First of all, when deciding an idea for an up coming project I try to always look in the news for current stories that I could form a project around, and capture it in a documentary photography medium. This means that my project and resulting photographs should end up being interesting to view because they respond to current story that is happening at the moment, which the public are taking an interest too.
My first proper idea that I came up with and thought could be interesting to follow, was a project that focuses on Islam in England. The first reason behind this was because of ISIS being in the news a lot with the different terrorist acts they were committing in the middle east under Sharia Law, which is a strict version of Islam. This has begun to reflect quite badly on Islam and especially immigration of islamic people to the UK. This idea could also be connected to the up coming general election, as many UK residents may change their vote due to the different immigration standings that the individual parties are taking. I could visit and local Mosque and begin a documentary project, showcasing the peaceful beliefs of Muslims. Some problems I found with this is many Mosques not wanting to take part, and also some prohibiting photography in such a religious place. Another way of showcasing this idea is to follow a Muslim family and document their daily and family lives, which then could represent their peaceful religion, I remembered the work of Adam Patterson which I used for inspiration for this.
Patterson's series was titled, 'Another Lost Child' and followed the life of a man called Jean-claude. It started with Patterson aiming his project on the problem of knife crime within London, but he quickly became friends with Jean- Claude and ended up following him through the changes and development of his life from crime to family.
I think this works as perfect inspiration for my idea of following a Muslim family, in a documentary fashion.
The projects I have talked about also respond very well to my theme of Culture and society, because it will document how different cultures come together and join into a mixed society.
Another idea I had which follows on with the religious theme of my last was a documentary photography project that looks into how a church, or multiple churches connect with the local community. Again this mixes ideas of culture and society together very well. Another good reason to do this, is that the Easter holiday is approaching so it would be a good time to document how different churches celebrate this time. I could go deeper with my idea, and document how the specific churches support and help the local community, thus show how they mix the religious and general societies. This idea responds well to my theme, but apart from the date there isn't anything in the news which makes this specific project current and thus interesting. Something I could do, is mix both ideas I have to document how different religions infiltrate and mix British society, which could be make for an interesting comparison. Again like my first idea, I would capture this in a documentary manner but capturing portraits, candid and close up photographs of the religious surroundings to give a full picture of the Christian community. Both my ideas are documentary because this is the photographic practice I'm most interested in, so naturally my ideas revolve around it. A photographer who's work could inspire this project is Rineke Dijkstra, a dutch photographer working in Amsterdam.
I think the last potential project I have discussed could be quite portraiture based, and could be heavily influenced by the work of Rineke Dijkstra who's work can be seen to the left.
I think her portraits really capture the viewers attention in a way which makes you feel like you can't look away until you've studied all the details of the images. This technique I feel makes for some great portraits.
My exhibtion group is going to get together at the end of this week to talk about where we are going to hold the exhibition and also the name and proposal of it. The title of the exhibition could change what idea I decide to follow.