Final Piece – Analysis

The concept of my final photography piece was to create a social commentary, focusing specifically on the homeless people of Lincoln – portraying their lifestyle and focusing on the brief I was given of ‘Division’. In regards to Division, I therefore wanted to focus on social division between the homeless and the ‘normal’ people in society by showcasing the life of homeless people in and around specifically commercialised areas, highlighting the juxtaposition between rich and poor, or in this case, the homed and the homeless, as Clarke denotes,

This concept is an interesting one as it gave me a large scope for execution as there were many ways in which I could go about the project. The use of social commentary through photos is both important and effective because it allows to create a narrative different to that of, for example, film and television as everything the audience sees is restricted to a single frame, and therefore what is included within that frame is very important in creating a sense of narrative, emotion and feel to the overall composition. When analysing portraiture, Clarke states that,

“Indeed, the play of black and white here points up the extent to which the face looks into a void and is devoid of any sense of self, of character and identity.”

Clarke, G. (1997)

And, indeed this is what I tried to incorporate within my photography. The heavy use of black and cold colour temperature about the photographs devoid the homeless subjects of personality and emotion, therefore creating an almost bleak feeling about the piece and therefore creating a social commentary.

With regards to influences, I was particularly influenced by the work of Edward Hopper and Pieter Hugo. With Hopper’s work, I liked how emotion was created through the specific focus of the individuals in the Frame as opposed to what is included in the frame itself. For example, with the ‘Sad Woman’ photograph analysed, my eye was drawn to the emotion of the 2 individuals within the frame as opposed to the objects enclosed with in it, therefore I was not knowledgeable of the upper-middle class background of the individuals until I took a second look at the photo. This influenced me because I ensured that the homeless members of society were the key focus of the frame as opposed to other factors, such as architecture, for example.

As well as this, the works of Hugo was an incredibly significant source of inspiration because he specifically focuses on sheer emotion of the people within his photographs – something I tried to mimic in ensuring the emotion and facial expression of my models were clearly visible in order to create a sense of understanding between the audience and model, whilst also creating a sense of sympathy for the subjects of my photography. Specifically, Hugo’s ‘Sad Boy’ photograph is especially interesting because of the use of deep focus, ensuring that the boy’s sad facial expression is the only thing in true clear focus, therefore ensuring the audiences’ attention is drawn to it. I attempted to mimic this through many of my photos as the facial expression of many homeless people can be seen here, therefore trying to create a sense of sympathy, as mentioned previously.

There were many alternative photos that I could have used, although I believe they were not appropriate and did not give the desired effect in creating a true sense of sympathy and sadness. For clarity, the photos below will be referenced in chronological order, with the first photo being referenced as ‘photo 1’ and the last being referenced as ‘photo 4’.

Photo 1 was interesting as I wanted to include other people within the shot in order to emphasise the juxtaposition between society and the homeless, as they are typically regarded as inferior. However, the focus of this photo was not very clear and the overall focus was taken away from the gentleman selling the ‘Big Issue’ and therefore I deemed it unacceptable for final submission as a result, even though it was an interesting concept. Photo 2 gave the audience a wider shot of the homeless gentleman on the floor, and therefore made him look more insignificant within his surroundings as well as giving focus to his surroundings of rubbish and cardboard boxes – something stereotypical of the homeless community (especially within the media). However, I believe this was not appropriate for final submission as the model’s face does not give a sufficient sense of sadness about the piece. One thing I did like about this photo, however, was the large incorporation of blank space, ensuring the audiences’ attention is kept on the subject of the composition. With regards to both photos 3 and 4, I tried to create the illusion of the homeless gentleman asleep on a bench, which is another typical trope of when society thinks of a homeless person. I also tried to incorporate a high angled shot, again, to make the gentleman seem more insignificant within his surroundings, however the facial expressions of the man in the Frame were not sad enough and therefore did not fulfil the desired narrative. However, this was also an ambitious effort, although unsuccessful in some regards.

In terms of technicality and the project overall, actually getting models for this shoot was surprisingly difficult, as many of the homeless people were not willing to have their photos taken which, in their circumstance, is understandable. However, the people I met whilst completing this project were some of the nicest people I have had the opportunity to talk to, which made the project more worthwhile as I felt like I was almost doing them a favour in helping them and raising awareness for them by creating this project, which added a greater sense of pride to my overall piece. Regarding the work of Hopper and Hugo, I tried to take inspiration from their work and put it into my own. With the work of Hopper, I tried to copy his use of colour in order to create mood and in some cases, juxtapose the use of colour to the feeling and emotion presented in the subjects, for example the ‘Sad Woman’ photo analysed previously. I copied this in my own work as I ensured the colour temperature of my shots were significantly lower than initially shot and was done because the colder colour allows a sense of pain and negative feeling to be created about the composition overall. As well as this, the work of Hugo focuses on the use of portraiture to create a sense of mood and emotion. This was done in my work as I placed particular focus on the homeless subjects of my photo in order to evoke a sense of mood about the piece and therefore successfully works as a social commentary as this creates sympathy for the subjects and therefore evokes a sense or desire for change.

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