I’m finding this one quite challenging because it requires me to step outside my ‘comfort zone’ and approach photography from directions I’ve never taken or even considered before. There are three activities included in Week 7 and the Assignment comprises six images but not all from the same activity.
So the first activity is:
Composing images in the frame to alter their meaning
Spend up to 2 hours taking photos using composition conventions such as framing, anchorage, juxtaposition and mis-en-scène. Can you create an impression of a false reality for the viewer? For example, can you make something look like it is happening when it isn’t? Or can you, for example, make one person look much taller than another? Remember that in this activity you should not use the digital darkroom to manipulate your images!
How much control over the representation of truth do you have with your camera?
The second activity is:
Visual narrative
Spend up to one hour taking three images which, when displayed consecutively, tell a story. It could be a simple one such as people waiting at a bus stop, people getting on the bus, then the bus departing, or it could be something far more subtle or complex. What is important is to succinctly frame the key elements of the narrative. The aim of this task is to enable you to develop an awareness of the communicative aspect of your images [...]
The third activity is:
Exploiting conventions Consumer magazines use photography very powerfully to make us desire things. If you spend time looking at different types of magazine (for example travel, fashion, food, cars, wildlife, outdoors, hairdressing and beauty) you may notice that each category has its own conventions of the genre such as framing, angle, lighting, mis-en-scène, etc. Look through some different types of magazine and note the conventions of genre that you see. Spend up to 2 hours taking some photos that consciously exploit the aesthetic conventions you have observed.
I need to sit down with a big mug of tea, a notebook, and mull this one over, I think …
