Collage (shoot 4)- Work record

Basic information:
Date: 11/04/17
Location: Harlow Town Centre, My House
Camera used: Fugifilm Instax Wide Shot, Fujifilm Instax mini
Editing program: Photoshop CC 2014 
Camera settings: 3m-Infintity, 0.9-3m

Plans for shoot:
In this shoot I will be shooting images throughout a day out and collating them in a scrap book format along with other items that I have collected over the day such as bus tickets and receipts.

What I hope to achieve:
In this shoot I hope to portray a day in my life to the viewer and therefore create a personal piece in my project.

I feel that this will be most clear demonstrated through the use of Instant film as it provides a more raw and unfiltered image allowing the viewer to see what was actually happening in the image opposed to a reconstructed version of events that is so commonly seen in modern society as a result of social media and world wide sharing.  This is due to the fact that due to our massive outreach everything has become a competition of who can have the best clothes or the most exciting day when in reality all that really matters is the memories and who you make them with.

Outcome of shoot:
I am extremely happy with the outcome of this shoot and feel that it was successful due to the fact that I captured several strong individual images.  I have found this to be important as the images are what tells the story in the piece and without them the message of the piece would not be clear.  

I feel that the final composite could have been improved by being on a larger scale but for this I would have had to organise a bigger gathering which I feel may have deducted from the unplanned appearance of the shoot and removed part of the meaning behind it of spontaneity of youth.
Progression:If I were to create a similar shoot to this again I would be interested in exploring the identity of youth as a whole as well as just my interpretation of youth and feel that this would be best translated in separate shoots.  I would like to further explore collage in my final project as it is a medium which interests me.

Favourite image:

This is my favourite collage form the series as I like the messy effect captured by the chaotic placement of the images and souvenirs.  I feel that this placement creates conveys the chaos of youth successfully making the piece more impactful.  I also like the way that this layout allows more images to fit onto the piece.

Denotation: This is a composite collage of various images and souvenirs taken throughout the day.  There is a high level of contrast in this image created by the blend of dark and shadowed Instant film images and the light background the images are arranged on.  This contrast is eye catching to the viewer and makes the images stand out and be easily seen.

Connotation: The bright coloration in the collage conveys the idea of happiness and youthful excitement to the viewer whilst the large amounts of white in the image create imagery of the purity of childhood.  The plaster in the image suggests carelessness and an aspect of adventure.  The use of instant film shows a sense of nostalgia for childhood and makes the viewer reminisce due to the fact that Instant film is often used for scrapbooking.  Instant film is also interesting to work with due to the fact that it is harder to effectively manipulate in editing programmes meaning that the final image is often truer to the actual events than is sometimes the case with digital photography.

Context: This image has a context of the desire to remember even the more mundane days in our lives and to value the important things like friendship as you are only young once.

Least favourite image:

This image is my least favourite image as a result of the fact that it is much more uniform than the previous image meaning that it lacks the essence of spontaneity of youth.

Denotation: The above image features a selection pictures and souvenirs gathered and taken over the course of the day.  The image has a regimented shape making it clear to see what is going on in each image.

Connotation: The Instant film used creates a sense of nostalgia due to the fact that this kind of composition with images is associated with scrapbooking and Instant film is a more historic form of photography.

Context: This image has a context of the desire to remember even the more mundane days in our lives and to value the important things like friendship as you are only young once.