Introduction
The most basic definition of Globalisation I could find was this; 'Globalisation is the process in which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected'. Of course, there is more to it however this is a good start in being able to understand it.
Globalization is visible in almost everything we encounter on a day to day basis. Almost Everything we eat, wear, use is a visible effect of globalization. This allows us to separate it into some main categories such as Culture, Trade, and government.
Of course, this all appears to us as very positive effects on our daily lives. Allowing people to migrate to England means we can all experience different ways of life from all around the world. Allowing people to trade with England means we can buy food or clothes that aren't usually available in our country. Governments being able to communicate with one and other allows the world to strive for peace. All of these are visible to us but its something we have grown used to. For example, in London, we wouldn't be able to imagine a life where everyone around us is British, and everything we eat is grown on our land, and our government only focus on the development of one country.
London is known to be one of the most multicultural places on earth but having said this, segregation in London is also widespread. Moving away from the idea of Culture and more towards the idea of Class, Globalization is a completely capitalist movement and is dominated by greed. The idea of globalization has been completely distorted and manipulated. Its sole purpose is to bring everyone living on this earth together as one and share, which sounds like a very socialist idea. However, the greed of rich businessmen and politicians has meant this idea has been capitalized. Rich developers have been known to be exploitative to the lower class but most of all the government have little interest in the lower classes of England and can be careless and reckless in this.
For my project, I want to explore the damage globalization has caused to communities and how this has had a profound effect on the rise of crime in London and the increased class segregation. I am hoping to challenge globalization and present it in a more negative light.
Globalization is visible in almost everything we encounter on a day to day basis. Almost Everything we eat, wear, use is a visible effect of globalization. This allows us to separate it into some main categories such as Culture, Trade, and government.
Of course, this all appears to us as very positive effects on our daily lives. Allowing people to migrate to England means we can all experience different ways of life from all around the world. Allowing people to trade with England means we can buy food or clothes that aren't usually available in our country. Governments being able to communicate with one and other allows the world to strive for peace. All of these are visible to us but its something we have grown used to. For example, in London, we wouldn't be able to imagine a life where everyone around us is British, and everything we eat is grown on our land, and our government only focus on the development of one country.
London is known to be one of the most multicultural places on earth but having said this, segregation in London is also widespread. Moving away from the idea of Culture and more towards the idea of Class, Globalization is a completely capitalist movement and is dominated by greed. The idea of globalization has been completely distorted and manipulated. Its sole purpose is to bring everyone living on this earth together as one and share, which sounds like a very socialist idea. However, the greed of rich businessmen and politicians has meant this idea has been capitalized. Rich developers have been known to be exploitative to the lower class but most of all the government have little interest in the lower classes of England and can be careless and reckless in this.
For my project, I want to explore the damage globalization has caused to communities and how this has had a profound effect on the rise of crime in London and the increased class segregation. I am hoping to challenge globalization and present it in a more negative light.
FIrst shoot-social housing
Although there is a lot of segregation, efforts have been made to integrate both the social housing with private land. This idea is very wise and has worked in several places. One place that is best known for this is Holly Lodge estate in highgate.
In the middle they have large blocks of social housing overlooking the city, and placed around the blocks are very large privately owned houses. On the surface this idea is brilliant and on a whole (as for Holly Lodge) works quite well. Recently in the news there was a sickening case of class exploitation. A development in Lambeth , similar to Holly Lodge had Social Housing and private housing built next to each other separated by a large play area in their back gardens. Recently all children from the social housing were banned from using this play area because of complaints of the noise from private owners. This is an extreme case of exploitation and there is no way of justifying this behaviour. When the council were asked about there permission of this development they said none of the hedges blocking the play are were in the permission. Class segregation is always visible in some form or another throughout London . Efforts have been made but the council treat it as one of there smaller issues.
In the middle they have large blocks of social housing overlooking the city, and placed around the blocks are very large privately owned houses. On the surface this idea is brilliant and on a whole (as for Holly Lodge) works quite well. Recently in the news there was a sickening case of class exploitation. A development in Lambeth , similar to Holly Lodge had Social Housing and private housing built next to each other separated by a large play area in their back gardens. Recently all children from the social housing were banned from using this play area because of complaints of the noise from private owners. This is an extreme case of exploitation and there is no way of justifying this behaviour. When the council were asked about there permission of this development they said none of the hedges blocking the play are were in the permission. Class segregation is always visible in some form or another throughout London . Efforts have been made but the council treat it as one of there smaller issues.
