The Evaluation

At first i was really worried that I will not find a client. I had no idea what I wanted to do and how to find someone who would like me to work for them. My social anxiety was really hard to deal with when it came to me actually approaching a client.

The first client that I had approached had not replied to me at all. It worried me a lot since I had a hard time thinking of what I could even do in the first place. Eventually I came up with another client who was really happy to work with me.

Throughout the project I learned about the history of fashion photography, different styles of it and the way in which fashion photography has changed. I could apply that to my own photographs by experimenting with those styles.

I learned a lot about my client, who they are and want they do. I also got to know a little bit more about the cancer and the ways in which my client helps people to deal with it.

This project was the one that was not given as much time as the Script to Screen one. Therefore it helped a lot with learning how to properly organize my time.

The communication with the client was very important and with the time it made me feel quite confident approaching them and simply communicating with them.

In this project I had a lot of planning done. Everything needed to be planned carefully and smartly so it would work for myself, the client and my models. I have also came up with lots of different ideas where some of them worked and some of them did not.

This project has also allowed me to think more seriously about my future as a photographer. I have my exhibition planned and my business cards printed as well as my logo digitally designed.

My research 
In this project I had looked at the history of fashion photography, how it developed and changed. I had also looked at the street fashion itself from its beginning to this day. It allowed me to experiment a little bit with the camera angles and directing the models to pose or not to pose and completely ignore me. I have looked at the conventions of street photography, its history and development. I have also looked at variety of artists through the history, which was a great inspiration to my work. 
I have researched my client in depth, to know exactly who they are and what they do. As a charity helping people with cancer or who are effected my cancer, I did some research on that topics well. It showed me how important it is to help the charity with being more recognizable, as well as encouraged me and inspired me to work as hard for them as it is possible. 


My planning
For this project, I have spend a lot of time planning and getting ready for my shoot. I wanted this project to be special and important. I first started with looking at different slogans that are associated with cancer and fighting with it. I have came up with my own suggestions and I annotated them analytically using my knowledge from my English Language course.  

Every meeting with the client and every email that we have been sending was documented and planned. I made sure that I am clear and professional, therefore planning what I am going to say and do was very important. I did not want my client to felt confused or like they cannot rely on me. Also working alongside with another huge project - Script to Screen - I knew that planning everything that I do is a key to get everything done on time. Without it I would get lost and fail my client and myself. Therefore I produced plans, lists and risks assessment for every time I was going to do something, such as reece or to see my client.  

I have produced clear document format for all of the agreement documents as well as any other piece of document that I produced for this project. It helped me with having everything sorted and organized as well as planned in detail. It also helped me with looking professional and consist. 

Wanting to help the charity, I came out with the idea of exhibition. I have approached many places and planned many ways in which I could possibly exhibit my work and help with spreading the name of Big C. I have looked at many places and meet with my client to discuss our possibilities. 

There were many times where things did not went the way i planned them to. I had to come up with other ideas very quickly and plan those carefully. That way I came up with the idea of displaying the photographs on the widow display in the Big C charity stores. I have written a proposal to my client, before planning how I would like to present my work and how I should do it to make it look good for both my self and my client. To make sure that I know what I am doing I have also looked around the city to see how other stores such as H&M display their clothing along side with photographs. 

For the actual photo shoot I have meet my models a couple of times to decide on the outfits they were going to wear. I had to make sure that everyone knew where and what they we were meeting. I had to coordinate the whole day so we were not wondering around, not knowing what to do. I had to plan what we gonna do and when and I have achieved that by making a call sheet. 

I have also predicted that I will probably want to have my business cards for the exhibition and the stores since I will be promoting my work. I have designed my business cards in detail so I could deliver them to my client as well as the photographs.

