Exercise:- A Narrative Picture Essay.

"This project requires you to set yourself an assignment and then photograph it.  Based on what you have learnt so far, tell a story of any kind, in a set of pictures numbering between 5 and 15".

"The way in which you lay out the final selection of photographs is very important.  In dealing with a number of photographs, it is not simply a matter of deciding on the shape and size of a single image.  The whole reason for shooting a variety of images is so that when seen together, they work as a set.  Presentation can help this enormously.  Some pictures, for example, need to be big to be appreciated; others can work well if small.  Write a short caption under each picture, describing what it shows".

Having read through the course book earlier last year, the final part "Narrative" caught my attention.  This section of the course I thought would be a lot more interesting to do.  I had taken photographs with a theme in the past also telling a story in pictures had always interested me.  Unfortunately my images were sometimes disjointed and no more than a collection of record shots.

Like most people I have a mobile phone and can see how useful they are, to some people however I feel they have become an obsession.  Much to the annoyance of my family at my rants when someone is on the phone when they should be concentrating on something else.  Talking on the phone when going through the checkout at Sainsbury's for example, not to mention driving a car or riding a bike.  Thinking it would make a good project, I began last summer, just before the start of the Olympics, to photograph people using their mobile phones.  I soon realised how unaware they were of what was happening around them when on the phone.  I was able to photograph them up close with a wide angle lens without them even noticing, if this was the case then how could they possibly drive a car and talk on the phone at the same time.

It had been my intention to use the "Phone" for the final assignment.  Having looked at them as a whole I'm not convinced they tell a story, they might be nothing more than a collection of record shots.

  

It is my intention to continue photographing people and their mobile phones, until I find something else that irritates me of course.  I hope the few images shown here convey my feelings about this obsessive device.