Initial Ideas.. A new bench mark

This is the theme for the summer task and I thought long and hard about how I could begin this assignment. I wanted to do something that was quirky and funny because a lot of my recent work has been quite emotive in sad ways. I decided that I would like to photograph multiple people sitting on the bench in funny positions. I did think about this more and decided that I should probably broaden the idea slightly. I firstly did some research into what other photographers had created before with the idea of benches or seats.






These two images are very similar and very different for many reasons. One obvious similarity is that they both have people sitting on a bench. However the biggest difference is probably the style of the clothing worn and also the backdrop for each image. The first show three respectable gentlemen probably sitting in the park, reading the daily paper. The second shows two women I believe however it is difficult to tell. Facing away from the camera looking out onto a market. From these pictures I continued looking for other to inspire me and set off some sort of starting point. I then found this image.



I found this image on google after searching interesting chairs into the search bar and this started an idea. From there I came up with the hat idea. I liked the idea of different hats telling a story and this would be Incorporated into the bench idea. I took my sister down to the local park and asked her to model some hats for me whilst sitting on the bench. She was making her mark on the bench by wearing these different hats. The different hats made her different people with ,in theory, different occupations so probably different personalities.

The experiment did not go as well as I had expected. I thought the images would be a lot more striking and have a bigger story to tell but they seemed quite bland and safe. However I do think there is an element of quirkiness in them and they are quite comical. To develop the images further I think I need to focus on editing them in photoshop to create something from they images I have to make it more worth while.
For my next experiment I want to broaden the idea of different personalities on the benches and I also want to incorporate the theme of fashion into the images, which I think will make them appeal to a wider audience. I think that using a studio setting may have been more beneficial to my images as I could have had full control over the lighting and setting created and used.