This was exactly the session I was preparing for when I was printing out and editing down my images initially. Out of the images that I had narrowed my selection down to, I had to further narrow them down to 20 to 30. These won’t necessarily be my final set of images, but would hopefully end up as a basis.
I had my initial selection laid out with the intention of narrowing it down further, but other members of the class began to make their own edits with my own work (which I gladly let them do, to get external input and to see ideas which I may have missed.
A strong blue and yellow theme was noticed among my images, as well as being able to join together images into a chain by using the telegraph lines and electricity pylons around the area. I did like this idea, however, this woulndn’t entirely work in the form of a book.
One idea that I did have, and one which I had been holding on to for quite a while, was the idea of a focus more on people, rather than the location itself. I developed this more into a ‘day-to-night’ theme, with the book starting out at the railway, with the fishermen in the middle, and the airport at the end, spaced out with several landscapes. I was keen on this idea, yet I would later come to realise that this was too rigid.
The next edit was what I have since been working on for a few days now.
I explained day-to-night idea to Geraint, and then showed him the images which I am keeping aside from that edit, yet I still felt could work as an edit in themself. He then started to go through them, discarding images which he felt gave too information away, and left ones in which were, in his eyes, ones that would leave people with more questions than answers. Images he removed included ones which incorperated the lighthouses, or the power station on its own, for example. This is quite a recognisable location, so I can understand his reasoning for this.
I still wanted to incorperate some people into the book, although there are fewer than I planned. Further from Geraint’s inital edit, I have added some images, and removed some, ending up with the 23 which I have above.
For the most part, I am happy with this new edit. I have managed to go further with it and create an ‘outside-inside-outside’ kind of narrative with it, which incorperates elements from all but one of the shoots. One issue I am facing with this is the establishing shot. The first two images in this edit show the power station in the background, which immediately gives the location away. I will need to see if there is another image which I can use instead.
Ryan Trower 