Personal Project

For this personal section of my portrait project I have decided to use the theme Family. To me personally family is more important than anything else, the closeness of a family is something that money cannot ever buy. In human context, a family is a group of people that are connected by consanguinity (which refers to the property of being the same kinship as another person), by marriage and shared consumption. I would like to photograph my close family within a series of images because I feel that the photographs of people that you are close to will mean more to me than a fashion shoot, which I hope the viewer can appreciate to.
I would like to document my family members in the locations I normally visit them which will create a documentary style and sense of realism. I have been looking at various portrait photographers such as Edward S.Curtis, Josef Von Sternberg and David Bailey. One of my many inspirations is Don McCullin, particularly one of his photographs of a 'Homeless Irishman' taken in East End, London 1969. When I first seen the photograph I couldn't believe the intensity and rawness which it portrayed.
Some of his photographs show the humans who have been pushed aside and ignored by our society; in my eyes the photograph speaks out, not in a distracting way but subtle. I believe the photograph implies realism in a documentary style.
These are the emotions I want people to feel when looking at my images, I also decided that I am going to use black and white film. I feel that using black and white film will create an atmosphere as the viewer will not be distracted by colour whilst looking at the different portraits of my family. I think the black and white will create a dramatic mood with different contrasting shadows. I have chosen the Hasselblad camera as I want my final photographs to have a square format, I also enjoy using the camera and I feel comfortable using it.
I am hoping that this final section of my portrait project will help me gain confidence and independence as this will be my first time planning a personal project. These skills are vital within the photography profession and this is the perfect opportunity for me to practice them. My aims are to develop an ability to experiment and be competent with new equipment, in terms of using the Hasselblad camera using different lighting techniques.
I also want to apply a creative thought process in my production of images, by using my family members. Although family photographs are quite common I would like to portray the photographs in a different way to mainstream. Family members all share personal information with each other that would not share with anyone else. The closeness between family members is very interesting, this is why I decided to photograph my family as a group separately.
I am determined to demonstrate a range of advanced techniques and processes, For example I will be shooting the photographs, using black and white film, processing it and finally printing them. I find it quite ironic that the camera I have decided to use takes quite a lot of time in comparison to digital, I also find it ironic because all spend a lot of time together and it felt right that I was using this method to complete this series of photographs.