Overall project evaluation

Unit 3 enabled us to choose any project we wanted to due to the fact that it was a personal project. I decided to do something different and study a famous street photographer called 'Mark Jenkins'. I thought it would be a good idea to do a project based on the type of photography he does because he is inspiring to photographers such as myself. By doing this project, it enabled me to spend more time outside doing location which was something I enjoyed doing. Being given the opportunity to chose exactly what we wanted to do for our personal project was benefitical to me because it allowed me to do something that challenged and developed my photography skills.

During the researching process I looking into Mark Jenkins' photography work which allowed me to understand the way he works a lot better. I think that this helped me massively when deciding what shoots to complete. It also helped me because it showed me that I was able to complete both still images and video within my shoot which was something different to anything i've done in my previous units. I had to complete an image bank containing some of Mark's photographs along with a definition page based on his work. In terms of knowledge, I gained a lot from doing this and creating ideas became a lot easier for me personally. Another lot of research was completed during my project prior to the shooting and that was current street photographers within the industry. I had to find twenty different photographers and complete a detailed analysis on five of those that I chose. This helped me to link their work with Mark's and therefore expand the street photography topic that I had chose to do. It also gave me more ideas of what to do for some shoots as the photographers that I researched were similar to Mark in terms of being different and appear out of the ordinary.

After doing this research, I then had a deeper understanding of Mark Jenkins as a photographer as well as street photography in general. I then decided on shoot ideas that I wanted to feature within my project. I completed 12 shoots that contained either inanimate objects or real life models. I decided to mix it up by using both because it made it more interesting both to the audience and to me as the photographer. During these shoots, I captured both still images and videos. I think that this was really interesting to do and developed my skills in terms of forms of photography. I had not done video prior to this project in my other units. I therefore enjoyed doing something new and was able to be more creative and I think that this helped me massively. After watching Mark's videos that he had created, I was able to see the ideas that featured within his video. This allowed me to try and do the same thing - in terms of capturing reactions of members of the public. I also created a work diary for each shoot after completing them in which I spoke briefly about the shoot and evaluated two photographs from that shoot. I also spoke about the relation to Mark Jenkins because he was the inspiration behind the project. By doing this, it enabled me to see what I was doing well and wasn't doing well. I then could make my next shoot better and more successful.

During the project, I also had to complete 10 computer experiments and 5 physical experiments. This allowed me to experiment with the photographs that I had taken and change their appearance in an attempt to make them look different - something Mark Jenkins' work tends to be based on. I also was given the opportunity to complete 10 print techniques which included: image within image, image and text, weaving, duotone, overlay, selective colour, repetition, montage, framing and cluster. These techinques were a huge help in terms of gaining knowledge of how to edit photographs in Photoshop and therefore allowed me to demonstrate that I was capable of doing these techniques successfully and I demonstrated that I could edit my photographs and make them look effective through using these print techniques.

Overall, I think that this project has been a huge success and I have developed skills that will help me with further photography projects. I think that allowing for a personal project has allowed me to explore and be creative by doing something different and being happy doing it. I also think that I had gained knowledge of the different forms of photography because prior to this project, I did not know that video could be classed as photography. But, after researching Mark's work I have learnt that it is and therefore have expanded my photography skills and feel like I have developed well as a street photographer. It has also allowed me understand that video can be present in upcoming projects and I am therefore more interested in using this form as part of photography.