Focusing in on a specific theme for my Royal Photographic Society ARPS distinction – Indonesians at home or at work?
In my previous blog post I discussed the initial stages of selecting photographs for my Royal Photographic Society ARPS distinction. I had a vague idea that it would cover Indonesian people, since they make up the bulk of my recent work. I felt that this wasn’t specific enough, if not for the ARPS then at least for my own satisfaction. ‘Indonesian People’ is rather broad, so I looked at my short-listed 130-odd photos and tried to find a recurring theme.
Indonesians at Home
One thing that was apparent was that I like sticking my nose (read ‘camera’) into people’s homes! This isn’t as offensive as it sounds. Indonesian houses often back onto thoroughfares, with little to no private area between their houses and public spaces. Often, Indonesian people like to sit outside their homes in the street, pulling up chairs or mats to do so. It’s quite difficult to ignore local people living like this and, as we know, they are pretty accommodating when it comes to tourists taking photos.
Taking the ‘homes’ theme further
There is a lot to dissect when examining these images of Indonesians at their places of residence. The social structure surrounding a street, time spent outside as opposed to inside, or the interaction throughout the day of said residents, to name but a few. The theme of ‘Indonesians at Home’ could be taken further than the title suggests and there is scope to expand on this. In the meantime, it allowed me to start pulling together images based on this theme.
Printing out more photos
Now that I had an idea of a solid theme to explore, I realised that there are a ton of photos missing from the original batch I got printed out last week. I’ve gone through some more photographs and ordered another 50, but I know there are many more I’ve overlooked. They will all be printed in due course.
The Cohesive Set
The next step is to start putting together the set of required 15 images, and piece them in such a way that they work together. One simple idea is to break the work down into five rows of three, making the contents of each row work together. In my example above, I start with three portraits of women outside their homes, then three images with colourful backgrounds, three images taken from the same street, three images of men, and then three images with heavy contrasts.
This needs work. I think I have three good images of men smoking, so that could make one row. The middle image in the bottom row is probably too dark in places and either needs editing or changing. The three images of the colourful background should probably match. And so on. These don’t quite work yet, but it’s a base to start working from.
Indonesians at work – an alternative theme
Another theme worth exploring is ‘Indonesians at work’, of which I have many images. In fact, it may even be possible to break these down further: Indonesian fishermen or Indonesian market workers.
I’m not convinced the first row works because while they were photographed in a work environment, it doesn’t actually show them working. Meanwhile, ‘Indonesian fishermen’ is a strong contender for a separate theme, but that may be quite narrow and could be a consideration for the FRPS distinction. And to make the bottom row work better, the last image should probably be flipped horizontally.
Anyway, the above is a work in progress and I will continue to play around with alternatives and format. I’ll keep you posted.