People and Place: my final assignment
Notes on methodology and planning
Introduction and background
This assignment explores the
relationship between the people and place with a focus on a bench in a public
place. It aspires to be a visual exploration of the many lives and the uses of
the public bench. In ‘City by Design’ (2013:1)[1],
Fran Tonkiss discussed how places are constantly re-created and re-lived
through everyday uses. This approach is at the heart of this study as it examines
the places through the people’s experiences.
Limitations
The nature of this assignment introduces
certain limitations that would need to be considered: this work is not intended
to be a comprehensive study on the subject but an exploratory introduction. My
intention is to continue working on this theme in the coming year and use this
assignment as the first step and the foundation to build on.
Method and planning
To plan my work on this assignment I used the method described in the ‘Behind
the Image: Research in Photography’ publication[2]
which was on the recommended reading list for the course. I also practiced the tools
and techniques I have learnt through the People and Place course.
Having discussed some emerging topics for my assignment with my tutor, I
first developed my proposal (assignment brief).
When starting to plan the project, I drew a mind map of my ideas.
This helped me to organise my thinking and prepare on a practical level,
for example, by creating a list of potential locations and a possible timetable
of work. The Edward De Bono’s six thinking hats method[3],
which I used only briefly here, helped to ensure that I don’t miss anything
significant out.
When thinking through my assignment work I always gave a special
consideration to my audience.
My next step was to carry out my background research consisting of the
literature review and a number of other photographers’ portfolios. I spent a
couple of days working in the Cambridge University Library as well as
researching various online sources.
As part of planning my assignment work I
looked at other people’s image collections and portfolios. I found it
particularly useful and inspiring to look through the images produced by some
Magnum photographers and a selection of the street scene portfolios mostly shot
in 20th century. The black and white street image collections by
John Deakin, Ilse Bing, Brassai, Francesc Catala-Roca and Marianne Breslauer
showed the streets as places for spontaneous and chance encounters, as places
where public and private lives meet – this was something that I was interested
to look out for and capture through this project. Although many of their images
can be regarded as timeless, it was interesting to note how the city scenes
captured over the last century have gradually been changing.
I look at some colour image collections,
including for example the street photography by Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Jeff
Wall. I specifically picked these two photographers who employed very different
techniques in their work. Jeff Wall’s images capture mostly well-planned and
arranged scenes in comparison to the spontaneous situations depicted by
diCorcia. My approach with this assignment has been both to plan some of my
shots and to capture the spontaneous situation so I found it useful to look at
the techniques used by both photographers.
I drew inspiration from the work of the
modern street life photographers, including the black and white images by Chema
Fernandez[4]
documenting the street life of Oviedo, Spain, and the online image galleries by
Japanese photographers Hiroki and Tatsuo Suzuki[5].
Their work, although very different from one another, often captured the sense
of confusion, isolation and vulnerability of the momentary street encounters.
Their images alluded strongly to a sense of transience and impermanence.
When preparing for my practical work on
the assignment, I looked at the image collections by Rut Blees Luxemburg, in
particular the ‘Caliban Towers I and II’, and ‘London: a modern city’.[6] Her images tell the story of the city life.
Her exploration of the neglected and decaying spaces conveying the feelings of
loss and emptiness left a lasting impression on me.
Whilst doing the online research for the
project, I came across two photographers who carried out photographic projects
concerned with park and public benches, Jon Cartwright and Eugene Kotenko[7].
Finding out about their work before the completion of my own project was
helpful: for example, I realised that my working title Bench life was already
in use.
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Public vs
private space
Public
space as a neutral ground
Borders
and boundaries in public places
Presence
of benches in clichés, assigned and assumed meanings
Users and
uses of public places: groups and singles, families, animals; doing all
things human and un-human; routines and rituals
Emotion:
fear, love and romance, boredom, desperation, loneliness and connection,
sadness and joy
Link
between the past and the future: a connecting point?
Segregation
and fragmentation Vs connection and engagement
Interaction
and the lack of interaction in public places
Interaction
with: strangers, acquaintances, friends, devices and gadgets, animals,
yourself.
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To summarise, doing the project research
and looking at other photographers’ work helped me to become more aware of the
issues I wanted to explore through my project. Based on the research and the
mind-mapping session I put together a list of topics, which I felt I would like
to explore as part of the longer-term project.
Having done my background research, I
reviewed and finalised my plans. I then started my practical days out on
locations. From the start I had a very good idea of the kind of images I wanted
to have for this series so it really helped to plan my days out, making
adjustments for the weather and lighting conditions.
I worked on a number of locations in and
around Cambridge and London. Due to the weather conditions I had spent longer
than anticipated shooting images and had to make some repeat visits to the same
areas. Some of the locations that I originally planned to include appeared to
be unsuitable for my project (for example, I was disappointed to discover that
the area around Westfield shopping centre did not have many traditional bench
seats). This meant that I had to review and adjust my plans as I went along.
I enjoyed working on this assignment
more than on any other project I have undertaken this year. The ‘public space’
theme fascinates me and I am very excited about continuing my ‘public benches’
project in 2015 using the list of ideas I put together. I also think that the
time and effort I put into planning of this project have helped to make it a
very positive and enjoyable personal learning experience.
