Decay Part. 2

As well as the flowers and cigarette, I took a few pictures in a graveyard:

These pictures are a more literal representation of decay, hence my putting them in a separate blog post. I feel that gravestones are always quite thought provoking and atmospheric. I particularly like the final picture, because the plants have really taken over the image, which I feel is very suggestive of the decaying underneath. I also feel that these pictures are helpful in my fabric of society project, as perhaps the fabric of society is the people who have gone before; maybe I could bring in the question of progress and the idea of people repeating the past. 

Decay Part. 1

At university today, we were given a few different areas to explore further. I chose decay, and took some really nice pictures of 'decay' around my university, and the local village of Harrow on the Hill.

I feel that the decaying flowers particularly work really well in photography, and fit in with my fabric of society project. I like the idea that they are still beautiful, but they are rotting. This could, I suppose, be interpreted in at least two ways - one being that what is beautiful may be harmful or it may be not be completely healthy, and the second being that the flowers represent individuals in society, and their fragility.  

I also like the final picture, of a used cigarette. Cigarettes hold, to me, a lot of connotations of the problems within society. People often glamourise smoking, and although this can seem fun and without problems, there are definitely victims in the situation. For example, children of parents that smoke. 

Graphic Design Workshop

At university, we had our first graphic design workshop. We used a process to make stencils to learn about how shapes and lines can interact to convey ideas. After I was happy with my composition, I turned it into a stencil and photographed it over a range of backgrounds:

I started off putting the stencil over my computer screen, to get a feel for what would work well. This showed me that darker images would be best. I feel that the second image works well as the code can really change a person's interpretation of the stencil. The blocks were used partially to represent groups of people, so I like the idea of having an individual as the background. This is what triggered me to look at eyes, which I feel work the best. The eyes are almost juxtaposed by the harsh, mechanic rectangles and I like this a lot. 

Transport

Our first brief is to create a project that revolves around the theme of the 'Fabric of Society'. This includes a very broad spectrum of ideas, but I began thinking about the things that run, control and guide society, like it's foundations. This made me think about the tube network in London. I took these initial pictures to develop this idea:

I feel like the transport of the city fits in with the theme of the fabric of society because so many different people, and different types of people, are brought together on the tube. This means that it would probably be a better idea to photograph the people using the tube, however I think these pictures are quite good at portraying the general, rushed, artificially lit atmosphere. 

Introduction

My name is Beth, I'm 19 and studying Illustration and Visual Communication at Westminster University.