Outcome Portfolio
By Tony Cunha
Book 1: Light Humour I found that these photos worked best in a dark environment as the images created by the lights stood out more. It became easier and easier as the project went on to create new ideas and ways to manipulate images as the more pictures I took, the more I understood about the process as a whole. The image taking process and selection of locations took longer than I expected and could obviously only be done at night. This ment that to take around fourty photos to put into the book I had to go out for three or four hours on about fifteen different nights. I enjoyed the fact that you cant see what you are doing which makes the walk back to the camera rather exciting but at the same time when something has not quite worked you can spend a lot of time attempting the same image. Using this technique to take photos changed my approach and the way my mind worked when I walked down the street. When I saw objects in the street such as dust bins, instead of just ignoring them I would have a think about how the bin could be manipulated to look like a variety of different things.
Book 2: Layered London The inspiration for this book came about when I was out taking photos with another student. His project was on ghosts and the unexplained and I thought that making lots of people look transparent in a photo could have a nice look. With this book I wanted to show how busy london can be but not just by taking photos of busy locations. This seemed to have the perfect balace to work on more than one level. This book took the longest to produce as a vast number of photos had to be taken to simply make one image. The process was also extremely long as all the final photos had to be put through photoshop to be layered. For the three books I wanted to stay away from photoshop and other programmes but to get the effect I desired for this book there was no way around it.
Book 3: London 2.0 During a meeting with Tim, it was said that my selection of images was very broad and had no real focus or direction. I was told to focus on specific aspects that could push my work forward and narrow down the different techniques I had been using. I left the meeting knowing that I wanted to use the shutter speed as a way to show movement within London but I wanted to capture this during the day as well as at night. I chose the two second shutter speed as it was a perfect balance for day and night time photos. Anything less than two seconds would not have captured enough activity and anything over would have made it difficult to shoot in the daytime as too much light would be absorbed and the images would be too bright.
Getting the books made
Originally, I had planned to have the books sent off online to be made. I got advice on where to look and where prices were good and had a rough plan of what I needed to do. The companies I looked at had a two week turn around time so I needed to finish all my Photography at least a fortnight earlier than the submission deadline. On the deadline day for the books to be sent off I felt that I still needed another week to strengthen my work as I needed to revisit some locations to get better images. It was at this stage that I had to decide to make the books myself, by hand.
Plan B Having a final meeting with Luke really helped me to make decisions and focus on this last hurdle. We discussed different options and sizes for the books and given that the books would need time to dry I had to work relitively fast to finish on time. Book binding was something I had only briefly looked at before and this was not the ideal situation to be in a week before deadline day. Having said this, talking to Luke and another student in the class, I was confident I could produce some interesting books on time. The process I used was fairly simple but I found that I had to be very delicate and patient during the making of the book. Giving the glue enough time to dry was essential to make sure the books did not fall apart or unalign.
Having not done this before and not knowing the correct methods and techniques, i had to try and find or invent ways to make it work. When gluing the spine to the books I found it hard to apply pressure to it without it moving around. I eventually had to find ways to solve these problems and I found the challenge quite exciting and a good experience.
layered London
When I first opened this completed book I was dissapointed at the outcome as the pages of the book had unaligned with the hard back cover. I realised that it unalighed whilst the glue was drying as there was not enough care taken or pressure applied to the book to keep it steady and in the same place. I learnt from this and took my time to get the details and measurements right with the other two books.
Light Humour
I felt that this book came out well and everything was well aligned. The process is quite tiring because it needs full concentration and preperation to get a positive outcome.
London 2.0 The london 2.0 bookalso came out well although there is still a lot I have to learn to master the art of bookbinding. A problem I had with this book aswell as the others was the fact that the spine did not align with the other spine on the printed page. This weaked the books very much and I had to find a way around this by sticking printed seperate strimps of paper over the spines.
Deciding to make the books myself was the only choice I had so close to the deadline. I didnt manage my time well and to the best of my ability and I learnt that planning is even more essential when having things made by companies.
Evaluation This project has been a learning curve which I think I have handled well. It has been challenging to overcome certain problems that have arisen but at the same time it has been a great opportunity for me to learn more. I began the unit by working a little bit outside my comfort zone but feel that I managed to adapt quickly to the task in hand. With this project I have experienced and seen things and images that before would have not had an impact on me but now push me to dig deeper and find out more. For me it has become more about the process than the outcome and although the outcome is still important, the paths taken to get there mean more to me than the images themselves. I feel that the books I have produced work well as a series as they all relate to movement in London. Bookbinding was a difficult task to face and I can see that with time and practice I can push foward the skills I have learnt. Having to bind the books myself has helped me develop a new skill that I wouldn’t have tried before. I was not too happy with the final outcome of the books and now understand that time management is very important in order to meet deadlines. I think I have managed to push myself these past few months and when reflecting back on some of my work from the previous years, I feel I have taken a big leap foward in understanding how the industry works. The images themselves are something I am proud of and I feel I have been patient and eager to get what I wanted. If I had to repeat the process again I would have taken more photos and tried to learn more techniques in order to create some stronger work. Photography is something I became fond of in the 3rd year and I was unaware of how significant it can be and how many different aspects there are. This project has helped me to gain knowledge on a subject which I very much look foward to developing in the future.