The World of Islam
This shop to photograph in was quite difficult, because it had lots of different products inside which you could buy which meant that getting a composition with a simple background was almost impossible. I spent a few minutes in the shop looking for different places to shoot, but this composition as shown above was really the only place that would've worked. I spoke to the guy inside the shop who was in traditional dress, because it was a Friday which is a holy day. While speaking to him, he also asked if I had ever considered looking at Islam which I replied I had not. I was quite happy with his body position and facial expression in this shot, so I kept the subject as he was for the next few images. My only problem was the image felt a little cramped because of the tightness of the shop and thus composition, which I wanted to improve on my next few images.
Best Image
For this image I kept my subject the same as he was before, because I thought he already looked very natural, even down to him holding his prayer beads which I feel adds to the photograph. The only thing I changed from the photograph before was my composition, in which I took a few steps back to make the image look less cramped, also I edited the levels post production to bring more light to his face and background. All of my editing includes changing the levels to bring more colour or light to certain areas of the image, and make it look as realistic as possible.
Chaal
The next place I photographed was Chaal, a fashion store which sells traditional Pakistani shoes, clothing and handbags. This shoot was different to all the other ones I had taken part in for this project, because for this shoot the subject refused to face the camera. The reason behind this subject refusing to face the camera was because he was wearing his traditional clothing, exactly the same as the person from the first shop above. Something which was strange, was the fact of the man saying that he would have happily had his face captured if he was wearing his normal work clothes, just not in his traditional wear, I'm not sure whether this was because he was embarrassed to wear them or not but I didn't want to ask him too many details behind it.
Because I wasn't shooting the subjects face, I didn't need to worry about his facial expression or even body position much because this image I had already decided wasn't going to be used for some of my final pieces as it didn't work with the rest of my project. All I needed to do was position the subject in a composition that allowed the viewer to see what type of shop it was and make sure the lighting lit him up appropriately, which as you can see I have improved from the image previous to this. I wanted to include this image in my project because I felt that even though it wouldn't fit along side the other potential final piece's it still added an interesting part to the the project, which the viewer could be interested to read into.
Deen and Dunya
The last place which allowed me to photograph one of the workers, but which was actually the owner, was called Deen & Dunya which is described to be an 'Islamic lifestyle store'. Much like the World of Islam which I photographed previously, this shop sold books at the back of the store but also clothing and different religious items. This shoot was difficult because there wasn't an obvious place to photograph, which resulted in me trying a few different places to find the correct composition. Also because the shop did have a range of different products, I wanted to try and represent all the things they sold in the portraits I photographed, which also resulted in me try a few different positions.
The first composition I began shooting using was in the book section of the shop, and as you can see the subject was quite stiff and awkward in front of the camera as I had just begun to start capturing him. He wasn't posing which was good, but his body position is quite unusual and not very laid back which makes the portrait look unnatural. The composition is okay, but I felt he is lost to the background because there is quite a lot going on and he is very close to it, this was due to the size of the book section as it meant I couldn't get an angle further away.
I changed the angle and composition after the first because of the area being a bit too tight which pushed the subject close to the background which ended up making him blend into it too much. This image was an improvement from the first because firstly I had more space and also the subject himself and become more used to the camera, as you can see his facial expression and body position look more relaxed, thus making the portrait look a lot more comfortable and more realistic. In this image, he doesn't blend into the background as much as the first even though it's very cluttered behind him, this was because he is further away from it so the focus on the subject makes the background blur a little, which thus pulls him towards the viewer and away from the surroundings.
Best Image
I tried one last angle in the shop to see how that would work with the subject, this composition showed the clothing aspect of this shop which hadn't been photographed in the other portraits yet. I do like the image previous to this one, but I think this one works better because of its simplicity in the background, also in this image I feel that he is showing a bit more authority in his facial expression which I feel adds something good to the photograph. I feel this authority makes the portrait look like he is proud of his shop and this makes the viewer feel like he's an important figure, whereas the other too favourite images I photographed show him in a much more nervous light.
Overall my first shoot went pretty well on the Curry Mile, I feel like I'm improving at taking portraits of people I don't know quite quickly, which means that each time I come back with a shoot I end up with more photographs that I could use as final piece's and less photographs that don't work whatsoever. I am very happy with my best images from both The World of Islam and also Deen & Dunya, with me being left with two portraits of two individuals that I think represents them and their shop well. Also shooting on the Curry Mile has given my project a completely different cultural feel to the images which weren't as apparent in Chinatown or the Northern Quarter, this shoot has already improved the Cultural Diversity of the images which will only increase throughout the next shoots in this area.