Summer Project Critical Reflection

Once I had accepted my offer from Coventry University, I later on discovered a letter from them about my summer tasks which were to be completed before we started University to bring us into a working environment again.

The first task was to read a book called ‘The Photograph as Contemporary Art’ by Charlotte Cotton. I loved reading this book, even though at points I found it difficult to understand and would have to re-read sections it was a great contribution to my knowledge to start my university studies off. It has helped me to look at photography as an art form as well as a medium, and introduced me to new photographers that I may not have looked into before.

The second part of the task was a practical photographic assignment where the given brief was to ‘Imagine the person closest to you.Imagine that this morning the woke up. Got out of bed, without making it. Then walked out of the room and your life, never to come back. Now go into that room in your mind and see the evidence of their presence.’ After I got this brief, I began to think of the people I wanted to do and who I could photograph that would be a great opportunity to explore. Not long after this, my grandfather had passed away and it was strange to not have him around. As my grandma had not gotten rid of any of his belongings and refused to move them that my grandfather would be a good person to portray, however I felt it was too close to the death to photograph such an emotion set of images and may be distressing to my grandma. This would have been a good photographic opportunity, and one day I may get the chance to carry out this assignment in my own time. But for this particular time, I decided to do my photographs of my boyfriend. This was because I spent a lot of time with him and saw him frequently in a house that he lives in by himself so anything inside is solely what he has been doing, and no-one else has input into what the house looks like.

By using my Nikon D3000, I took all my images inside my boyfriends house throughout the day looking at the things that he would do in a normal day such as brushing his teeth, making dinner, watching television or washing up, or lack of. I edited the photos slightly on Photoshop CS5 to give them a vintage effect to give them more depth, but to also make them look like a set of images that worked together as a coherent set. The idea of taking the images of things that we use everyday, was because we take these items for granted because it’s so common for us to use them. Even though these items don’t have any sentimental value, they are still valued for everyday life, such as the toothbrush which is used everyday to keep your teeth healthy. If we didn’t have this item, we’d know about it.

The last task was to write a letter to myself from myself. This was to outline the hopes and dreams I had for the future and any worries I may have had. I found it difficult to do at first because I wasn’t used to talking to myself about thoughts and feelings I had. However, once you realise what you want to find out and do with your life, you get to grasp the concept of writing a letter to yourself.   I just hope that what I have written in my letter then, still applies for now.

I enjoyed doing these small summer tasks, it help me settle back into a routine of doing work as I had gone so long without it during the summer holidays between starting university and finishing college. I felt that I had a great taster of university before starting!

An Artefact that Explores the Subject of Under-Represented Groups within the Media

For this section of Personal Professional Development, we have to look into an under-represented group.

un·der·rep·re·sent·ed

Adjective: Not represented in adequate numbers or amounts.

For this I then went to do an online search for what could be classed as ‘under-represented’ and this website came up:

http://www.blueprintforchangeonline.net/pages/stakeholders/underrepresented.php

It included a list of groups that may be included in the ‘under-represented’ category.

Underserved groups may include, but are not limited to:

• Youths
• Seniors
• People with disabilities
• Low-income and working poor
• Impoverished and/or homeless
• Immigrants
• People for whom English is second language
• Single parents
• Veterans
• Racial or ethnic minority groups
• Religious minority groups
• Members of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community
• People with limited education or literacy

After looking at these, I find that some of these are very true. Because I knew that I wanted this work to be personal to me, I then went on to select a few  sections that would be appropriate to explore.

• Youths
• Teen mums/single parents
• Members of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community
• Mental disorders

After looking into these four groups, I then mapped out which would be more personal to me.

Youths is a very large topic which could be pinpointed anywhere as youths are slated for being bad role models within society and associated with substance abuse and given this bad overview.

