I am looking at Staurt Franklin’s work on documenting covid-19. His approach seems to be more shock factor based, using the main subjects as people with masks or written messages.
This image shows people out in public at the beginning of the pandemic in the UK. You can tell people aren’t social distancing as seriosuly at the stage it was taken, apart from the main subject who is wearing a face mask and gloves. He stands out as everyone else is in pairs and not wearing any form of protection. The image has a wide aperature, with the wholw shot being in focus, suggesting it was around f18. The strong shadows suggest it was mid day and the shot seems to be purely be lit byu sunlight.
I like the simplicity of this shot. It is informative and clear what the story is, without showing any people. The reflection is what makes the image interesting, also giving us context to where the shot was taken. Again, you can tell this was atken at an early stage of the pandemic, as the pool was still open. The image seems to have an aperature of around f11 and is lit by sunlight, suggesting it would have a low ISO of around 100. I don’t think the iamge would work as a single piece, but works well as a series as it shows information that would help tell a story.
This shot is my favourite from Franklin. I feel as if it holds a lot of context and we can clearly see what the story is. The main subject is wearing a mask and is central within the image surrounded by various people. The business of his surroundings works well with him being still and looking deep in thought. As there is motion blur in the image, it suggests a slower shutter speed has been used, potentially being around 1/15.
How it relates to my photo-story idea:
I chose to look at these images as inspiration for my story. Franklin has been shooting the same news event that I am and feel as if I could learn from his approach. He focuses on documenting the people that stand out from the crowd that surrounds them. The theme that links all the main subjects throughout this project is visual protection, such as gloves and masks. He has decided to document the pandemic with a clear visual link to the story and this works well. I am also taking this approach in my work, but there are some aspects I am taking a different approach to. I feel as if he picks out a subejct and shoots them, without really applying much skill. The images are very simple, which does work, but I feel I would like to add a more technical perspectibe to shooting the same theme. I will shoot through things, such as my car, reflections and break up the frame more, which is something I feel these images lack. Throughout my research I am going to be looking at various artists who are documenting the pandemic and I will be picking out the aspects I think work and combining them in order to create my own style and approach.
Jodie Tovey PJD blog 