Reflection
RESEARCH PRACTICE PUBLISH
Research Phase
As soon as we received the brief I had a couple of ideas, a shoot about the homeless and how they have coped during lockdown and 3 of them were about food banks, to expand on last terms project where I photographed two food banks. I wanted to do this as it was something I really enjoyed and I wanted to give food banks some recognition for what they do as a lot of people are unaware of all of the hard work and the behind the scenes of how a food bank works. I did end up choosing the food bank ideas, after talking to my tutor he said I could combine all three ideas, which is what I chose to do.
I didn't really have to do much research on the food banks I was going to shoot at because Fareshare had very kindly shared my details and what I was doing for my project to food banks and food hubs they deliver to. Which meant that all the food banks and food hubs basically came to me, which I am so so grateful for. Without Fareshares help I feel that this project would have been a lot harder to complete as I would have had to get in contact with loads of different food banks and hubs. I am very fortunate for Fareshare to have shared my details, this also worked out better for the project as the food hubs and food banks that I shot at were receivers of food from Fareshare, making the distribution chain a more accurate. I did some research about how the food hubs and food banks would look so I could plan for the shoot, but sometimes this was not possible as they were new food banks which made planning quite hard.
The main thing I had to research was how the distribution chain actually worked so I could have all the steps for my book. The first part of the chain is the public donate food to their local donation drop off point, supermarkets also donate food to big distribution centres such as Fareshare. The food donations from drop off points and the fresh produce from farms and gardens then get delivered to Fareshare. They then sort through all the food and deliver food to much smaller food banks. The smaller food banks receive the food and get food parcels ready for collection or delivery for the people who need it the most. I created storyboards so I could shoot this in the best way possible and so that I knew which shots I needed.
I also researched artists who had taken photos of food banks for some inspiration, the main photographer I found was Charlie Clift, who started taking photos of his local food bank where he volunteers during Covid after seeing the influx of food coming and going. He was my main influence for this shoot as his photography was really inspiring and all told a story which is what I like my photos to do. Another main thing I had to research was photo books and how I wanted to style mine. I knew I wanted it to be quite a simple design, with images on the right and a caption on the left as this is the way our brain tells us to look at things and to me it makes more sense to open a book and the image be on the right side. The main inspiration I had for this book was the photo book 'Single Dad' by Harry Borden, the design is quite simple with the images all being the same size and on the right hand side, with text on the left to go with the image. I took a similar approach to this book as I really liked they layout and it is very effective in getting the story across and making the image the main focus.
At the end of the five weeks we had a formative assessment where we showed our ideas and research. I had not done any test shoots at this point as I was still planning with the food hubs and food banks when I could come and shoot. This was really helpful to have at the end of this phase as it allowed me to receive feedback to improve on my idea.
PRACTICE PHASE
The next 5 weeks were all about shooting, using all of our research and planning from the previous weeks to guide us. I was on location for all of my shoots and brought along an assistant to each shoot, as I am not very good with new and unknown places so I felt more comfortable having someone with me to help. They also helped me carry my gear which consisted of my Canon EOS 80D, 18-55mm lens, 85mm lens, 28mm lens and Tripod. For the majority of the shoots I used the 28mm lens and always tried to use my tripod this was hard in some locations due to the terrain.
I only completed a couple test shoots at food banks as I didn't really have much time to shoot twice at each place due to not having a lot of time. Especially when some food banks were only open one day a week for a couple of hours, this made it quite hard to carry out an additional shoot at food banks and food hubs. But because of all of my planning a test shoot wasn't always necessary as the shoots all went really well.
