Assignment 5: Narrative & illustration

‘In this final assignment imagine that you are about to illustrate a story for a magazine. You have a cover to illustrate, and several pages inside (create between 6 and 15 images – you can choose). Even though there may be no text, you should write captions (of any length) to explain and link each picture.’ Below is my magazine in PDF format, and beneath that is the individual images themselves.

Not Another London Magazine

All of the photos used in the final selection have had minimal, if any post processing. I felt that an article such as this would not require much editing, and wanted to show my narrative in as real a form as possible.

I really enjoyed this assignment and it challenged me in several areas:

Photographing people: In the previous exercises and assignments i’ve steered away from photographing people (somewhat subconsciously), and was adamant that I would avoid it no longer. A majority of the images submitted and also the images that didn’t make the final cut were of people. Some aware, some not. Pushing my boundaries on this was extremely rewarding and gratifying.

Photographing in a limited space: With the location being so squashed in (half a street, if that) it was challenging to find the right angles and viewpoints, while also creating varying shots.

Photographing with speed: Much of what I wanted to capture was not static. People were moving around so quickly and erratically that I had to take my shots fast – this resulted in some focusing issues, and a paparazzi man told me that more often than not photographers use auto mode and auto focus at scenarios such as this one. (I tried to avoid this as much as possible).

Photographing in a crowd: With the huge crowd getting larger it was hard to get steady shots – people are bumping into you left right and centre, or crossing right in front of your shot.

Photographing in the ‘split second’ I captured many ‘moments’ in this assignment. Moments that once passed would not be repeated. This meant I was under a fair bit of pressure. It was not like previous assignments where I could set up the scene myself, or tweak it. This environment was totally out of my control, which was rather exhilarating!

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