Martin Parr

English photographer Martin Parr is brilliant, all his shots make me smile. He seems to be able to find humor in everything he sees. These are from his 1985 New Brighton collection...

Photo envy

I'm looking at photo's on Flickr to inspire me for my project- I've found some great work that was all done in Brighton:

1) .. by Steve Glashier

2) Bird Imitator Brighton Seafront by Gerry Webb

3) ______by Steve Glashier

4) 87/365 by Rob Orhard

5) Outside the Brighton Museum by Elephi Pelephi

Lists

I'm a big fan of list making - I make a list every day! It is usually a to do list as long as my arm- writing everything down makes me feel like I have some control and direction. At times though the lists do alert me of exactly how much I have to do and I enter panic mode. The times when I avoid the lists are not good- I distract myself from the chores by thinking about the lists but without the lists I don't know the chores!!! So with lists pretty much ruling my life I think I should share the occasional one with you...

Martin Amis

The main point of my restructured idea is that each of the participants will be photographed in the environment where their challenge takes place.

Martin Amis documents 'England' in a series of photos, some are portraits. I love his style and the the documentary type layout. When creating my own photos I would like them to follow a documentary style but they will be posed to reveal the challenges of each participant. I want to look at a variety of documentary photography, Martin Amis has a great way of stylising his images I hope I can do the same...

Poster

It is all very good talking about what I want my photos to look like but I need to get out and about actually taking them. My search continues for participants- I have made a poster to go up in local business's etc. I can't wait to get started.

Subscriptions.

I've subscribed to ton of photography feeds, blogs and sites in the hope that they make me a better photographer (please)- well at least I'm keeping current and in the know! I'm posting the best of them on here so you can all be as knowledgeable as me ;)!

1) Digital Photography School- Some really useful tips and how to's

2) Garrod Kirkwood- I want mine to look like his :(

2) Mute- real life.

3) Another Fresh Idea- Brighton nightlife.

4) Chris Phelps- great imagery through photoshop

5) Tom Hoops- raw and quite scary but I love!

6) Martin Amis - brilliant racing shots

7) Jimagery - film is most definately not dead

8)Another Fresh Idea- Brighton nightlife.

9) Non Photography- creative techniques are great.

10) Top left pixel- a piece of imagination each day...

Camera shy

My search for subjects continues, I'm finding that the younger ones are completely willing to pose for photographs as are the over 70's, but even a mention of a camera to the middle aged and you get a very different reaction. The 40/ 50 somethings like to point out all their flaws every time I ask to take their photos for my project- "I'll break the camera" seems to be the most popular response, hmm more likely that I drop it! I hope I still like to pose when I hit 40!

Brighton

Brighton is my home.


I may have a house in London and work, eat, sleep here but it will never be my home so it seems only right that I start the Challenge Project where I belong. It is also the place I have the most networks through friends and family. I have many more ties to people of every generation in Brighton, whereas in London my networks are majoritively students, tutors and employers. I don't think living in Brighton will directly engage with each of the challenges but I do think Brighton is seen as young and vibrant when in fact it is a home to every generation! There is no doubt in my mind that I will find some great locations around Brighton too...

My Family

I think a great place to start looking at the relationships between the generations is my own family. To date there are 3 generations in my family- I have prepared a family tree to aid my investigations. I think it is also important to think about the era's each of the generations have lived and how each of them are going through different stages in their lives during the current era...

My brother and myself we are at the beginning stages of our adult lives or starting out in life, we are making decisions and finding out what we want to do.

For my Parents they are continuing the lives that they have built they are stable and are still making decisions along the way.

For my Grandparents they are finishing their lives, they are still enjoying what they have made for themselves after retirement but are not making any new decisions as such.

All tied up...

After a lot of thought, I have finally discovered how to re- group, restructure and re-design my idea. Since I want to document 'Challenges' I will now separate the theme into generational groups. Looking at 3 or 4 different generations and how the 'Challenges' collate or differentiate. I have access to the generations through my own family and believe it gives the 'Challenge Project' a new direction and purpose. I now need to research generations and have arranged a meeting with a tutor of mine who looks at cultural and anthropological theories to get some further insight into the speration of each group. I hope this has tied up all my thoughts and the project can begin to blossom.