Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking
Wikipedia, Smoking, 2014, Multiple Authors
http://www.patient.co.uk/health/smoking-the-facts
Patient.co.uk, Smoking - The Facts, 2012, Dr Tim Kenny & Dr Beverley Kenny
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2344.aspx?CategoryID=53
NHS, What Are The Health Risks Of Smoking, 2013, Multiple Authors
http://gosmokefree.nhs.uk/ways-to-quit/quitting-for-the-first-time/
SmokeFree, Qutting For The First Time, 2014, Multiple Authors
Evaluation - Research Techniques
Frankly, the research has been a bit of challenge for this assignment, I knew what I wanted to find but because my subject can be a bit personal, not a lot of people were up for asking them. Phrasing the questions, or at first finding the right questions to ask was a little tricky as I planned to do my project based on both smokers and non-smokers so I had to ask questions that could be asked at both of the factors.
Looking back on my research, I don't think I conducted enough for the project. I think my survey worked well as I got enough people within my target audience to answer my questions but apart from that I think I could have conducted more face-to-face interviews to get more accurate answers for my research. I planned on at least asking two extra people for the in-person interviews but however both mine and their schedules prevented us from meeting so I couldn't conduct the interviews. I also didn't feel comfortable asking random people in the street questions that could get personal. The answers I received from these interviews did help me to understand what my target audience would want to see in my photography, for example, both the people I asked said that they'd rather see the negatives of smoking rather than the pros of it, this gave me a solid understanding of what I should include in my photos.
The choice of using a survey to record my information was definitely a good decision; the day I started it I had already got 7 responses with the total number after 3 weeks live being 20 overall. The survey was online which made it a lot easier to distribute my survey as I linked it to both my Facebook and twitter page. The answers I received did help my investigation because they created a more solid understanding for my project, helping me depicting certain points to my photography. Although I feel the responses that I got were not what I initially expected as the questions I asked weren't all that strong, I think I gave myself a strong challenge of asking two different factors the same questions as people who don't smoke can't answer question that ask how old they were when they started smoking and smokers can't give me actual answers about what they think of smokers without being biased.
Looking at my qualitative data which I gathered using an online survey during my primary research. I thought my research was effective but so much valid. This is because, although I offered a range of answers, there was only a select few that I asked my target audience. After finishing the survey I continued to ask myself if I'd provided the right answers for my audience as there are hundreds if not thousands of answers that could have been used.
The project was overall a success and all the research that I gathered was helpful. I wouldn't say my research helped me to a great deal as I had an idea from the start and just progressed from there. I may have changed my idea for this project a few times going from doing it about organisations in London to disability to finally finalising at smoking. I felt this was a stronger subject to focus on as it opened quite a bit more to focus on. Overall I think this project was a success, even though the research wasn't all that good, I think the final images were appropriate for the project and my theme.
Evaluation - Visual Language of Photography
The intention for this assignment was for me to express my opinions and beliefs about the negatives of smoking; how it affects the smoker and also the harm it causes to those around them.
This particular image, for example, was modified in Photoshop using simple effects. The image is meant to show how smoking puts someone instantly into a dark place, the skull represents the long path to death also the large size of the skull represents the high case of death for smokers, as is the large cigarette in hand. Also the model wears black as if they're already dressed for their own funeral.
I think this image is very effective for my particular project as its a dark subject, I wanted the image to fit perfectly into the theme and I think this image and all my others do too.
Legal & Ethical (Research Techniques)
I approached my photographic subjects and asked if they were happy and able to be pictured for my project. My main concern was the fact that two of my subjects so I not only asked their permission but also their parents. They accepted but requested they see the images before they were to be posted. My other subjects also agreed to be used for my project, but like above they also requested to see the photos before they were to be posted.
With the survey, all those I directly sent the link to were told they didn't have to answer if they didn't feel comfortable doing so as some questions could come across being too personal. Also to those who saw the links that I had posted on both of my personal social media sites, I stated while posting that if they didn't feel comfortable then they didn't have to take part.
The entire project was designed to show off the concern myself and others have on smoking. As mentioned above, all of my subjects were allowed to approve the photographs after they were taken, which ensured that only those showing them in the best way were used. They were all given digital copies of each image they were in for their own record and for personal use.
Audience Research Report
My aim for the whole project was to gather a series of photographs that could be used as an article or front cover for I-D magazine. I started off by doing some research into I-D magazine, having a look at what kind of images they use for their covers. On every I-D cover they tend to hide human identity in every picture, I liked the idea of this but I decided to change my design by having inanimate objects instead, then from here I chose my themes in which I wanted my project to portray. Why do people decide to start smoking and how do some manage to quit? I though this would be an appropriate theme to use because I can work with both genders and both smokers and non-smokers, getting their experiences and opinions on the habit.
