Finding a title..

So it has recently dawned on me that I need a title for this body of work!

Argh! I have no idea what to title it - how do you come up with a title?

Oh my gosh I need to really think about this.. maybe a brain storming session is needed.

Budgeting/Costing

When it came close to the time of needing to print I set myself a budget of £200 as this is how much bursary I get this term, and so that is the money that I set aside specifically for my work. However, out of this I also need to get my stuff for Mixed Media and for the exhibition. I really am hoping that I can stay inside of this budget but if not I have a small amount of maintenance grant that I can dip into.

I have 10 prints which I am printing A2 - £7.50 x 10 = £75

I also need a presentation box to hand the prints in for submission, this needs to be professional and neat so that it protects my images but also does them justice (not just a cardboard box) I care about my work and this needs to be evident on submission.
This is coming from Pullingers online and costs £23.69

So far in total I have spent £98.69

I am not going to frame my work for submission because to be honest, I just can't afford to. I know that those prints will go into archive - for exhibition I will have to reprint and so those prints will be framed for exhibition. I would love to be able to frame them and have them absolutely perfect and as if they were going straight into exhibition, but unfortunately that is just not in my price range and so a sacrifice has to be made there in order for me to be able to afford the rest of the course.

Framing

Obviously, I want something that is not covered at the back because the point of this piece is to have light shining from behind it. I tried to find a photo frame that just had perspex or glass at the back of it so that it can still be completely see-through. Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck in finding something like this.

So I had the idea of displaying it in a box frame. But then the same issue stood that, at the back it will look a mess. I know its only the back and when it's on a light box nobody will see it, but I'm a perfectionist with these things and I just wanted it to look good all the way around, so that if people do hold it, it wont be a mess at the back.
Also, if the back is neat then all of the messy edges that are on the piece from the joining process will be hidden.

To resolve this and still have a neat back and front I decided to buy 2 frames and sandwich them together. So I took the backs off of both of them, and then super-glued the glass to the inside of the frame - at first I was going to take the glass out so that people could touch it and feel the material but then I realised that if many people did this it would become so ruined and the colours would change over time. So to preserve it I decided that I wanted to keep the glass in.
So that is super-glued into the inside of both of the frames. Then I glued the front piece of fabric to the back of the glass and the inside of the frame.
This was really difficult because it needed to be perfectly lined up but I had to have it all upside down to be able to glue it and keep it in place. So awkward and fiddly!

Then I had to keep that in place, glue the back of the fabric and the back frame piece and sandwich it all together.
The wood of the two frames didn't sit together as tightly as I wanted it to so I had to pile heavy books and things on the top of it for a couple of days to make sure that the super-glue dried whilst the wood was as tight together as possible, and not move it to allow the wood to pull away.



The chalk on the frames is really dusty so I had to also try not to get any of that off my hands onto the glass or front of the fabric, because once it was all glued there's no taking it apart to clean anything.

Final editing of the series

As I get closer to printing my final images, I don't feel totally comfortable with my final 10 but, I don't know why.

This is my 10 images:

I have 10 images because it is a well rounded number. Something inside of me just can't sit comfortable having an odd number of photographs. I'm not usually OCD about things but this I really totally am - so it must be my gut telling me that 10 is the right number.

The image top right - does it work? All the others are school age and in uniform, this is a mother and baby. I really like the image and it holds special memories in my heart, but taking emotion out of the equation .. does it fit. I don't think it does. So.... I need to replace it.

What if I add another image of a child not in uniform?
But then that's 11 images. It really doesn't sit comfortably with me. I can feel myself shifting around in my seat at the prospect of it.

Okay... so what about 12 images. Yep even number, it works i'm not shifting around so much at that thought. But... it still doesn't work for me visually! arghhhh - come on Sarah why doesn't this work.

The boy in the bottom left isn't looking at the camera. He's smiling and looks happy but he is not looking to camera. Which doesn't fit with the rest of the images because they all are looking to camera. So.. I don't want to use that image.

But then, again the issue with the top right image... so maybe I just take that one out of the series too. That also brings us back to 10 images.

However, the top left image - hes not smiling. My whole point is to show happy children and he doesn't look happy. He doesn't look sad or sick either, but hes not smiling.

I found these 2 images (top right, bottom left) which I had discarded previously. I am unsure why. I have cropped them slightly and edited them and I don't think they look out of place within the series. So.. I think I have found a way to make this work. Hurrah!

Although I think I now have 11 images again... okay i'll lay them out and consider for a day or so. Give it time to sink in and see what feels right.

