The Commission: prints and contact sheets

These are the first few images I took for my series. I knew what I wanted from my images; drawing on my inspirations, but I wasn't sure how to achieve it and only realised I hadn't until I looked at my negatives.

The angles aren't quite right and in some images there are too many other distractions. In the images of my subject on the sofa I wanted a much more symmetrical look like that of my subject on the left who I made my first print of.

However, I then realised the photograph did not focus enough on my concept - the second hand market. I realised I needed to change my subjects position in relation to the furniture and put more emphasis on this.

I re-shot the subject on the right and my third with a good outcome.

This is the second contact sheet of images I took; focussing again on the second subject as in my other. It was hard to photograph my subject - my dad, because he works away and I had two opportunities over a period of a couple of months to take my images.

I also photographed the subject I hadn't made a portrait of yet in my second shoot; trying to keep the aesthetics the same for both portraits.

I worked on what I decided was the fault of my last shoot, and perfected the pose and symmetry of my subjects.

Upon looking at my contact sheet it became clear that my focus was not perfect on every image but I needed to choose the ones I did for the composition of my subjects within the frame and the significant similarity between the two I ended up printing for my series.

Something quite frustrating about the two images I took of my new subject which I couldn't print is the fact that the only location I could have taken the image to fit the series would have meant cropping the top of the head in order to remove distracting features. I feel the photograph marked with the X has the right aesthetics to match my visual references, but not to how I have ended up photographing my subjects.

This is the last contact sheet I produced in preparation for my final print.

I experimented with the use of including other small second hand items in my photographs but felt this only caused a distraction and I wanted to achieve the simplicity and the clean look of my influences.

My aim of this shoot was to fit in my last image with the rest of my series which is why I experimented with pose and distance so much to try and recreate the previous.

I tried very much to match the position and distance of this subject to my previously photographed subjects so that it would fit in properly.

I also wanted to correct my last mistake of not including enough of the furniture in the photograph and not drawing enough emphasis upon it. This is why I angled the chair and changed the pose leading it slightly away from directly front on to the camera. I still wanted it to fit in with my other chosen images so I tried to make this change subtle. I then chose to place this print in the middle of my series as it had a slightly different look to my other two prints.

Looking at my contact sheets, I can see images that I feel may have worked better together but at the time of shooting and printing, I did not have all of my negatives together to compile my series at once. This is something I would like to definitely do for future projects.

My Series

Large 3 seat leather reclining sofa: £57
Average price new: £1500

Solid wood table: £60
Average price new: £500

Large solid wood chair: £35
Average price new: £100

'BC Rich' electric guitar: £147
Average price new: £600

'Marshall' amp: £30
Average price new: £200