I did a shoot at a park in Brandon Hill Bristol. Brandon Hill holds Cabot tower.
“Cabot Tower is a tower in Bristol, England, situated in a public park on Brandon Hill, between the city centre, Clifton and Hotwells. It is a grade II listed building. The tower was built in the 1890s to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the journey of John Cabot from Bristol to land which later became Canada.” – Source
Since this park is based in a city I wanted my subjects to look like they come from a city background. Having the balance of nature and urban. My two subjects were very city oriented people, I almost felt a slight sense of unfamiliarity, being put out of their comfort zone when shooting in the way we did, it definitely wasn’t what they were used two, as they were used to mainly doing fashion in a concrete setting. With this in mind, I wanted to see it as a challenge, to see if it was a good idea they could get behind. They didn’t naturally open up in conversation as much as the other people i’ve shot so far, but I put a lot of that due to the fact this little park is still in the city and there wasn’t much solitude involved, there were people everywhere. I don’t think parks like this are always enough to truly reach the core of ones self, to get the full experience of removing what’s on the surface to feel what’s beneath. It was interesting to observe this.
I first took images of a subject from the side, The aim here was to capture him in silhouette with the sky acting as 90-100% of the background. These images here are to represent the act of dreaming and visualising in a clear space. “Our mind is like a blue sky. Clouds come and go. We tend to get caught upmin the clouds and forget about the blue sky.” ~ Andy Puddicombe.
I further continued to shoot around the park. I was not Happy with the background here. So I switched positions to shoot from down below looking up against the wall.
Incorporating the tower lead to what I would describe as a princess and a castle themed looking image. I am trying to focus on the backgrounds as much as the subject and their poses. In the third image my subject is smiling, however there is something about having a straight up smile I am not sure about including in my project. I don’t know why but I feel the need to have a serious undertone. The connection between our innerselves is a powerful one, and I do not want my project to come across as just a surface level “quick walk in the park will make you feel better” typeof thing. It goes deeper, and I want the viewer to potentially feel and resonate with the person connecting with themselves. I am not completely writing off the use of blatant smiles in my work, but they will have to be completely genuine.
These images I were particularly more fond of. I feel both her and the background blend well together.
Finally this stone structure above a pond. The lighting was not that great that day, I look forward to seeing if I can give these images bit more life through the editing process.
These images my be a nice contribution to the selection of images in my book. I want my work to have variety. An introduction a number of different locations, faces, races and genders to give the project variety and make everyone feel involved.
Thank you.
Critical Research Journal. 