THIS is my final series! Hurrah I got there eventually. I got rid of the photograph of 2 school girls together. It didn't fit quite right because there were 2 in the image and only 1 in each of the others.
All the photographs have 1 school child, all various ages, and they are each looking to camera. There is 1 boy who is not smiling (bottom 2nd from left) but his stare into camera is just so intense and striking that I can't not use it. I have had that image from the very beginning of editing and it is just so powerful to me I can't take it out.

I really wanted to have equal number of boys and girls, but I think that may just be taking OCD matters a little to far because I feel that it works well like this. There are 4 girls and 6 boys.. which is fine with me and I quite like it. The total number of images is an even number so I think that the number of boys to girls is off balance slightly.

Joining the layers

Now that I have all of my layers printed and together I need to work out how to join it all together.
The edges of the fabric keep fraying and the bits of cotton are going everywhere. I wanted to buy some shearing scissors to stop that happening, but stupid me went to the shop without my ID and they wanted ID for me to buy scissors! So annoying.
I found instead some anti-fraying glue that you can put on and it stops the edges from falling apart so I brought that instead. (They wanted ID for scissors but not glue!)

It has worked really well it dried really quickly so didn't go all over my work and literally just sealed the edges over and stopped all the little bits of cotton.
The acetate I have cropped slightly to make it the same size as the fabric. I almost made a massive error, I forgot that to stick it all together I would need a sort of seam allowance to put the glue or tape and I almost cut it all off. Then I remembered to leave it and so cut it further away from the edge of the image.
I am using double sided tape to join all of the acetate pieces together, it is strong enough to hold it and see-through so if any is seen when I have finished it won't be too noticeable.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to present it for hand in. I don't want to just give it in with all of the edges messy and it looking a mess. I need to figure out what I'm going to do for hand in.

Gathering names and ages

With the help of some of the teachers that I am still in contact with in The Gambia I have managed to find out all the names and ages of the children that I am printing portraits of.

I am so thankful for their help because without them searching villages and school classes for me, my project would not work the way that I have been wanting it to.

So, each photograph has a caption of the child's name and their age. This allows the viewer to connect with the child. Not to feel sorry for, or ignore the child because they are nameless to who is viewing the image, it is a portrait of a child, happy and smiling, who lives in The Gambia. I as the photographer have photographed them, documented that they are a person, in the same way I feel that somebody would document a friend in a portrait, or a celebrity.

I don't feel it fair to keep portraying African children as sick, malnourished, starving, sad and miserable people. The children that I met were happy, it happens that the images I am printing are all in school, but even the children outside of the school were happy, they live with what they have and they are all so thankful for what they do have. The don't know any different - until Westerners go in and start saying 'oh poor you' and 'oh how tragic' ... then they become aware that there is a difference! Who's place is it to say things like that to these people - nobodys! They are people! They should not be treated like they are lower than us, just because they don't have iphones and computers and gadgets that make our children so anti-social and brain square-eyed. They play in sand, they play with sticks and stone - so what?! So did the older generations of the Western world!

I am totally against them living in pig sty's, and totally for putting an end to diseases and malaria and everything else like that. They have the right to life just the same as everybody else - I am not disputing that at all! I just don't agree with the West being shown such ugly imagery of beautiful.. truly beautiful children!

Sizing inspiration

I have taken inspiration for my large prints from the work of Thomas Ruff.

He created and exhibited large scale portrait photographs in 1986-90 at the Saatchi Gallery. http://www.saatchigallery.com/aipe/thomas_ruff.htm

The scales of his images were 210x165cm and 200x150cm. His images were passport style, of just head and shoulders of people, so printed at this size they are larger than life size.
They would be attention grabbing and intriguing the the viewer, there is no way that they could be ignored.

This is how I want my images to be, not able to be ignored. However, I think that the sizing of Ruff's work is a little too big and if my images were printed that size it would be difficult to see the image as a whole.

'French theorist Roland Barthes, in his book Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (1982), suggests that it is possible for a photograph to convey deep emotion, and that there is a moment when the subject of a photograph makes a direct link with the emotions of the viewer through the surface of the image.' http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/thomas-ruff/thomas-ruff-portraits

This quote also links to my work because I am hoping that the children in my photographs will make a direct link with the emotions of the viewer. I hope that they will speak through the image, and I am just acting as a facilitator to allow that link of emotions to happen. I feel that by using the children's name and age as the title for each image, this will strengthen the link because will know a little more information about that child.

Mock-up and easy editing

To help me when printing I created a mock up of my piece of work on Photoshop.

