3rd shoot with Jean – 15/3/12

Date of Shoot: 15/3/12

On this third shoot I reflected on the feedback that Suky Best had given me. In this shoot I aimed to show a high amount of context of Jean as she is captured in her home environment. I wanted to capture her and the context of her room around her as this is what reflects on the story the most. It shows more of her as a person instead of just focusing on close-ups of my subject. I want to focus on the objects she has compared to in the past where she had to give up her objects in able to travel. It was also vital to capture good images from the shoot as I have misplaced the images from last shoot with Jean on 29th March. I will revisit after this date to shoot more. I feel the shots I have got do not show my subject in the correct way and the photographs do not show enough context to go with the audio. I felt that this shoot really did connect more with Jean and it showed her as a person, what she does in her day to day life, the decore around her matches her story that I want to show. I feel that thinking about context in the photograph is what Tom Hunter shows in his work. Hunter is a photographer I have researched. In his series of photographs of the travellers he shows the context of the subjects in their travelling homes. From looking into the photographs you see objects around them. This gives you an idea of the story of the person who  has been shown in each image. I felt that photographing the home environment, and even being in the home envionmentm my subject was alot more confident. I felt that each of the photographs we had captured on the shoot really extended the showing of her character. This is also because of the context I have shown in the subjects home, around and infront of her.

In these two photographs I wanted to show the artwork that Jean had created on her living room walls as the design is African and Jamaican inspired. I feel that from shooting my subject in this postition I am able to show this feature of the room and also the wooden decoration that is a Jamaican culture decorative piece. I prefer the second photograph to the first because I like the pensive look that she shows in the photograph, the thinking moment where she sits and thinks of the life she has lived and is also living now. It is as if when I am documenting her, she too is looking back and trying to document her journey. 

I wanted to capture photographs that showed Jean’s paintings that are African and Jamaican inspired. I decided to place these photographs around my subject and capture her as she is in the moment as she draws away. I felt that these photographs had to be shot as all of these painting ideas come to her mind and she says that she can smell the places as she is producing the art work. It is as if she captures her past and she continues to do this every day of her life. Therefore, showing the artwork is a big thing to me as I feel it is part of the story I am trying to show and it is also a big part of her life and the life she once lived, but the life that will always be in her spirit, imagination and the creative mind.

I really like these photographs I have shot because my subject looks very happy. I feel that I have captured her happiness in an honest way. I have captured my subjects as she walks through the beads that she has created herself. This craft part of her reflects to the time that she spent out of England where she made everything from craft. Therefore, it is great to show a piece that is her own self-creation,  which is now in her England surroundings.

Lastly, I have shown her as she plays her drum as the drum is a context that is a part of her home. The drum is an item that is from both Africa and Jamaica and so it is nice to capture this item in her home. I suppose it could be seen as a prop, yet it shows the roots of the African and Jamaican culture. I wonder if Jean gets into the rhythm of the drum to connect her back to her past rhythms of living in other countries.