The A Team

This past month we had to do a song interpretation for our Image Capture class by creating a series of images that express our interpretation of a song. I initially had a song idea and a couple ideas. But it was winter and none of the ideas would have really worked out, so I really wasn't that excited about it. 

Then the song I really wanted to do came to me, "The A Team", by Ed Sheeran. I had fallen in love with this song. It wasn't like all the rest of the songs out there. The lyrics actual meant something. And there was a lot more to it than the songs where boy likes girl, boy breaks girls heart and its just a big cry fest. Click here and take a minute to listen to it! 

This is me! 

So I got this idea that I wanted to shoot at an abandoned house that I had been to once before. Actually there were three houses, but I had a few specific rooms I wanted to shoot in and I wanted a young woman to be in the house. I thought about bringing in an old mattress and having her sit on the edge of it but that didn't really end up working out. And I didn't even know who I would get to be in this shoot for me. I always hate asking people and I knew that this shoot would require someone's entire day. 

I literally scrolled through all my Facebook contacts to find someone. I came across the idea of this friend of mine who I used to work with and she said yes right away before I could barely explain myself. But there weren't many days that would work. And since the shoot would require daylight and a significant amount of time, it had to be a Saturday. So I had about a week of time to keep thinking of more and more ideas. And they just kept coming to me. I would be sitting in class and would have to pull out my notebook to write them down. 

I was really excited for this shoot. I would finally get to decide everything about a shoot. I picked the model, the clothing , the makeup, the location, the day. Everything. Then I started to get really nervous. I don't get to do shoots like this often but I love the idea of the not-so-natural shoots. I just don't have people usually willing to do them. And honestly I don't feel as though portraits are my biggest strength. But I knew I had to try.

This photograph I feel is probably one of the strongest of all the photographs in the series.
I hadn't decided to do a double exposure until I had thrown everything onto my computer.
I had this gorgeous headshot along with this broken down house photograph
(which hadn't turned out quite as I imagined). And it really just showed the song through it.
"It's too cold outside for angels to fly, angels will die."

So the day finally came and I did so much driving. I had to pick up my model as she doesn't have a car. (I live about 40 min from her) and drive back to my place. We got all her makeup and hair done. Then we drove another 40 minutes toward the abandoned houses. When we were less than a mile away from the houses on a mud road, I saw a snow drift I just knew I couldn't drive over. But I really didn't want to go back the long way and my friend was like , "Ah, let's just try it". I thought maybe if I drove to the side I could make it over (fully knowing in the back of my mind there was no way!...Dumb of me, I know). And we got stuck. Thank goodness for technology these days. I just whipped out the ol' cell phone and called my dad (after attempting to shamelessly dig us out with a snow scraper).

So I'm sitting there super impatiently because I knew that by the time my dad got there and got us out I would only have about an hour to shoot. I'm not exactly a quick shooter so that just added to the pressure that I had already put on myself. Once we made it to the house we had to walk through knee deep snow to get inside while carrying all my gear...that was a task! We got inside and I knew I didn't have time to shoot the way I normally do. So I picked up the pace. I got done a few pictures that I knew I absolutely just had to get first. After I got the most important shots I continued playing with some other ideas that I had.

I ended up basing my work more on the girl and less on the addiction aspect, and the end result really just showed the loneliness in her. My model was really easy to work with and the reason it was so easy was because I just kind of told her an area to stand and what we were going to do for the shot. I would watch her move over toward the spot I told her. Then I would examine exactly how she was standing, her body language, her facial expressions and where she was looking. I wanted to see what she did first naturally and when I saw her do something that I liked, I told her to stop. Then anything else I wanted her to change I would direct afterwards. I wanted her to come across as sad, lonely and even angry a few times, and she gave me this incredibly real expression.

This photo I had planned ahead. I wanted you to feel like she had been there a long time;
like she didn't realize how much time had passed; like she was high and unaware;
like she didn't know what was going on.

There were a number of decisions that I made in post-production. I only decided afterwards that I would have my series in black and white. The only one reason I really considered any of the coloured photographs was due to her piercing blue eyes, but I felt as though the black and white just had such an impact on the photographs. The black and white helped emphasize the girl's emotion.

In this photo I wanted to really show her young age with the draping blanket, 

as kids often drag their favourite blanket on the floor. 

Yet I still wanted her to be dressed the same as the rest of the series, 

just to show how she got caught up in all this mess 

but really she is still just a child inside. 

This song is about serious issues in life. So many times we meet people with addictions, people that are homeless, or even people who sell themselves and right away society believes they are messed up, bad people or maybe even perhaps that they deserve their miserable life as if they did it to themselves.  I just want society to think about what might have brought someone to that point, see their pain and their loneliness, see past the outside and into the inside.

When I first imagined this shoot, I just thought of it as exciting and fun. One of my favourite things to explore and shoot is abandoned houses. I didn't think for a second that it would make me at all emotional. And it didn't, until I actually presented the series in class and talked about the photos. It was then that I realized the importance of the message I was trying to communicate without even realizing it. 

I went into the shoot thinking I'm just making this pretty girl look like a bit of a crack whore and I feel like I ended up really just showing her heart. And it gets me emotional looking at them now just knowing there are so many people out there like the girl that is represented in my series, so many people that just need someone to understand them and help them feel like they aren't alone in this life.

So next time you see someone like the girl in this series, instead of judging, take a moment to think about what their story might be or even better, talk to them and ask them about their story.

Shaylene Ginter

PV Diploma Student

2012-13