Open and Shut, Ups and Downs

Photography is a part of my life, I will always be a photographer up until the day I die. It is a lifestyle, no longer just a career move. Walking through this world travelling is my future and nothing will stop that, capturing moments in time on my journeys and sharing those moments with friends, family and the people of this world is how I will achieve my goals and with that my happiness.

My work is based on instinct, I approach each and every subject with an open mind. The mood of the photo will depend on the subjects character and how we interact together. I will not miss represent a subject, I find it dishonest and fake. The moments I capture are real, this gives the viewer a real sense of being there in person.

In this current piece “Open and Shut”, I have turned the camera on myself, inspired by photographer Christoph Rehage and his project The Longest Way. I proceeded to document my feelings and emotions over some of the busiest months of my life to date to gain a quick perspective on the struggle one goes through before they come out happier and stronger on the other side.

What ever doesn't kill you will only make you stronger.

Original Concept or go Developing?

Well I had originally planned to photograph the insights into young adults drinking and taking drugs in a completely uncontrolled and free environment which would be at a friends farm on his 21st birthday. I still will photograph this for my own personal work but don't think it can hold up to the deep concept this class requires. So instead I'm still searching everyday in my head for something that I care about that has a deeper meaning. I don't usually think about things too deeply, this is the main reason I am moving towards photojournalism for a newspaper. I love photography and photographing people and places, so for me its perfect, I don't have to think up extravagant concepts I just turn up to the event and shoot it, much like I would if I was to photograph the 21st birthday. So ill try and jump out of my comfort zone a little here and see if I can put my mind to a half way decent concept and follow through with it. Struggling a lot thus far, and time is always against me. A brief thought was to do self portraits when I am severely under the influence. Which is usually about twice a weekend. Every morning I wake up and realise how much money I wasted, it is the one thing in my life that really pisses me off and that I have no control over. Over the next two weeks I have decided that I will only have a maximum of 1 beer per day. The first night out at dinner with friends wasn't a crazy fun party like I am used to, had I been drinking I knew how much fun I would have been having with em's and scotty and the like. Instead I went home and went to bed before midnight sober and bored. As a young adult should I even worry about trying to control these situations? Or just let them roll on with no regrets, with the memory in my later life that I never held back and lived life to the full? Maybe these are some of the questions I should be trying to answer in my concept. I just need to find a method of portraying these questions and answers through a series of photos. I will be asking for advice and photographers who have done similar work in the next class. Here is one example of a photographer who I was thinking of using a similar style to: http://vimeo.com/4636202

I had fun getting that off my chest; cheers.

Farm Fest 09' Proposal

I am planning on producing a series of photographs from a party called Farm Fest 09'. This party is an example of young Australian adults engaged in drinking activities that vary from sculling 2 drinks in a beer canon in 5 seconds to bare fisted boxing. I want to be able to give the world an insight into the lives of young Australians and their sometimes primitive behaviour. Farm Fest is now an annual event within my group of friends as it falls on the weekend of Dean Allen's birthday. Dean is a friend of many and has hosted this party on his parents farm for several years now, the party can last up to 3 or 4 days. Because of this party's remote setting hell is actually allowed to break loose.

As I am part of this culture, the perspective will be from one of these young Australians. This will give me greater access and more honest reactions from the people at the party. If these photos were taken from an external photographer the reactions would be much more different compared to just another friend with a camera.

I propose that I document the party from 3 angles;

One will be a camera set up on a tripod which will remain in the same place throughout one full day of the party. I will take a photo every hour on the hour from this camera.

Another angle will be that of my own camera. I will use this to follow 5 of the young party goers and photograph them every hour on the hour for as long as they remain awake.

The third angle that I will capture is that of the perspective of the party goers themselves. I will give the 5 party goers that I am photographing each a disposable camera. I will tell them to take one photo every hour of something that interests them.

With these 3 angles of the party it will provide the best insight into how young Australians party in a place where the normal city rules have been thrown out the window and chaos is allowed to rule.

I will produce the results in a sort of timeline displaying the different angles of the party in a 3 shot sequence.

Trent Parke is a major inspiration for the style and way he captures these crazy events. He has done so in his series on the Bathurst Races. The main difference between his work and my own is the perspective. He is an outsider trying to capture what he sees. I am an insider trying to capture what I feel.

It will be shot on 2 digital cameras and then the disposable cameras which will be developed and scanned in to be digitized.

The output will be digital C type prints.