One of the main points for my chosen question that I had to ask myself was how intense is the validity and reliability, when asking my question to the public I had to make sure my question would actually get an answer, especially with the fact that I aimed it at both smokers and non-smokers, therefore making it more tricky to pick an appropriate question to ask the public. I can't ask a non-smoker about the effects it has on them as they are unaware of this as they would not have smoke, therefore giving them a closed question. Whereas a smoker can be asked both sides of the question, just whether the results will be reliable as most people don't like going in-depth into their personal lives which I respected. Reliability is a main factor in all research because if an anomaly appears, it could severely affect the results and put you back a step in your findings. Within my research I used quantities and qualitative data collection for both primary and secondary research to move forward more easily in my project and be drove in the right direction by what my audience wanted to see, mixed with my own original ideas.
For my secondary research I decided to have a look at different definitions of certain sampling methods I will be using, which was Volunteer, Quota and Stratified sampling. This helped me gain a better knowledge of the methods I could use to get my primary research in to action. Next, I started looking on Google for images that I'd like to associate my photos with, a colour scheme is very important for photographs. As my theme is based around negatives, I wanted my images to be dark including the colours, I decided to use black, white and grey. To show my research for this I decided to make a mood board using images I found on Google. After creating the mood board I felt I had a clearer vision of what I wanted to happen within my own images. The pictures I chose, I think fitted in very well with my theme, they showed the negatives of smoking very well including the harm it causes to children. Next, I decided to view pieces of peoples own art linking with my theme and advertising. I started seeing consumerism in a different way when I began finding images for smoking to sell certain products. Everyone knows smoking is bad, some just don't know how to bring themselves to stop, I thought that was an interesting route to follow because obviously I want my overall piece to shout stop smoking. The main theme around smoking is the harm it causes to both the smoker and those around them.
I chose a few pictures to include on my blog, just because they seemed very iconic to the theme of consumerism and to my theme, such as two men smoking simply because they can and another photo of a man blowing smoke into a women's face because she likes it. I thought the second photo was a perfect depiction that consumerism creates a wrong idea as to what consumers actually want. All of these pictures made me want to get creative, so I decided to get to work by constructing a few photos for the assignment as a base for my final images. I began by obtaining a cigarette packet and trying to make as many creative pictures with it as I possibly could, I then used Photoshop to add effects to the images. The feedback I got for my images was very appreciative, yet critical due to my lack of Photoshop skills at the start of the project.
I had a search online for artists who make art about my theme, I found out about a Belgium artist called Frieke Janssens who was linking some of his work between smoking and consumerism, as well as reading a blog post from the Bransch Blog which gave me a detailed analogy of the link. This led more onto certain practitioners I'd found out about; Chris Jordan, Gabriel Kuri and Nadav Kander all based their work around consumerism. Gabriel Kuri is renowned for large sculptures and collages made from the remains of everyday purchases and found objects such as receipts and price tags off items. Kuri reconfigures meaning from tickets and receipts, retail supplies and slabs of marble, stones and other incongruous materials of relation to consumption. Personally, I think Kuri's idea for art was a good statement based on consumerism, but I felt he didn't achieve anything from his work, his art was a good way of getting across how money tends to rule our lives but I feel Chris Jordan's art is more creative and makes a bigger statement as he uses items by the thousands to create one large photo. His art is mainly about American Mass Consumption such as his 'Silent Spring, 2014' which depicts 183,000 birds, equal to the estimated number of birds that die in the United States everyday from exposure to agricultural pesticides which is a sad truth in America. Frieke Janssens was a personal favourite because focuses on smoking mostly, which links in closer with my work. One piece that stuck out to me was a piece called Smoking Kids, the piece shows numerous amounts of children of both genders and from all through history visibly smoking, I thought it was really effective in a way that's indescribable.
I'd already begun my primary research by creating an online survey where I asked 20 random men and women between the ages of 16-40 who were both smokers and non-smokers, for each question I gave them a range of answers to choose from. For one of the questions I asked what age they were when they first started smoking, 70% of my answers came out as between 14-17. For my last question I asked, even if they smoked or not, had they known anyone who had passed away from smoking, 53% said they had. These answers pushed me into the direction I needed. I also conducted some interviews as well, my first interview - a 29 year old male, gave off the overall opinion that even though he smokes he would like to see the negatives of smoking presented as it would help him to quit, this brings me back to validity point; what this mans thinks putting negatives on would do for him may not be what other smokers think it would do. This qualitative data helped boost my acknowledgment with the certain negative options I could choose as well as looking at my target audience's answers more carefully. For the interviews I also interviewed a 19 year old female: Non-smoker, her response seemed more helpful than the mans as she actually specified that she would not like to see a women represented as smoking as it makes her look low and very unattractive. She liked the idea of using negative quotes about smoking as she felt it would help smokers realise the harm cigarettes cause to them and those around them.
