3 Notes
One Hour Photo
From March 1st, for two weeks, I took a single photograph every hour on the hour, in my pursuit of the most objective images possible.
Despite a shop job preventing me from doing this project on Saturdays, and a couple of missed hours over the two weeks, I believe the project has been largely successful in providing an objective and bias-free representation of my daily routine - a routine which sadly involves far too much time watching monitors of various types and sizes.
Rather than displaying the images in a fixed and pre-determined slideshow, a grid with randomly ordered images seemed like a better option for the photos to be seen. What I cannot control however is the various subjective interpretations the images will invoke.
To view a larger version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olliejenkins/5588669236/sizes/o/in/photostream/
3 Notes
Dissertation Project • A Random World View.
In order to explore the notion of ‘the objective image’ photographically, I have come to realise that the conception and construction of my own images contradicts the very objectivity they are trying to achieve. In order to achieve a less biased image, the photographer must be removed from the process all together, and replaced by a system of chance and of randomisation. As a result I have used impartial satellite photographs, available via Google Maps, which indiscriminately document the world’s surface.
In order to determine which satellite images to use, I found a Random Point Generator (www.geomidpoint.com/random/) which provides randomised latitude and longitude co-ordinates, which can then be directly entered into Google Maps. All the images above were acquired using this random process, with no images discarded or preferred. Most of the resulting images were of the oceans, but there were also some interesting and varied landscapes including deserts, forests, fields and mountains. They have no purpose other than to show an indiscriminate and objective view of the world.
I am still considering the most objective way to display these images, whether in grid formation (as above), or via other means such as slide show/video which would provide better visibility of each image. Obviously this final decision of exhibition is the most subjective element remaining in this project, but one which cannot be overcome fully as this would require the images to be seen by no-one including me, and therefore for the project to never exist.
