoots that I will be doing for this project. I will allow at least a week to do all the editing and printing in order to get all my work ready on time.

Artist statement

My work tells a story about a girl's relationship with her loved one that did not go as she wanted it to be. It is a series of 15 images and tells a story through text on sign boards. It represents a journey if the girl and her thinking about what is being said on the boards.

My final 15 images

Following are my final images. I have put them in order and colour corrected them. I am very happy with my results and think I did quite well in the given deadline. I will also describe below on a few images why I have chosen what picture for what text. I have not randomly chosen any text for any picture.

I chose to put the text 'You and me' and 'Me and you' on the boards that were just partly photographed because I looked at it as they were broken and that is what it is meant in the story/picture as well.

I wanted a nice view for this text to represent the 'fairytale' part of the text which is the reason why I have chosen this text for this image.

I chose this sign for the 'nightmare' because it has some kind of arrow to it that's been smudged and it says to me that it could go forward but it did not.

Again here a good trees view because beautiful nights are something to be happy about.

I have chosen to have loads of houses behind this one because of the word 'everywhere' in the text as in the person feels like there is hate everywhere.

This looked like a long way to me that will stay behind which is why I chose to put 'Love disappeared' with this picture.

I chose 'You were close for this image because the green lights next to the arrow look very close to the board in the picture but they are in fact really far.

This image gave me a feeling of being very far from somewhere because I can see an arrow but I cannot see any road or way that I am headed to.

A broken board for this one because things change and break and do not stay the same anymore. 

'My heart turned empty' is written as something very sad which is why I chose this picture and I have purposely not cropped out the red lights because the arrow is pointing in that direction.

This is one of the locations that I thought fit quite well with being alone and upset because you cannot see anyone around or anything. There is only a building in the background that is still being built and just empty roads.

This picture was chosen for 'Memories were left behind' because the car was going really fast which is visible in the picture as well and it gives a feeling of someone going forward and leaving everything behind which is exactly what is being described in the photograph.

Screenshots of final edited images

Below are a few screenshots of when I was editing my final images. I have not taken screen shots of every single image that I have done because I have pretty much used the same procedure for every single image that I have edited.

My images with text ..

After that I knew how I wanted my images to look like, I have started to put text on them. I am really happy with the results and love how that text colour blends into the boards. They look exactly how I wanted them to be. I have also put all of them in the right order.

My short sentences ..

I have interviewed the same girl again and try to feel like what she might be feeling right now and came up with the following sentences that I will be using in my photographs. There are 15 sentences as I will have 15 final images for this project.

1. You and me..
2. Me and you..
3. Started off as a fairytale..
4. Ended like a nightmare..
5. The beautiful nights..
6. Turned into endless fights..
7. Hatred everywhere..
8. Love disappeared..
9. You were so close..
10. Yet so far..
11. Things changed..
12. Life was different..
13. Alone and upset..
14. My heart turned empty..
15. Memories were left behind.

I am quite happy with what I have written above as I think it sums the whole story up and the sentences are quite short and powerful. I think they will fit on the boards perfectly as well and to make sure that they summed up as a story I have asked a few people to read it once and tell me what they think about it. My response was positive therefore I have left it as it is.