Teens mums and single parents is a very common problem in society today as many people I know have been affected  by it. My family is quite large and this varies from a great grandchild to great aunts/uncles and grandparents as many of them had children very young. It is known that my mum and sister and grandparents had children in their teens and have created a life for themselves with what they had. In the media, I feel that they either make single parents and teen mums to be a terrible thing or in some cases glamourise it, such as they do on the program ‘Teen Mom’ which shows the progression of teens in America as young teen mums/parents and follow their story. The program was to show people that being a teen mum is hard and a life long commitment. Being a teen parent isn’t all bad, and children do have a good upbringing, however the media shadows this point and just focuses on the bad.

Members of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community is a big topic to discuss because they each have something else to give to the conversation. However, with being bisexual myself, I find that this is very important and personal to me to talk about. This is because it took me a while to understand my own feelings and emotions and that a lot of people that feel that way are scared and confused. In the media, I feel that people are too afraid to speak out about their sexuality because of what people may say and therefore under-represented.

Mental disorders I feel don’t get any publicity because people don’t want to face up to them or people simply don’t see them as an illness, just an ‘excuse’. I have suffered with depression before and a lot of people have told me that it’s just a cowards way of living as I don’t ‘put up with everyday life’ and use ‘being down’ as an excuse to get out of things. I admit that some people often overuse the term ‘depressed’, however I know people that have suffered greatly with mental disorders like bipolar, depression, anxiety and even small cases of schizophrenia. I don’t feel that people are open enough to mental disorders and leave it aside.

After looking at the four main groups that I liked, I chose to look at the ‘teen mum/single parent’ group. This was because my mum was a teenage mother and my sister was also a teenage single parent. Through this, I’m going to explore and ask question to both my mum and sister to see how they coped with being a teenage mum.

Some teen parents do not have a choice in the matter of having children, this could be because it wasn’t a planned pregnancy or maybe it’s against their religion to have an abortion. But with my sister, it was never a choice for her, and she didn’t even realise she was pregnant! She was rushed to hospital with severe stomach pains and scans and tests were done. They later on asked if there was a possibility if she was pregnant, this came as a bit of a shock for my sister and family, and she was only 19 at the time which is the same age as my mum when she had my sister. My sister had the privilege of having an abortion was taken away from her.

I then wondered, how is it even possible for this to happen but it is actually very common. When this unexpected birth occurs, the woman does not get any symptoms of pregnancy and doesn’t show. When Jacob (my sister’s son) arrived home we were happy that he was in our family but also a little reluctant because of the situation. From this, we continued on like a family and helped out my sister anyway we could. The images below are just a few shots from when Jacob arrived home and his first few weeks of life:

Now with my sister being a mum at such a young age, it changed her whole life around. The questions that I asked my sister are both personal and inspirational because they give an insight into the struggles into motherhood but also how rewarding it is to be a mum.

How did you become a single parent? I didn’t find out I was pregnant until I went into labour. I had a concealed pregnancy which was a bit of  shock.

How did you find becoming a mum overnight? Very strange, I wasn’t the type of person to have or want children at the time.

Did you struggle with coping at first? I didn’t really cope very well. I was lucky I had a very good support network of family and friends helping me through.

How old is Jacob now? He is 4 starting school in September 2013.

Where do you live? With my parents.

Are the living arrangements how you’d like them to be? If not, why? Ideally I would like more space but unfortunately as I only have a part time job I cant afford to move at the moment until  have enough money saved to start out.

How is your financial situation? I work part time at the  local university and claim for working tax credits. So I have a tight budget.

Do your family support you? My family provides childcare when I go to work and help if Jacob is unwell.

Do people treat you differently because you were a teen mum? And do you think people who have children at a later age get ‘more respect’? As a teen mum I got look of people in the street. No one in the public ive noticed coo’s over a teen mums child. Yet an older woman who has children gets asked the  questions like how old is he\she? Or remarks to say how beautiful their chidren are.

How rewarding is it to have your son? He’s a very smart little boy so I feel joy from being his mother. I wouldn’t change anything now he’s here.

From this, I feel that teenage parents always get criticised for either living off benefits or being put down for bad parenting when really some people struggle with day to day life. By doing this, I feel that I have become closer to my sister to listen and understand what she has been through herself, even though I was there for her through the whole process.