Project Proposal - Society

For this project, I have decided to focus on the topic of society. Whilst doing my research for this topic, I found different areas, which I can explore; for example, the different cultures in society, the positive aspects as well as the negative aspects of society, the diversity that can be found in our society and so much more. This will give me a lot to work with but also require for me to be organised and plan my shoots in advance. Moreover, I will need to do a lot of travelling during this project in order to capture a large area of society, which will, once again, require organising and a lot of research. Personally, I think this topic will be challenging, as although the themes found under the umbrella of society is endless, I will have to find exciting methods and techniques in order to produce photographs to a high standard. However, I am very excited about this project because it is an interesting topic to explore and by doing this, I will gain knowledge about the community I live in - I think I will become more aware of the different social issues found in our society and I will begin to understand more about society as a whole.

When researching this topic, a few pictures which grabbed my attention. I would like to create some work like this as they all have deeper meanings that aren’t so apparent to every viewer. The picture below of the man in a room full of alcohol represents the alcoholics in our society. The photographer has exaggerated the amount of bottles present in this image in order to put emphasis on the large amount of alcoholics in our society although he/she only portrays one individual – this individual is laughing as he is unaware of what is happening to him; he doesn’t know that he is addicted to alcohol and is not ready to admit it. The scene this photographer has chosen is very dirty and run down, as we can see the room is falling apart, however, his clothing is clean and very business-like; this further emphasises on the individual not realising what is happening around him, he is unaware of his world falling apart.

Just like this picture, I would like to address social issues, mostly among teenagers. I’m not too sure about how I’m going to do this so I need to do some more research. Perhaps I could use models and make up in order to show how they have been affected by their addiction or whatever social issue they have encountered. In this picture, we see how women are being stereotyped and how they can never please society. This image also represents sexism, as men don’t seem to have this problem. The fact that the photographer has decided to omit the subject’s face highlights how society see women as unimportant. The contrast between the dress and the woman’s fair skin forces the viewer to focus on the words in the picture and understand what he/she was trying to achieve.

Another theme I would like to explore is stereotypes on specific individuals found in society and find exciting ways to capture them.  This next picture is of the policeman potentially arresting the young man, the viewers are not sure what exactly is happening in the picture; whether the teenage boy is being arrested or just being told to calm down by the police officer. This is what creates curiosity in the viewer and portrays teenagers as criminals. The boy has a very threatening look on his face, further emphasising the anger he taking out on our society.

This is showing the negative aspects of our society and I would like to explore those aspects in more details as they are interesting and will give me a lot to work with. I will also focus on the positive aspects and perhaps compare them in my pictures. To start this project, I am going to focus on the social issues; this is the biggest theme and I will need quite a lot of time to work on this. I am going to focus on issues such as addiction, homelessness, stereotypes, etc. After this, I would like to explore the different cultures that are found in society and this will involve some travelling around London.