Thoughts on the previous semester
I’m pleased with the work that I did in the previous semester.
Photography, photographing people, street photography is something that I enjoy. The concept was to find the journey in other people. To think about what brought them there, what is their story. And I tried to captivate them in photos, as an observer.
Capturing their untold stories by creating an image. While at the same time also going through a journey by myself.
The photos that I made in my opinion were successful and the installation also. It was all connected and I made a strong artwork that I’m proud of.
But the question now is what to do now?
I feel so much potential and connection with this project that it would feel wrong to just leave like it is. Because there are so much more to explore and so many more ways that can help me extend this project.
The topic for this semester is home.
Now the question is how to connect and extend my project from the previous semester with the topic of home?
Home
What is home?
For me, the concept of home isn’t only connected with buildings, with four walls that we sleep in. Home is people around us that make us feel safe, secure and loved. Home is a connection, a feeling that you have around other people.
It’s especially an interesting topic for me since my first home was in Poland, but now I’m in Aberystwyth, away from my family and friends that I left in Poland. But somehow I manage to create my own home here, miles away from the place that was supposed to be my only home. During Christmas, I went back to Poland and I started to remember that I have a home there too, but also a part of me couldn’t wait to come back. And it’s not because of the flat that I have in here, it is because of people that were waiting for me to come back. The connection that I made with them, the emotions, the feelings, this is what a home is for me. So here I’m, not having only one home but two of them. One in Poland and one in here.
Street photography and home
How to connect my project with the topic of home?
Since I established that home for me is a connection between people, the question is now how it refers to my work.
Am I looking for a connection between me and other people?
Or a connection between people in general?
Am I looking for something familiar or unfamiliar?
The photos that I take in Aberystwyth already have something homey about them. My photos from last semester have been all taken in Aber. So there is an illustration of other people that are a part of my home which is Aber. I don’t have a connection with them but they are a part of the environment/of home that I got used to during this year and a half.
There is still a lot of question and a lot of thoughts in my head about how to describe this semester project. But this isn’t a problem, maybe this is a part of the project or maybe this is a project, having these questions, being unsure of the answer. And finding or not finding a way to answer. Either way, I already feel quite positive about this semester and I think that I have a big advantage because I already know what I will do- street photography. The things that I need to work on is mostly fitting into the topic and also finding different ways to get better at street photography, get closer to the subject, explore more options, do more research, but the only way to do it is to try and try again and see where it will take me.