Yet to be realised

We have just been set a small task called 'Yet to be realised' which was described to us as Chinese whispers with photography.

"You are all required to produce 1 x image that will ultimately form part of a wider narrative. The ‘whole’ of which is yet to be fully realised.
In its simplest sense, your assignment is based upon a form of visual ‘Chinese Whispers’. In reality you are taking part in an exercise with regard to the creation of a collective visual narrative. 

This is a narrative, which is yet to unfold, is unpredictable, and by its very nature is one that will be ultimately influenced by you and your fellow peers as a body of considered and reflective practitioners.

Importantly your narrative must possess ‘cohesion’ in respect to your own personal aspirations whilst ideally affording sufficient ‘room’ for interpretation by your fellow peers and the groups holistically shared interpretations. Namely to create a series of images which although conceived and derived at independently ultimately lend themselves to the formulation and creation of a visual lens based narrative.

          BRIEF / RULES OF PLAY

Stage 1
Students will each be afforded a minimum of 1 x day in order to capture, gather or collate their own personal image, which will ultimately form part of the overriding final narrative. Images can be either from the student’s own archive / portfolio, identified or found online or can be an image which they have decided to capture for this specific assignment. N.B. Your chosen image ‘must’ hold / possess narrative possibilities in terms of its potential reading. 

Stage 2
Each student then must write a brief synopsis, which outlines the following:
a. Reasoning as to why they have captured / chosen their image
b. Their personal reading of that image - denotation & connotation
b. Explain how and why this image possesses narrative qualities
c. Briefly describe how they personally see / envisage this narrative developing 

Stage 3
Students are then required to printout 1 x copy of their image and 1 x copy of their synopsis. Each student must then place 1 x copy of their image and 1 x copy of their synopsis in a sealed envelope (these will be provided at the initial briefing) and submit this envelope to a member of staff in the photography office with their ‘name & group clearly printed on the front of the envelope."

I was mid way in our group so I was conscious that my image could change everything. There wasn't a lot I could do until I received my image from someone else but once I'd received it I had 24 hours to forward and image I felt was similar to it with narrative potential.

The above was the image I'd received. There wasn't a lot of information in the shot and so I picked up on the fence. It looks like fencing used by building sites and disused buildings. I decided to take a risk and find a picture of an abandoned space. My thinking behind it that whoever was in the original photograph could be trying to get into an old warehouse to have a look around, the fence was to either keep someone in, or keep people out.

This was the image I decided to use, found courtesy of google. It really stuck out when I saw it, the complexity of the roof supports was highly contrasting to the empty space in the lower two thirds.

I had to write a brief synopsis to go along with my shot:

"Yet to be Realised Brief

The image I received made me think of someone in a place they shouldn’t be. I felt like it was someone trying to gain access into a building or area to explore or resolve a situation.

I felt that this image was a good way to show an environment where someone would feel alone. It’s baron and clearly disused. This adds to the story I imagined of someone exploring a forbidden space. However there is nothing of major interest within this space so it would lead on to more questions about why someone would be there. Would they be looking for something further along or is what they were looking for gone?

I think the narrative could go in many directions from here. The scene is open to interpretation by the viewer, is there something more to investigate or is it a journey of exploration?

Personally I imagine someone to explore further into the space and stumble across something. That something could be a physical thing or an emotion. From the earlier image I had a sense that it was someone looking back into a time in there past. Possibly stood outside the fence of somewhere they grew up as a child or have some ties to. I think my image takes this further and shows the inside of a space and the narrative could develop to show the personal ties to the place or the reasons for returning. I personally imagine it as someone returning to a place from there past to gain closure of some sort."