Evaluation
Page, Wall, Screen
10.5.20
Project Evaluation
51MAG003W Photography for Wall, Paige Screen.
Jacqueline Mulvaney
Electronic link and password [email protected] 36RoseS62
Project Title Collections! Treasure or Junk?
The name for this book reflects the subject, to make an introduction to what the book is exploring. There is a fine line between collecting and hording, collections being treasure and hording being junk. However, who am I to define someone’s collection of items, so I have left it as a question. And that phrase ‘one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure’ come into play here. What one person considers clutter another considers collectable.
Subject
The subject of my project is things people collect: What is collectable? What is junk? Does collecting lead into hording? Around a third of people in the UK admit to having a collection of some kind, with the variety of collections as vast as the number of collectors, anything from the traditional stamp collections to football memorabilia to action figures, people can and do collect anything. The reasons behind the collection are also very interesting, I have learnt a lot, especially as I live with a collector/hoarder. The collections become an extension of a person’s identity. There are many psychological reasons behind the theory of collecting, but of course you could just be born with a collector’s mentality. I have investigated some of the theories.
Visual Research
Much of my visual research was done online, I looked at many of the theories behind collecting and hoarding. I also looked at various photographers who have had projects on collections. I was especially interested in the artists that collect rubbish that have been found on coastlines (Stuart Haygarth, Barry Rosental), they put it altogether to take interesting images that raises awareness of what the world throws away. Or Tom Kiefer who worked on the border control and saw the vast number of items that were either seized or thrown away, he rescued them and photographed them against bright colored background, the images were exhibited to raise questions and awareness. There were many artists that I looked at to take inspiration from. I felt inspired to think more about this subject and maybe it’s something that I could move onto looking at other ways to think about photographing different types of collections.
Aims, Objectives, Concepts
Humans are unique in the way we can collect things purely for the pleasure and satisfaction of owning them. The definition of a collection at its simplest level is a group of things gathered together. To attempt to understand collecting I had to recognise what a collection is. I needed to look at what is collected, to discover exactly what is outlined as ‘a collection’? Would shoes and music, which are used, be considered as a collection or just something that is valued such as art. To think about collecting in the first example, it would make everyone in the more affluent world a ‘collector’. The monetary value of the objects collected are not always important, as the collections tend to be about emotion and not money. The satisfaction comes from the seeking out and the owning of the collection.
The other side of collecting is that it can then turn into hoarding, and sometimes does, it is important to identify what it is that you are doing. What I really wanted to explore is how the collection starts, and I believe that often we fall into collecting by accident. There are also many psychological reasons behind the reasons for collecting and I investigated many of them. However, the aim for my book was to demonstrate that you may be surprised how many collections you have around your home, there could be more than you thought.
Production
I approached the presentation of the book by taking an image of one of the items and then taking an image of the it included as a collection. I also showed how the objects are found around the house. I placed these in the book before the collections to make the viewer think about the objects. Some are displayed lovingly as collections to be looked at and enjoyed, yet many are scattered around the house in no order at all. This was to demonstrate that we may have collections that we are not always aware of, and when put together can provide a decent show of dedication to the collection. This was to demonstrate what we could be doing, and how we need to think about our things. My book would be aimed at the stocking filler gift market, where someone who would normally buy a collector something towards their collection, they may buy this book to make the collector aware of what their collection could lead to. I do not want to discourage people from enjoying their hobby, but to be more aware of the where it could go, and to encourage them to enjoy their past time in a more productive way.
Evaluation
I am happy with the concept of my book, and the way it is presented. I feel that it expresses the message that I wanted to convey. However, there were challenges that I experienced, due to the lockdown conditions that we are in. This was not the first subject for my book, I had already done a lot of work on my first subject which had to be abandoned, this meant I had lost a lot of time. With no access to university equipment, tutors or technicians, I did not have support, tuition or experience that was required to produce a book. My shooting conditions were not ideal, I did not have the time, lighting and space that was required to be able to get the perfect product images that I would have liked. I would have preferred to be able to shoot the images in a studio with space, perfect lighting and backdrops, I made the best of what was available to me. The final production of the book is also not how I would have liked to execute it. I would have liked to have been able to design the book using the InDesign program in photoshop, however, this was not available to me, so again I used what was available to me and used the Blurb program. This was not ideal as it was of a lower resolution when turned into a PDF, nether the less I was able to portray what I intended to achieve, in the conditions and time that I had, just not in the professional manner that I would have liked to do. Overall, although not perfect, I think I was able to produce a book that portrays what I intended to do, and maybe in the future I could return to.
