This week’s task calls for some research. I’ll share more details about my chosen project in a future post, but a central theme will be volunteers. Before creating images, the course requires research to establish how other photographers may have covered the subject of my project. This week, I will access the online library and other sources to see previously published work covering volunteers. There are many images in a style similar to the one above by Filippo Bacci. The picture is very literal; it leaves little to the imagination. The volunteers are signified by a uniform; one wears a lanyard. The packages are being passed from left to right. The recipients’ dignity is protected by minimizing their presence in the frame. There is enough to show the recipients are happy.

I want to work a different angle. The viewer will be able to appreciate the theme, but in the context of staff supporting customers ot patrons. My volunteers will be covering a variety of jobs, including some that are technically demanding. I have no fixed idea of where the project will end. Instead, I will look for inspiration as I begin to build the collection of images.

The university provides access to academic journals as well as seminal texts that sit on an extensive reading list. This both provides a large target set to base the research on and requires discipline. It would be easy to go too wide and lose focus. Falmouth promotes a research/practice model. Once I have a research baseline, I will make images, and then the process repeats. My own images themselves become research material.