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!
Kerrie Caine 