Introduction

What purpose do charities serve in helping individuals find out where they belong?  That is one of the main questions I wanted to explore through this photography project. Why is community so important when you have something that makes you different? In this blog, I aim to reflect on the advancements made in my project.

Process

For this shoot, I planned to utilise candid photography to capture the connection between the children and the volunteers. Highlighting that essential connection between members of CASPA will reinforce the idea of belonging within a community. This is an important message to portray as it relates to one of the key values of CASPA.

The difficulty with a project such as this is how much of actuality you can ethically capture. If I were to adopt the approach of realism, then I it would be imperative for me to capture the hard-hitting images as well as happy ones. Photos which may be potentially unsettling, would add to the realistic aspect of the project, however, it would be a lot more difficult to shoot. Objective photography portfolios can appear like documentaries that are expected to display the objective truth (Bardis, 2024). However, documentaries can be considered a representation of reality (Blumenberg, 1977) meaning that they are a mere version of actuality. Thus, making it near impossible to communicate the objective truth in my portfolio however having a range of shots should aid me in being closer to reality.

Another issue that may present itself is that on location photography involves working with unknowns such as lighting conditions and the space. Luckily, I will have to opportunity to attend two events over the Easter holidays to photograph the events. This will give me a nice range of photos that will allow me to synthesise a chronological narrative in my project. Furthermore, my client has already sent out and received consent from all the parents of the children which means that there will be no issues regarding child welfare.

Preliminary shots/ Planning

When considering the shots that I will include in my project, it is important to decipher how I will create a narrative. The brief was to create a portfolio of 8-12 photographs. With that in mind, the first few shots should be dedicated to establishing what charity it is and where it is. The way I will do this is by photographing the volunteers setting up the activities and then I shall follow the children and their families. The middle shots shall be dominated by the children all playing together as that reinforces the idea of belongingness which will be juxtaposed by the more hard-hitting images. These images will depict the reality of the community, that it is not perfect.

Below is a mood board that I created to illustrate the types of images I wish to take and will draw inspiration from when considering the composition of my shots.

Conclusion

I shall refer back to my plan when working considering what shots to take and make sure that I have a wide enough variety to encompass the entirety of CASPA.

Bibliography

BARDIS, A., 2004. Digital photography and the question of realism. Journal of Visual Art Practice, 3(3), 209-218

BLUMENBERG, R.M., 1977. Documentary Films and the Problem of “Truth”. Journal of the University Film Association, 29(4), 19-22