Development-Through the doorway

Through the Doorway...

For the development of my Angela Strassheim photo shoots I wanted to take some images looking from my view of my mother. I wanted to portray that it was from the view of me looking in on mum getting ready and then replicating the same poses and routines in my routine ,to show how the older generation teaches the younger generation. I wanted to portray the way the doorway was acting as the boundary for the person looking into the room ,it symbolises the idea that you shouldn't be there. It also implies that what you're looking in on is just for the people involved and not for you. It also suggests a certain curiosity that we all have to want to know what's happening even if it's an exchange between two people.

I then wanted to further develop my work  by combining me looking in on my mum with looking in on how my sister nurtures and looks after her son to show the way the family passes down similar traits to bring up the next generation. I chose to photograph situations that normally would be done in privacy and that would just be between the people it effects. For example my sister feeding or changing her baby, in the privacy of her own room or her playing with him that should be an intimate moment between the both of them.

The reason I chose to develop my responses in this way is because I want to show that often you don't need a massively set up and thought out idea with straight faces and statuesque poses; that the most powerful and empathetic family photos often come from candid and natural circumstances. I also wanted to show that within the family there are situations that are shared just between a couple or a parent and child that shouldn't be invaded by anyone else but actually the relationship they have is shown much more clearly through the invasive nature of the image.

In the above images I wanted to create a mood or narrative that suggests the people in the images shouldn't be photographed or looked at. The element of the doorway achieves this sense of secrecy and spontaneity as it appears to the viewer that they were having a moment that shouldn't be interrupted or disturbed.

I chose to use my sister and her baby as it portrays a certain innocence, similar to Clare Gallagher's work in that the child is so dependent on the mother and in the early stages these precious moments shouldn't be ruined or disrupted. I also wanted to use the genuine innocence of the mother and her new-born baby to develop from the work I did inspired by Angela Strassheim who brings in the doorway to create the idea of looking in on somewhere uncommonly photographed.

Further Developments...

I decided to reshoot some of the photographs I started to develop. I did this to refine my images so that the message behind them would become clearer and also to formulate a stronger final piece. I chose to develop on the idea of looking in on somewhere you shouldn't be or situations that are intimate and special between two people that you weren't meant to be apart of.

The lighting is particularly important for the images as it gives the photographs a mood and allows the viewer to connect with the implied meaning. I wanted the doorways to be shadowed and framing the subject inside of the door making the privatised scenarios the focal point. Although, the doorway is somewhat the main significance as it gives off the idea of intruding or interrupting, which for a 'family photograph' can seem shocking or controversial at first glance.

I then took photographs of my sister with her baby looking in the perspective of  'Through the doorway'. I took photos of her changing him in the bathroom and holding him in the kitchen as well as doing every day routines such as making a cup of tea whilst juggling her child. I wanted the doorway to be darkened with shadow and the scenario to be brightened with natural light. This further suggests the implication of the fact that modern day technology and the developing photographic techniques allow for much more candid and spontaneous shots rather than precisely set up portraits.

I then took photos of doorways in my house to symbolise the idea of looking through into a place where you shouldn't be or wouldn't normally be photographed. I chose to do these shots empty without the subject in to show the setting of my through the doorway shots which look fairly simplistic with no focal point, however when you add the scenario inside the doorway it gives a narrative to the shots. The doorway element of the above shoots suggests a sense of not belonging to the situation presented. 

Furthermore, it implies that the person looking in on these intimate and somewhat private routines are removed from the situation and perhaps shouldn't be there, and yet they are photographing it. It also gives a different way of looking at the family. It is so far from the staged and 'pretty' photographs of the family we see in modern photography and older photography, however I think it shows the contrast and change of what is more socially accepted now, in terms of how you photograph and portray your family.

More recently it has become more candid and spontaneous which allows for more narrative and meaning behind the images you put on display.