Major Project Musings...
Now that most of my assignments for this term are out of the way, I can finally focus on my major project which I am due to shoot over the summer. Not that I have not been thinking a lot about the most suitable project as my final piece for my degree but I feel that in the next week or so I need to make a decision - and some practical arrangements such as travel and others.
I am still torn between two project ideas. On the one hand, I would like to return to the Ukraine and continue to explore the subculture around Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kiev. And, in particular, investigate the state of mind, if you like, of the ‘ordinary’ Ukrainians in the wake of this September’s fresh elections and almost three years after the Orange Revolution. I am really drawn to the place and visually it is ‘aligned’ - for want of a better word - with the visual style I am aspiring to. Clear points of references for me are Luc Delahaye’s Winterreise and Jonas Bendiksen’s Satellites (and, of course, Eugene Richard’s new work in colour).
My slight hesitation is that it will be difficult to create a linear narrative that is suitable for a final project. I could just end up – having spent the whole summer in the Ukraine – with a very loose set of images that are visually interesting as such but will they tell a story? This might be more suitable for a long-term personal project after the course.
The second project idea I came across only recently when I friend of mine suggested that despite all the statistics and apparent ubiquity of the subject, AIDS and HIV are still largely ignored (by the government) in South Africa.
Southern Africa remains the epicentre of the global HIV epidemic: 32% of people with HIV globally live in this subregion and 34% of AIDS deaths globally occur there.
Having emerged a little later than most other HIV epidemics in the subregion, South Africa’s epidemic has now reached the stage where increasing numbers of people are dying of AIDS. The latest official mortality data show total deaths (from all causes) in South Africa increased by 79% from 1997 to 2004. Death rates from natural causes for women aged 25–34 years increased fivefold between 1997 and 2004, and for males aged 30–44 they more than doubled over that period. A large proportion of the rising trend in death rates is attributable to the AIDS epidemic. Yet a large proportion of South Africans do not believe they are at risk of becoming infected with HIV.
The resulting AIDS disease related deaths increasingly have considerable sociological (fragmented families and increasing number of orphans), cultural (disappearance of customs and traditions) and economic (labour and skill shortages) effect on the country and local communities. I would propose to go into a small community and show the devastating effects of AIDS on rural and local communities.
I feel that the second story is a more urgent story, which needs to be told. What is more, purely from a practical matter, this is probably a story that is sufficiently defined so that I can do it justice in the two months or so I have to photograph the story. Obviously, there will be question marks on how I would be able to introduce a new visual and contextual perspective on a well-covered subject. But do you always have to have a fresh perspective on an urgent topic? Maybe some stories need to be told over and over again because they have a significant humanitarian aspect?
I’ll have a few tutorials and conversations over the next few days to further my thinking…
I am still torn between two project ideas. On the one hand, I would like to return to the Ukraine and continue to explore the subculture around Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kiev. And, in particular, investigate the state of mind, if you like, of the ‘ordinary’ Ukrainians in the wake of this September’s fresh elections and almost three years after the Orange Revolution. I am really drawn to the place and visually it is ‘aligned’ - for want of a better word - with the visual style I am aspiring to. Clear points of references for me are Luc Delahaye’s Winterreise and Jonas Bendiksen’s Satellites (and, of course, Eugene Richard’s new work in colour).
My slight hesitation is that it will be difficult to create a linear narrative that is suitable for a final project. I could just end up – having spent the whole summer in the Ukraine – with a very loose set of images that are visually interesting as such but will they tell a story? This might be more suitable for a long-term personal project after the course.
The second project idea I came across only recently when I friend of mine suggested that despite all the statistics and apparent ubiquity of the subject, AIDS and HIV are still largely ignored (by the government) in South Africa.
Southern Africa remains the epicentre of the global HIV epidemic: 32% of people with HIV globally live in this subregion and 34% of AIDS deaths globally occur there.
Having emerged a little later than most other HIV epidemics in the subregion, South Africa’s epidemic has now reached the stage where increasing numbers of people are dying of AIDS. The latest official mortality data show total deaths (from all causes) in South Africa increased by 79% from 1997 to 2004. Death rates from natural causes for women aged 25–34 years increased fivefold between 1997 and 2004, and for males aged 30–44 they more than doubled over that period. A large proportion of the rising trend in death rates is attributable to the AIDS epidemic. Yet a large proportion of South Africans do not believe they are at risk of becoming infected with HIV.
The resulting AIDS disease related deaths increasingly have considerable sociological (fragmented families and increasing number of orphans), cultural (disappearance of customs and traditions) and economic (labour and skill shortages) effect on the country and local communities. I would propose to go into a small community and show the devastating effects of AIDS on rural and local communities.
I feel that the second story is a more urgent story, which needs to be told. What is more, purely from a practical matter, this is probably a story that is sufficiently defined so that I can do it justice in the two months or so I have to photograph the story. Obviously, there will be question marks on how I would be able to introduce a new visual and contextual perspective on a well-covered subject. But do you always have to have a fresh perspective on an urgent topic? Maybe some stories need to be told over and over again because they have a significant humanitarian aspect?
I’ll have a few tutorials and conversations over the next few days to further my thinking…
posted by rupert beagle at 10:44 am
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