Evaluation

My final outcome has continued to follow my chosen topic of ‘Urban Decay’ however, before starting this project I wanted to look at decaying buildings as a whole to show the history of the buildings by revealing different layers to it in order for the viewer to begin to see what used to be there. I also wanted to portray the beauty in decay which I feel I have been able to show. Moreover my final outcome does differ slightly from my original project proposal as I have also looked at closer aspects of the buildings I began to photograph instead of just taking a picture of the whole building I have also taken photos of one area of it, for example a boarded up window or focusing on the paint or the roof e.t.c.  

Throughout my FMP I have continued to use my sketchbook where I have written ideas and also planning for what I wanted to do for my final piece, my sketchbook also includes the primary and secondary research I have completed which helped me to decide what I wanted to achieve with my photos. I have also used my blog where I have been able to review and analyse my work, I have used it to show my experiments and to suggest ways in which I can improve. I feel that both these methods have helped with the development of my work as I have been able to show tutors and peers who have suggested further ways of developing my work, these methods have also allowed me to be critical of my work so I was able to know what I wanted to do next and also to experiment with different ways of photographing and what I wanted to photograph.

I feel that I met all my targets that I had set in my plan however, they were not all necessarily to the timescale I had given myself. I have completed my primary and secondary research and I have also attended exhibitions which is something I had hoped to. I have also completed 4 different photo shoots and the final one being my most successful which I am really pleased with the outcomes of.

Overall my final outcome was produced from numerous developments that I made throughout the FMP. At first I wanted to look at buildings as a whole and I also wanted my final photographs as well as those in my sketchbook and on my blog to be in black and white as I didn’t want the viewers to get distracted by the different colours, I also like how photographs look when they are in monochrome. However, as my images became more abstract by looking at the colours and textures (final photo shoot) my photographs looked best being in full colour where the viewer is able to see the different colours and tones. I also feel that them being in full colour accentuates the various different textures that a derelict building has and also the areas that surround it which is something I also began to look at. Furthermore, instead of just looking at the buildings as a whole I also looked at cropping images more closely to one aspect of the building or using my camera to get different angles/perspectives which allowed me to look at that one area.

I received advice from tutors about how I should present my photographs and what I should start to look at which helped me achieve the final outcomes that I have done. I also received good advice from others during group reviews where they gave me numerous things to research that I wouldn’t have thought of, for example, Chernobyl. On one-to-one tutorials I got feedback about photographer research as I had been mainly focusing on contextual research so this was something I acted on and completed.

One of the things I would improve is my time management as although I have completed everything I feel that I spent a lot of my time researching different mediums of decay and also context for example Chernobyl and radioactive decay.
I would also improve my planning as some things required more planning than others and also if I encountered any problems I hadn’t planned how I would overcome them.

The skills that I have developed are my organisational skills as although I didn’t plan as much as I could I feel that I became more organised when setting out my work. This skill and those that I need to improve will help me in the future with careers.