Assignment 1 – SHI QIAN

Brainstorming Ideas/ Concepts

While trying to think of a theme I had a few initial ideas, they were:

Grandmother

Her story of her in her perspective or from me?
Reached the age where grandparents are feeling more lonely and old
The only grandparent I have left is my maternal Grandmother
Wanted to capture as much as possible as a form of memory

Hospital

Behind the scenes of what working in a hospital is like?
Working at a hospital is much harder than what people normaly think.
Patients get frustrated and rage at pharmacists for being slow, but they actually have standard procedures to follow.
Such as checking the patient’s previous medical history from other clinics, especially if they had never visited that hospital before.
They cannot just give the medicine as the patient requested.

Middle road “abandoned” lady’s hospital
Former Salmon’s Maternity Home
Building still part of the 60s
Only an old lady and helper

However, the former Salmon’s Maternity Home idea was scraped off as the owner is a very private person and according to other news sources, the owner does not allow visitors.

Nature

Plants
Animals
Cats/Dogs
Animal Abuse

Decided to go with Animals.

When I thought about animals, the first thing that came to my mind was animal abuse, which led me to think about abandoned animals and finally about animal shelters. Hence, this made me decide on the topic sheltered animals.

Animals in sheltered homes were either rescued, strays or abandoned. While being kept in their own “pent”, they would probably feel lonely and bored without a family to play with.

Some animals were also just left behind by their owners, such as this recent incident:

First trip down to SPCA

During the Chinese New Year week, I went to check the SPCA’s Facebook page to check their opening hours and thank goodness they were open until 4pm.

First Critique for Project 1

Robert said that the photographs are not consistent and that I should not have multiple angles here and there for a photographic series. Some of the wire fences and bar grills did not work well too. However, Robert mentioned that he prefer the very last picture where the bars are just suggested but blurred in the foreground, as well as the photograph where the dog is in between 2 walls.

My classmate, Alvin also mentioned that SPCA is a very clean shelter unlike the others. The other shelters have to keep a few dogs in one enclosed space while SPCA has 1 dog in each enclosed space. He recommended me that I should visit the other shelters too.

Although I also agreed to what my classmate had mentioned, I eventually went back to SPCA as other shelters required appointments or the visiting hours clashed with my schedule.