Overall I am more than happy with how my FMP turned out. Turning it into such a personal piece that focuses on myself is something I never thought I would do and in a way, I put it down to the pandemic. Without the lockdowns, restrictions and being forced to stay home for so long, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to explore something so personal.

I definitely faced many learning curves- shooting professional quality photos in my bedroom, doing my own makeup and the retouching process. However every challenge I faced, I taught myself something new, which was my only option due to learning from home, so figuring out problems myself was also a challenge but taught me a lot. 

What went well-

- The final photos: I’m really happy with how each character turned out, they convey different emotions through facial expressions and body language, rather than relying on props as I had originally planned.

- The research: I got to organise all my own research, and so I thoroughly enjoyed looking at a huge variety of inspiration, not just photographers (such as Cindy Sherman) but also artists, such as Jenny Saville, and documentaries that explore identity. I got to look in different directions and pull together inspiration from many sources that genuinely interested me.

- The concept: from beginning to end, my concept changed a few times, but definitely for the better. It started as a two piece idea, showing the idea of lost identity, followed by the idea of escape, however I cut the first part and decided to focus solely on the characters and different identities I adopt through writing. Then, towards the end I decided to be more free, and not define or name my characters, and make them more of ‘parts of me’ and let the audience figure out who they’re meant to be. 

- My schedule: from the very start I had a very detailed schedule/ to do list for each phase so I was on track throughout. This meant I could focus on making my work as good as possible without worrying about other things that needed to be done, as I knew everything would be done at a certain point. Being well organised allowed me to shoot as much as possible, including test shoots, which is something I’d struggled with before. 

Most of all this project allowed me to experiment and explore myself, rather than focusing on someone else, or creating a narrative, I was telling my own. Identity is something that I have always questioned, and wondered how to define it, and using photography and poetry has helped me realise that it doesn’t need to be defined. Not by a name, a style, a career etc… 

What didn’t go well/ what I would do differently:

- There isn’t much that didn’t go well for this project, everything was quite smooth however there are some things I might change if I ever did it again

- Printing: I would have loved to print this book for our FMP and been able to see everyones book on the table would have been a great experience, but it isn’t something that can really be changed

- Retouching: I’m happy with how the retouching went, but I would have started it earlier than I did, I left it quite late because retouching intimidates me quite a lot, so I found myself putting it off, but it was actually better than expected and the tutorials Chris did really helped me and explained everything really well.