I have also been gathering multiple pieces of feedback from each piece of work I have created from friends and family as extra research for my project. This all helps because even though its not always valid, due to the audience being out of the age range, it still gives me a little bit of input that I could potentially ask my targeted audience and also re-create the images to what they think would be best, using the images I have already made. Personally, I think my idea is strong enough to move forward, even though I haven't done much research but so far I believe it to be successful towards my target audience.
Looking over my research objectives that I set myself in my research plan, I must admit I haven't met most of them because I decided to base my secondary research on qualitative data, whereas, I mixed my primary data with both. I believe it would've been better to use quantitative data in my secondary research. This is why I went into depth about the three practitioners I found out about as I feel looking at their work has helped towards my final images. I feel as if the questions I asked during my interviews were completely valid as well because I was able to use them and enhance the ideas for my images. The interviews and questionnaire are shown on my Infographic for proof of research. If I were to do anymore research for this assignment, I'd most likely look into I-D Magazine further by possibly purchasing the magazine and reading it more closely to view a wider range of materials they have created over the years
Infographic
Link for my Infographic on Prezi:
http://prezi.com/zu1fgydc8ahy/infographic/#
These graphs were formed using data recorded from a survey I circulated to Smokers I know, which was then forwarded to smokers they know.
The survey can be accessed here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7Y2YFLK
Final Images
'Workbook' Images
Mood Board
Analysing Photography
The advertisement above is for a professional photographer by the name of Chris Gloag and his company, Chris Gloag Photography. The first thing that catches the eye of the viewer are the numerous photos he has on his advert. They're all different styles too, all people but of different ways to portray them. It gives the idea that he doesn't work for any specific type of persons, and therefore anyone can hire his use.
The different backgrounds in each photo also gives the impression that he will work to your specifications, you tell him what you want and he will do exactly that. The clear texts means its easy for someone to get in touch with him and get more information.
Overall, the poster captures your interest, making you wonder what he is capable of doing and makes you want to visit his website and find out more.
Advertising photography
Cancer Research UK
This is for the charity Cancer Research UK. It plays on emotions of those who know of the illness or have/had experience of it in some way and who would therefore understand how absolutely terrifying having cancer really is. The aim of this advert is to show how well research is doing to prevent all these life threatening illnesses. This advert gives a positive view on researchers saying that 'one day research will beat cancer, Help us make it sooner' Telling you that even though illnesses can be scary, they can still be overcome with plenty of research, this gives you the confidence that by donating to these people, you will make a difference, and that difference will be all the sooner because of your help.
Guinness
This advert is for the alcoholic beverage, Guinness. The advert is aimed at the male gender as it specifies the 'two things men can't resist.' At first when reading the big red writing and seeing a pint of Guinness with an attractive women sat on top of it, it gives you the idea that these two factors are what will be mentioned next, but in fact the two things a man can't resist is 'a pint and another pint.' From a women's point of view this ad could be disagreed with as most men subject women as one of their desires that they can't resist. Also with the women sat in a sort of provocative pose you'd expect that to be the first answer.
Colgate Floss
This advert is for Colgate Floss, this is a very clever advertisement as it shows that most people only focus on another persons facial features. All the couples in the photos have something in their teeth, this is usually the first thing the audience notices instead of the other factors. The man in the top photo only has one ear, the second photos shows the women with an extra arm (the one round the mans shoulders) and the bottom photo shows the women with extra fingers on one hand. Not many people realise this because we subject the face as the main place to focus on, especially someone's flaws - being the food in the teeth.
The Hornet SC/360
The Samsung Galaxy S 2
This advertisement is for the Samsung Galaxy S II, for years now Samsung and Apple have had a long running war against each other and this ad is just another spark to the flame. The ad is clever and humorous against Apple, saying 'The same as iPhone but cheaper!' This ad is not only used to go against Apple but to also attract customers by taking their attention away from Apple products like the iPhone.
Cigarette ad
This ad is aimed at smokers, I chose this one as it links in with the theme of my assignment. This advert is basically about facing the facts that even though smoking kills you, there are other ways of dying so you might as well have a fag as the effects are long-running. This ad doesn't so much show the negatives of smoking as it does the positives, its basically saying how fragile a life can be as there's dangers everywhere and almost anything can kill you instantly if not leave severely damaged.
