Final Evaluation

Final Evaluation

In the beginning of the project I wanted to document British culture and British identity by focusing on people and objects as I thought that this would be the best way to present this idea. As my personal project developed I began taking images that were landscape photography so my original idea changed. In the images I have created I have shown a clear comparison with the City of London and smaller towns such as Lea Valley and Waltham Abbey, I chose to compare these two places because they show how British culture and identity differ in both places. In London I have shown British culture and identity as the landscapes show how there is a big work ethic and London, my images also show how we have had to develop out lives and increase security because of the recent terror attacks in the country. In Waltham Abbey I have shown British culture and identity because I have shown what it is like to live in these smaller towns and although they are considered as a smaller town they still show signs of being similar to London. The photographer I based my work on was Simon Roberts as he expressed British culture and identity through landscape photography. His work visually relates to my work because he uses images of landscapes that includes people within the image to show how these landscapes bring different people together. As I have mentioned throughout my work I liked his idea of including people within the landscapes to tell a story so within my work I attempted to use people within the landscapes that showed a meaning to the landscapes, for example within my shoots in London I included tourists within the images that showed how the famous landmarks that I documented draw attention from tourists. 

Here I have presented one of my images and one of Simon Roberts, they work closely together because they both represent London, the people within the images show how London brings people together. These images both represent British culture and identity because they show famous landmarks that we associate with Britain and London.

For example, in my Tower Hill shoot I recorded this image which showed how the famous landmarks attracted different types of people. All these people tell a story, there are people taking selfies with the famous landmarks who are considered as tourists but there are also people just walking along not even admiring the view they are considered as people just commuting around London either for work or for fun. As well as documenting London I also documented landscapes in countryside areas with more nature to express British culture and identity in these places. By documenting both city landscapes and countryside landscapes it enables us to compare what each area brings to the British culture and identity topic. I documented countryside landscapes in Waltham Abbey and Lea Valley, these areas are close to my house which made the shooting process a lot easier. I wanted to document the nature within these areas because I believe that it shows how British people take pride in the nature within the country. 

For example, this image was taken in Waltham Abbey and I chose to take this image to express the British culture with the nature aspect of the area. The main focus of the image is the river running along the middle as it is a big part of Waltham Abbey so I wanted to signify it. Many of my images taken in Waltham Abbey and Lea Valley are similar to this image because I expressed the nature values in these areas to link to British culture and identity. In the beginning of my topic I didn't expect to be going down this route of landscape photography, I wanted to use symbolism to express British Culture but I haven't used single objects to present this symbolism I have just used symbols within the landscapes. Within some of my shoots I did focus on one specific object but rarely and this is why my idea changed and I decided to focus more on landscapes rather than singular objects. 

For example I chose to focus on the seagull in this specific image because I thought it would capture British identity well as we associate a lot of Britain with having seagulls. This image relates closely to Martin Parr as he takes images up close and personal with the object which is what I have achieved here. I did originally saturate the image to relate to Martin Parr but to work it into my body of work I decided to desaturate the image. By focussing in on this one objects I created a direct address of British culture rather having deeper meanings of British culture expressed through my landscape photography. I chose not to focus on certain objects throughout the whole of my project because I wanted to link my work wholly to Simon Roberts who works with landscape photography regarding British culture. I believe it is significant that my idea changed because I have achieved a strong body of work and a good series of images that relate to my beginning project proposal. 

My initial project proposal was to look at British culture regarding the different objects that are found in the places around Britain, I wanted to take images of red phone boxes which would link to Martin Parr's symbolism which I would also use alongside his ideas of saturation. In my first shoot I didn't use some of Parr's saturation techniques but I didn't carry this on because it gave a comedic effect to the images which is not what I wanted within my images. In the beginning of my shoots I wanted to just focus on Martin Parr as a photographer but as I developed my images I realised that Martin Parr and Simon Roberts together would allow me to be influenced by the best photographers who work closely to my ideas. There were various approaches I could've taken to portray British culture but I chose landscape photography, the reason I chose this was because I wanted to express the differences within the areas around Britain and by using landscape images it is clearer which areas I am photographing in. I chose to compare the areas by documenting their landscapes as this shows how different each area is and show the sights we see around Britain. For example, my first shoot was at Clacton beach and my other shoots have consisted of London shoots, these locations are very different so my comparisons between the shoots are easier. I wanted to compare these locations because the landscape images show the different people found and the different wildlife/nature found in each area. The comparisons between these areas all express British Culture as it shows how different each part of Britain is.

Overall, I believe that I have achieved in expressing British culture through landscape photography because I have shown the different views around Britain and London. Although I didn't use symbolism within my project which I was originally going to use I believe that the way I changed my idea and my constant use of landscape photography has made my project succeed and helped me produce a constant body of work. The images I took within my shoots were easy to distinguish between ones that worked within my project and ones that didn't, because my locations were so different some images taken in each location were so different that they wouldn't have worked when putting them into my portfolio. My final images all show how different London and Britain are, the smaller villages are much quieter and peaceful whereas when documenting images in London it is clear to see how many people are active. My work shows how some parts of the countryside have been neglected because there is no people active within the areas. The images taken in London also show how we as modern day people have to prepare for tragic events such as terrorist attacks, barriers have been put up around London to try and protect our people by documenting these landscapes with the changes it shows how the city has decreased in beauty because of these events. I think I have succeeded within this project and produced a successful body of work.