Final Images

I am very pleased with my final images. I really like each and every image and I am going to continue to take even more. I also think that the text compliments the images nicely. Even though the quotes are not about the images I feel that them both together create a really connective story for the viewers. Its like a contrast between images from his life now and stories from his past which I really like. I wanted to edit the images just to give back some sort of control to bishwan over his life. It gave me more control over how my images look.

Goldberg Influence

I really liked the images by Jim Goldberg titled Open See, which I have looked at within this blog. I love the mixture of imagery with text. I wanted my project to become a lot more personal and I wanted viewers to have a better connection with Bishwan other than imagery. Bishwan has told me plenty of fasinating stories from Kurdistan and I thought that it would be an interesting idea to record an interview with him about kurdistan and other things. I wanted to record him so that I could quote him from word to word and to keep his accent also. I have also decided to make a book out of the imagery and text.

Polaroid Images Of Bishwan's Life

I wanted to take images of all aspects of Bishwans life. I wanted to take images of places thats had meaning to bishwan, such as his home, work etc. I wanted to take images of objects thats have some sort of meaning in bishwans life, and finally to take beautiful portraits of him. So I kept the Polaroid camera with me at all times when I was with Bish. I didnt want to really set anything up but just to merely catch Bishwan in the situations he is usually in. At first I imagined to take 50+ polaroids, but I think that became a more difficult task because each one has to be really thought about, which makes them more special. Its not like working with digital where you can keep shooting. You have to think about each image with thought and carefulness. I scanned them all in, in one go so here they are.

This is 23 Alma Street. This is where Bishwan is currently living in the centre of Barnsley. He wasn't happy where he use to live and so recently moved here where he is much happier.

I was trying to take a picture of a scar on Bishwan's upper arm/bicep. He got it from when he was in a fight in Kurdistan with another boy, who bit him. The flash is way too bright in this one because I didnt want to step too far away because you wouldnt of been able to see the bite mark.

So I took the image again but covered the flash so It would be just natural light. I stood him near the window to get as much light as possible however the image still came out really dark. So I realised quite early on tempramental the polaroid camera was.

Finally took Bish outside to capture his scar. I had to have him stand as close as possible to be able to see it however the camera struggles to focus when the subject is closer than 1 metre.

Image is too hot, as it was really sunny. Tried to take a photo of his scar on the side of his face from where a bullet skimmed it.

An international food shop, where Bish gets his asian pastries/sweets from.

The Kurdish restaurant where Bish loves to go and eat is home food, he loves to go here as he doesnt really like other foods much.

The food, inside the restaurant. As you can see they serve everything on seperate plates. He had rice with mixed meat lamb/chicken, sauces and bread.

Bedroom window. I really love the pattern on the net curtain and the sun shining through the window was beautiful.

The draws in Bishwans bedroom that is always cluttered with lots of deodrants.

Pink horse Bishwan won for me, out of a grabber/claw machine, at Alton Towers. So its kind of special. The flash on this one was way too bright.

Took another picture further away so the flash wouldnt be so bright and harsh. However i hated the dark patch towards the left side and how it was lighter on the right.

So I took one straight on, The shadow around is now more even. I put her to the bottom of the picture with only her head viewable. I really like this changed of angle, I think it brings that something more meaningful to the image. There is alot of space around the pink horse, it sort of secludes her and makes her look small and lonely. I think its a good representation and comparison to Bishwan. He has friends in barnsley but generally he is lonely and doesnt have much. 

Americano's where bishwan works. It was a super sunny day and this image was way too light. I alsodidn;t like the tight camera angle.

The camera has little setting to change but one is to switch it to lighter or darker. So from the previous image I put the camera on darker and it came out a little better. I also changed the angle.

Bishwan and Fizz at Howell Wood, Doncaster. Fizz is my dog and bishwan absolutely adores her. There like chalk and cheese, chasing each other around and both generally acting like big kids.  Image was too light so I took it from a different position.

This is the different position. I feel the composition is a lot stronger than the first and I love the way hes holding my little dog. It as though he showing her off, like shes his young daughter or something.

Again at Howell woods. It was late evening and the sun was slowly sinking. The lighting looked really beautiful in the woods and I really wanted to capture this, so I took a portrait of bishwan stood in the gap in the trees where the light was peering through.