Adobe Photoshop
There have been many scandals with how people, especially women are portrayed in the media especially when it comes to photo shopping. This advertisement shows an image of Madonna before and after using 'Photoshop Cream,' the cream isn't real, this ad is going against using Photoshop as a way of getting rid of all skin imperfections to make women - and men, look young and glamorous. The ad features a quote that is apparently from Madonna herself saying 'What's the secret of my success? it's Adobe Photoshop Day Cream.' having a celebrity of her class for the ad would turn more heads, making it a successful advert.
Krow & Wicket's Watches
This ad is for the sale of watches and how a watch will be a 'lifeline provider.' The ad includes a large image of two people, possibly Krow and Wicket, it also includes small texts around the ad telling the readers about the watch, trying to engulf them in. They use phrases like 'live your life to the fullest' and 'punctuality guaranteed' this makes the reader believe that by buying this watch their lives will become instantly better as they'll always be on time and happy. Another good selling technique, especially for women is the fact that they've said 'Complete with diamond studding' and as the stereotype goes, 'diamonds are a girls best friend' this would attract a large female audience looking to buy the product.
Tough Mudder
This advert is for an obstacle course built by the marines known as Tough Mudder. The text on the ad is absolutely perfect for the subject as tough mudder isn't for the faint hearted, it takes guts to complete it. 'There are seven days of the week. Someday is not one of them' is great motivation for the readers, as a participant in the 2014 midlands tough mudder I know that this would push its audience to train and complete the course. The image behind the text shows two men helping another man get up the obstacle known as Everest - a quarter pipe climb. The object of the course is team work and the image definitely shows this.
Cigarette advert
Here's another cigarette ad that would link to the theme of my assignment, this ad shows a man and women staring at each other with the man blowing smoke into the women's face, yet she doesn't look disgusted at his actions. The ad reads 'Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere.' this advertisement isn't trying to be against women and show that men dominate them but the fact that the smoke is supposed to smell a certain way for example; cherries. This ad is showing the positives of smoking with the women looking happy that the mans blowing a fruit smelling smoke in her face but it would still harm her as a passive smoker.
Research Plan
The purpose of my research is to explore the reasons why people decide to start smoking and how some manage to quit. Ultimately, I want to find out why it is such a big deal for some to smoke and how even though they know the bad effects smoking has on their body and the people around them and by knowing this, how do they carry on their bad habit.
I know for a fact that people smoke for many reasons. You could argue that it is not the smokers fault as the habit is very addictive because of the chemical in the cigarette called nicotine. Also clever marketing tactics of tobacco companies has also influenced smokers for many years. Providing those I ask are willing to disclose such information, I also aim to find out the cost some of my participants pay for their cigarettes and how this affects their lifestyle money wise.
For this, I shall devise an online survey, the survey will be distributed on both Facebook and Twitter to get as many answers as possible and it will have both open and closed questions so i can get the answers i am after. For example, questions about cost or the reason that a smoker smokes will be a text-box response, allowing them to have the freedom to give whatever answer they want to respond with. Questions with multiple choice answers would be, for example, asking how old they were when they started smoking or how many cigarettes they consume in a day.
For my photography, I shall be using a Nikon D3100 with an 18-55mm lens. Plan on capturing the negative sides of smoking for example, having a cigarette pack laid beneath a flower bed but have the flowers withered and dying to show the effect smoking has on both the human body and the environment. I also plan on using used and new cigarettes to spell out words or phrases or even small pictures to get across how bad smoking is.
Pitch
For my assignment- Consumer Identities, I have chosen to do my project about smoking and the harm it brings to both the smoker and to people around them. Cigarette smoking is the greatest single cause of illness and premature death in the UK, about 100,000 people in the UK die each year due to smoking. My aim of this assignment is to keep people aware of the dangers of smoking as well as the dangers it causes to those they're around.
For the photography side of the assignment I plan on getting photos that show the negatives of smoking, for example; a cigarette packet beneath a bed of flowers but the flowers are withered because the effects of smoking. I feel that there are a lot of good opportunities within this assignment as a lot of people nowadays smoke so both my research and my final edit will be full of content.
I have been deciding whether to do my research on just smokers or just passive smokers, I know both will have different answers to my questions so I was thinking whether to do research on both factors, therefore getting more information and facts for my assignment, therefore making it more realistic.
Stopping smoking can make a big difference to a person's health, I want to show people the effects smoking causes but I would also like to get across to them that it isn't impossible to quit smoking and that there is always help at hand.