I made each layer separately on Photoshop and then I was able to edit and size each layer to print.
I was also able to move different bits around to see how it looked without wasting paper and fabric and acetate in the process.

The fabric that I was printing on was not A4, it was slightly smaller so making each layer in Photoshop helped me to be able to size each layer to fit the paper and still edit without getting confused and again wasting paper and other materials.

Adding myself to the work

After writing my essay about hidden meanings in photographs and looking editing my images for Major Practical Project, where I found that I, as photographer, was within the images I wanted to add a bit of me to this work. 

In my essay I talk about how the meaning of the image stays within the image and can't be changed, only the connotation can change depending on the viewer. After thinking about this for a while, I wanted the meaning of my work to be within the work, quite literally, yet still be hidden slightly.

So, I used the same text as the book is written in, (Times New Roman) and wrote a small piece about the work. It reads:

'If trees could talk, wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what they might say about the occurrences on James Island whilst the slaves were held there. The island is such an idyllic place to visit, big trees, open sea, lovely heat and friendly people to explain the relics as you explore the island. Slowly, the sea is washing the island away;, it is vanishing bit by bit. At some point in the future all history of that island and stories that the trees hold within them will be lost forever. Then what will happen?'

I placed this text in italics, as it is personal I wanted it to stand out against the text from the book. I placed the text against the light brown at the bottom of the image, I think it is a piece of wood or something on the ground. I put it here because it does not interfere with the rest of the image, however the black text stands out against the light background. 

When it is placed amongst the other layers it is not very visible. Which I like, because it is in there and so that cannot change.. it is a literal trapping of the meaning within the piece of work.

I also like that it overlaps slightly the text from the books. The text from the book is bolder so that stands out more, hiding my text and blurring the words slightly. 

Now I feel like I myself am a literal part of this work. 

Refering back

Looking back at some of my previous research I thought it would be good to reflect back and compare my work now to what influenced me at the beginning of the project.

I think that this photograph by Ami Vitale has really influenced me and can closely be compared to the images that I have printed today. 

This image is showing raw emotion and sadness, which my images don't do because I specifically chose not too show that sort of emotion in my images. However, the piercing eyes is an aesthetic that this photograph and mine share.

My image is not black and white, because I feel that if mine were black and white they would be too similar to the campaign image and it could be argued that I am trying to get the same message out through my image.

I have also noticed that when zoomed in, on both my image and Vitale's image the photographer is visible in the childs' eyes.  At first I was horrified that I had captured myself in the eyes of the child, I thought it was a horrible mistake and I should have been aware of that happening when I was shooting.
However, I now feel so differently about it. I have a huge emotional connection with this project and with the children that I have photographed. I feel that I have a responsibility in showing these images, that I have to portray them right and fairly. I think that quite often it is easy for a photographer to feel like they hide behind their photographs. I often say 'I much prefer being behind the camera than infront of it' and it's true.. but with this project it is so important to me and i feel so passionate about it that by putting myself in the frame as well as behind it I even more so have to get it right and portray them fairly. The world can not only see these children in the photographs but they can also see me in them too.

It also comforted me a little that other photographers have done this.. whether intentional or not, or for the same reason as I have or not.. it works and it is not overly powerful on hers or mine. To begin with in my images it was all I could look at because it stood out to me as a mistake but now it is not the most obvious part of the image and I like it. It adds a new element and dimension to the image I feel.

Print size

This morning I printed an image in A2 and A3 size.

I printed on matte paper because I don't want my photographs to be shiny and glossy. When images have a shine to them I personally feel that it takes away a rawness of an image. These photographs are very raw, and real and I want to show that in all aspects. They have not been edited (other than sharpening for the purpose of print), the colours have not been enhanced, and in no way have blemishes or marks been removed or toned down. I feel that having a shine on the paper will really just take away from being able to see the child and really take their gaze and emotions in as a viewer.

I printed an A3 and an A2 because I am unsure of which size to go for. I want the images to make an impact to the viewer. I do not want the viewer to be able to see the image and walk past it. I want to grab them, entice them and pull them in to really see these children and spend time with them.

I feel like the A2 print does that. When I saw it coming off the printer and then laid in front of me, I had goose bumps. I very rarely get emotional over photographs but truthfully sitting and looking at that image printed in A2 brought tears, and goose bumps and shivers to me. That is exactly the reaction I want from somebody looking at my photographs.

In order to print all my photographs at this size though, I need to make sure that they are all perfect with focus and sharpness and that they really do grab hold of the viewer.

The other aspect of this decision is price. The A2 is so much more expensive than A3 when printing not just 1 of each. I don't want to have to go for the cheaper option and sacrifice the work though...

