For this shoot, I intend to use the style of Lewis Baltz in the exploration of photographing shop window fronts. As my chosen topic is Manufactured Structures I hope to create a final series of images of buildings within my hometown of Waltham Abbey. The reason I have chosen shop window fronts for this first shoot is because during my preparatory shoots, I experimented with a couple of photos of different shop fronts and I personally found the final outcome really interesting. As shown in the image on the left, my main plan of this shoot with be to carefully frame my images in the similar composition to the work of Lewis Baltz and also of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, These are just 3 of the photographers who I found when research my project for my preparatory shoots that helped influence this project. In order to achieve the similar style of composition in a head on style format, I will be using the equipment of a tripod and focusing on the camera settings, this is be to gain a bright image, which is not too over exposed , therefore to achieve this effect I will aim to have as low as an ISO as possible this is because the higher the ISO the more grainy an image is and I want my images to be quite soft. Furthermore, within my preparatory shoot of shop fronts I found an issue with my final images and shadow, this is because at the time of taking these images, I did not focus on anything else other than taking the image, therefore I hope to achieve images in this shoot of sharp and aesthetically pleasing and interesting images for my audience to observe, by doing this, I will have to ensure that before I take the image, I look at what will actually be in my frame, will there be shadow, will there be reflections? I plan to keep these in my mind when I do go out to take this shoot.
The location route I will be following is highlighted by the red line, this is the high street within Waltham Abbey called Sun Street, the reason behind me choosing Sun St. for this shoot is because it shows how much of a small town this is, even though there are big shops such as Tesco, lots of shops are small boutique shops and as the shops of Sun Street are all listed buildings, the outside of them are not allowed to change from their original state showing the historic value in these shops.
What I Actually Achieved:
As Waltham Abbey is quite a small town, down the high street, it mainly consists of independent companies/ small standing boutiques. I decided to include this image in my work record because I believe it has highlight the style of the town within this single image, additionally, I find this image one of my stronger images of this shoot. This is because, this barbers was opened in 1940 and there a still relevance of the older era of this town. For example above the sign, even though it is not shown in this image, there is a barber pole which is quite old as it has faded. Furthermore, as this building, much like all the other building on sun street, is listed, this means that the outside can never change what it looks like, it is protected for historical reason. Another reason I believe this is one of my stronger images is because of the framing, I positioned this image in my frame so that one each side of the main building there was a similar gap on either side. I also find that my aim for focusing on the composition has been successful in this particular image because it signifies the impact that my research has had throughout my project- the image shown here is the work of Andreas Gursky who also captured images which focused on the similar composition to my work- head on.
This is another image which I decided to include in my record because I believe it clearly shows the historic factor of the town of Waltham Abbey. This is because this image is of a butches shop which are becoming increasingly less popular- independent companies such as this one in particular are being taken out of business by large conglomerate super markets such as Tesco, Asda and Morrison. Much like the barbers, this company was founded around the 1940s. I think this is important because it shows a sign of the small independent aspect of this town as the companies have been kept through generations, passing down and keeping it in the family. Many shops down sun street and very well known to the people in Waltham Abbey, where everyone seems to know each other and there is a great community spirt which is shown on different events which take place through out the year- different fates. For this particular image I find it to be one of my stronger ones in this shoot because of the framing work again. I stood in the middle of the shop front so that I could frame this image in the correct and most interesting way, at the same time this helped enable me to not be in the frame. I do however believe this image would be even better if it was a detached building so I could have gaps besides each part of the frame, although I can not help/ change the way the buildings are. Furthermore, this image could be improved by the removal of the window reflection, although again there wasn't much that I could have done with this due to the weather- it was sunny so it was causing reflections on the frames. Moreover, I believe this image is a stronger outcome of this shoot because much like the image above, I believe it consistently shows my use of research to help me complete this project. For example the image I have placed here is of the work of photographer Lewis Baltz who work I had aimed to take inspiration for in this shoot as he also captures really interesting images of structures, he is also part of the new Typographics movement which I believe is also relevant within my work and project.
Finally, I do believe that this is one of my weaker images within this shoot. This is because I aimed to explore the different shop fronts in Waltham Abbey, showing the difference between the old stores and the newer one. This is obviously one of the images I captured revealing a newer shop on sun street being much more well known out of this town. However, I found that the newer styled shop fronts didn't work as well. This is because, even though the buildings are listed and nothing can actually be changed in the building itself, more well know companies such as this and the cooperative, have added a "fresher" look adding paint and a more modern name above the door. Personally, I preferred the images with an out dated sign on the building because I find that they conform better with a small town atmosphere. Furthermore, I do think this is one of my weaker images due to my composition which I framed this image with. This is because I had to avoid being in the window reflection on the door so I had to stand slightly to the right which I do not think has worked very well because now the image doesn't appear central. More over, even though I cannot change this myself, I believe if I would have actually taken the image with the door in the centre much like it appears it should be, the sign would have been off centred which again wouldn't have the same effect that some of the other images I gained in this shot created.
What I Am Doing Next:
For my next shoot, I am intending to create a New Vs Old series of images, showing what life was like 100-70 years ago and compare it to what it is like now. A way I am going to be incorporating this into my project will be that the images will be consisting of structures, how somethings which used to stand are no longer here as they have been replaced by homes for example.
