Evaluation

This project has really been tough for me. I have had a lot of self-doubt and really wanted to change my concept but over time I feel like I have come round to my idea and changed my prejudgments and learned to go with what I have instead of what I wanted.

Optimism and focus was how I started this project and I think that I have come full circle and been able to end with the same feelings. However during this project i really only had 2 weeks to shoot and consider my images. I found this really difficult as It was hard to gain feedback on what I was doing and really just resulted in me taking matters into my own hands and really letting my work be created around something that I wanted and what I found interesting. At first I thought this was a bad thing as I really didn't have confidence and faith in what I was doing, however now I have come to realize that this was a blessing and give me so much freedom and independence that I have been able to fill my book with images that have no other input but my own. I had a lot of expectations before I went to India and this is shown through my research and what I expected to create while I was there. When I got there though and was in shooting mode I came to realise that all my expectations were not there and I had to re-think and re-evaluate what I was doing and where I wanted to take this project.

I think choosing digital was the best option for my project, as well as not having the time to process and print my images as well as scanning to create the book, I would have also had a massive problem if the images hadn't turned out how I wanted them. Therefor choosing digital and being able to see what I was shooting as I was taking them was really a wise move and give me a strength in my project. Another strength through my project was that I had previously had experience making my own book and using blurb efficiently. This meant that I didn't really need to allocate much time to do this in my project because I knew how it had to be done and I wouldn't have to learn this process. Research was also a strength I feel like it was easier to focus on researching layouts than it was to focus on artist but I feel like I got a range of both that both helped me and backed up my work to create a strong body of work.

I did have more problems than strengths during this project though. I think it was more to do with my own indecisiveness rather than actual technical problems. I really wanted to explore this project artistically and push the limits but I don’t feel like I was able to do this with the subject that I chose to focus my book on. I felt broken when I came to realise that what I had pictured by book being like and how the images would look, really wasn't possible. It wasn't what I expected Goa to be like, this caused a lot of doubt and worry.

This being said I feel like I rose to the occasion and really made a book that I can say I am proud of and I think that it shows a more natural way of life, and a truer one. I like that it has took a documentary approach and I am really excited and happy with the outcome. I think that the self-doubt helped me to realise that things don’t always go to plan and it’s always best to deal with things one step at a time rather than build up preconceptions. This project has taught me a lot, and I wouldn't want my experience to have gone any other way, I wouldn't have been able to learn what I have if it went as I planned.