I am struggling to determine an idea for this assignment. It is incredibly open-ended in terms of what you can do, but ironically that is feeling like my biggest hurdle in the early phase of development. It doesn’t give me any real inspiration on what to do. I’m also a big fan of street photography, and while that is something I’m leaning towards doing, I am somewhat at the mercy of my environment in some respects if I do, and I wonder if a controlled setting would be better for this assignment. But I love photographers like Vivian Maier and James Nachtwey and their incredible capture of the human element, and I want to get that sort of effect with the stylisation of an Arnaud Moro-esque type (like I’ve been experimenting with all semester – man every time I take photos I realise how talented he is). Now whether all those come together or not both conceptually and practically is a whole other discussion – my mantra this semester has been try doing things that you don’t think will work for the sake of experimentation, and push yourself in the form of trying what you find uncomfortable – so I definitely am not opposed to this going terribly, especially as my usual form of photography is just finding when inspiration strikes. I definitely do not usually “pre-plan” my shoots to this effect (more so just have a readiness to take them), so I am definitely curious if I end up happy or not with my product and find it authentic to myself creatively (as in, whether I am creatively satisfied or if it feels like a criteria list I am getting through).

With all that being said, if my environment ends up being poor and I go with street photography, I will endeavour to get something of substance; but truthfully, I think I definitely find it a bit of a weakness of mine when I try to take landscape photos that aren’t heavily stylised or lack a subject, so that too will be a learning experience.

Hopefully, this doesn’t end terribly!