Brief
Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject of your own choosing. Each photograph must be a unique view of the same subject; in other words, it must contain some ‘new information’ rather than repeat the information of the previous image. Pay attention to the order of the series; if you’re submitting prints, number them on the back. There should be a clear sense of development through the sequence.
In your assignment notes explore why you chose this particular subject by answering the question ‘What is it about?’
What is it about?
This series features a house in Withington which has been in my family for 50 years. Due to the recent bereavement of my sister and her husband it is now being sold.
It is a large country property with many bedrooms and extensive grounds. It has played a significant role in the lives of my family for decades.
I have many memories; good and bad. Christmas holidays, summer holidays, shooting parties and finally helping to nurse my sister until her untimely death last year.
In my experience the house was such a busy place and to see it empty now is shocking.
I chose to capture it from the outside creating the feeling that I am not allowed inside anymore. I wanted to create a series of bright colour images where the house is incidental, in the style of the John Davies series Mount Fuji, by featuring objects around the property that highlight its recent abandonment. To create the sense of what used to be and clear signs of missing people.
I did consider transforming the images into black and white but having seen them in monochrome I felt that too bleak. I did not want sad photographs. It is such a beautiful place it deserves to be shown off in its best light. The images were shot from early morning to dusk on a bright sunny day in May 2018 to utilize the best light moving around the house during the day.
I am critical of my compositional skills so for this assignment I gave myself time to work on that aspect. Other than the table photograph no image has been cropped. Other than removing spots on two images no changes have been made to the images.
This isn’t the best work I’ve done but I feel it satisfies the brief whilst contributing memories for my family.
