Exhibition display!

I have been messing around with some software on the Internet that enables you to design an exhibition layout. One thing with this software is that I have an idea in my head of what i want my display to look like but i can't really get there with it on this software without it looking wrong and out of place because of the scale.

However I have done a few different mock ups just to see how it could look-

Like i have said before i literally just want my images displayed in a horizontal line across the wall. This is mainly to keep it simple yet effective at the same time. I also want the viewers to go on a walk like journey similar to that of the one i took when i was working on this series. The images within the series tell a story about the birth and life of the natural forms and i want them to walk through that journey with me.

Final Images

 

Above are the four images that I have chosen to use as my final images for this project titled 'The Beauty In Life'. The reason that I have chosen these four images is because I feel like they work really well in showing the beauty of multiple natural forms, showing the birth and the life of these forms. The work well both as a set of four images and as individual images that could stand by themselves. The colours within all of the images sort of flow and work really well together as well which is something that is really important when it comes to having a series of images as they have to have another way to link together rather than just their meaning and significance.


Intended display 

When it comes to exhibiting my final images I am going to have them printed in square format with a size of 12x12inches. I feel that this size is not too big nor too small, it is like the perfect size for displaying these images and showing off all their detail on a larger scale, but not a scale that it too large and overbearing. I feel like this is a comfortable size for my images to be. They will be displayer in black frames that have an off white boarder inside. The black frame will create the impact the contrast against the boarder that the images are sitting in the centre of.

Artist statement.

I have finished writing my artist statement for this project and it covers all of the vital points and reasoning for this project and the different things i have done throughout.

Lauren Morris is a British nature and landscape photographer based in Manchester, England. Through the use of photography Lauren creates abstract and informative photographs that explore the natural beauty of the everyday ordinary that is surrounding her. Lauren's work looks at the everyday things that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. Her intention is to provide the viewer with an alternate view of the environment.

One of Lauren's biggest influences within photography is Ansel Adams. Adams work is very much based on the environment, he documented the areas within national parks in America to allow people to see the things they were missing and to keep nature alive. One series of images that Lauren can relate to is a series based on Yosemite National Park in the west of America. This series was Adams way of making the public aware of the wilderness and as a way of promoting conservation of the National Park.

Similarly to that of Ansel Adams, Lauren wishes to enable people to bare witness to the beauty of their surroundings. Focusing on the elements that need to be kept alive and seen, her way of showing what should be conserved, the naturally beautiful elements of the environment.

Lauren has always had an interest in nature and landscape photography, this is due to the comfort and peace that is found when being within quiet and natural surroundings. These personal feelings help her to capture photographs that document the natural landscape and environment whilst providing the viewer with a sense of what she is witnessing herself, through the use of the photograph.

Lauren is currently undertaking a project which is titled 'The Beauty In Life', in which she is looking for and documenting the natural beauty of the environments that are surrounding her.  Lauren is doing this by focusing her photographs on the natural areas, forms and structures that are within different locations around the Manchester area. She is looking for the little things that to go by unnoticed and the different things that tend to be missed by people on a daily basis. This project and the photographs that are being captured are Lauren's way of getting people to appreciate what nature is providing them with, as well as providing them with a view of the things they may not notice themselves, showing them the beauty of their normal surroundings.

The route that Lauren has taken with this project is basing her photographs on natural forms and showing the life of these forms. Meaning she is documenting the birth and life of them, such as plants that are growing in a natural environment. It is a way of showing how the natural forms are living, providing more of an insight into how they form and live within the same environment as ourselves.

For this project Lauren has taken some inspiration from the work of Jessica Backhaus'. This photographers work is based on her documenting the different things that she finds interesting and beautiful on the different journeys that she takes on a daily basis. The idea of documenting the beautiful that can be seen is something that Lauren has always had an interest in. She has adapted this to her own work by documenting and showing people the beauty of the natural forms within the environment in which they are within everyday.

The photographs that are being produced for 'The Beauty In Life' all have a strong use of depth of field. It is Lauren's intention to have one very strong and definitive focal point for each of the photographs that she captures for this series. The focal point of the image is not always the foreground nor the background, she uses the scene that is in front of her to decide on the best composition and the best focal point for the photograph she intends to capture. None of the scenes within the photographs she captures are set up, they are simply photographed as they are found, without any intervention showing the natural beauty of the area.

Lauren does not like to set up scenes within her photographs, nor do test shoots. To capture her photographs Lauren simply points and shoots. There are no strict guides to setting up the scene within the view finder, the use of composition and depth of field are the two elements that Lauren uses within every photograph that she captures. This is a way of keeping her photographs very simple whilst providing the viewer with an alternate view of the natural forms and structures that are within their surroundings, which is the main point of the project she is currently undertaking.   

