The images were shot using the medium format camera: Mamiya RB67. It is my camera of choice when shooting film because of its robustness. I mounted the camera on a tripod to get the focus as accurately as possible and then exposed the film by means of the cable release.
The photos were shot at f/8 to ensure clarity and sharpness and the time ranged from 1/8s to 1/4s at ISO 125.
Judging by the fact that the plushes depicted in the images trigger memories from my childhood I felt like it was only natural to display the 10 photographs (or portraits, if I may call them) in a photo album, similar to the ones I have back home. The photos included in those album have a vintage feel to them and depict myself and my family.
Taking into consideration that the plushes are like a family to me (they have names, personalities and everything) I decided to place their portraits in such an album. The images would be displayed on the righ hand side and the sheet of paper telling their story would be place on the left hand side.
That way, when the viewer flicks through the album he may stop and read the description of the portrait(s) which most appeals to him/her.
The reason why I decided to place the text along with each photograph was to allow the viewer to understand the importance of each plushie in my life. Without the text, the images would simply be photos of objects. The text transforms them by placing the objects into context and creates 'a portrait of a memory'. That's what I want these images to be: portraits of memories.
The photographs are displayed in the album in that particular order because I started with the youngest 'member' of the Fluffy Family which is Caine and went all the way back to the oldest one which is Teddy. The photo album aims to represent a journey in the past as opposed to a documentation of the toys. It begins with the last plushie I bought until now and ends with the teddy bear which was bought by my mom when I was only 7 years old. In between, there have been a lot of memories created which relate to the events which took place in my life.
The scanned images submitted for this assignment can be found on a CD which is located at the end of the photo album.
