Brief

2. Using props

This option is about photographing an object to suggest a narrative.

Choose between a white shirt and a handkerchief for your object. Once you’ve decided; make a series of ​7–10 photographs​ which tell a story about or including your object.

You can make your photographic style anything you like. You may wish to include the prop in all of your series or just some of the images, depending on the narrative. Bear in mind that the story is being alluded to through the use of the prop and its location – and characters should you choose to include them.

Draw a storyboard​ before you start to help you consider the progression of the plot and how you’ll set up the shots.

Now implement one of your ideas. Aim for a tightly edited and visually consistent series of 7–10 images.

7-10 photos

For this assignment I decided to select option 2 “using props”. Not only do I intend to use a white shirt as a prop but in my narrative the white shirt is the central theme. There may also be aspects of option 1 “photographing the unseen”

One of the reasons it has taken so long is due to the last few months of 2020 being spectacularly awful. Grief and shock, unplanned travel and organisation has taken up most of the last few weeks or so and has left me with very little brain space for anything else. It did occur to me to try and turn the grief and shock into the assignment but I found it all too raw and confusing. I will say, however that the pieces  I wrote whilst tying to determine if I could, ended up being quite cathartic and I do believe that writing things down helped me to work through some of my feelings. I was not, however ready to share them. The grief has come from the loss of two close family members in the middle and end of November, one expected and one completely unexpected, sudden and traumatic in its unfolding.

The white shirt as a prop was right there in front of me; literally. In addition to the two family members we lost close together, a few weeks previously my partner lost a close friend. The white shirt had its first outing for two years at this a funeral in October, and when it was laundered and placed back into the wardrobe, we were hoping that it might be a while before it was needed again, although we were aware at this time that there was likely to be another funeral before the end of the year. This next funeral was to happen towards the end of November. The white shirt was back in use again. It reminded us of the previous loss but also took us forward into closure. As I write this we are a few days away from the third and unexpected funeral and the cycle has begun again. The pattern of grief being repeated, replaced or perhaps lessened by the next and then the anticipation of another being reduced by the closing of the wardrobe doors. Is this narrative about the shirt, the wearer, our mortality, ageing or a whole mix? I know what is is to me but I wonder if the viewers of the images will be able to find their own narrative?

I am intending to producing 8 images to represent the following narrative, with or without text. I am not sure about using any text with the images. I did however come across something I had never thought about before and was surprised and fascinated by the effect using text in a particular way could have. I first came across this use in an image by the photographer Arthur Fellig also know as Weegee. In his image first entitled “The Fashionable People” the attention os drawn by the two women in the centre of the frame. Even without looking at the title, attention is drawn to this part of the image due to the contrast between them and the rest of the image. Weegee renamed the image “Critic” a few years later in his own book and as soon as I read this title my attention was immediately drawn to the person on the right looking at the women. I was quite taken aback at such a sudden shift in my attention immediately after reading just one small word. Im still not sure about using text but will come back to it later and see how I feel then.

list of possible images

1. in wardrobe with other shirts  (knowing it will be needed soon)
2. hanging up (no tie) (getting it out and letting it air)
3. hanging up with black tie (The day before)
4. being worn on the day (on the day)
5. ready for washing in washing basket (on the day) Relief?
6. in washing machine
7. being ironed
8. in wardrobe with other shirts  (semi closed wardrobe doors)

Storyboard

1. I needed the white shirt to stand out in the wardrobe amongst the other shirts and luckily it was surrounded lots of colourful shirts which made it a bit easier. It occurred to me that this white shirt just resides happily amongst all the others on a day to day basis but it has a very important place in the owners life. It is an easy choice of shirt at a time which os often filled with stress, grief, worry and indecision.

I also became aware that the white shirt (not always the same white shirt – they have been replaced over the years) did not always play this particular role in the wearers life. This role has been formed over a few years. Many people have white shirts in their wardrobes and I guess it depends on the age and circumstances of the wearer if they have one that has taken on this role or if there is one in the making.

I tried a few different test shots of the shirt in the wardrobe (Contact Sheet1).
Image1864 and 1875 stood out for me. Image1864 had been shot without a tripod and therefore there was some blur so I need to  shoot it again using a tripod.

My second attempt (Contact Sheet 1a) with a tripod and changed lighting to reduce strong shadows..

2. The white shirt out of the wardrobe (Contact Sheet 2) suggests something is going to happen, but without the other images there is little to suggest what. I am aware that the viewpoint is different to that of the shots I took for image 1 above but I wanted to try and show the difference between having a quick check in the wardrobe to ensure that the shirt was there, knowing it was gong to be needed quite soon to actually taking action in the start of the process of getting it ready for the day itself. I’m not sure if this has worked as well as it could

3. The addition of the black tie (Contact Sheet 2) is to begin to give some indication of the narrative. I used Image 892 (last but one) as it looks more natural and a bit less posed. It has some indication of the owners life in the background which adds the idea that although the shirt is becoming more important as time goes on, it is still yet to play its important role.

4. I decided at first to include the person wearing the shirt to represent the reality of the turning point in the narrative, but not to including the head or legs, making it less personal to this particular wearer and more suggestive of a life and death cycle that all of us must go through whatever our situation. I changed my mind and decided not to use the shirt at all and just have an empty hanger. This decision was made on a day where my own particular feelings of loss were quite strong and I noticed the empty hanger still hanging on the door without the shirt. On the day of the funerals the shirt is not in the house and it is the only time it is not in some kind of everyday normal domestic setting and it seemed right for this image not to include it. The empty hanger isn’t obvious at first and although this was not something I had engineered for the image. The fact that the lack of shirt is very obvious is a good starting point followed by the empty hanger, which I hope would help to continue the narrative for the viewer.

5. The shirt in the washing basket could be seen as the beginning of the healing process after grief, and I suppose, sadly,  the starting point towards the next cycle. For most people attending the funeral of close family or friends, once the funeral is over, it is often a time of relief and the start of the healing process.

6. In the washing machine is representing a stage further down the line. I took quite a few shots but have only included in the contact sheet, the last few that I felt might work in the series. I wasn’t happy with any of them when I viewed them with the other images. I took a few more shots with other items in the frame to try and make the series a bit tighter (contact sheet 6a).

Contact Sheet 6

The viewpoint, distance, angle, tones and inclusion of the wooden doorframe seems to make these a better fit with the rest of the images.

7. Ironing – This again is representing the next stage in the process. I wanted some other domestic items to be in the shot for this one as well.

8. Closed (almost) doors of the wardrobe represent certain amount of closure and the point at which the cycle could start again at any point in time.

After further deliberation I wondered if the images were too vibrant and saturated. I took the saturation down a bit in photoshop. I do feel that the subject matter warranted images that were a bit more subdued.

I much preferred the less saturated images and they seemed to indeed come over as a bit more subdued and in fitting.

Bibliography

Fig. 1 1943. The Fashionable People.
[image] Available at: <http://100photos.time.com/photos/weegee-the-critic&gt;
[Accessed 2 January 2021].