As the main intention is to provide the viewer with a new way of seeing the natural forms by documenting their birth, growth and life within the environment, Lauren has decided to crop her photographs into square format of 12 x12. This is due to how she wants the main focus of the photographs she has taken to be the natural form. She still has a strong use of depth of field by having on section of the form she has photographed the main focal point of the photographic composition. This is unusual for Lauren as she normally avoids any cropping of her photographs as she always likes to present the viewer with the exact composition that is framed within the view finder of her camera when the photograph has been captured. However, with this series of photographs presenting them in square format allows the photographs content to be more definitive and direct to the point of showing the natural forms that are surrounding us.  

'The Beauty In Life' is a project that Lauren is very passionate about. It has been the main way for her to express how she is seeing the environment in which she lives in, and a way of allowing other people to gain a new view of their surroundings, providing them with an alternate view point and a way of seeing rather than just their own viewpoint. 


**UPDATED STATEMENT!

Lauren Morris

Project Title: The Beauty in Life

Blog: www.majorphotoproject-laurenmorris.blogspot.com

Lauren Morris is a British nature and landscape photographer based in Manchester, England. Through the use of photography Lauren creates abstract and informative photographs that explore the natural beauty of the everyday ordinary that is surrounding her. Lauren's work looks at the everyday things that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. Her intention is to provide the viewer with an alternate view of the environment.

One of Lauren's biggest influences within photography is Ansel Adams. Adams work is very much based on the environment, he documented the areas within national parks in America to allow people to see the things they were missing and to keep nature alive. One series of images that Lauren can relate to is a series based on Yosemite National Park in the west of America. This series was Adams way of making the public aware of the wilderness and as a way of promoting conservation of the National Park.

Similarly to that of Ansel Adams, Lauren wishes to enable people to bare witness to the beauty of their surroundings. Focusing on the elements that need to be kept alive and seen, her way of showing what should be conserved, the naturally beautiful elements of the environment.

Lauren has always had an interest in nature and landscape photography, this is due to the comfort and peace that is found when being within quiet and natural surroundings. These personal feelings help her to capture photographs that document the natural landscape and environment whilst providing the viewer with a sense of what she is witnessing herself, through the use of the photograph.

In this project which is titled 'The Beauty in Life', Lauren  is looking for and documenting the natural beauty of the environments that are surrounding her.  Lauren is doing this by focusing her photographs on the natural areas, forms and structures that are within different locations around the Manchester area.  She is looking for the little things that to go by unnoticed and the different things that tend to be missed by people on a daily basis. This project and the photographs that are being captured are Lauren's way of getting people to appreciate what nature is providing them with, as well as providing them with a view of the things they may not notice themselves, showing them the beauty of their normal surroundings.

The route that Lauren has taken with this project is basing her photographs on natural forms and showing the life of these forms. Meaning she is documenting the birth and life of them, such as plants that are growing in a natural environment. It is a way of showing how the natural forms are living, providing more of an insight into how they form and live within the same environment as ourselves. One thing to be aware of is that Lauren had no knowledge of the different forms that were within the locations that she visited to capture the photographs for this project. She has simply worked with the elements that she has found upon the routes she has taken and photographed them in her style.

For this project Lauren has taken some inspiration from the work of Jessica Backhaus'. This photographers work is based on her documenting the different things that she finds interesting and beautiful on the different journeys that she takes on a daily basis. The idea of documenting the beautiful that can be seen is something that Lauren has always had an interest in. She has adapted this to her own work by documenting and showing people the beauty of the natural forms within the environment in which they are within everyday.

The photographs that are being produced for 'The Beauty in Life' all have a strong use of depth of field. It is Lauren's intention to have one very strong and definitive focal point for each of the photographs that she captures for this series. The focal point of the image is not always the foreground nor the background, she uses the scene that is in front of her to decide on the best composition and the best focal point for the photograph she intends to capture. None of the scenes within the photographs she captures are set up, they are simply photographed as they are found, without any intervention showing the natural beauty of the area.

Lauren does not like to set up scenes within her photographs, nor do test shoots. To capture her photographs Lauren simply points and shoots. There are no strict guides to setting up the scene within the view finder, the use of composition and depth of field are the two elements that Lauren uses within every photograph that she captures. This is a way of keeping her photographs very simple whilst providing the viewer with an alternate view of the natural forms and structures that are within their surroundings, which is the main point of the project she is currently undertaking.   

As the main intention is to provide the viewer with a new way of seeing the natural forms by documenting their birth, growth and life within the environment, Lauren has decided to crop her photographs into square format of 12 x12. This is due to how she wants the main focus of the photographs she has taken to be the natural form. She still has a strong use of depth of field by having on section of the form she has photographed the main focal point of the photographic composition. This is unusual for Lauren as she normally avoids any cropping of her photographs as she always likes to present the viewer with the exact composition that is framed within the view finder of her camera when the photograph has been captured. However, with this series of photographs presenting them in square format allows the photographs content to be more definitive and direct to the point of showing the natural forms that are surrounding us.  

'The Beauty in Life' is a project that Lauren is very passionate about. It has been the main way for her to express how she is seeing the environment in which she lives in, and a way of allowing other people to gain a new view of their surroundings, providing them with an alternate view point and a way of seeing rather than just their own viewpoint.

