MEDI 111 (Black and White Photography)

Ok so the photo project isn’t going to badly, it could be going better but due to technical issues such as an entire film not developing and the dry dark room not working it’s not been as smooth as I would have liked.  So we shall start with the film that didn’t develop, it could have been for any reason that it didn’t however  I do think it may have been a small error camera side as opposed to actually developing the film. For that film I had a lot of good ideas and would have gotten a lot of good shots.

The Ideas: Basically I was sitting drinking tea (as I often do) when I noticed my ‘pet skull’ Marvin sitting on my desk. He was a Halloween decoration that I brought a few years back now and is just so full of character that he has never really been put away, he is also a firm favourite with my friends and frankly you need a skull on your desk in case the urge to quote Shakespeare takes you!  So anyway I had the idea to take Marv out and have a photo shoot with him, placing him in trees and on pavements as sort of an account of his wild adventures in Plymouth. Sadly only one of these photos was on the reel that developed. The print came out really well in my opinion too. 
Idea two came to me in a very odd way. I already have the print of the ‘tomb’ that I simply adore because of its ambiguity and a song went through my head all day during the shoot. It’s called ‘Caldron Born’ by Damh the Bard and the main line that was going through my head all day was “Hear the call of our ancestors of blood and bone, of womb and tomb and standing stone” I already had the shots of the ‘tomb’ and there were plenty of nice ‘standing stones’ in Plymouth that I would have had really nice shots of if they had of developed. The main thing I wondered about was what I could use for the ‘womb’ of the piece. It was at that exact time that my pregnant friend just happened to bump into me! What better way to showcase a womb than a pregnant belly? She agreed to let me take pictures and it’s a huge shame that the film didn’t develop because she would have loved some prints for herself. I’m not to heartbroken I couldn’t go with this idea though since it’s always a reserve and I’m not entirely sure it fits the brief.

Main Idea now: I have some nice and fairly nature based pictures of Plymouth. I have decided to follow the original take on the brief and just make it about the personal way that I view and experience Plymouth. This obviously includes some of my prior ideas of mysticism, spirituality and ambiguity because that is the way I perceive things and part of what makes me who I am, also included is contrast between manmade and the natural world because that’s something I consider important.

Technical side of things: It’s really soul destroying when films don’t develop so that has been a massive down point for me. However seeing my prints turn out fine has been a huge thrill. Especially so in the wet dark room because no one has shown us how to use it really, I’m proud that I have been able to print in there and using it has been immensely fun! Seeing the prints show up after you have exposed them is just so incredibly satisfying and although it’s a very lengthy process it’s well worth it to see your prints appear like magic on the paper.