49) Evaluation - 10/12/17

I think my final outcome meets my intentions because I have been able to show two different sides to happiness through my 2 different outputs – a zine and 4 A3 prints. The zine depicts my own happiness in my daily life and the happiness I find from the process of taking photos, and my prints show a more commercial side to happiness, with the selling point ‘do this and you will be happy’. I would also say this is the first major strength of my work. Another strength I would say is the quality of my prints, which I achieved through colour grading, soft-proofing, and other edits in Photoshop paired with choosing the right paper type to reflect your subject well (I went for pearl as I think this reflects the commercial nature to the images). One weakness of my work is the fact that while binding my zine I punched a small hole through some of the pages while trying to bind it, which I think can sometimes take the viewer away from the image they’re looking at. To improve on this next time, I need to slow my process down and line up my pages correctly for binding. Another weakness I would mention is some of the ink from my images has slightly transferred to other pages in the zine, making the work look a bit scruffy. Next time I need to thoroughly check all my pages have dried before binding. In terms of improving my studio prints I think I could print them A2 instead of A3 because they would be a lot more impactful, however the issue of price did not allow me to do this.

My project evolved quite a lot from first starting the project, for example I originally got the idea of focusing on happiness through my summer project work, where I started taking photographs of smiley faces I noticed in my daily life. It then moved onto me taking studio still life shots depicting a BBC Lifestyle Manifesto for happiness and collecting images on a 35mm point and shoot of things that made me happy and I enjoyed taking photographs of. I also tried other approaches such as taking portraits on the Mamiya Leaf of individuals in my life that make me happy, and I did various shoots of a collection of vintage sweets I have in the studio – because I feel sweets and chocolate is a subject that makes a wide variety of people happy. I decided to let go of these latter photoshoots and not include them in my final outcome because I don’t think they portray my happiness idea as strongly as the manifesto images and my 35mm work. This is because in terms of a conceptual approach I think the studio shots and film images are documenting two very different sides of happiness which are also familiar to so many people – commercial/self-help side to happiness and your own personal happiness.

One key moment in my research was finding the BBC Lifestyle Happiness Manifesto, because without this I would not have a subject to be shooting for my studio still life photographs. It introduced me into this world of self-help steps, and I was then able to respond to this idea in the playful and satirical way that I did. Another important piece of research that influenced me was ‘Sophie’s World’ by Jostein Gaarder, due to the commentary on different philosophers, some being happiness related. For instance, I picked out relevant quote saying, "The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder” I picked this out because I feel you need this in life to be happy and appreciate the good things around you. When applying this to my own photography I took photos of all the things that give me a sense of wonder and happiness in daily life.

My chosen approach of a zine and 4 prints was an appropriate method because I wanted to show two very different sides to happiness. On the one hand I wanted to show the commercial and advertised self-help side to happiness that industry has created through my glossy, clean studio shots with no imperfections. Then on the other hand I wanted to depict a more real side to happiness with my zine, displaying truth through not technically perfect images on 35mm film, and showing my opinion of what makes me happy. I also helped show this comparison by creating 4 inserts to go in my zine of my studio work, allowing the viewer to really compare these two different sides to happiness. I think with the balance of research I have around my idea and the number of photoshoots I have undertaken there is an appropriate balance between my concept and my technical approach.

One wider professional photographic context where my studio images sit is product shots because of their high standard of technique and the perfect nature of them. The genre of product shots is also displayed because they show objects against a clean background, and isolated from their usual context. A wider photographic context of the zine could be an article in a magazine such as the BJP, taking my images and accompanying them with text explaining the images as my own manifesto to happiness.

One key creative practitioner I was looking at was Jason Evans, and specifically his website ‘The Daily Nice’ - it inspired me a lot for my 35mm work. This is because he is more interested in the process of taking photographs and this is what brings him happiness, and I started to apply this in my own work. Another creative practitioner my work has familiarity with was Wolfgang Tillmans, and specifically the interview in his book ‘if one thing matters, everything matters’ interested me. I took a lot of helpful quotes which fed into my practice, for instance "I never underestimate the importance of the fleeting moment; potentially a good thing can happen at any time and only reveal its full relevance over the course of time". This quote has reminded me how spontaneous photography can be, and why I'm always carrying around my 35mm point and shoot. Sometimes the most fleeting moments can be the most important, and I want to be able to capture them and not miss it so I have the opportunity to then include it in my work if I want to.

I would be interested to publish my zine, and it’s something I’m looking to do on my website once I’ve created a shop. I could also find someone to publish it. When calculating an overall price I would account for printing and material costs, if someone was publishing I would also account for a cut for them, and then some profit too. This means I think I’d sell it for around £15. A photography book that has a similar style to mine is ‘All Quiet On The Home Front’ by Colin Pantall. Although compared to my zine it’s not exactly the same in terms of aesthetics, it shares a lot of the same ideas. For instance, the use of full bleed images, blank pages, the use of stitching to bind the pages, and the fact that it has inserts throughout the book. I have also experimented with inserts in my own work, printing off my studio images to slot anywhere within the zine. This creates more of a communication between the two different types of happiness, again reinforcing the idea of comparing the commercial side against the truthful side, also reflected through the difference in paper types (matte and gloss). I think the use of inserts could be an interesting trend within photo books and zines, because it’s the maker deciding to add something to compare with the work, not just having it as a stand-alone piece. I think this can change the meaning behind some images, especially with mine as I’m playing to the idea of comparison.

I think my work could be used in discussions at conferences about the psychology behind happiness, and this could be a place where other audiences are for my photographic work. For instance, when applying facts like “it is said that only 10% of our happiness is allocated to your circumstances - where you live, income, social status, age, whereas 40% is allocated to intentional activity, what you choose to do that makes you happy. Then the remaining 50% is a genetic set-point/range for each person, which we adjust back to in good and bad situations” (taken from a previous blog post – see here) you can apply it to my photographs and take away a different meaning from them. For example, the quoted fact could suggest that you find more happiness from the zine images because it’s about the intention of the process, whereas in the studio prints you’re relying on a self-help guide to direct your happiness by ‘treating yourself’ or ‘exercising more’ (steps I depicted in the happiness manifesto).

This project in it’s origin stemmed from an Instagram account documenting smiley faces, so I do regularly post projects on this platform. However, since starting this new project on happiness itself I have held back from posting work just because I want to feel like I’ve reached a sufficient end point so I can post it all together. After submitting the project I’ll feel like I can start releasing the work on Instagram, as well as on my website. In terms of awards and competitions I am yet to enter any work, but it’s definitely something I want to do more, and I need to research into them.

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