SUSTAINABLE PROSPECTS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT WEEK 5 – Kym

SUSTAINABLE PROSPECTS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT WEEK 5 – Kym

3rd November  2019

In June 2019 I started my MA with Falmouth university as part of an accredited education programme.

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SUSTAINABLE PROSPECTS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT WEEK 5 – 1 ON 1 TUTORIAL – https://www.bambino-art.co.uk/sustainable-prospects-project-development-week-5-1-1-tutorial/

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This week for my project I went along to photograph one of the families we know who home educate. Kym organises the home ed group that Oska goes too that I photographed in positions and practice http://www.bambino-art.co.uk/earheart/ and I joined her and her two children and their 4 week old newborn baby, to capture what life can look like trying to navigate having a newborn and educating your children yourselves.

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FAVOURITE SHOTS &. ANALYSIS FOLLOWED BY CONTACT SHEETS.

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We started the morning off with M’s regular horse riding lesson.

I REALLY LIKED THE SHOTS WE CAPTURED AT THE HORSE RIDING, AND THERE WERE QUITE A FEW (INCLUDING DETAILS SHOTS OF THE ROPES, BRUSHES, AND TACK) THAT I LIKED. I ENDED UP NOT CHOOSING THEM FOR MY FAVOURITES THOUGH, AS IF I END UP DOING INDIVIDUAL FAMILIES STORIES FOR MY FMP , THEY WILL BE PERFECT, HOWEVER , FOR THIS MODULE, WHERE I AM THINKING I WILL JUST CHOOSE THE ‘BEST’ PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE MODULE, I CAN’T SEE HOW DETAILED SHOTS LIKE THIS WILL FIT IN. SOME DETAILS WILL BE GOOD TO TIE STORIES TOGETHER, BUT I THINK THEY WILL BE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN.

ABOVE : I REALLY LIKE THIS SHOT, DESPITE ME NOT GETTING THE BOTTOM FRAMING PERFECT, AND THE PEOPLE IN THE BACKGROUND, I STILL REALLY LIKE THE COMPOSITION, THE WAY KYMS SON IS LOOKING DIRECTLY AT THE CAMERA, MUM’S FEEDING , AND STILL KEEPING AN EYE ON M … THERE’S LOTS WRONG COMPOSITION WISE, BUT I PERSONALLY FEEL IT MAKES UP FOR THAT.

This was followed by coming home to snacks, mums breakfast, washing, baby feeding, dad shooting off to work. I took this one shot that I absolutely adored, It seemed to sum up everything about motherhood, and especially motherhood whilst home educating to me.

That piece of toast where you’ve only managed to get one bite of it, the half drunk, cold cup of coffee, the strange angle I have taken the image at where everything is all a bit chaotic, but organised chaos, and those beautiful earthy colours, with that seriously healthy looking breakfast, showing how we are all just trying to do our best to nourish ourselves, and our children, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I was quite sad after seeing this image. I loved a lot, and I mean a lot of gyms images, but this one drew me in and captivated me, in a way that all the others seemed to pale, and it wasn’t even of them, their education, I could of taken it at my home essentially. This was a hard feeling to deal with as I really loved the images and the story they told. Laura did say in the weeks webinar that I was being far too hard on myself, as there were some beautiful images here. So I separated the image away from the rest of Kym story, and didn’t come back to it for a week, and I feel much better about that whole thing. I think emotionally, something within that image really hit me, and I needed to operate that away from the story that I was trying to tell, as they were two separate, individual things. 

 The children then did some learning based around the book ‘lost words’ by Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris. Lost words was a book created by McFarlane and Morris as a direct response to the proposed removal of nature words from a popular children’s dictionary. Words such as conker, adder, bluebell, kingfisher. Each page has an illustration of the word in question followed by a ‘spell’ , a poem, about the word in question. The structure of this learning was that the children would choose a poem, then one of the children would read it outloud, they would discuss the poems contents, it’s meaning, and the word in question, and the produce a piece of replicated art, copying the illustration in question. https://www.thelostwords.org

I FOUND THE LIGHT REALLY HARD TO WORK WITH IN THIS ROOM, BUT LOVED THE INTERACTIONS I WAS ABLE TO CAPTURE AS THE CHILDREN WERE WORKING.

After nipping home to get my own lunch and get some nice warm clothes on we headed out to Rogue theatre to enjoy their dead of night dance. Rogue theatre is an emmersive woodland theatre experience, where you walk around tehidy woods in Cornwall, which is decorated for spring , summer, autumn, and winter theatre productions by local theatre group Rogue theatre. After a walk through the woods with stories and decorated scenes along the way you find yourself at the outside theatre tent where they perform their original written productions. If anyone is ever in Cornwall, I strongly suggest you make the trip to go and see them as you won’t ever regret it, the memory making they supply is of magical proportions ! https://www.roguetheatre.co.uk

I took images of the children at the production as I had permission from the owners, but it was impossible to take images without including many other children as they all sit surrounding the stage during the production, and I wasn’t comfortable with that, so instead, I sat and enjoyed the show and then took photographs afterwards when rogue encourage the children to get up on stage have a sing and a dance, and enjoy some face painting, games, and parents get to enjoy the freshly made stew from the cauldron . I plan on trying to arrange to go back to the next rogue theatre production which is winter wood to capture more of the experience again.

THE BELOW IMAGES WERE OF THE END OF THE ROGUE SHOW WHERE THEY PLAYED THE SONG FROM IN BEETLEJUICE , (WHERE THE FAMILY ARE AROUND THE TABLE, AND START THEIR POSSESSED DANCING), THE KIDS KNEW THE WHOLE THING OFF BY HEART SO TOOK GREAT DELIGHT IN PERFORMING IT AND GETTIG MUM AND BABY INVOLVED.

I was really happy with this shoot, and it made me consider again, not for the first time, the potential of in one of my other modules focusing on just two or three families, so that I can spend some more in-depth time with them, getting to know them, telling their stories, and seeing how that changes the dynamics of these photoshoots.

Final contact sheets