My professionalism
Throughout the whole project, I tried to stay as professional as possible. I had messaged my client using proper language and when meeting them I made sure that I looked and behave accordingly. I made sure that my client did not have to wait longer than a day for my reply. I have presented to them my treatment and I  was honest with them to the last minute. I have not informed them about the troubles I had with some of the models, wanting her to believe that I know exactly what I am doing.I presented to her all of the documents in one format that I have designed, wanting to stay consistent and looking professional. I did not give up on anything that I had to do for this project and worked hard of every element of it. I believe that I did my job well. I do not think I could really improve on the level of professionalism, however I do think that even after feeling more confident with talking to my client, I could improve on trusting myself more, therefore be more relaxed when contacting my client. 

Improvement and the obstacles
The first obstacle that I faced was actually finding the client. It is not as easy as it sounds. When I finally did, they did not reply, so I had to came up with another charity store that would like to work with me, since it was something I really wanted to do. I did not give up, when the first approached client did not reply. I was looking for another options on the side, so I did not panic that they are not replying. However I did start the project very negatively, not believing in myself and my ability to work with a client by myself or even finding one. I was surprised by how little hopes I had for this project, knowing how well I handled the communication with our previous client and the people I was interviewing. I would like to improve on myself really and the way I think about my possibilities as myself and how much I can achieve. It is much more personal than technical. 

The other problem I had was my client not responding to my emails very often, which forced me to email them the same messaged again to remind them to reply. I was not really bothered by it and I knew what to do since my previous client was not communicating with us almost at all. Happily my client was eventually always replying and I never had a moment where her late replies would have a negative impact on the whole project. 

I also had some problems with my models. During one of the meetings we had where we were planning the outfits together, one of my models got very unhappy with the whole thing and the clothes. He seemed disgusted by the fact they they are from a charity shop and I felt very uncomfortable and I did not really knew what to do or say. It was even worse, because I am friends with that person and I did not want to hurt their feelings or have them change their mind and not want to work with me anymore. 
Later both of my models started to have issues with the makeup. They started saying how they would like me not to use makeup at all, since their skin is sensitive and to use vegan products which I have not have an access to. In that situation I was forced to come up with another idea that would still make my work look the way I have planned it. I looked at digital editing where I could add some makeup that way, however it did not look the best and I decided to use my other skills and print some photos out and draw on top of them with pens and pencils. 

In terms of makeup and hair, I have also faced another problem, which was the makeup artist herself. I had a hard time getting back from her and in the end she could not do the days which were the only days in which my models were able to take part in the photo shoot. I did ask her if she could do it but she has never replied. At that point I thought that I will do the makeup, but it did not work in the end as I stated above. 

Just before the shooting one of the models told me that the other one is ill and they may not be able to take part in the project. I was a little upset, since we are all friends and I expected him to tell me himself about such an issue but I never mentioned that. I have messaged him asking about his health and remain professional even around my friends. 

Just a day before the shoot, exactly late afternoon, I was told that the very same model who was ill is going to tell me if he is available on the day of shooting in the morning. That was way too late for me to know if I will have my second model or not. I had to think very quickly about my options. I have contacted my other friend who decided to help me. I did tell my precious model about it ut he ended up showing up on the shoot anyway. It was a hard decision to tell my own friend that I asked someone else to do a thing that they were meant to do, but I know that it was the right thing to do to bring my project forward. 

This situation showed me that not everything will go smoothly and as planned and it is goof to have lots of plans B and backups. In the future I will definitely have those so nothing can surprise me. 

 I wanted to exhibit my work and support Big C in the same time, however I had a hard time finding the location. I had to work very hard and communicate with my client a lot to know what we can do. When I thought that I have found a location it have not worked out; I was told that there will not be a room for me or that the space is charged some money which I did not have. 
Eventually my client friend who works at Open gave us an opportunity to have an exhibition there in April, which of course will not be a part of this project, but is still a part of the experimentation I have done here. I wish I could have done more on this exhibition in this portfolio such as showing the place and show some plans of how I want the exhibition to look like. In the future I want to plan better how I want my project to end so I will be never surprised like that and I will be able to produce more work.