All of the shoots went really well, I am very pleased with the final outcome of the shoots after going through them. I had to use natural lighting for all of my shoots as I was on location, this was quite tricky some days as it was raining and miserable meaning some of the images looked a little dark but retouching fixed this. I went to around 6 different locations for food banks and food hubs which meant lots of shooting but it was always so fun, the people at the places were all really friendly and welcoming. I then also went to 2 farms, an edible garden and 3 different donation drop off points with the Trussel Trust. Which meant I had lots of shoots to go to so I had to make sure I did the best I could at each shoot because I didn't have enough time to go back and reshoot if it went wrong. Which it didn't, thanks to lots of planning and organising. Overall, I am really happy with how each shoot went, they all ran really smoothly and I managed to get some amazing shots and also met some amazing people. Each shoot was different than the last, even if I was reshooting at the same location, there was always different things going on, which meant shoot days were always really fun. I received some great feedback when showing my shoots to peers and tutors and it was really beneficial hearing how to improve on certain images if I had the time to go back and reshoot. I do wish that I had the time to reshoot each food bank and food hub but with some of them only being open a couple hours a week and the timeframe it just wasn't possible. I am hoping to go back to a few once I have completed university and have some spare time.
PUBLISH PHASE
I knew how I wanted to layout my book as we made a photo book in year 2 and I absolutely loved the design of that, so I took a similar approach. This approach was an image on the right side with an accompanying caption on the left page. To get to my final layout I used my storyboard (which can be found in the research phase) to place my images into the order of the distribution chain. I did also look at some book designs on Hoxton Mini Press just to give me some more clarity on what design I wanted to go for. The designs that drew me in the most were simple ones with an image on the right and text on the left. This is the design I have decided to go for. I knew that I needed captions with some of my images, as feedback from tutors and peers said that some of the images need more explaining as to what is going on. I captioned the images where a change of place or chain had taken place to let the viewer know it was changing. I also knew I wanted to include an acknowledgments page to thank all of the food banks, food hubs, farms, gardens and people that helped me get the photos I needed. I feel that having accompanying text with the images makes the more more personal and it also adds some clarity to the images which people might be a bit confused about.
I struggled with finding a title that summed up the book in one word which is what my tutor told me it needed to make it stand out. After doing lots of research and finding synonyms for volunteers and help I chose the word outreach. Which I feel is the perfect word to describe this book as it shows people helping people. I also added a sub heading 'Brightons food bank distribution chain' just to make it clear to the viewer on what the book is about. I also added a section at the end of the book which described how the distribution chain works, I did this just to give the viewer a little more information about it and I also find this quite interesting. As you wouldn't really think about all the steps of the chain and how much work goes on behind them, so I wanted to include this. Also, before I showed any images I added a short paragraph explaining why I chose to base my fmp on the food bank distribution chain. I feel this makes it more personal and tells a little bit about me and my interests.
For the front cover I did lots of experiments, but decided to go for a green colour with the image of paper bags filled with food. I chose green because when I think of food I do tend to think of the colour green, and in most of the images green can be seen in nearly everyone. Its quite a fresh colour and makes me think of fresh food, which fits perfectly with the images of fresh produce at farms and gardens. I chose the paper bag image to be on the front cover as I feel its the best photo to bring my whole book together, it shows how much food is needed. I also kept the back cover the same shade of green with my name on the back and the front.
The majority of my images did not need to be retouched that much but a couple of them I had to when the lighting was quite dark and also when there was something in the background that I didn’t want to be there. I used Photoshop to retouch these images but for the others I just used Lightroom where I adjusted the light and colour settings. This brought out the brightness more and made the colours pop.
Overall, I am really pleased with how my final book turned out, I feel that I have showed the food bank distribution chain perfectly with all the steps. I love all the images and having the captions with them makes it more personal. I am very happy that we got complete freedom with this project as it has allowed me to explore something I wouldn't normally think of doing and also because I am hoping to get into photojournalism in the future this is a great stepping stone. I am so proud with how far this project has come, in my very first year at Rave I never thought I would be doing shoots at multiple food banks a day and asking complete strangers for a portrait of them. My confidence has grown during this project as it pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to take photos of something I find really interesting.
I am hoping to get this photo book printed as it is so different seeing it on a screen compared to in a professional printed book and its also such a lovely thing to keep to see my progress. I am also going to submit some of the portraits into the AOP student awards as I feel they are very strong images and its good experience submitting work into competitions.
