Our first task was to produce a contact sheet of 36 images on a subject we are happy talking about.
Great something to think about creatively. Need to think about the outcome and how it will look. It's going to be one sheet on a computer screen. This means the 36 images will need to work well together.
First idea - colours. Let the colours run from White to Black running through varying shades and colours along the way. Took 6 images and thought they looked ridiculous, flat and uninteresting.
Second idea - panoramas. Take 6, 6 photo panoramas and they will sit next to each other on the contact sheet. I like this idea as I love doing panoramas but I was not in a place with things that were inspiring me to take panoramas. I gave up on the idea.
Third idea - Helvetica. Time was tight as I was sharing a camera and had to be mindful of my colleague needing to take her images as well. For speed, ease and to do something with creative impact I decided helvetica would see me through.
We drove out to Curborough Hall Farm Craft Centre near Fradley as there were many shops signs there and I knew I would get a good harvet of Helvetica images.
I had forgotten how much I actually enjoyed doing this project for my FMP. However the output for these images was going to be entirely different to the books I had created. I would not be showing the images through a letter as I did in the book so I needed to get very close to the signs. To make them look uniform I would need to crop them square and put them onto a square contact sheet.
It was very comfortable to do this - perhaps it is even a fall back position - but it is a position that often produces some very interesting images.
Some of these images are nice images on their own. I particularly like the ones that are an extreme close up of a specific letter. The close up of the 'R' reminded me of a quote by Abbott Miller: "The capital R is the only part of Helvetrica that disturbs me. The odd bell-bottom curve of the leg reminds me of that photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe of a guy in a three-piece suit with his pants unzipped, exposing this huge curving penis. The R is both the penis and the three-piece suit all at once".
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
