Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject of your own choosing. Each photograph must be a unique view of the same subject; in other words, it must contain some ‘new information’ rather than repeat the information of the previous image. Pay attention to the order of the series; if you’re submitting prints, number them on the back. There should be a clear sense of development through the sequence.
Initial Ideas and thoughts.
What is it about? It’s about sexual exploitation of migrants.
I chose this subject because atrocities go on all over the world, and with a worldwide social media network, the internet and press coverage, which is instantaneous, we are exposed to the most horrific and unimaginable persecution possible. With the migration crisis that has hit Europe, criminal gangs are ready and waiting to take advantage of these desperate, vulnerable people. Unfortunately many end up being forced into the sex industry, unable to escape for fear of deportation back to their original perpetrators.
My empathy for this subject derived from my partner, he was an immigrant from Italy, because of this, he sympathised profoundly with all issues concerning immigration. I also have a friend who is a Doctor, he does voluntary work for an organisation called Doctors of the World. They run clinics in London which offer health care for homeless people, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, and also sex workers.
An exhibition was held at the Four Corners Gallery in London, about one of the Doctors of the Worlds clinic. It was titled “Undocumented: Healthcare for the hidden”, it was an extremely powerful set of photographs, with life stories of these people detailed alongside the portraits.
Demonstration of technical and visual skills. Demonstration of creativity.
My visual strategy for this assignment was to take 10 images alternating between male and female, starting with the head down to the feet, the final image will be a collage made up of all the other photographs together. I wanted the series to display the sadness and sorrow of one person, but capture the arrogance and contemptuousness of another.
The methodology I used for these photographs is shown in the drawing below.
All the images were taken with a Canon EOS 5D mark IV full frame camera set to manual, with a 24-70mm lens.
Reflection
Reflecting on this assignment, I found getting the images to sit together was very challenging, I hadn’t thought about the different shapes and sizes of my subjects so it took a lot longer than I anticipated. I don’t feel I managed to captured the desperate feeling of despair that I wanted to achieve either, I wanted the female to be seen as the abused victim of her circumstance, and the male to be seen as the abuser, who is arrogant and totally oblivious to everything except his own desires. This exploitation goes on towards men and women alike, however, for this assignment I used the male as the perpetrator and the female as his prey, although in reality there is no discrimination. Overall I believe my work does tell a story, and meets the assessment criteria, even though it turned out completely different to what I had imagined at the beginning.
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