First shoot

First of all, I decided to go for digital instead of film after all - the thought of shooting on film was making me so stressed out it was impossible to get started because I would have to ensure everything was perfect. Also the self timer on my Praktica is only a few seconds so it is probably not the best for self portraits (compared to DSLR that I can connect to my phone).

I made some very rough sketches of some ideas I had for the photos earlier so I am referring back to these each time I decide to do a shoot. But I might also come up with ideas on the spot (like I did this time).

I haven't had time to edit the photos I took yet since me and my partner share the laptop I use for editing and he has been busy with college work, to be honest I will probably take all the photos during the Christmas holiday (once I get started it's hard to stop!!) and just edit them all at once. I am aiming for around 10 final photographs that all work well together. On their own they probably won't make much sense... Here is one unedited one I just uploaded from my phone's SnapBridge app.

Getting started with my own project

When we started the unit on Creative Process I had lots of ideas for my own project. However pretty much right away I realised many of them wouldn't be doable because of the current restrictions and difficulty to get models.

For a while I have been hoping to do an analogue project instead of digital and I figured this would be the perfect project. However all of my film cameras are broken at the moment so I decided to buy one, and due to my tiny budget ended up ordering a Praktica B100 on eBay. I have already owned two of them so I know how it works plus they are reliable and I already have lenses, filters and a flash for it.

For the project itself I had hoped to do portraits, however that would be too complicated and irresponsible right now. At this point I am kind of curious about the idea of doing self portraits using various outfits, wigs etc. to stage different situations. I know what I want the photos to be like visually, the only thing missing is a theme that would tie them all together into one project.

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For a long time I have been drawn to photographs that look like movie stills which made me think of this photograph by Gregory Crewdson I had seen in one of my books. I obviously don't have his skills or equipment or the money to create this kind of sets but I like the melancholy and eeriness of his photographs. So I started thinking of films that have the kind of aesthetic I am looking for as well as interesting use of colours and haunting characters. I started creating a sort of mood board on my phone and adding a bit every time I thought of something that interested me.

As well as keeping on top of this note whenever I get an idea I am planning to draw some drafts of the photographs I want to take. Since I will be shooting on film I think careful planning is needed, also I am not very good at explaining the ideas I have (and it feels embarrassing!) so I would rather make drawings that loosely show what I have in mind.

Alec Soth's Creative Process

We watched Alec Soth’s 2010 documentary “Somewhere to Disappear” in class. The documentary follows Soth (b. 1969) during his project Broken Manual which explores the desire to just disappear. For the project Soth searched for people living on the margins of the society.

In the documentary Soth admitted that to him working on this kind of project sometimes feels sort of uncomfortable and even voyeuristic. He also points out the concern of taking advantage of people. As the documentary goes on his creative process starts to reveal, and we see how often one photo leads to another one sometimes even taking a completely different direction. This is what he calls transforming the ideas in his head into a “path through the world”.

Minnesota, USA. 2007. © Alec Soth / Magnum Photos

There is a scene where Soth is driving around and sees an interesting looking house. He simply states “that is a picture”, gets out of the car and goes to investigate. He also moves around the furniture in between the photos showing us he clearly got some kind of vision as soon as he saw the inside of the house.

"You're not gonna have an incredible experience every time you take a photo so you just keep taking them and every once in a while it happens" - Soth in Somewhere to Disappear

In an interview with Lensculture Soth mentions how he used to think storytelling was the most powerful tool for expression and therefore growing frustrated with photography’s limitations. However, he says, these days he is mostly interested in “simply paying attention”. He also gives advice on dealing with the gap between your mind’s eye and what your hands can produce reminding photographers to try and “enjoy the process, struggle or not”.