Project Proposal

So as you could see in one of the previous posts, finding a project idea is not always as easy as it sounds. It requires a lot of reflection and time to come up with a topic that is interesting but also constitutes a solid base for a good photographic essay.

I decided that I'm not going to go with any of the ideas that I mentioned in one of my previous posts. Although I thought that most of them were quite good, once I actually really knew what a photographic essay was, I found it hard to decide for one of my ideas because I feel like most of them were too superficial and not thought-out enough.

Instead I decided for a topic that is really important to me, because it doesn't only influence my everyday life and my daily routine but also my studies as I'm studying Media&Communications.

I'm going to do my photography project about the influences of our phones in our everyday life and our interpersonal relations.

I think that a lot of people will be able to relate to this topic as most of us get confronted to this problematic every day.

Moreover, as we talked a lot about the influences of new technologies and mobile phones in my course, I already have a couple of readings that I could apply to strengthen my research, but I will definitely have to invest a lot more time and thinking to deepen my knowledge about the topic.

So in class last week, we had to present our project proposal by doing three different slides. The first one with all kinds of research material, including quotes, inspirational works from other photographers,etc... In the second slide we were then supposed to do a 50 word statement about the project and finally, in the third slide we had to include a test shot.

So in my first slide, I used two quotes which I think are really powerful when it comes to the influence of phones in our everyday life:

'' You need to develop the ability to just be yourself and not be doing something, that's what phones are taking away. The ability to just sit there, that's a person.'' (Louis C.K.)

''The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.'' (Nassim Nichloas Taleb) 

Additionally, I also included my two main inspirations in this first slide. Antoine Geiger's project SUR-FAKE,  which I already mentioned in my post about inspirations. 

And Eric Pickersgill's project REMOVED

Both photographers have very different approaches to the topic. Whereas Geiger uses Photoshop to demonstrate how our faces get sucked by smartphones, Pickersgill photographs people in daily life situations but removes their phones. 

At this stage of my research I'm not quite sure in how far I'm going to use these inspirations in my final project, but nevertheless they are both really helpful to just think about how you can approach a topic in different ways. 

However in my second slide, I just talked about the aim of my project and made a short statement what my photographs should show: 

What this project should illustrate is, the alienation from ourselves and from those closest to us, caused by modern technologies. The aim is to show the isolation and the loneliness of people in company, created by the fact that they are more connected to their phones than to each other. 

And finally, my last shot just featured a test shot that I took a couple of days before when I went to have lunch with some of my friends. 

Well this shot is maybe not the greatest ever, especially also because it was taken with my phone camera, but nevertheless it shows more or less how I want to develop my project. 

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to do the whole project in black and white because I just think that it creates a more serious atmosphere that totally focuses on the issue and because I feel like often when I look at a photographic essay in colour, I dedicate more attention to the colours than to actual topic, which should definitely not be the case. 

Moreover, what one can also partly see in this shot is that I want to not only show people together, but alone, because of their phones, but I also want to show the different places and scenarios, just as Pickersgill did in his project by photographing people either in their beds, in a restaurant or on the couch. 

I know that my project will need a lot more research and thinking to make it a really good photographic essay. But nevertheless I feel like I've already created a solid base for the project and I'm really excited to just go out and take my pictures.