LINK TO KNIFE CRIME
Linking this
Linking this
Second shoot - Dogs
From the Increase of crime in London, it is inevitable that people seek some sort of protection. For some that may be knives but for some it is protection from a living companion. I have noticed more and more of the dangerous breeds of dogs around London and often hear of dog related incidents. I wanted to photograph this as I think this is a good alternative to carrying knives as with the proper training and the right breed of dog, you can stay protected.
second shoot
For the second shoot I arranged to meet Vanessa Hyman. The mother of Anton Hyman who was brutally murdered and left in a river at the age of 17, it was mothers day,2004. The killers, to this day have not been caught. When contacting Vanessa, I wanted to make sure she met in a place that was comfortable for her. We met in a pub in acton where I was greeted by her family. She made it clear to me that she was willing to help by any means but she will not go to the extent where all her emotions are brought back up. From a photography perspective I think it was important to make her feel as comfortable as possible rather than forcing her to feel emotion that she does not want to feel. I photographed some images indoors in black and white by the window and some colour ones outside. When shooting these images the original format would be 6x4.5 however I knew while shooting that I'd eventually crop these to a 1x1 square format.(4.5x4.5). I did this because I wanted the Focus to be on Vanessa and her emotions visible, the background was less important. Although the face is underexposed, I was able to bring some more exposure in by editing the image slightly. The darkness in the face was not a problem for me as her expression feels quite dark and the emptiness of the background and the absence of light adds a different dimension of darkness and sorrow to the image.
One thing I learnt from this shoot is to not be so shy in directing the subject. For example the exterior shots I placed Vanessa in front of a pole as It acted as a a backdrop however in the final image the pole looked odd and unnecessary as it looks like it is coming out the top of her head. The interior shots were my favourite however I think I need 1 or 2 more stops of exposure bringing out the features a bit more and this could have added a slightly more textured image. Apart from this I like the darkness and emptiness of the photo as from speaking to her, I think this is how Vanessa feels knowing that her sons killers are still out in public. Meeting Vanessa was an eye opening experience that left me shocked and more informed of this topic only making me want to explore it in more depth. Vanessa spoke to me about her opinions on how the government could reduce government and she was adamant that the work to be done was in early intervention and communities. This inspired my Next Shoot.
3rd shoot
From the previous shoot, Vanessa informed me of the way many people are starting fighting clubs as a means of creating tight knit communities that give younger people a sense of self and makes them more confident of there capabilities as a human being that can deter them from resulting to crime. Having gathered this information and opinion, I looked into small fighting communities around London. I contacted an old friend who I knew was a fighter at a Barnet Martial arts gym. He invited me to come and photograph him and the gym. The shoot was extremely challenging technically. As I was shooting on ISO 400 film, It was hard to keep my shutter speed high without making it too dark. The lights in the gym were halogens, that gave of small amounts of light. They did have some soft natural light coming in from the skylights which helped in certain areas of the gym but it was minimal. My light reading read 2.8 (wide open on my lens) and a shutter speed of around 1/60-1/125. The minimum I could get a way with while still capturing a moving subject was 1/125. This gave me know room to over expose or even adjust exposure for different compositions. I kept my camera at this shutter speed as it was as low as High as I could go in the whole of the gym. This worked quite well when I was shooting towards the skylights which was lucky as the boxing ring was places right next to it giving me some strong light.
I shot one roll of Portra 400,one roll of FUJI 400H and One roll of B&W Kodak Tri-x.
I shot one roll of Portra 400,one roll of FUJI 400H and One roll of B&W Kodak Tri-x.
The result of this poor lighting actually turned out quite well. I noticed that the Tri-x handled the exposure the best and so did the Portra 400 however the Fuji roll was almost unusable. The light created nice outlines of the subject and this gave the skin more texture. In post, I gave the images a bit more exposure and contrast. I also made the temerature sligtly cooler. Overall, I was quite happy with this shoot even though it was hard to capture moving subjects in focus and with enough light.