I’d say that 89% of people don’t like presenting, at all, to anyone, about anything (this fact is 100% made up). However, presenting to Dan Binns, Pauline Anastasiou and Brian Morris (plus the entire studio) today wasn’t actually that bad, if anything I kind of enjoyed it. This is most likely because i’d been super excited about shooting for this project, so was pretty keen to share the work i’d done so far on it. I even rented out a Canon 50mm prime lens from RMIT’s AV department for the shoot. This way I could capture some super clean, low-noise night shots and they turned out pretty great! This is what I ended up with:

 

Shot 1: Abandoned Taxi

 

Shot 2: Sidewalk Construction

 

Shot 3: Train Tracks

 

I entitled my presentation “The Grit That Remains” which Pauline seemed to really like, suggesting I should use that as the name of my photobook. The basic premise for my compendium so far is to shoot anomalies of gentrification in Brunswick. Aspects of Brunswick which have not yet been converted or engulfed by gentrification, the ‘grit that remains’. In general the panel seemed to quite like my idea and I think they quite liked the photos I had shot so far, which was good to hear! They did question why I chose to shoot Brunswick at night, and I really just did it because I love the look of Brunswick at night. I love the way the streetlights add different castes of lights to the images making them look more romantic and surreal. So I thought this would work great for my photo series as I’m attempting to showcase these non-gentrified aspects of Brunswick (which I love), in an aesthetically pleasing way.

The two questions that decided to ask the panel were:

  1. Should I shoot the new, shiny stuff to serve as a comparison? Or shoot an entire series of grit?
  2. If I shoot the new stuff should I shoot new things that are informed by the old, such as industrial/hip bars and cafes? or the truly gentrified new bars and cafes?

The panel suggested that I should definitely shoot gentrified aspects to serve as a comparison, maybe shooting gentrified aspects of Brunswick during the day to make the gentrified and non-gentrified aspects appear visually distinct. They also suggested that I shoot the newer, more gentrified aspects of Brunswick to make the comparison quite visually distinct. I thought this was great advice so I’m gonna head out and shoot some gentrified aspects of Brunswick during the day sometime this week, which is pretty exciting! Overall I’m keen to see how this project turns out, I hope I manage to have an interesting series of images for my photobook!

 

Until next time,

Louise Alice Wilson