I am doing this because I want the viewer to experience what its like to be inside the tent which they are looking at, this should allow them to be connect and thus have empathy with people who find themselves in this situation. The hardest thing for people to do, is to put themselves in other peoples shoes, because how are they meant to do that, without living their life for a day. And I think one of the biggest problems for homeless people out there today is the lack of support and understanding from the public. The best way for me to show the viewer how some homeless people live was to capture the inside of their tent 'homes', which some take a lot of pride over like anyone else would their house. After capturing these images to go in my series I wanted the viewer to really get a sense of being inside the tent with the homeless person, and thus connecting them to their situation to hopefully begin to open their eyes.
The other shoots that I have carried out in this two chapter journey that I carried out, are perfect for a book because the pages of that book will take the viewers from the start to the end and let them visualise the sights and people I met along the way. But I don't think this photographic journey is appropriate to tell in an exhibition space, because there are a lot of different projects to see which is why you want to capture their attention with one or two images which represent your theory/ideology in them. I believe these two tent interiors do that, and making them life size will help the viewer put themselves in the homeless peoples shoes.
After deciding that I was going to print my images life size, I needed to find out what that would make the dimensions of my photograph to send to the printers.
Firstly I looked at my image, and took Julian Germaine's advice about scaling the image to something nearest the camera. I decided that I would scale the image to the table in the righthand side of the photograph. After deciding this I put a line straight through the middle of the table top, and realised that the top was exactly in the middle of my image. I knew this because the line pointed to 12cm on the ruler, and the total image was 24cm high.
I then googled the average height of a table and it gave me a response between 71-76cm, I chose to go with 75cm because it was in-between the different sizes and gave me a solid number to start with. So I knew that half my image height was 75cm which would make my total image height 150cm (1.5m). This gave me a figure to work with so I could then figure out the length which I would need to print at, so I kept the same aspect ratio in the image, so not to distort it.
To find out the aspect ratio of my original image I had to divid width (36.31cm) by height (24.11), this gave me the answer of 1.50601410203, which I needed to then times by 150cm because I knew was the correct height to work of the width. This gave me the answer 225.9cm, which I rounded to 226cm.
After finding out the new measurements which I would have to print at to make sure my image was life size, I had to enlarge my image to these dimensions to be ready for the printers. Now
I have to find a printing shop which will print a gloss photographic print at 150cm's high by 226cm wide, this will be difficult because 150cm is very wide for a print, but the length isn't an issue because the paper comes in long rolls.
I have to find a printing shop which will print a gloss photographic print at 150cm's high by 226cm wide, this will be difficult because 150cm is very wide for a print, but the length isn't an issue because the paper comes in long rolls.
I am then going to mount my final images directly onto the wall, this means that there won't be any frame around the image to make sure the viewer can engage with the images completely. And the direct mounting to the wall, as well as fixing the image in the present, strips away the fancy ways of displaying photographs leaving the bare minimum of visual engagement, which is a photographic print, and leaves the viewer to face the reality that homeless people have to put up with the bare minimum of home comforts to live with. It also represents how homeless people are in the 'backgrounds' of society, and how my exhibition piece gives them a fixed location inside the gallery which is all they want in real life.
When mounting the images to the wall, I will mount them 30cm's off the ground because the images of the tent don't capture the floor directly beneath the camera, which means that I need to compensate for this and mount the image a little bit higher off the ground. This is to ensure that the viewer has the correct perspective in the tent making it easier for them to place themselves within. And I want to mount the images on opposite walls in the gallery, this ensures that the viewer can face on image and see one view of the tent, then turn around and see the other view. The is will help to ensure they feel enclosed within the tents itself, and thus increase the chances of their empathy for the lives of homeless people.