Assignment one. Submission version

Our village fits nicely within a square mile, but my wife and I know very few people, due to our hectic lifestyle. I then started to think about involving my son Beren, and his sister Eledhwen. Using them, I could shoot all the images from a very low level to emphasise the perspective from which they see the world.

I considered giving them my mobile and just going for a wander, letting them do the initial photography, which I would then reshoot using my DSLR. I was excited about the way the idea was progressing and taking shape.

We discussed my ideas whilst driving to school. Beren gave me his thoughts, but I had my own ideas and recollections and increasingly prompted him to give me the answers I wanted to satisfy my view of his life (but that wasn’t what my original idea was about!). I tried to follow this idea through, but it lacked spontaneity.

I realised that what I wanted to do was present my memories, through them. So what I’ve arrived at is a set of images that are staged but not in a rigid way. I took them both to areas where I would let them play, knowing full well that I would get something that would remind me of my past.

My ‘Square mile’ is more of a recollection of a time rather than places.

I was drawn to Venetia Dearden’s work https://www.venetiadearden.com/about/  , in particular I love the way she flirts with the natural light and shoots into the sun to create a dreamlike quality in her images. It gave me a distinct feeling of the long dreamy summers I had as a child. I have used this technique in one of my images. Having been taught not to shoot into the sun, this was a new experience for me. I also revisited Sally Mann’s work which often captures a sense of the freedom of childhood and the sense that there is always an adventure to be had just around the corner.

I have deliberately given this assignment a ‘feel’ akin to William Eugene Smith’s ‘Country Doctor’, as the images work well together and have sufficient cohesion to create a strong story that flows.

There is definitely scope for developing this project. Confined to a maximum of twelve images made the story feel a little staccato, so more and varied images would give this story much more flow to it.