3rd and Final Shoot

I have used the Nikon D700 for the following photo's. The lenses in the D700 have a much smaller depth of field, capturing detail much more sharply than the D7000 is able to. It is therefore brilliant at focusing on one object, however I found it hard to focus on both the photograph and my brother David in these shots. This is okay, however, as I did intend for the photographs to be somewhat blurred out in comparison to the truthful expression. I am largely happy with how these have turned out therefore and am happy to start editing.

I think this photograph is my favourite as David looks quite excited and happy but it is a toned down happiness. His mouth curves up into a smile and he looks like he is excited to tell the viewer something. Also the photograph within is still quite in focus, yet less so than the representation of David himself, which is what I intended for. I would like for all of the photographs in my set to portray subjects with subtle expressions which can be developed upon by the viewer. I like the cheeky grin on Dave's face in the 1st, 3rd and 4th photographs as they are reminiscent of youthfulness and childlike qualities, however they are quite obvious in the meanings that they build into the photograph, whereas I would like for them to be slightly more ambiguous; yet still portray a contrast to the subjects past expressions in the photograph that they hold up.

I also took some more photographs of my mum in her environment. I was apprehensive about doing this as I worried that asking my mum to recall the same memory again but on a different day would alter the effectiveness of this process and thus the reliability of the supposed "truthful" memories and emotions. This is partly the reason as to why I tried to shoot all of my photographs within one shoot for all 3 subjects, as the rehashing of the same memory in depth may seem false. However, I really wanted to get some shots of my mum in her living room, as it is her personal sphere. I asked certain questions such as: Where was my dad when this was happening? Where were you when you went into labour? What sounds do you remember hearing whilst in a state of trauma? I tried ask questions with regards the senses to understand her truthful recall, but it occured to me that throughout our lives our memories get inadvertently  revisited, relived and revived countless times, thereby distorting the truth from the moment it was lived as “Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation.” Debord 1967: section 1


In this sense I do not seek to find the real truth of the memory, but just one which is truthful by comparison to the tangible photograph that the subject holds up, thus evoking the untrustworthy nature of the photographic discourse. 

This is the unedited photo which I have chosen of my mum. 

I do not like the vignette surrounding this image and so will edit this out in my final edit.