Critical Evaluation, of Follow Me

Critical Evaluation, of Follow Me

In my own opinion, this part of Visual Research has been challenging and hard to understand. This put me in a place where I needed to learn more about Pieter Hugo and the way he thinks which made it hard for me to get in the mind of the photographer.

When I first began researching Pieter Hugo the photographer that Sam gave me it was hard to start with as his website did not exist with his work on there until December which meant that I had to go around other ways around it.  Even though I managed to get enough to make this work by using interviews that he has given to the Guardian, Vogue and the NewYorker and Vice. This allowed me to understand the intentions and the way that Pieter Hugo would work and allowed me to look deeper at his work so I can get a basic understanding of a couple of photographic series that he has undertaken.

Once I had done enough research that I thought could lead to a project I decided to ask Pieter Hugo questions, this was done with me asking myself what he says How I could Improve the work and what he recommended me to do. As I came up with ideas with some of this coming from what Sam, had told me. This was hard to understand as on first thinking it made believe that I would need to be drunk or on drugs to get this to work. But as I got into I began to point out what I thought needed to improve. It was a brave concept because you are telling yourself what you need to improve with the guidance from Sam, this helped organise more of me to lead me down the road.

To start with I had an idea that involved me going around Canterbury and Ashford Capturing peoples portraits with people Wearing hats, Graduation gowns and puffer jackets. The idea is to do something like Pieter Hugo did with the Hyena men but make it be like a portrait of Kent showing how we are more similar than we let on.  This idea was strong but it did quite not fit what Sam wanted me to do. As the Backgrounds were inconsistent and he felt that I could get the work looking stronger. I felt that I needed to find an understand and looking at a Quote in the Observer I felt that it stood out.

"My homeland is Africa, but I'm white. I feel African, whatever that means, but if you ask anyone in South Africa if I'm African, they will almost certainly say no. I don't fit into the social topography of my country and that certainly fuelled why I became a photographer." (O'Hagan, 2008)

This made think when getting backgrounds to make sure that the images could come together for this to stand out. The problem with this one was that I did not have a tripod so the images were uneven. So this meant the shots weren't as strong. Sam, recommend me to remove the background by blurring it out but this just made the image look strange and caused to act like someone has taken drugs. I wanted to make sure that my work looked similar to Pieter Hugo and I remembered what he did in the Hynea men with people of Power and I wanted to put that into practice.

Due to the time constraints, I Remembered that I had shot some veterans earlier in November for Armistice day. I changed the idea slightly too similar to what that he had done with the transgender work in the hood by air. With them showing power and courage as I believed the work stood out as it is similar to what Hugo has done. I think if I had more time I could shoot more of them to get the shots to look stronger.  I think the way this has come together stands out.

Overall, I think this project has been challenging and stressful but this has been rewarding in the outcome of the images that I have done. I think I could have gone more in detail about his projects and what he has done and how it links to mine. I am pleased with the end images as they show Who I am as a photographer having being inspired and following Pieter Hugo, this was the benefit for it. The end images are not plagiarizing him as they are done in my own style!