Summer Lane, Barnsley, Bishwans first house where he lived when he came to England. He shared it with other young asylum seekers as he was only 16.

So after some of the images were coming out a little dark and I didnt really want to use the flash I took out the studio lighting from uni. I set 2 up in his front room at either corners. I wanted them on as extra lighting however the image was still very dark.

So i moved the lights a little closer and it did get slightly lighter, and you can make Bishwan out more however it was still way too dark.

So I had no other option but to put the flash on and it turned out suprisingly alright with it on. I didnt mind it in this image at all. It really reminds me of an image you would get out of a family photo album which is what I really like about it the most. I also like the christmas ornaments which have been still left out on show, 4 months later.

Smoking sheesha in his over-grown back yard. Sheeshe is big in his culture and he uses it to wind down andc relax like others would with a glass of wine.

I love morning light and wanted to capture it. So i took a photo of bishwan sleeping one morning.

Finally Silver street or as Bish calls is Shit street. He live here before his current house. He lived next door to and opposite very nasty racist people who made his life a misery. He hated going home at night after work and so would sleep above the shop instead. He would tell the asylum team about it and they would tell him to phone the police. Finally he got them to let him to move.



Polaroid

I decided to use polaroid because I felt it would really bring out the best in the concept of my project to document bishwans life. Polaroid is very much a reflection of bishwans situation. With Polaroid there is no control over how the images are going to come out, whether they are going to be really good or very bad, you just dont know, so everytime you take a photo, its sort of like a gamble. Which is exactly the same with bishwan and his situation here in England. He has no control over his situation here, he could get sent back at any time. So coming over here and leaving everything behind was the biggest gamble of his life. Every image you take with polaroid is special, you dont get many chances to get it right and so you have to take extra care with every image. To watch it develop before you eyes is similar to how I've watched bishwan develop from the boy he was to the man he is now.

Dead End

My whole project suddenly came to a standstill after all the 3D testing I had done was over, so, I wasnt really feeling very positive about the 3D idea and I wasnt sure where else to take it within the project. I didn't really know what I wanted my final images to look like. I was obsessing too much over how technically good I wanted them to look rather than focusing on what would be best for my project concept. I decided that 3D idea wasn't the best way to go foward with my project. I needed a new idea. I was talking to my friend Alice on the phone and she mentioned a Polaroid camera she has, that she got when she was younger and that she hadn't really used much. I needed something new to feel enthusiastic about, the 3D idea had grown old on me and wasnt suited for the concept of the project. I had never used polaroid before and was excited to try it out.

Scans

22nd April 2011

I came across an image online, that I am not able to show as I can't remember where it was, of a man's face pressed against glass, which was quite light and smokey looking. I did a project last year, which contained scanned portraits, which was quite sucessful and I really loved it. I decided to play around with scanning again and wanted to scan in bish' face to see what results I'd get. Would they be as good as the other project I had done or not? Also from the image i came across it gave me an idea to get bish to smoke his sheesha pipe to produce smoke out of his mouth , then slowly breath it out as the scanner was scanning, which it would hopefully catch. I wanted to see if the image would look as good as I imagined or not. The results were not as good as I thought they would be. The smoke didnt really show up as good as Iimagined it would and in some cases it is hard to tell if it is there or not. Also, poor bish, has a big nose and it was difficult to get him close enough to the scanner to get a clear enough image of his face, without his nose looking very flat, squished and unflattering, bless.

I think the images of his hands are alot more sucessful than the ones of his face, as there is more focus and detail in the images, from the creases in his hands.

The head on images of his face are my least favourite. His nose is too big and prominent and it definately distracts away from the rest of his face.

I thought that perhaps if the background was darker then the smokle would be easier to see. It did make it more obvious and clear however it was still not exactly how i imagined. Also because the smoke was moving as the scanner was scanning it has created areas that have note scanned in propperly and in focus.

I like the images of his face form the side better than the front as his nose is not as big and prominent anymore, allowing the viewer to focus on other areas of his face and hands.

I decided to get in on the act, to show the interraction and relationship between me, the photographer and Bish, my subject.