Photo by Holly Webb

In my research of photographers and types of photojournalism, I have been slowly putting together a few potential ideas for my final photojournalism project.

To see my first idea, click here.

 

2) Motherhood

Inspiration:

When looking at the work of Mihaela Noroc I was inspired by her photography style. I love documentary portraiture, and I also like her use of high saturation to link all her images together.

When looking at her Atlas of Beauty project, I realised how powerful some of the images were and how they made me feel. Because of this, I was inspired by her to centre a project around women.

Thinking of this work, made me also remember an advertising campaign I had seen that was very impactful to me. It was the Mothercare campaign partnered with London Rail Services that I had seen when commuting on the tube one day in London.

See a sample of the campaign here.

Both of these photojournalism campaigns inspired me to come up with the idea of portraying the realities and the impact of motherhood.

I think that capturing the true essence of what it’s like to be a mother would not only be very emotional and impactful to readers, but of interest and relevance to a lot of them – particularly those who are mothers themselves.

 

Plan:

I would like to shoot a mixture of candid photographs, and documentary portraiture-style images like Noroc’s Atlas of Beauty project below:

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To portray a broad reality of motherhood, I would like to talk to lots of different mothers – young and old, and those who are new mothers, and those who have been mothers for years.

I want to capture the realities of motherhood – the good and the bad – meaning, I would like to include some candid photographs alongside the portraits if I have the ability to do so in my 8-12 image limit.

I think that I would talk to four or five different women, in order for there to be enough images and text for each of them. Within these four/five I would like some variation (for example, a grandmother of ten, a pregnant teenager, a single working mum and a mother whose children are leaving home for the first time).

As well as the project I have already mentioned, I looked online to see if there were any photojournalism projects similar to this idea. I came across this one in Noor, that is the most similar to what I’d like to produce.

Saying this, my end project would be very different to this despite taking inspiration from it. I would like to focus my idea on Leeds – or at least England – meaning that it would hopefully be more relevant to this area and people may relate more to the subjects I will be speaking to.

 

Contacts:

Because my first idea is quite idealistic and far-fetched, I have already sent out some emails to potential subjects in case I can’t achieve my initial idea.

I have contacted a couple of support groups for young mums that are based in Leeds, as well as posting on Facebook community pages asking for volunteers to get involved.

I have already had quite a positive response, which has given me the confidence to pursue this idea if I am unable to work with the Mayor of Sheffield like my first idea plans.

 

 

I thought that my first idea was very strong if I were able to pull it off, and so I was very passionate about it. However, after going over the details and plans for this idea, I think that I would be very passionate about producing this piece of work and that it is definitely a contender for my project if the first idea isn’t feasible.