Narrative - Howard

For this project I have decided to use a teddy, which will be placed, in different areas. The main idea behind this was that people often throw or giveaway their childhood teddies and toys. I will place a toy in different locations day and night to produce a series of photographs that will narrate a story of it trying to find its way back to the person that once loved it.

            With doing narrative photography, it is important for the photographer to portray the right emotions and feeling to the viewer. Otherwise there is no connection between the two and it just ends up being an image with no substance and meaning that is pointless. I like, with my photographs to try having a meaning and trying to make a connection to the viewer.

The way I wanted to take the photographs is so it has a somewhat moody and lonely feel to the photographs to try representing the idea of it being lost and alone. I also want the positioning of the teddy to show that it is interacting with its environment like it would as opposed to just being placed. I also want to show the sense of being little in a big city/area of how you can feel out of place and not necessarily welcoming.

I would want to present these at some point in a book form so its like a little story as opposed to just photographs singly.

Development of ideas

For the original idea I had I though of different ways I could represent this. Be it different toys and locations. I decided upon a teddy bears as out of all toys I feel it’s the most traditional and the best for people to connect with as in some regards it can have human tendencies such as walking and climbing etc. So I felt this was the option to go for. I also wanted the photographs to take place in an urban environment so that it can have more feeling of adventure.

            

I had a few initial ideas to begin with which are in sketch form. The first being a teddy bear in the rubbish bin, which represents someone who has thrown away his or her childhood toy.

 The second is of the teddy standing at the door of which its owners live. This is going to be a photograph, which is going to be a little hard to compose properly based on size difference.

The third main idea is of the teddy walking along the street. I thought about the lighting of this one and think it would be best shot at night under a street light. I think this would create nice effect of the teddy and also to possibly get the shadows coming off the teddy you set the scene nicely.

When out on location, I did try to photograph the teddy in the woods as well and in more rural locations. I feel that this didn’t portray what I wanted as well as inner city would. And also, having a backdrop instead of just leaves etc. would be better for this project idea.

For the work I’m going to produce it will be important for me to get the right feeling across through the mood of the tones of the photograph. In order for me to do this, is too use dark colours and make it moody.

This is a shot of one similar to my final image. It is important with a project like this to try getting the right angle of the teddy bear in order to get a feel of movement and action. In order to accomplish this, the final image that is in the same location as this one was composed a lot closer to the teddy.

This image too is similar to a final image. As you can see, an obvious problem with this particular photograph is the holder of the fishing line, which is attached to the bear, is in the way. It was difficult as the positioning of the stair was a little difficult to get a photograph from distance.

            The settings for this photograph are ISO 200 f/1.8 1/500. The settings reflect a wanting of darkness and depression you could say.  After this photograph I then proceeded to take the final image.

 This is a photograph that displays having to have the right animation of the teddy. If the teddy were alive and trying to climb up the curb it wouldn’t have a straight back, like in the photograph. I then proceeded to change the angle of which the teddy was climbing to make it more authentic.

This photograph was shot at night time, I didn’t want the teddy to have any lighting in the form of a flash as I felt it would be unnatural as the teddy is in the real world.

 This image was taken with the idea of trying to get a reflection in the puddle on the floor. It in some ways worked with editing, however it’s a photograph which shows you how you need to be wary of the fishing line which the teddy was being held up by and the locations you do the photograph. Also the positioning of the teddy is off in this particular photograph and needed to be changing as it’s in an unnatural pose with the idea that it’s walking forward.

Final images

These are the final images that will at some point be put into a book to display as a collective group of images. I think that displaying it this way is a good idea as it’s like a story in itself. With the starting photographs of the bin and the ending of it sitting outside of the door, I think that the story/idea behind it is apparent.

I made the shadows darker in this photograph and the door darker as it was a bright blue. I kept the highlights the same as I wanted the background to stand out more to add colour to the photograph.

This is the first in the final set of images. The idea for this image is that the teddy is coming up from underneath the wall.

No much went into editing this photograph other than increasing contrast and pulling back blacks and shadows to make the photograph darker.

 I wanted the teddy to look like its having a sit down and rest. I thought the ladders and the yellow bin would make a good backdrop for this image. I like the look of the ladders stacked.

Not much editing went on with the photograph as you can tell, all I did was add a bit of contrast.

I like this photograph as its shows the teddy coming down the stairs that has a nice yellow line running along the edge. I did try to have the teddy pulling itself up and down however I didn’t feel it look right for the set.

Increased contrast, made the blacks and shadows darker.

 I like the way it looks like the teddy is interacting with the environment by having it leaping over to the ladders. I feel that with projects similar to my one, that it’s important to have interaction as it makes the viewer feel its more lifelike.

This one I wanted to look as though he is observing or possibly going through the gaps in the rails.

I decreased the contrast while adding a little exposure. I reduced the highlights a little and the decreased the shadows and black slightly.

I like the lights in the background of this photograph. Makes for a nice sceneic view.

I tried this images as well as the one on the bench, which is below, however I’m not so keen on this image as its not so much authentic. 

Decreased the shadows and blacks added contrast so the bear and the bench stood out more.

 With this photograph I wanted to get the teddy in a pose that makes it look like its in deep thought and contemplating. I like the look of the bench, which it’s sitting on. I wanted to try achieving dark tones with this particular photograph and also a sense of hopelessness in order to portray the theme of lost and unwanted.

I pulled up the contrast so it made the face more darker and also made the shadows and blacks darker.

 This is one of the final images and it’s a better more accurate pose than the previous similar image above. The composition of the image is closer in on the teddy and at a slightly different angle to the other one, which makes it look like the teddy has actual movement. The teddy itself is more at an angle as its top half of its body needed to be made to look like its pulling itself up as opposed to a straight back.

 I wanted the teddy in a more natural pose in this photograph, like its just walking. I thought that getting it in a position next to the curb would be a good idea that led into the photograph of the teddy climbing up the curb. I like the way the yellow lines look and the curb as they look to join together at the end of the street.

I added a little contrast to bring out the face a little more in this image and also a little exposure. I brought the blacks and shadows down so for instance the gap in the path was black.

I like the position of the teddy in this particular photograph as it looks to be looking around the environment as it’s walking as if trying to recall where locations are located. I like the feet of the teddy in this photograph. I think this is one of my favourite out of all the final images that I got.

I wanted to capture the teddy bear in a location, which is common with bigger cities. This photograph, I think, portrays that by including cigarette ends and smashed up glasses of beer.

 I wanted to try getting a good reflection photograph and this was the best one. I think that it started raining added nicely to the photograph as you can see a splash in the puddle and also rain drops one the stone.

This is classed as the final image in the set and would be the ending photograph if I made a book. This photograph is to represent the teddy back at the home which once cared and loved it, but waiting for the door open to be accepted again.

Evaluation of the project

I had a major issue of my camera being stolen with the photographs for a couple of projects on it. I had to retake these photographs at a later date and although I feel I got better final images, I had a lot of trial shots as I was experimenting with positioning of the teddy and in different locations. So, in one way it’s was good but not as I can’t really show off images as part of my developing ideas. Im looking forward to making the book up of these images and also doing another project similar to this.