3) Xmas Task for Creative Interactions - 30/1/18

1. A 500 to 600-word proposal, outlining your subject, initial conceptual/creative response and research strategy. My subject of choice for this Creative Interactions module is to focus on a group of people living in Easton by Greenbank Cemetery known as van dwellers. These people have not ended up living here by choice, but because they have been priced out of the local housing line, meaning they cannot afford to pay rent or for a mortgage on a house. I want to photograph these people and their homes to make people more aware of this problem, and to make viewers realise how lucky they are to have a roof over their head. I want to capture the pros and the cons of having to live this way, and the kindness and community shown by these people living in Easton. I also want to challenge the current standing opinion that these people are causing trouble in the area due to issues such as leaving rubbish, making noise etc, because many of these claims made against these individuals are false and caused by people wanting to give them a bad name, or because they want them moved on. I intend to document this subject of interest by taking portraits of the residents living by Greenbank Cemetery as well as potentially interior shots of their homes, and pictures of the environment surrounding their homes. I also thought I could potentially look at this housing problem from the perspective of people living in homes next to these van dwellers, who see these people as a problem and think they should be moved on. So I may also take pictures of these people too, if they’re happy to be a part of the project. I want to shoot the project on a medium format camera, starting out by using the Hasselblad. I also want to experiment with the Mamiya RZ 67, to try out a rectangular format as well as the square format of the Hasselblad. I will be shooting with colour film for this project because I want to present the realness of this way of living, also to capture the quirky, colourful homes these people live in which they have made their own. To minimise any risk of losing photographs from the analogue process I’ll also be shooting with my digital camera to have other copies of images and for ease if lighting conditions prove to cause difficulty (for instance if the inside of their homes are dark). My research strategy for this project is to collect articles from the internet which already addresses the issue, as well as interviewing the residents living in vans and houses in the area. I could see all these images and interviews collated together in some sort of zine or photobook, allowing people to learn about these individuals and their way of life. I also hope it may increase visibility of this situation and push people to help this community with issues that they have to face such as having little food, no heating and no running water.

2. Evidence of initial contact between you and your subject. This should not just be an email but also indicate forms of primary/secondary research into your subject and a level of contact that is progressive in enabling access. This can take time and persistence so develop a range of strategies so be resilient and don’t give up. Due to where the subjects of my project live there was no way to previously get in touch with them, so I just travelled to Easton where they’re living and knocked on the door of their homes, asking them if they wanted to participate in the project. I had a pretty positive response on this first visit, with only a couple of people saying no and everyone else was happy to chat and be in photographs. Before visiting the location I did some prior research mostly through reading news articles about these people living in Easton. Screenshots and links of these articles can be seen below. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4925292/Angry-clashes-dozens-vandwellers-line-city-streets.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4985650/Rise-van-dwellers-living-Bristol.html

As well as this, to indicate further contact between me and the subjects, I took down the email addresses of people that I spoke to on my first visit to the van dwellers in Easton to keep in touch and so I can send them any photographs I take. These details can be seen below. I also informed them I’d be back to take more photos, and they seemed more than happy to welcome me again.

3. Undertake preproduction shoots and produce 4-6 images that are indicative of your creative approach – these do not need to be of your subject (if you are still negotiating access), but they should be tests towards a coherent shooting strategy. You might think in terms of a visual ‘mood board’.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with these images for a first test shoot, because they depict the environment I'm exploring and the people I'm interested in getting to know and photographing. I shot the images on a Hasselblad with Kodak Portra 400 colour film, which is the format I wish to continue shooting with for this project. The only small issue with some of the images is that a few are a tad out of focus. For instance a few of the faces on the portraits, and weirdly the environmental shot of the vans. However this is something that can be easily fixed with taking more time when shooting, and I'm not too worried about this first result as it was only a test shoot. I'm really pleased all the images are correctly exposed, and I love the framing they have too. I really think a square format will work well with this subject of choice.

#creativeinteractions #research #photoshoot