The Reflective Presentation has been submitted; the next assignment is to submit a formal project proposal. I have been working on my “volunteers” idea and remain committed to showcasing the work of a group of people giving time to a variety of organisations. The alternative would have been to focus on one organisation. The downside to the latter approach is that the organisation itself might take centre stage. By varying the organisations and having a consistent style to the portraits, the volunteers can be the stars of the show.

I have a few ideas for how I’ll get the work seen. I am leaning towards a photobook with a twist. I’ll share more about the twist in future posts once I have fully fleshed out the idea. The aim is to create a true appreciation of the sitter.

On the practical side, I have been running test shoots. I am playing with lighting and flash to figure out what works best. It’s important to connect with my sitters, so I am trying to avoid flash, as it might break the rapport. I am also testing out colour versus black and white.

To support the project component, the module requires some very interesting reading on the context of photographs, and my cohort attended a great seminar where we “read” a single image. The combination of reading and seminars is helping me build a much greater appreciation of the photographs I view. I have bought a few photobooks focused on portraiture to build a reference set to draw on.