Make a series of six to twelve photographs in response to the concept of ‘The Square Mile’. Use this as an opportunity to take a fresh and experimental look at your surroundings. You may wish to re-trace places you know very well, examining how they might have changed; or, particularly if you’re in a new environment, you may wish to use photography to explore your new surroundings and meet some of the people around you.
You may wish to explore the concept to Y Filltir Sgwar further, or you may deviate from this. You may want to focus on architecture and landscape, or you may prefer to photograph the people who you think have an interesting connection to the square mile within which you currently find yourself. You’ll need to shoot many more than 12 photographs from which to make your final edit. You should try to make your final set of photographs ‘sit’ together as a series. Don’t necessarily think about making a number of individual pictures, but rather a set of photographs that complement one another and collectively communicate your idea.
You may wish to title your photographs or write short captions if you feel this is appropriate and would benefit the viewer. However, you choose to approach this assignment, it should communicate something about you: your interests, motivations and your ambitions for your photography. Think of it as a way to introduce yourself to your tutor.
There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to respond to this brief, as long as you try to push yourself out of your comfort zone in terms of subject matter. Try our new approaches rather than sticking to what you think you’re most successful at.
So thats the brief, and now where to begin? WHERE IS MY SQUARE MILE? time for a list
Looking around the internet it was easy to draw inspiration on what type of images I could produce, but none on what I SHOULD produce. That's when I realised that it is my square mile, that it has to come from me. It is also when I took on board that I have been thinking far too much into all of this...I have run away with the brief!
Initial Ideas
I have spent far too long on this assignment, I have read too much into the brief. So off I went and decided on a location and got back to what I love doing the most, taking photographs I did not want to focus on the area in which I live, and I have no real emotional attachment to where I was brought up, I wanted to cover an area that I knew very little about. That is what my Square Mile means to me;
Intial Ideas
The Xscape.
Built in an area of server socio-economical depression, this complex has completely transformed the region. The old pit that it was built on has long gone and the stacks have been replaced with retail units.
I know very little else about this area apart from the above. The area I have chosen as my Square Mile is the train station that feeds this massive living thing with people. People who come to shop, go ten pin bowling or work. This unremarkable structure is key to the area but does nothing to leave any impression on the people who depend on it.