"Yet To Be Realised" workshop

We continued the project today titled "Yet To Be Realised" which was like a Chinese whispers forming photography. 

Group A began with a photograph of a bridge in the suburbs of Manchester with a woman walking through. She seemed to be dressed in formal attire as if she was going to a party or a professional job. This then lead on to a photograph that Tobias captured some years ago of a WW2 memorial statue in front of a McDonalds which he though represented the hidden Manchester and the change from traditional Manchester to commercial Manchester. He made sure the bird was in there as a representation of darkness, how the war has been forgotten by consumerism and McDonalds being a monopoly in the food industry. The third photograph was of a McDonalds chip packet, as the photographer wanted to represent someone who was scared of going into McDonalds for one reason or another, and when they finally got in there, all they could manage was a small bag of chips. I like the literal meaning of the photograph, the photographer has taken a day in the life approach to the narrative and I think it opens up the narrative more to interpretation. The fourth photograph was of a Topshop display, and the photographer who took this was basing the narrative on her friend who works in Topshop who goes to McDonalds everyday for her lunch, and how it has become a ritual. Again, this opens up the narrator to a complex and more interesting future narrative, but making it more personal to a certain person. However, from just looking at the photograph, I would not have guessed that meaning. The next photograph was from a BBC programme looking at the changed in the Manchester high street from the 60's and they have edited together a photograph from a street in Manchester from the the 60's and one from the modern day. Sophie wanted to show how the high street changed everyday and fits into the popular things in society. Topshop is a youth orientated company that focused on the "hip" things in society and what young people are interest in. The next photograph was chosen by Joe and showed four people from the 60's walking down a street together, in a black and white format. He chose this because he liked the older look of the photograph and it reminded him of people walking down a high street. The final photograph was of the popular band from the 60's The Beatles, jumping off a roof. Gary wanted to show a fun photograph to conclude the series, and he thought that the people waking down the street looked like The Beatles. I thought this was a good concept, and was well thought out to match the era and the character in the shot. Lawrence commented on the fact that The Beatles were not wearing overcoats and Gary should have considered this within his piece. From a personal perspective, the characters could have taken the overcoats off and then had the photograph taken so I do not think it should be something that should be taken too serious, from a professional point of view.

My group, group B, began with a famous photograph by Martin Parr of the elderly lady sat in the deck chair with the British flag covering her face. Kelly chose this photograph as she thought it had narrative potential and she personally liked the photograph. So do I! Warren then chose a photograph of a homeless man led on a bench shielding himself from the cold with an American flag. Everyone has mixed opinions about what this meant, some people said it meant no matter how bad times are, some people still love their country and stand by it even when their country had failed them. However, some said that they thought that it meant that they were clinging to the last hope of being saved, and it's the only thing they have left. Then Cherry took a photograph, which I received as my Chinese whisper image, of an American flag flying in the wind. I will go more into this in another blog post which will focus on my thought process and what I based my photograph on. The photograph following mine was of a pocket watch, Bee based her idea on the  idea of waiting and what that person might be waiting for. She noticed that the interior was quite dated, so she used a pocket watch to keep it in the era of the photograph being taken. The following photograph was sourced by Milly and because Michael wasn't here, we had a gap in our narrative. Michael sent Milly a photograph of a iPhone, so Milly sourced a photograph of someone walking to work in a suit with an iPhone, showing how technology has become so integrated in society we would notice when it was gone even though it is a luxury. The set then concluded with Jade's photograph which was of an artist she liked at work, sketching a portrait of a king off a deck of cards, which weirdly links back to the first image of patriotism and the royal family.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this idea, and thought it was a good way of analysing a photograph and thinking about its true meaning!