Elizabeth Chandler - Assignment rationale

Elizabeth Chandler - Assignment rationale 

BA(HONS) Photography

Level 4

Module – Directions within photographic communication

Upon completion of this assignment I wish to evaluate my productivity and final outcome via this rationale. I will discuss the development of my project as well as justifying my choices for my photographic work and book layout, exploring the appropriateness of each of my decisions.

To give a brief overview of the assignment I will explain my project in terms of it’s social context and intent.

This project has been re-visited from a previous assignment completed as part of study on this course. The body of work was aimed at highlighting the effects of the British binge drinking culture; an attempt to expose the nocturnal lifestyles of today’s younger generations. A side of youth culture most are often ignorant to. 

My aim was to create a series of images, which visually explored spouts of violence, criminal damage and public presentation, In addition the ways in which such actions are often unacceptable and wouldn’t necessarily occur so frequently during daylight hours without the presence of alcohol and other intoxicating substances.

There is a stark contrast between the comical images, which present the idea of the urban playground and show people coming alive at nighttime when they have escaped their formal lifestyle. Much like the theory of the habitus discussed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. And the gritty displays of vulnerability. Although I focused mainly on presenting the grotesque elements of the club scene I intentionally included a few select lighthearted images to break up the flow of the book and ensure the viewers expectations weren’t constantly met.

The combination of unseen secret moments which I captured clandestinely and the more apparent common events produce a true reflection of the scenes that occur almost every weekend in almost every city.

I adhered to snap shot aesthetic, in order to ensure a feeling of spontaneity. Although some images have much more clarity and sharpness than others I like the combination of the two together. The grain and motion blur was appropriate for some of the photographs and reflects a feeling of drunkenness, which the viewer can relate to as the book progresses and the context becomes more fluent.

I feel in some examples, had the images have been too formally constructed; the sense of impulse could potentially have been diminished, and the photographs could have began to look like a less truthful depiction of the scene in front of the camera. I experimented with many different ways of capturing my photographs and in the end made the decision that visually the two aesthetics I chose complimented one another best. 

In terms of the choice to use colour images, again this decision wasn’t made without experimenting and careful consideration. After looking at my images in black and white and referring back to research material in the field of the snapshot aesthetic such as Billingham, Day and Goldin I decided that colour was an important element of my images and lightened the sense of nighttime. The neon lights and unnatural glow of colour on my subjects also creates a visual variety dependent on the available light sources. Some images have a tungsten glow whereas others have a florescent aura. In all cases this was achieved by incorrectly setting my white balance to intensify the colour glow.

In regards to the choices I made for my actual book design and layout itself. I went with a small square book (180mm by 180mm)

I knew from the start I would utilise a small size as to ensure the book was engaging and required the viewer to really interact with the content.

I chose to have a unevenly weighted balance of content across the two pages, with one page consisting of what I initially intended to be a full bleed print of a photograph to give the impression of the content almost spilling off the page. In the construction stage I decided to alter this and have the images centered around a thick black border as not only was it visually more appealing, but it also seemed to be more consistent on each page.

The un evenly weighted content makes viewing the pages feel a bit unbalanced which i think reflects the mood of the images.

I placed 3 or 4 images alternately down the left hand side of the left page to give the effect on a continuous time line flowing through the book. On some pages I flipped the layout and had just one large image with the time in large font. A reversal of the more frequent layout, which also features the time running vertically along the left. This adds variety and ensures the layout is consistent but not predictable. 

The colour of the time starts as full black and decreases to a 5% tint as the book develops as to present the idea of time fading away. In addition I hope that it will require a sub conscious effort of the viewer to read.

The text, which occurs on each page, begins to blur and reaches a 6.0% blur, which I applied in Photoshop. At it’s most intense the blur still doesn’t make the text illegible yet means more time will be required to read the passage.

The text has been modified and adapted and is the opening passage from a book called Inside Clubbing In which the author Phil Jackson recalls his own personal account of a night clubbing.

The passage is somewhat of a glorification of clubbing. I have utilised this to create juxtapose between the text and images and evoke a powerful reaction from the viewer. I think the combination plays on the whole idea of good nights turning bad. Although much of the text and the structure of the passage has been taken from the book I have adapted it and modernised it. I wanted the passage to be slightly abstract and appropriate to my photographs. 

In addition, I have also included a design page at the front of my book, which follows the style of the rest of the book in terms of the page layout, colour scheme and font family used. 

Throughout the duration of this assignment I have been taking screen prints of twitter and facebook updates about being drunk/hung-over or excited to go out clubbing, this text has formed the content of this page.

I think it works well as a kind of abstract introduction to the book as it sets the scene and mood for the rest of the pages that follow without giving away too much detail. The layout of the page means that the reader can really engage with the text and visually explore through their own self directed path, this is especially useful as the title could be considered a little vague initially. Despite this i think the relevance of the title becomes extremely significant to those who understand the reference after they view the images and experience the narrative of a night out through images and text.