CAN has been an opportunity for me to take a fresh look at image-making and to explore themes that I have not touched before. It has been a bit of a surprise for me that identity has come to the fore, as it has in Assignments 2 and 4. Rather than turn to another broad theme at the end of CAN I am inclined to push myself with another aspect of the identity question.
Assignment 2 looked at the issue of family origins — most of us are interested in where we came from and founding myths can be very powerful. Assignment 3 touched on a closely-held fear that has dogged me since I was a teenager. Even Assignment 4, my reading of Paul Strand’s Wall Street, 1915, was an identity exploration of sorts: a chance to delve into the reasons why the photograph has captured my imagination for so long.
For Assignment 5, I have decided to touch on the issue of aging. I am at a point in my life where I have noticed that I am thinking about the next stage of my career and am finding that the attitudes of others around me are changing subtly. Some of it comes from personal interest while some of it appears to be rooted in stereotypical expectations or even forms of ageism.
I discussed a few possible approaches with my tutor during our last Zoom meeting and he was encouraging. He was also good enough to follow up with some examples from Hannah Starkey, Larry Sultan and Rembrandt that I can use for reference and/or guide points for research.
One of the key elements that I took away from my earlier CAN assignments and from my tutorials is the need to pay close attention to every element in the frame of a constructed image. Just as I labour over each aspect of an image I am reading, I need to give the same consideration to every piece of the image I am building: lighting, props, costumes/clothes, colours, foreground, background, gesture, expression, etc. I am essentially dressing a set for a one-frame play.
Context and Narrative 