The student proposes three projects for their final major project in photography. Project 1 involves recreating natural landscapes out of natural or man-made materials, inspired by photographers who have done similar work. Project 2 focuses on photograms and chemigrams created in the darkroom to capture fine details in nature. Project 3 aims to photograph exploding or shattering flowers frozen with liquid nitrogen or a similar solution to depict movement, inspired by photographers who have captured this effect. For each project, the student discusses their inspiration, methods, location, and potential limitations.

1. FMP
IDEAS
Final Major Project

2. Proposal 1
What and Why?
 My idea is to recreate natural scenes – such as landscapes – out of either
natural or man made materials. The photographers I would look into are Carl
Warner, who made food-scapes, and Jochen Klein, who made recreations of
famous landscapes photographed by Ansel Adams out of man made objects,
such as bin bags and cotton wool.
 I think this would strongly link in with my critical essay about who or what ‘puts
in the work’ with a photograph – especially if it was scenes made out of man
made objects, as this takes nature completely out of the equation, therefore
the final result would purely be down to the photographer.

3. Project 1
How and Where?
 I will either use the studio at college, or my home studio to photograph the final
outcomes. However, I will have to spend many hours researching and making up
my ‘natural scenes’. I will need to be within a large working area so I have the
room and facilities to create these scenes. If I choose the route of food-scapes I
will be working in a kitchen, as well as a lot of Photoshop expertise needed,
however if I choose the route of the man made objects then, as long as I have a
large desktop to work on, this could be made anywhere.

4. Project 1
Limitations
 The limitations of this project comes down to making the scenes to photograph.
There are many questions that need to be answered, such as; Will I have
enough time?
 Do I have the right equipment and materials to make the scenes?
 If I chose the food-scapes, how will I store them? Will I be able to make and
photograph them before the food begins to brown?
 Do I have the required skills (i.e. Photoshop)?

5. Project 1
Mood-board

6. Project 2
What and Why?
 For this project I would like to focus in the darkroom but not in the usual way. I
would like to focus on photograms and chemigrams, and portray the fine details in
nature we can unintentionally miss. My main artist inspiration would come from
Man Ray for photograms and Norman Sarachek for chemigrams.
 Photograms and chemigrams are often referred to camera-less photographs, I want
to do this as I feel it would be a different approach for a final piece, to produce
photographs without the camera. This idea could also relate back to my critical
essay where I speak about the beauty in nature. I believe this project could back up
both sides of my theory, as the beauty of nature can be caught in more ways than
one, however a photographer is able to capture it in different media forms.

7. Project 2
How and When?
 I would simply be using natural objects, such as flowers and leaves, to create
unusual images, detail and angles not often caught by the camera. I would be
using the supplied darkroom within the college as I do not have the means at
home.

8. Project 2
Limitations
 Possible limitations could be;
 Is there enough variety of natural objects to use?
 Will I be able to make each image significantly different?
 Will there be constraints with using the college darkroom?
 Costs of darkroom equipment - paper

9. Project 2
Mood-board

10. Project 3
What and Why?
 For this project I wanted to focus on the idea of movement, specifically the idea of shattering
/ exploding flowers – similar effect to a firework exploding. The photographers I would
research prior to this would be Marcel Christ and Martin Kilmas. Also Nikon photographed
something similar for the front cover of Telegraph magazine and documented the process –
this would be a useful link to research.
 My whole love of photography began when I used to simply just photograph flowers, close up
and in different angles, as I was always stunned by the beauty and detail that could be
captured. My main interest area in photography is nature so I thought this could be a unique
chance to experiment with nature and create images of flowers not many people see. I also
believe this would feed into the theory behind my essay of the beauty of nature and the skill
of the photographer both being at work to create something beautiful.

11. Project 3
How and When?
 The way flowers are photographed like this is by freezing them to an
unbelievably low temperature, then shattering them – creating the explosion.
This can be done in two ways, firstly would be to use liquid nitrogen and simply
dipping the flower in. the second way would be to make something similar to
liquid nitrogen, which would be made from dry ice and 99% isopropyl alcohol. I
would probably do this at my studio at home with help, due to the risk
assessments involved if I was to use the college studio.

12. Project 3
Limitations
 Possible limitations could be;
 Issues including risk assessments
 Getting hold of the necessary chemicals
 Price of chemicals
 Limited resources – chemicals aren’t easy to get your hands on.

13. Project 3
Mood-board