Major Practical Project - John R J Taylor

John R J Taylor is a photographer that covers an absolutely huge range of subject matter. The project that relates the most to me however is entitled 'Domestic Bliss'. On his website he describes that he is interested in "non commercial fine art imagery and the interface between fine art and design" However, looking at the photographs it doesn't seem that there is much of a personal interest behind the images, they are composed very matter-of-factly and with no hint of emotion or attachment.

For me, although these images are technically quite good, I do feel they lack emotion. The home usually elicits at least some kind of emotion for everyone, and it seems that Taylor has approached each place in a very cold manner. It's interesting to see the varying ways that photographers tackle people's homes, and I know that not all will resonate with the ideas feeding my project. What I do take from these images is the photographer's use of colour casts. The first and third images are very cool in colour (blues and greys), whereas the second image is almost completely neutral. Perhaps this is Taylor's way of displaying his feelings about the place, rather than altering his clean, clinical compositions. Like Colin Gray, it might be worth investigating what it is about photographs can evoke such strong memories - if it is the colours I might need to alter how I print them, if it is the tactile nature of a photograph maybe the final images will need to be handled by the audience to get my meaning across.
As harsh as it sounds, this project has informed me of the direction and style I don't want to take. Although his images work as 'fine art imagery', I need the images to mean more to me. I want to use photographs to document and convey the nostalgic emotions I feel towards the house I grew up in, and I feel that this dead-pan style of shooting does not necessarily lend itself very well to this. My next step is to start shooting some test images to really find my feet in the techniques of interior photography.

http://www.johntaylorphotography.com/