For our finally assignment we had to capture our ideal or notion of home, not so much our physical home but what we feel represents our home. Like my research pointed out, “there’s a big psychological difference between feeling at home and being home.” Sometimes it can be an object or a person, or even both that makes that feeling of home.
My first is image is a photograph I see when I arrive home, it sits on the mantle piece in the living room and was given to us by my deceased grandmother. I didn’t get to know my grandparents from my father’s side, my grandfather died before I was born and my grandmother when I was about 10. I can’t help but look at this photograph when I get home, its from the 1920’s and shows my great grandparents with my very young grandfather just behind them. I’ve looked many times into my family’s history, I found all their names and that we come from an old country called Prussia. Our German name is Wohlgemuth, changed my my grandfather after WW2 to avoid Prejudice after the war. I feel lucky looking at this photo, my great grandfather was badly injured in WW1 before returning home when my grandfather was born 10 months later. The same thing happened in WW2 with my grandfather, both of them fighting for the British. My father also joined the armed forces, serving in several combat zones during his time. There’s a lot of history and intrigue in this photo and it reminds me of August Sander’s photo of the German Soldier. I had to retake this photo many times and change the light around me, trying to get a good image to work with, like Kate and most photographers, taking a few shots and changing the settings accordingly. This image was one of the hardest to edit, I had to move the exposure, contrast, highlights and shadow, whites, black and the clarity. I finally managed to get the look I wanted but also managed to see extra details in the image I’ve hardly noticed before.
My next image is the back end of a Beretta shotgun, its one of my favourite pass times to shoot clay disk and something I do with friends and family whenever we can. Its always a great day out, rain or shine. I could’ve taken a photograph of the whole un but everyone knows what one looks like, this shot allows you to see something you don’t usually see which is the where the rounds go in. the mirror image of both rounds lining up and the very detailed lines and craftsmanship of the weapon draws you in to the image. But I think this image has a safe feel to it, as you can clearly see the shotgun is not ready to fire and is laying down on its side all by itself. I didn’t edit this photograph at all, I felt this photo was great by itself and one of the best ones I’ve taken.
The next image for home is this beautiful shot of a path in Bedford where I live, it’s a path a walk down often, either left towards the cinema, food outlets and town or right and a walk down the River Great Ouse passed the Priory Marina. Taking walks is out of my favourite activities and lets me see what’s around when I visit other places, getting me use to the area, providing that feeling of being and knowing. I often go with a friend or my brother where we talk about many interest like science, politics, TV/film, music, ideas and many more things. Walking down this path now, since I’ve move away, gives me this nostalgia feeling of all those previous walks. I edited this image slightly by sharpening it and add clarity, I wanted every detail to be seen in this image and I think it works really well. You can be drawn in to the beautiful green and white colours, of the warm sunny day and the path you can see leading away from the viewer almost inviting to walk down and see whats at the end of it.
For my fourth image, I’ve chosen something which is one of my best feelings of being home, my German Shepherd McKay. The connection I have with him is unbelievable, I brought him after he was eight weeks old and looked after, trained and walked him everywhere. This shows how perfect he is, sitting proudly, starring off in the distance, mouth open with a hint of a smile. I’ve sharpened the image slightly, added some shadow, highlights and clarity so you can see the details of his coat. The ear closest is a little blurry, probably due to it moving slightly as the picture was taken but the rest of him and the picture is really clear detail.
My fifth photograph is of a war memorial in my home town, walked past it almost everyday for year growing up, going to school and work. I sometimes would stop to look and take it in, history and war having always been interesting to me and with my own family history these memorials always grab my attention. I find myself looking at the names down the side, the units remembered and the the words used. Landmarks like this and others in general (e.g. buildings, statues, signs, places) always remind me of that home feeling, which could be just a feeling of recognition of something I’ve seen on TV, photos or read about. I took this photo during my visit home form university for Christmas. It’s a busy street with a road nearby, so getting a good shot was tricky. The angle works to create this big/monolithic feel to the memorial, the poppies add to the remembering of the sacrifice made and the snow almost adds this sad feeling to it, a ghostly feel of emptiness, the tree behind with no life on it, the white sky stained like the stone. All I did to this photo is put the clarity up so you can see all the lines, words and flakes of snow.
My final image is one I took in London on the H.M.S Belfast of the Union Jack. Whenever I see this flag I feel a sense of home, belonging to something, being British. I’m very proud of my heritage and family’s past, knowing the risk my grandfathers took in the wars and my father who served my country but also of the history of Britain. How this small island managed to defend itself, sometimes against impossible odds, and lead the world in many areas. We haven’t always done things correctly and there is some evil in our past which we know now was wrong to do. I’m proud to have been born here and call the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland home, when I see this flag flying anywhere, I get a sense of that feeling. This photograph is amazing, the flag is flying against the wind, as the main focus it draws you in with the bluish white sky. Small parts of London are recognisable with the tower of London just under and to the right and the BT tower just past it. But I also think there’s a connotation with the Union Jack the the anchor of the ship, Britain is known in history to rule the seas and its how we built an empire. Looking at this image you can just imagine standing on deck yourself. I edit this photo by bringing in shadows and blacks, adding clarity and sharpening the image but I made sure the colour of the flag stayed at a good brightness by adding a little bit of white on to it.
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