Shoot Ten- Graffiti Mess- Work Diary

For this shoot, I decided to go back to the location of Leake street in order to experiment with a shoot capturing purely the mess that is left behind youths who graffiti in this location. As I went on New Years day to this location, I was expecting the mess to be clear there- it is right by the London Eye where the new years fire works are set off. Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of this shoot because even though I haven't captured subjects for this shoot, there is still the presence of youth with the mess that is left behind, you as the audience are still exposed to the messy stereotype of youth, alongside graffiting/ vandalising (depending on where you stand in your opinion) they also don't clean up after themselves.

My favourite image from this shoot:

The reason I have decided to use this as one of my favourites from this shoot is because I believe it holds really strong and interesting connotations that I can let my audience read into. For example, there are empty spray cans scattered around on the floor, but at the same time next to them, there is beer cans. If you were walking past this location/ look at this image really quickly, you may be unable to tell the difference between the cans, which I find really interesting as the cans look so similar. This photo was taken nearer the end of my shoot as my mum (who I had gone there with) was beginning to want to go home, yet I saw this and I really wanted to capture it. This is because, I didn't set this up at all, I didn't touch the cans or anything, this was the way they were left by the owner/ artist. The reason I therefore find this interesting is because they would have been drinking alcohol at the same time as spray painting. What I found interesting about Leake street as a whole is that there is a great sense on community with those who work in the tunnel and I believe this image shows it. As I wasn't there when this person was spray painting, who's to say it was the artist drinking, it could have been a friend who was standing there observing and at the same time drinking.

My least favourite image:

Even though I believe this is an interesting image in displaying the mess left behind after graffiti, I find this one of my weaker images in this shoot due to the lighting. This is because this was in a particular dark part of the tunnel with no lighting and I didn't use my camera flash, this meant that I wasn't able to capture the bold colours which I have in some of my stronger images in this shoot. Although some may suggest the darkness helps show the grittiness of my work/ stereotype in this project, as I have used many other brighter images, I do not think this one complies in the series. Although, I still wouldn't say this was one of my worst image from this project because I do believe my audience would still be able to gain a youth in sight, it is just the weaker one in this particular shoot.

Overall:

Looking at this shoot as a whole, I am rather happy with the out come and am therefore really happy that I had decided to return to leake street. This is because on my original Leake Street shoot, I didn't really focus on anything in particular, yet this time, I spent more time and effort on my time there capturing different aspects and in this shoot the graffiti mess. I think this is a really good example of how documentary photography doesn't always have to include subjects and it has taught me that by using my surroundings just the way they are, without manipulating them, I am still able to capture really interesting images gaining a very similar atmosphere of the stereotype youth perspective which I think is really successful in this shoot.