Project title

I have been thinking a lot about what title i want this project to have. As it is something that i am passionate about and it is my way of expressing how i see the environment in which i live in i want it to be something meaningful, direct and express how the images are to be viewed.

Because of these points i have decided to title this project 'The Beauty In Life'. With this title is gives the viewer a bit more of an idea of what i am showing them before they even read about my intentions and reasoning behind the project.

It photos have one main title, which is the project title as i have chosen to leave my four final images untitled because i don't feel that it is suitable for me to title them with them being the type of images that they are, as well as them having a specific intended purpose they fit better untitled. 

writing my artists statement

Over the past few weeks i have been working on writing my artist statement that will go alongside my final images when being exhibited.

Here is what i have written so far, it still needs a lot of changes being made to the current text as it is still a very big work in progress!!


"Lauren Morris is a British nature and landscape photographer based in Manchester, England. Through the use of photography Lauren creates abstract and informative photographs that explore the natural beauty of the everyday ordinary that is surrounding her. Lauren's work looks at the everyday things that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. Her intention is to provide the viewer with an alternate view of the environment.

One of her strong influences within photography is Ansel Adams. Adams work is very much based on the environment, he documented the areas within national parks in America to allow people to see the things they were missing and to keep nature alive.

Lauren has always had an interest in nature and landscape photography, this is due to the comfort and peace that is found when being within quiet and natural surroundings. These personal feelings help her to capture photographs that document the natural landscape and environment whilst providing the viewer with a sense of what she is witnessing herself, through the use of the photograph.

Lauren is currently undertaking a project in which she is looking for and documenting the natural beauty of the environments that are surrounding her.  Lauren is doing this by focusing her photographs on the natural areas, forms and structures that are within different locations around the Manchester area. She is looking for the little things that to go by unnoticed and the different things that tend to be missed by people on a daily basis. This project and the photographs that are being captured are Lauren's way of getting people to appreciate what nature is providing them with, as well as providing them with a view of the things they may not notice themselves, showing them the beauty of their normal surroundings.

 The photographs that are being produced for this project all have a strong use of depth of field. It is Lauren's intention to have one very strong and solid focal point for each of the photographs that she captures. The focal point of the image is not always the foreground nor the background, she uses the scene that is in front of her to decide on the best composition and the best focal point for the photograph she intends to capture. None of the scenes within the photographs she captures are set up, they are simply photographed as they are found, without any intervention showing the natural beauty of the area.

Lauren does not like to set up scenes within her photographs, nor do test shoots. To capture her photographs Lauren simply points and shoots. There are no strict guides to setting up the scene within the view finder, the use of composition and depth of field are the two elements that Lauren uses within every photograph that she captures. This is a way of keeping her photographs very simple whilst providing the viewer with an alternate view of the natural forms and structures that are within their surroundings, which is the main point of the project she is currently undertaking"

working towards my final images...

I have started to work towards my final images within the past few days, thinking about how many final images i want to have is one important thing because this will in turn affect how i select my images and see which images are working well together and working as a set rather than individually.

Saying this, i think that i am going to have 4 final images, maybe 5 but i am heading more towards having 4 images at this point in time.

I am slowly working my way through all of the photographs that i have taken up until this points, selecting the ones that work well together and trying to see what works best in showing my theme.
I am definitely heading in the right direction, but i still have a lot more to get done until i am there!

Format and cropping.

I have written previously about having my images in square format for my exhibition as a nicer way of presenting them and making the definitive point of each image a little more prominent to the viewer. Above are a few of the images that i have taken so far that i have cropped into square format to see how they would look. Some of the images work better than others in this format but with some of these photos i wasn't thinking about having them square when i was taking them so i may not have framed the image in the right way for it to be cropped in this format. I definitely think that i am going to carry on experimenting with square format and this is the route that i want to take when it comes to the format of my final images as it is something a little different and not something i would usually do!

Photos

The other day I went on another journey where I was looking for even more new and interesting things. I want to see what different forms I could capture to the ones that I have looked at before. On this walk I managed to capture quite a few photographs, some being more successful than others. All of the images that I felt worked are shown above, within that selection there are some that aren't as successful as others. I feel that I am starting to gain a lot more of a direction by selecting the type of form that it is i want to photograph - being all natural.

These photographs are still in the development stage and I am very much working towards my final images with every photograph that I capture.

square format!

I have been thinking a lot about the size and format prints that i want for my final images, I started messing about with square format and cropping the images that I have already taken in to a 12 x 12 in format to see the different impact it could create within the images.

Obviously some of the images work better in square format where others don't work so well. I really like the square format though and it is something that I am going to experiment with. With all of the photographs that I capture from now on I will be thinking about the format and how I want them to be in - square, so I will be thinking a lot about the content and composition of the image that I am capturing because i need to leave myself enough room to crop and have all the contents that i want to have within the frame after the cropping has been done. This will mean that whilst I am trying to show the small little details of natural forms am also have to take a step back and create more space within the frame whilst still trying to get all of the little details to come through within the scene.