When looking back over my work I can see how my ideas have developed over time from my initial project proposal to my final work for the exhibition. At first, I wanted to do a surveillance of the city which I have carried through to the end however the concept behind my project evolved into exploring the theory behind street photography such as voyeurism and looking at The Arcades Project which expanded my knowledge of the flaneur. Alongside this, I undertook research into famous street photographers such as Brassai and Sophie Calle who influenced the meaning and narrative that my work created. I found that researching into photographers who took the idea of street photography differently expanded how I viewed my city around me, with all of them being flaneurs in their own right but taking it differently.
Throughout my research, I began to get curious about the flaneur and the concept of being one revolved around being a man - which is something I am not. I then decided that this was something I wanted to challenge in my work, creating a surveillance of the city whilst also documenting my journey of what being a flaneur means to me. As my interest in this concept began to grow I researched if such a thing as a female flaneur existed and to my luck it did, a flaneuse. Although not defined by Google explicitly, this term has popped up straight away in a news article exploring how females were claiming back their streets. This definition then became something my work revolved around, an exploration of the flaneuse if you will.
I depicted this concept through my work by shooting my final work with a Pentax 1000 and ISO 400 black and white film. I find that the combination of old school film contrasted next to a modern concept such as the flaneuse links into the juxtaposition in the streets that I spoke about in my initial proposal. The images I captured throughout my project have been of various walks I have taken throughout the city taking photographs of mostly reflections as they create complexly layered photographs but also of objects/subjects that to me would create an enigma in the narrative for the audience to read more into my journey, hopefully sparking a further interest into my work.
When looking back over the photographs that I have taken it is clear to see the improvement from my first under unexposed contact sheet to the contact sheet that was completely overexposed to my final shoot that presented my ability to understand the Pentax 1000 finally. Although I have a better technical understanding of how to use 35mm camera I plan to expand my skills/techniques further in 2nd year.
For my final images, I choose to use the most successful photographs from my previous shoot that I had also refined. When printing out my photographs I chose to print them at 6 by 4 as I found that it linked together with the idea of scrapbooking as well as the novelty of using film prints. When sticking up my images and poem I choose to use masking tape and small pins as alongside the book they worked well together, making the concept of my workflow well due to them both containing tape with a scrapbook style. I think that as a collective of work when up on the wall explains and explores the concept of the flanuese really well, telling a story and a narrative which is something I wanted to achieve with this exhibition. Although I am pleased with how my work has turned out I think a bit more fine tuning with the printing of the poem could have gone a long way by having it printed on something stronger.
Overall, I think that this project has allowed me to really experiment with the way I look at photography. With me gathering brand new insights into using software such as illustrators, using the Hasselblad scanners to scan in my negatives as well as learning how to develop and shot 35mm film. For me this project has opened my eyes to how I view my city and photography itself, broadening my ideas and skills.
