Above Top: Looked Down, black and white digital photographs, series of 3 photographs, 31.5 x 42 cm

Above: Looked Down 2, black and white digital photographs with hand painted text, 44 x 60 cm

 In unit 3, my work focused on underlying social issues within our society. I refined my ideas in unit 4 by focusing on the issue of homelessness in Melbourne. This has then led me to explore the idea of capturing the well-being of homeless people as well as the idea of taking cardboard signs as the symbol of homelessness and presenting them through my artworks.

My original intended subject matter in my exploration proposal was homeless people who have a pet for company living on the street. However, with the lack of control of my subject matter and lack of opportunity to take photos under the COVID lockdown, my work has evolved to just focus on the homeless people themselves and the symbol of cardboard signs.

I have chosen potential directions 1 and 2 as I think they communicated my ideas the best. They would allow me to present my artwork in an authentic way that captures the reality of homeless people lives as they are based on the real original photographs with a minimal editing. Potential direction 3 and 4 are studio set up photography and digital drawing on illustrator. As both potential directions are somewhat fictitious that lack of authenticity and may not able to communicate my idea effectively.

For artwork 1, I refined it to be series of photos with 3 photographs instead of four in order to keep the idea more simple but stronger. Also, I refined the composition of the photograph in the order from right to left which is the same direction where the figure in the photograph walking towards. The passing figure with the suitcase and the men having a conversation in the background symbolise the ignorance of people who do not see or recognise or fail to acknowledge homeless people. The homeless woman is hiding her face with a cloth, perhaps a reflection of her shame about her needing to ask for money.

 For my artwork 2, I chose to use the photos that I took in the suburb where I live instead of in the city as I could not manage to take photos in the city under lockdown. I refined the photo with a low saturated colour rather than a black and white photo to improve the overall colour balance of the artwork with the dark colour hand painted text on it.

My final artworks have effectively communicated the idea of capturing the reality and life of homeless people in Melbourne. The subject matter in my artworks has provided information about the environment of the homeless people are staying, on the footpaths of the city surrounded by flattened cardboard boxes as well as portraying feelings of being homeless. My aim is to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness and encourage my audience to feel sympathy towards homeless people. Both my artworks have successfully communicated my aim with their dark and gloomy aesthetic quality as well as their authenticity.

I believe that my final artworks are a sound realisation of my ideas. My works communicate the ideas of the homelessness issue through photography. I have chosen the media of photography as it is invented to document the truth and reality so that it will enhance the seriousness of the issue of homelessness. For the first artwork, the pedestrians help to tell a narrative of truth that homeless people are usually ignored and no one seems to care about them even though they ask for help. The reflection on the window and the expensive brand chocolate shop creates a contrast between the poor living conditions of the homeless and the quality of living of the majority of people in middle class Melbourne. Similar to the first artwork, my second artwork narrates the unsatisfied life of homelessness through photography. However, it is a single photograph with hand painted text on it. The use of painted text symbolises the cardboard signs homeless people always have next to them. The text was inspired by my personal experience of talking to the volunteering workers and homeless people through the 300 Blankets program and it is used to convey the inner feelings of homelessness.

The pieces I have created in my folio are linked through the subject matter and the artform used that they both are photographs of homelessness. My final artworks have achieved a further sense of cohesion by having a similar aesthetic quality. Each artwork is linked through using photography to reflect and document how homelessness is being seen in the public as well as their tiring and depressed feelings of being homeless.

To create both my artworks, I took photos in the city where most homeless people are around. I took photos of homeless people who were sitting on the ground and I chose the photos that have the most information about the environment and the expressions of homeless people while they cannot be identified due to ethical considerations. Besides photo-taking techniques, photo editing techniques were also applied in the final artworks. I used software of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to edit the brightness, contrast, tone and saturation of the photos. My second artwork also has acrylic painting for the text to reflect the handmade nature of the cardboard signs.

Aesthetically, I want my work to convey a sense of melancholy and gloominess that position my audience to feel sympathetic and compassionate. I have achieved the intended aesthetic qualities for both my artworks, through the subjects chosen in the photographs as well as the use of black and white and low saturated colours photographs. The numerous lines created by the footpaths, buildings and surrounding objects in the images create a strong and dynamic composition with clear focal prints and represent the chaotic life of homelessness.

I decided to present my first final artwork as a series of three black and white ( 31.5 cm x 42 cm) photographs on matte paper. They will be presented from right to left (same as the direction of the passing figure with a suitcase) and diagonally from eye-level to bellow eye-level as this enhances the idea of homeless people being looked down by others. For my second artwork, I will present it as a single photograph on canvas ( 60 x 44cm ). I have chosen to present it with a scale that is relatively larger than the first artwork to emphasise the importance of the message I aim to convey through my artworks.