Second Skype with tutor notes

Following on from my thoughts in my post Looking towards Assignment Three, I put the ideas to my tutor who had requested another Skype chat. After looking at my ideas he asked which I feel more drawn to and I have to say, the dependancy on modern technology idea.
This is because it directly affects me. My husband and children are completely dependant on a number of modern computer devices and so I have first hand experience to be able to communicate that message.
I made a lot of scribbled notes during the call which I will decipher here:

• Firstly the test shots. Are they staged or is that how it is all the time? Most are my family so are they performing? and would they be willing to perform to possibly set up shots in the future?
• The FAMILY aspect - We discussed how these devices are supposed to be entertainment devices but yet can be causing a separation amongst the family unit. 

- try to show family separation through devices

- how do I feel about it? How do others feels about it?

- what is it doing to our relationships with each other?

- [my tutor knows of an article in the guardian] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/sep/03/why-parents-are-getting-angrier-children-are-bored-out-of-their-skulls-with-real-life

• we spoke of the nostalgia aspect - analogue vs digital {technology is still new. children today don't want to play outside, they cant grasp that we didn't have this type of technology when we were their age}, upside is that children now (including very young children) can use all this new technology well. 

- use phones for games and apps but cant make an actual call - my kids!

• Do we need to man up and accept that this is how life is now? 

- focus on social research

When we discussed my test shots for this idea, my tutor asked whether I knew the other people to which I replied that I didn't and that I had just secretly taken them on my phone while I was out and about.  I explained that the theory behind this type of shooting was threefold. 

1. I don't like putting cameras in peoples faces (well, people that I don't know) and so I could hide behind my phone - pretending to be using it - while I took the photos. My tutor was surprised as it looked like I was really close to some people in the test shots. Shooting this was makes me feel more comfortable and it takes me onto my next point....
2. Shooting secretly allows me to catch these people using their devices as they are. If I were to go up to them and ask to take their photo, the image wouldn't work. It would then either be staged or their body language would change - maybe they would even put their devices down and smile. They could become very uncomfortable being photographed by a stranger, if they would even let me take their photograph at all. Secret filming/photos allows me to catch them in the act. {while taking shots for this project, even my husband doesn't actually realise how much he uses his phone until I make a point of photographing him doing it}
3. The irony of using my own phone/device to take the photos themselves. Emphasises my own dependancy to use my phone a lot.

Point two then brought up another possible line of enquiry - secret filming. Photographers such as Diane Arbus, Bruce Gilden, Garry Winogrand and Martin Parr were open about photographing people but some can see the camera as invasive, as an extended argument to point 2. My tutor suggested I look at the work of Walker Evans, Humphrey Spender, Sophie Calle & Natasha Capuana as they did more secret camera work.

• TIME - where does it go? Hours can be lost while playing on computers, searching online. Bate referred to it in Photography: The Key Concepts (p159) where he discusses how surfing the net is a state of distraction, that we aren't really seeing anything particular, we are just scrolling in a state of unawareness. And this is true. I know that for me it is. I can check social media and scroll down and lose an hour sometimes. My tutor felt it might be an idea to attempt to capture the passing of time somehow. Sequences maybe?

So the main points to possible explore were Time - Spying - Family Dynamic.

Research pointers were: Hidden cameras - Contemporary and up to date - Social Sciences (looking at newspapers and current family life)

It's a relatively new phenomenon but it happening right now everywhere, particularly the western world.

Also look at Roland Barthes - public and privacy??

As the photos are taken on my phone the question of quality did come up. I explained that as long as there was a decent amount of light that there wasn't too much of a problem. I think that only one of my test shots was ever so slightly grainy but my tutor suggested that i would probably want to show them a smaller size anyway. 

The conclusion was that my project could go two ways: to look at my own family or to show the time of others. So i am to continue with both for the time being and into Assignment three, which we agreed a time scale to complete by End of October. 

References:

Bate,D., 2009. Photography The Key Concepts. London: Bloomsbury.