Work Diary - Seventh Shoot - Southall

For this session, I went to Southall in order to capture a completely different religion found in our society. Having been there before, I knew what to expect and I had a rough idea in my head of what I was going to take photographs of. Southall is very well known for its 'Hinduism' and for the market stalls that are scattered all over this area. My main aim was to capture these market stalls, so that I can show the comparison between how some individuals shop in society and those who live in Southall, despite the fact that it is still in London. However, once I started walking around, I noticed other things that made Southall distinct from other areas in London. I began noticed different norms and values that were being displayed; I found this interesting and tried to capture them. I also noticed that the Indian culture were blended in with 'British' associated things. For example, I saw a red postbox right next to a row of Asian shops - I tried capturing this by including only a part of the postbox rather than the whole thing in order to represent how this culture has blended into society and is now considered perfectly normal, even though they speak a completely different language and eat completely different foods to the rest of individuals in the community. This shoot allowed me to explore ideas that can be symbolic in my work, representing this culture and portraying how it has slowly integrated into a new society and made it its own. In addition to this, stereotypes on this group of individuals were also explored in my work, such as their clothing.

This picture is one of my favourites from this shoot, mostly because of the symmetrical feel that a viewer gets when first laying eyes on the picture. This photograph is symbolic, showing two very different traditions right next to each other; the shop is an Indian takeaway, titled in another language, whereas the bus stop is British tradition, with the red bench. Although viewers know that this is scene was taken in a British society, it can easily be argued. If the markings on the street weren't present, it would be unclear where this picture was taken, it could be argued that it would have been taken in India or another Asian country, where a British bus stop had been copied. There are also a lot of lines present in this scene; acting as guiding lines, almost guiding the viewer through the picture - they are made to start on the left side on the image and work their way through to the bus stop on the right in the image. I've adapted this technique by positioning my camera in the middle of the frame, so that I can examine the lines that are present and eliminate the ones I do not want to be included in my picture.

However, this picture could have come out better; I originally thought by using a blurring technique and setting a high aperture so that the background of the scene would come out blurry but the fence would be sharp, however, this did not come out as good as I anticipated. I noticed that by blurring the background, I prevented the viewer from fully understanding what the contents of this picture is. I wanted to emphasise on how this culture has been embedded in our society by depicting how their temples are found all around - I thought that by blurring it, I could highlight this point. If I could take this picture again, I would pick a lower aperture setting so that the background is less blurry and perhaps, show the viewer that it's a temple and allow them to understand the symbolic idea I was trying to achieve.

In the future, when capturing culture, I would explore the little ideas that represent the specific culture I am trying to illustrate. I would also find more ways in which I can show comparison; by doing this, I will be able to use a range of techniques such as multiple imagery to show differences and similarities between different traditions found in one society.