2. SPACE
The space I would like to portray for this photography project is one of the Wellington Hospital. From
several photo shoots I want to combine 4-10 photos to tell the story of a patient at the Hospital.
From working at the Hospital you realise that 80% of the building is not able to be viewed by the public.
These ‘behind the scenes’ places fit the description of the brief for Space. From movies to TV shows
everyone thinks they know what a hospital looks like, these versions are very different to the reality
of a 24/7 service that repeats itself every day. This repetition of a service is reflected and shown in the
building.
For my final composition of photos I want to tell the story of a patient in the hospital. I would like to use
the objects and spaces that a patient would interact with to tell their story. I would like to focus mainly
on the staff and patient only areas in my photographs to show the clinical and bland nature of a hospital.
I also want to express the repetition of the building as a sub-story in my composition.
For this photo shoot I will be shooting in colour. My choice of taking pictures in colour is very
intentional as I want to show how grey the hospital is. Although the hospital walls are painted a green the
use and type of lightning enhances the grey tones in the paint and as a result it hospital has this grey tint.
I am also using colour photography to illustrate the identical and repetitive nature of the building.
Neil Pardington
These two images are from a series Pardington has
called “The Clinic”. It is a series of photos of a Hospital.
As the subject is a Hospital building and the object/
furniture within his series is a direct link to my
composition.
Pardington has shot the hospital in a very similar
way I intend to, by focusing on the objects with no
people. From his work I have been able to analyse
his composition. This has allowed me to be able to
manipulate where I stand to take my photo so I can use
lighting and objects to my advantage.
The colours and tint Pardington has captured in his
series influenced my series. I have used the warm tones
of wood colours like browns and oranges to distinguish
the difference between public space and staff space,
while using the lighting to tint the staff areas a grey
representing the clinical nature of a Hospital.
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8. EVALUATION
The idea of portraying the difference between a public view of space within a building and then the
contrasting this with the staff view of the same building, was my original goal/brief for this project.
Although I think that I would have been able to show this story/idea/message and feelings in a photo
shoot, after my first photo shoot I soon realised that I would not be able to show this idea completely
as I had intended with the limit of 10 photographs.
I think from being able to analyse how Pardington used the lighting in his images I was able to create
better photographs and improve the composition of my shots, rather than trying to figure out how to
use the lighting while I was taking photos.
One thing that I planned correctly in this project was the times I went to the hospital. As I was able
to take photos early in the morning and late at night I was able to reduce the chances of visitors and
staff wandering into my photos. This timing also meant that I was able to complete a shoot with very
little waiting around time, for people to move.
I learned from this first project that I need to have a clear and definite idea of what I want to photo-
graph/ portray before I start taking photos. Although I have a final composition completed I found
that I had a lot of unnecessary photos mixed in with relevant ones. This process of first taking the un-
wanted photos and then having to sort through them meant that I wasted time that I could have used
to better this project.
