Evaluation
Remember When is a project that tries to capture a strong sense of nostalgia between old friends and place in which we used to spend a lot of time when younger. The body of work shows individuals revisiting specific places within the woodland where the memories were made and coming to realising how Highwoods Country Park has changed as well as they have themselves.
When originally trying to come up with my actual project at first I struggled to knuckle down on one specific topic as there were many different styles of photography I could choose to produce. From here, I began looking at practitioners I had an interest in such as Kyle Thompson and Ben Zank, who both use surrealism photography to create conceptual work. I attempted with using woodland area’s and fast shutter speed's to create awkward looking images however, I did not like the outcome of the images. Plus, I struggled to create a narrative behind the images I had been taking. It then came to my attention that I had been going back to the same place, Highwoods Country Park, to create the images and as to maybe I should re-explore the area as I remembered having memories there when I was younger. I continued with this and looked at photographers based around landscape and nature photography such as Paul Gaffney and Joel Sternfield and how they managed to make a place actually appear as something with a deeper concept behind it. I wanted to replicate a nostalgic atmosphere for myself by going back to old places within the woods and how change has occurred there. I was also shooting on medium format colour film iso 400 with a hasselblad at this point as I wanted to technically challenge myself and take more precision when shooting.
On one of my shoots however, I bumped into an old friend and decided to take a shot of him within the woods, Niall, and after showing my peers and tutor the portrait, it became clear that the portrait was stronger than my landscape shots of the woods itself. From here I chose to look at photographers who photographed urban landscape’s and included individuals within the shots, showing a connection between person and nature. Photographers like Alec Soth and Linda Brownlee were strong influencers in this aspect of my project. Still continuing with medium format, I did shoots with 5 old friends individually within the woods and visiting places within the woods we once experiences those memories. I tried to photograph them looking natural and casual within the landscape, portraying they felt comfortable there and that sense of nostalgia exists.
After I had done all the shoots regarding my childhood friends, I had to decide on what images I personally thought would replicate this specific feeling if I hung and framed them upon the wall. I eventually chose, and asked peers for their opinions which helped me make my decision altogether for my final prints in which I framed in brown wooden frames that I am going to hang in a square formation. I also printed off some other images from my edit of the subjects and have placed them in a folder I will put underneath which will allow people to see the other images and as to why I chose the certain images I did.
Throughout this project I think one of my biggest downfalls was coming up with my topic to shoot slightly later than I should have. If I had thought it up quicker, I would have been able to shoot more friends and have a better selection of images to choose from for my finals. Another downfall I would say is at the start of the project, my technical skills regarding using the Hasselblad and film as there were a few images that were not correctly exposed or had not been focused properly. After I encountered this issue, I went away and practised and feel that I am a lot more comfortable with shooting on medium format now than I had been before.
Another issue encountered when framing was the fact that because I chose a wooden frame, there was alot more dust that kept getting inside of the glass frame which I found a struggle because regardless of how many times I cleaned it, it would still manage to get dust within it. If I was to do it again, I would have brought a different type of frame also. I am happy with my images on the whole though, I personally feel this project replicates me as a person and I enjoyed producing this work and would like to possibly continue with it on a bigger scale next year possibly.












