Development: ‘The Focal Point

Once I had developed the focus themes for my photography series, I asked the individuals who participated in what their view of the focal point of the image was. I felt this was significant because it not only shows what their eye is naturally drawn to but how different people notice different things in the media: the main desire for my Task Four Major Work.

This view of individuals noticing different things can be inspired from many different aspects of the world and their own experiences. Contemporary Art is something that is often discussed to have many different meanings, thus, this can be linked to ideas presented in Frankham’s “A Poetic Approach to Documentary” (2013), specifically the concept of interconnecting elements. The quote “often structured around unifying themes or existing categories and classifications, the list can also inspire thought that follows the structure of memory, impulse, and flashes of association… as a result of the non-linear process of the interconnection or montage between the already-seen, the now- being-seen and the as-yet-unseen” (pg 141). This is something that I wanted to portray in the overarching theme of my media four piece – how individuals take ideas, whether this is inspired by pre-conceived materials, the materials they are presented in the work themselves and how this interprets their view of media in the future. When people view art as a media form, they can take different things from what the artist originally intended, based upon their own experiences and what they have viewed in the past.

When developing this project, the range of focal points had large variation – purely based on different people’s experiences, as confirmed by Frankham’s quote above. The ideas of “the issue… of finding the balance between offering a definitive, unquestionable single pathway at one extreme and presenting a loose collection of raw documents at the other” that is further presented in Frankham’s thesis is something that is important when I was creating these works, making sure the photography that I was presenting to the individuals did not only contain my own bias but also was not giving any pre-conceived ideas for the focal point – hence, why I kept the lens at 50mm for every photograph. I did this not only to reduce the focal point being a standout, for example, if I did close-up shots, the focal point would already be presented to the viewer, presenting them with wide shots allows them to make up their own decision about the focal point that is most relevant to them based on their experiences.

These ideas are important in going forward in presenting the material in a specific way – there are many ways that I could present this material, however, I think the mosaic feature is something that I want to explore first. There are different ways to develop this – but I think the easiest way is going to be through singular images on premiere pro, as I have used the software before and feel the most confident in it. There may be some other options, which I will need to explore and do some research on before beginning piecing the focal points together.