When looking at images that are representative of me in respect of social media presence, they are, in the main oblique to the standard fare that usually adorns profile images. I generally shy away from selfies per se and if people ask me to join in a group shot it’s either reluctantly or an adamant ‘NO’. There’s a reason I like to be behind the lens rather than in front of it – it gives me a chance to hide. I don’t specifically think it’s through lack of ego – I have one just the same as anyone else and have always worked in male only environments where big egos abound, it’s just that I might be a little too self-aware, a hang up from my youth perhaps. I started taking photographs in my teens and often repeated the mantra “I prefer to be this side”, I guess it stuck in some psychological guise. So, it was with a great deal of trepidation that I started the exercises and the thinking for this assignment.
Sometimes I get a flood of ideas around a project, sometimes it’s just one, this time though, I couldn’t think of anything. Instead I procrastinated. So, it was I embarked on my diary to gain some insight into my persona with a view to make a reflective set of images that grasped my own identity. Accordingly Bate states ‘a photographic portrait may offer an image of someone that the viewer can identify with’ (Bate, 2016, 102). This sounded relatively attainable, but, I like and am interested in and engage with many things, so I had to identify which specific facet of my life to pursue.
Whilst making entries into my diary I germinated some initial ideas for the project. The first being around the sports I enjoy. I am practitioner of a variety of different sports all of which could be grouped into the heading of extreme or outdoors. As with a lot of sports, the process of being involved in them can often result in injuries and that is quite a true to the sports I participate in; mountain biking, martial arts, surfing and occasionally climbing. Perhaps I could base my project around injuries sustained through the practice of my sports and as a an aside it could be contemplative of masculinity. Thinking of putting this idea into practice required a key component that I don’t have access to, that of a theatrical make up artist. Some of the historic injuries I’ve collected over the years include, broken bones, severe cuts and more commonly bruising, all of which aren’t easily replicated unless you have the required skill sets. Another thing that put me off the idea, especially in relation to masculinity and sport is that it is an outdated notion and therefore lacks weight of argument, gender representation has advanced, although there are some sports that still need dragging out of the dark ages, thankfully not the sports that I enjoy. So, I put this initial idea on the backburner for now, although it’s an interesting notion I’d like to come back to.
My diary progressed and although it was a slog to complete at times I managed to write a day for two weeks, no mean feat!
On reflecting over the entries, I was aghast to see that the main preoccupation regarded work and my often dissatisfaction with it, probably exaggerated by the mid-winter blues. For over thirty years my line of work has exacted a heavy physical toll from my body and I’m reaching the stage now where I am looking at either a complete change in working practice or retreating to a warmer, less exacting office-based environment. My line of work – I am a plumber and I face the daily routine of slowly warming up my joints when getting out of bed to be able to physically function without too much pain. I now knew which subject with relation to self that I wanted to develop, I just had to find a way of conveyance.
My initial idea was to create images relating to work practice. The advent of smart phones has been hugely beneficial as an aide memoire and also to show clients of correct procedure in unattainable places – well to them anyway. I am always taking images, often lit with flash so as to prepare for future work and have a phone full of current and historic references. This idea would draw upon Nigel Shafran’s Washing Up series of images and therefore would imply the notion of the still life as insight to workplace routine, the mundane becoming the view of another world. I also like the idea of using flash to encompass a snapshot aesthetic. As Bate states ‘Like portraits, still life pictures combine several elements together, the subject (the object), it’s background location, the “expression” of the object (achieved through lighting, camera angle and lens) and other props that give it a context…’, he further says ‘The two levels of meaning, informational and symbolic, are combined in an instantaneous reading of the image’, (Bate, 2016,151). This could be a good avenue to approach with revealing insight to my identity, as even if the viewer doesn’t understand the artefact in question, they can at least identify the fact that they are related to my line of work.
As I carried on with my daily routines I would sometimes ask clients, especially those that I knew well or had good working relationships with to make an image of me with my phone as another form of recorded practice. At this time, I was unsure of where I wanted to be with my final outcome, so decided to catalogue as many different aspects or viewpoints relating to me and my job. On top of this I was keeping a further pictorial record of my trace within my working day with a view of further developing insights for the un-initiated, sometimes mundane, sometimes obscure. Although not completely sure of where to take this assignment to develop its conclusion. I am now gathering images in three separate groupings; snapshot still life, objects associated with workplace and partial body images. Maybe I’ll amalgamate all three. I still have an exercise and more research to complete, but at last I think I’m getting there.
Bibliography
Nigelshafran.com. (2020). Washing-up 2000 [2000] : Nigel Shafran. [online] Available at: http://nigelshafran.com/category/washing-up-2000-2000/page/7/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2020].
BATE, D. (2016). PHOTOGRAPHY. [S.l.]: BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS.
Context and Narrative 