Evaluation

Evaluation.

When approaching this project I began with aiming to document the whole of Blackburn and how it has changed over the years, I had planned to show different means of transport which have change dramatically over the years, I was aiming to show this through capturing photographs of the modern transport and comparing the photographs I capture with older photographs of the past means of transport. Also I wanted to look and work closely with the architectural designs within a building this lead me to photograph different buildings such as public houses and shops as these were the social hub of the working community within Blackburn. As I embarked on documenting Blackburn I photographed different variety pubs, architectural features within civil buildings, Street names, shops. After capturing these images I found that this project was too broad to concentrate on the whole perspective as the subject was to large (Blackburn) to full fill. I studied the photographs which I had captured from my shoot and one photograph stood out to me and inspired me to follow a new path of documenting local corner shops as this fitted into my original idea of how Blackburn has changed. With my new idea i decided to document Corner shops within the Blackburn community alongside photographing street names and documenting the history behind each street name.

When I began to document street names I found it very intriguing how each street has its own historical and passed to each individual street name. I also found it interesting that the street names were named after people or things with meanings such as gem stones, trees etc. Within this documentation I focused on the historical facts such as dates of when it was built, the structure of the streets, the meaning of the street name. I also included historical research into these street names. I worked closely when capturing these images with the composition and the negative space within each photograph as I aimed to fill the frame with the street sign to ensure that the viewer’s eye was not distracted. The challenges that I faced when capturing these images of street signs was the location in which the signs were positioned for example on high terraced rows of buildings making the angle challenging to photograph to the full potential, also the signs were located In busy built up area’s which made it challenging to fill the frame with just the sign without having distractions to the viewer’s eyes.

In my assignment i documented corner shops and how they have changed over the years I furthered this by capturing over 70 different shops to help achieve evidence of how corner shops are still thriving in Blackburn despite the threat of the multi-national retailing outlets. I also furthered my documentation of these traditional shops by researching the history, the goods within the shop, the location of these shops, I also worked closely with the architectural detail within each of the shops fronts. When I had planned to capture these images I concentrated on capturing and showing the traditional shop fronts, by capturing these images this is showing how important the shop windows were used to display and advertise goods within the shop. I have aimed to make this the main focal point of my photographs. I also want to show within these images the modernization of these shops over the years. I look closely into the goods that the shops traded in and what they would have traded in originally to compare the old and the new changes within these local corner shops.

When I first started my assignment I looked closely within documentary photographers as I was aiming to document my assignment. The research that I had found and inspired me the most was John Londei, who produced the book ‘shutting up shop’ John Londei worked closely with in traditional corner shops for over fifteen years and captured all his images on 10  x 8 plated camera, where he only included shopkeeper and took great detail into never including the customer. This series of work has helped me further my Idea’s with in corner shops and capturing my images. I have also looked in to other photographers such as Richard Billingham, Martin Parr, Denis Thorpe and Ian Beasley these photographers have also made an impact within my work as I looked closely into Richard Billingham and the structure of his documentary work. I have also included Pablo Picasso the artist within my work as when I looked closely to the images I had produced of each corner shop when you look closely it is made up of all different shapes and lines to produce an image and when I had looked closely with Picasso’s cubism work it was made up of broken down objects and restructured into a painting which you could make out clearly but with the usage of shapes and lines. On furthering my research I wanted to gather information from a generation when corner shops were essential I gained this information by asking people’s opinions on how the corner shops have changed over the years I found the most appropriate way of gathering this vital information would be to but this question out to the people of the face book groups about Blackburn’s past and history. I had a great response from this which has gained me more knowledge and information from people that would have once relied on their local corner shops.

On finalizing my assignment I had many tutorials about how I was going to present my large amount of my suitably for this commercial project. One of the problems that I had come across when deciding how I wanted to present my work was the limited space and the funding’s, I worked around this and decided to produce a 16 Imaged Collage at A1, and alongside publish a photobook with all my images in as when I had looked into separating these image it would of given my final images the potential they hold as each image works alongside each other as a series of images which tells a story without any words. I framed my A1 Image and presented my book within my exhibition space.