Contextualisation: Week 3: Portfolio

Portfolio

Week 3

Contextualisation 

What were you thinking about when you made this Work?

 When I was making this work and taking these Images I really just wanted to show that connection between the Horse and Rider. When I took these images I didn't ask the people to do anything, I just told them to do what they'd normally do around their horses, only difference be a bit more cuddly than you may normally be with them. Not that, that was that hard as most riders are normally quite cuddly with there horses cause they're a part of their family, and that's something I wanted to show in theses images as well. When I was younger I always wanted photos like this of me and my ponies but I never got the chance to cause there aren't really any Photographers based in New Zealand that take images like this, so I guess that was one other thing I was thinking about when I took these Images, that I wanted to give them images that I never got to have, pretty images of them and there horses that they can always remember and look back on. 

What was going on in the world and did any of these events influence your thinking at the Time?

I guess in the world we live in today there's a lot of misconception which I think there always has been when it comes to animals, that animals can't feel and don't have feelings and I think through that sometimes people think they can do what they want with them. I've rescued animals before, I've saved hens from battery hen farms, and I've seen the way they're treated and it's horrific, I really have no other word for it. Some of the hens we rescued couldn't walk for days after we bought them home cause they were never given the chance to walk. Some of them died days after cause they we're so badly malnourished, and some died on the way home because of the way people working there picked them up. Some picked them up by their necks to put them in boxes, it was extremely sad. We've also rescued a horse who had been purposefully starved, and she looked like a walking skeleton when we got her.  Sometimes when I see these things I wonder if people think about how they'd feel if they were put in the animals position. I think thats something that influenced me a lot. After seeing things like that first hand, I wanted the chance to show people that animals do feel and should be treated with respect just as much as a person, cause animals and us really aren't that different to each other, and thats something I feel I captured in all my images.

What Photographic Genre and Subgenre does your work fit into?

I feel this work fit's into Portraiture/Possibly Social & Documentary Portraiture/and possibly also Fine Art.

Who are your Photographic Influences?? And what Photographic genre do they fit Into??

I didn't really have an Photographic influences going into this project BUT after finding Shelley Paulson Photographs her photography has become a big influence on my work I've done during my project and probably will be after i've finished this course too. I think her Photographs are Amazing. I've never fully been able to get the colour in my images like she has, as you can probably tell from the images above, BUT it's something I'm working on and will get one day.

I think Shelley's work falls into the same kinda Genre's as mine as she takes very simular images so I think possibly Portraiture/Social & Documentary Portraiture/and possible also Fine Art.

What Idea's or techniques have you taken from this Photographer into your own work?

I love her depth of field in her images. In a lot of her images she has a very narrow to kinda in-between depth of field, which I think really helps with the connection between both horse and rider cause it keeps the focus fully on them rather than the background which I liked and tried to incorporate into my image especially in the images that show more of the background. There were other idea's and techniques from her that I wanted to use BUT either wasn't able to or never got the chance to do, like the bright colours in her images. I really wanted those bright colours in my images  as well, but over half my images were taken on overcast days so I wasn't able to get those colours, which was annoying. I also wanted to try a silhouette image which she also takes a lot of BUT wasn't able to get images like that either for the same reason, to much cloud and to overcast. 

Are you Influenced by Artist working in other disciplines? Like Film or Painting?

I have to admit not really. I haven't really looked into similarities between other disciplines and my photography so much during this project mainly just other Photographers and my Photography.