The A3 has the impact but just as much as the A2 does. The A2 is just like BAM in your face whereas I think with the A3 you could just glance at it and walk past quite easily.


I am going to put the images up in my living room and spend some time with each before I make my final decision.

Decision made

I have made the decision that I am going to show my work as individual prints not in a book.

I want my images to challenge people and be attention grabbing and I just feel that if they are in a book I will be sort of hiding them away and they will not challenge people unless they are in peoples' faces.

The imagery that we are shown day to day is not hidden away for us to choose to look at it. It is on our tv screens and on billboards, in magazines and newspapers.. they are in our faces and really we can't escape it.
I am challenging this and so I want to do the same thing. I want my images to be unmissable, people can't just walk past without seeing them. Therefore I need to print them as individual images and I think I will print them big.

Questioning others

After being rather unsuccessful with gathering answers to some questions from well known charities, I decided to ask those questions to people who either were born and grew up in Africa or are now working in Africa. Some of the people I asked are friends of mine, some are people that I don't know but are family/friends of people that I have contact to. Many of them don't know the whole of my project, so I feel that their responses are based on what they possibly think I want them to say.

This is an email response from an American missionary teacher in Kampala, Uganda.

  The bits that stuck out to me from her answers were:

- '..African children are typically portrayed to the Western world as beautiful and sweet but poverty-stricken, starving, naked or sick children that have many tremendous needs.'

- '..they are content and happy just living the way they are used to.'

- '..we also have to be careful as the stereotype might cause a child to "realize" that he is "poor" and "third-world".'


This is a conversation that I had with a male, aged 20, who was born and grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe and now lives in the UK.

 

The parts that stuck out to me from this conversation were:

- '..the way it is now perceived worldwide... is that most African children are malnourished and sick, which is not true.'

- '.. growing up in Africa, we were never showed the Western view..'

- '.. it might make a difference, even to one child, on the other hand there's the negative perception which is generated.'

 This is a response from a male, aged 23, who grew up in Zimbabwe and now lives in the UK.

The words from this response that stood out to me are:

- '..it twists the way first world people see and treat anyone from Africa.'

- '.. they get treated like people who are helpless and require hand outs or they may die. .. people should be encouraged to go and make a difference personally.'

This responses is from a female, aged 57, who grew up in Kitwe, Zambia and now lives in the UK.

 The text that struck me from this response were:

- ' The images .. show African children as ragged urchins playing barefoot in the dirt, or living in squalid squatter camps unable to attend school..'

- ' Africa is so often seen as a 'basket case' - almost so hopelessly broken that it is not even worth helping.'

- 'Africa has many problems, but it also produces vibrant, vigorous communities...'

- ' It should change to .. show children in school, playing team games, ... helping with household chores, ... expecting to become teachers, doctors, engineers etc when they grow up.'  

Beggining to look at image selection

I sorted my images into a yes (left) folder and a maybe (right) folder and printed them as contact sheets. I then went back into the images individually and checked the sharpness and focus of each image.. those that I feel are suitable to be used I have highlighted in yellow.
This is not my final choice of images, it is just an initial selection for me to work with closer.

Examples of imagery

These are the examples of imagery that I included alongside my dissertation writing. These are images of sad, sick and malnourished African children and an example of the types of imagery that I do not want to create in my work.
The feelings and thoughts that these images evoke are not what I want my photographs to create.

Personally, when I look at these images I instantly feel sorry for the children, I feel a great sense of shame as if it is my fault that they are in the state that they are in.

It is wrong that children and babies have to be in this state at all but I feel that after 30+ years of being subjected to this imagery we as a nation should be able to also celebrate the change that has been made and we should be shown images of happy children as well.

http://www.imaging-famine.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Daily-Mirror-2008_small.jpg

 When Band Aid happened, showing these images was a great success and caused hundreds of people to act on it and donate money to help some of these children. However, now I personally think that people are bored of seeing the same imagery, people become immune to it and are not longer moved enough to act on what they see.

http://www.imaging-famine.org/blog/index.php/tag/the-guardian/

 Of course, children are still like this in some areas of Africa and that is so totally not fair to them. But in the west something has to change in order for people to become caring again. If we were shown more happy and uplifting imagery, with this visual information slotted in then it would shock people all over again, it would make people notice and help.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253655/Band-Aid-image-starving-children-Africa-warns-Oxfam-charity-says-people-longer-moved-continents-problems.html

I also just feel that it is only fair to the African children themselves to show another side of them. They are represented as sick and malnourished and sad .. but that is not their entire being. Some of them do go to school, they are loved, they have friends, they appreciate what they do have in life and they celebrate that.


