The idea of photographing myself in a personal project, allows me to consider the ways in which I would photograph myself and if I self-edit my images, before adding them to my final edit or even include them in my project. This idea of self-representation brings on the discussion of how I would photograph someone else for this project, and if this would change the way my work would turn out. In photographing myself for this project, it has allowed me to develop my photography style over a longer period, as I have had more time to try out shoots on myself, and not get embarrassed if a shoot goes wrong, or take a bad photograph, as no one will know the images that were captured when the editing of my images continues.
I feel that photographing a personal project has allowed me more time and chances to get the photograph how I want it, as I can go back and shoot the same scene again and analyse the mistakes I have made with different shoots, in regard to lighting, or my positioning in the frame. Having this situation to my advantage, I was able to perfect my images to the extent I wanted, although it might have taken away from the raw feel of my photographic work. However, with many of my images, where there are self-portraits, I feel there is beauty in the mistakes or images that were taken out of time or by mistake as the image would have been in focus, however, I might not have been ready. I did use a fair amount of images that were taken by mistake or out of time (if they were in focus) as I feel they add to the work.
Focusing this project on myself, I have allowed myself to be able to shoot at any time as I did not have to wait around for my subject to show up or be comfortable in front of the camera, which I feel made shooting this project a lot easier for me. When there were times I did not know what to shoot, or when I had free time, I could just look into projects that are similar to mine, and begin shooting similar scenes and shots to play with creativity or ideas for what I could shoot next.
As a photographer, I did capture a few self-portraits in this work as I felt they were needed as establishing shots throughout my work, as well as make it more personal and allow the reader to connect with my work. However, with the personal portraits, I did question what I am comfortable shooting, and what I am not, which allowed me to know what to shoot and plan ideas around these guidelines. My self-representation for this project allowed me to capture my emotion, my personal artefacts, my day-to-day life and close us shots of my lifestyle. Although I did self-edit and reshoot images that I felt could be better positioned in the frame, in doing this, I wanted to display the true everyday life and tried my best to capture that in its full essence.
If I was photographing a different subject, I know I would make sure they were comfortable with the camera and before all shoots, I would plan and create a framework for the images I would try to take during the shoot etc – which I would not have to do for myself. I would also like to think I would consider their boundaries for a project like this, as I do capture intimate moments like going to bed, getting ready in the morning etc, which I know not a lot of people would be comfortable shooting or showing someone else. The main benefit of using someone else as a subject for a project like this would be the ability to know what is going on behind the camera 100% while shooting personal portrait shots or images that I am in, as I had to either use the timer mode on my camera and pre-focus and set the settings to be correct, which proved quite difficult when trying to capture a specific scene. However, all in all, I fell I represented myself very similarly to how I would represent a different subject in my work.
Final Major Project 