Assignment 5 - Preparation

Since completing Assignment 4, I have been thinking about potential topics for Assignment 5. In this last assignment of People and Place, the aim is to formulate a photographic brief and then fulfil the brief.
An important part of this exercise is to examine photographic styles stipulated or preferred for the context where the images will be presented. The style could be explicitly defined, for example, the images may be required to comply with the house style and layouts for a hypothetical assignment for a magazine. On the other hand, the style requirements may be a matter of choice or aesthetics, for example, choosing to emulate the work of another photographer that one admires.
After considering various ideas, I have concluded that the idea that occurred to me last February, at the start of this course should be the one that I select for Assignment 5. This idea originated with a book that I bought before we left Jakarta called "Jakarta: Inside Out" by Daniel Ziv. The brief would be to emulate ten or so double pages of this book using my home town of Guildford as the subject. I see various benefits of using this idea:

• Photography features prominently in the Jakarta book, taking up most of each double page spread. The text is generally confined to a narrow strip down the side. It is essentially a photobook. 
• Almost all the images feature people around the town engaged in variety of activities. This ties in well with the People and Place subject matter.
• The photographs have a coherent style, square format, closely engaged with the activity and colourful, even though they are the work of several professional photographers chosen to match Daniel Ziv's text.

There are still a number of challenges to overcome:-

• Does Guildford have the street-life that could match the liveliness of a vast Asian city like Jakarta? I think that Guildford's street markets, shoppers, town-centre events, concert hall, clubs and theatres can provide enough potential subjects.
• Can I emulate the vibrant style of photographs? I have been using Guildford locations for most of the exercises in this course, but I have not so far succeeded in taking photos which have the visual impact of those in the book. We shall see.

In order to prepare the brief and plann the photography, I need to study and describe the presentation style of "Jakarta: Inside Out". I have also reviewed the book "Vancouver: City of Glass" by Douglas Coupland, which Daniel Ziv acknowledges gave him the idea for Jakarta: Inside Out.