A recent advertisement that has been shown is by Oxfam. It is titled 'Lift lives for good' and can be found at the following address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2zymuD83aM
The music in this advert is uplifting, children are smiling and it is showing us how we can make a change without the need for showing children crying and in hospital. It shows them in school, at home doing chores for the family, etc.
After watching this video I personally feel much more inclined to donate and help then I do from looking at such depressing and sickening imagery.

Response to Dissertation..

Within my dissertation I argued that we have been shown the same images of African children since the 1980's. The imagery that we see is mostly of sick, malnourished and sad children. I feel that this is wrong.

 

Fienberg, G (2012), “Viewpoint: A time to stop giving?” BBC, 19^th December 2012 [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20762278 (Accessed: 18th February 2014) 

 I want my images to respond to this visually. I want to be a part of making a change to the imagery that is shown in the western world of African children. 

I feel that by printing my images and framing then in exhibition will do this much more successfully than hiding them away in a book.

When I was in The Gambia photographing children, I found that quite often the children would be running around and enjoying time playing with their friends and siblings, and including myself in their games. However, as soon as the camera was pointed towards them the facial expressions changed almost instantly. This did not happen with all of the children,  but it was very obvious with a few, especially the boys. They would do peace signs with their hands and pull stern sharp face expressions. Many didn't understand the 'smile at the camera' directions. 

I think perhaps it is a mixture of things. One thing that I thought could sway this occurrence is that they know where the imagery might end up, and that if they do not smile then people will feel sorry for them and send them presents/sponsor them/give them money.

Another is that they didn't understand. They don't have mirrors in their houses, as it is not an essential.. therefore a lot of them don't know what they look like. Therefore somebody taking a photograph of them and showing them is the same as us looking in the mirror, it is just not instant for them. They then don't see the change in smile to frown or stern face, and most probably then don't know how it changes their personal appearance.

This could be the reason for there being so much imagery of African children looking so unhappy and upset. However, I still don't agree with the way that those images are being used in the West.

Book research

Edwards, E (2001) Raw Histories, Oxford: Berg

P16 says "...the material forms in which photographs are arranged, how they are printed and viewed, as albums, lantern slides, or mounted prints, is integral to their phenomenological engagement, structuring visual knowledge as well as those related human actions in modes of viewing."

This is saying that the way an image is presented ultimately structures the way that a viewer will see it, how they will understand it and the information that they will take away from the photograph that they are viewing. Human nature, is to impart our own understanding onto that image as well so it is really important that this is considered when the arrangement and presentation of work is being decided.
It is something that I will be massively considering when printing, framing and showing my photographs of the African children. I don't want to do it without any thought, because these are human beings, they are children - they deserve some respect and I really feel that by using their photographs in a resepctful way I will also be respecting and loving them at the same time.

This project holds a real emotional connection for me and I just want to get it right ! I want to do them the justice that they so very much deserve!!

P17 says, "Performances, like photographs, embody meaning through signifying properties, and are deliberate, conscious efforts to represent, to say something about something."

This also directly links to my project because for me it really is a conscious effort to represent and say something about the African children.

How do I present my work ?

I am in a debate with myself over whether to present my images as a book or as prints.

I want to include the child's name as caption to the photograph, which is easier in a book.
However, my project is about giving the children a voice, making them a person.

In a book, the images would be hidden away behind the front cover. Somebody has to physically pick up the book, choose to look through it and even then the photographs are limited in size and so I question whether the viewer will be able to connect with the child that they are looking at.

If I print the photographs largely, they are there visible to anybody who is walking by. In this world, we are bombared with imagery and campaign media of starving sick children, why?! My images show that they are happy, smiling, getting on with life as they know how to. Why can't I bombard viewers in a gallery space with my images?

When the photographs are hung in the gallery, the caption with it will be the child's name.


A book, however is a physically thing. You can handle it, touch it, smell it, hold it as close to your face as you want to... so maybe that is more of a connection?

I don't know !!!

Book/ Prints/ Book/ Prints/ Book ?!?!?!!

Research

I found this statement which I feel fits my work so well. Walker (2009) says.. 'When a photograph - enters into a montage relationship with either a caption, text, another picture, or a particularly potent display context, then a 'third-effect' meaning can be generated from that juxtaposition which was not inherent in either of the terms seen in isolation.'


Each image and the text that is included in my piece of work has its own meaning but when it is combined together it gains a new meaning and effect that isn't present in the single image.