Canterbury Christ Church University

PHOTOGRAPHY
Year 3 Mixed Media
Proforma
Print Name: Irina Novoslavska
Provisional Working Title: Nostalgia (this title will probably change
when I will conduct all the interviews and will start to work on my book)
Proposal (this will be no less than 500 words)
For this Mixed Media assignment I am planning to create a project based on
experience of other people and something that I think about all the time, something
that closely relates to my life. However, I do not want to make a project about myself.
My aim will be to focus on individuals who have got similar to mine life stories about
moving to another country, adapting to different culture and feeling nostalgic.
With this in mind, my idea is based on the notions of nostalgia. An aim is to gather
various life stories based on peoples nostalgic memories. I would like to expand this
idea further by meeting and interviewing other people who feels nostalgic about their
homeland. In addition to that, within this project it will be necessary to explore the
relationship between the object, which makes the interviewed people feel nostalgic
about their homeland, as I believe that when you feel a strong longing for home,
having something material helps to relive past memories and provide comfort as well
as make stronger your memories of native land, which become weak after some
time.
To achieve this it will be necessary to gather at least 10 20 interviews with different
nationality people living in the UK. As a mixed media outcome for this project I am
planning to create medium format photographs, which all would end in a book

created and possibly bound by me. In addition to the book I might create a short
sound and image video however, a book is my first choice.

Aims and Objectives (what you want to achieve from the project)
For this project I would like to create a series of medium format images, which will
include a portraits of different nationalities people interviewed by me as well as still
images of an object, which reminds the interviewees of their homeland and brings
nostalgic memories. As a mixed media outcome, photographs and interviews will
end in a book possibly bound by me.

Historical and Contemporary Context (Understanding of the research

area, both historically and now has this changed?)
My main research will consist of reading books about nostalgia and diaspora to get
the strong theoretical framework for my project. Along side this I will be looking and
analysing work of the following contemporary photographers, however I will probably
look at more work, exhibitions and books during the second term:

Pieter Hugo

Alec Soth

Simon Roberts

Arnis Balcus

Iveta Vaivode

More historical photographers and their work, which I am planning to look at, will be
Dmitry Baltermants and Sergei Progudin Gorski.
Alongside these I am planning to look at three photography exhibitions, which
include: Primrose: Early Colour Photography in Russian at The Photographers
Gallery, Close and Far: Russian Photography Now at the Calvert 22 Gallery,
Sputnik Photos at the Brighton Photo Biennial 2014.

Methodology (Approach to project will you conduct experiments /

Interviews)

Main aims are to contact people with various nationalities, arrange meetings with
each one, and conduct interviews with pre prepared questions. After that, ideally
leave one or two days in between to analyse the interview and afterwards meet them
again for portrait and object photographs, which I am aiming to capture on medium
format camera.
It will be necessary to conduct a few experiments before taking pictures of the
interviewed people, as I will need to be fully prepared on the meeting day with the
interviewees. It is not desirably to waste their and mine time, however it is expected
to have some problems and issues during the shoots, so I will need to take those in
account and have a back up plan. I will need to make sure that on the day of the
actual shoots I exactly know what I would like to achieve (i.e. composition and
lighting).
As a mixed media outcome I am planning to design, print and bind the book by
myself. To do that I need to make sure I am confident in binding book as well as able
to source all the materials needed for that and make sure I will have access to the
high quality printer and professional trimmer to trim the book block.

Work Plan (Detailed plan showing you can achieve your project in the
time available)

December: Construct and place an advertisement in social medias to reach

out first potential people, as well as contact people who I know and then
people who they know. It will be necessary to know exactly who will
participate in my project by the end of December. During the time of waiting it
is necessary to have some planned reading on nostalgia and diaspora to
develop my project narrative.

January Mid February: During the first week of January it will be necessary
to conduct a few more experiments, probably involving myself and relatives,
to make sure I know what kind of pictures I would like to achieve. Throughout
the 3 weeks of January and first 2 weeks of February I am planning to gather
at least 10 20 interviews and photographs of the interviewees. During the

other half of February I am planning to start editing photographs and transcript

interviews. Also, this time will serve as a back up in case some of the
photographs will go wrong and I will need to contact those people again to
organise re shoot days.

March: first half of March will be dedicated to planning book layout, preparing
and ordering book binding materials and preparing interview texts, which will
probably need to be translated to English, either by me or by someone I am
planning to contact regarding professional translation. Second half of March
will be dedicated to experimenting and constructing InDesign PDFs for my
final book.

April: During the whole April until assignment deadline I am planning to print
and bind the final book. In case something will go wrong with my binding and I
will not be able to finish it, I will probably order my book from Blurb or other
book printing company. I am noting that it is necessary to leave at least 2,5
weeks before the deadline for my book to arrive.

Resources (Identify the Resources you will require including any

DVDs/Sound tapes etc. (note that your signature at the proformas end
indicates that you have confirmed access to all required resources).

Nostalghia (1983) Andrey Tarkovsky [Film]. USSR, Italy: Mosfilm (Online

release)

Library, Internet, self purchased books, university kit loan (Hasselblad, Mk II, tripod,
lenses, light meter), voice recorder owned by me, book binding materials.

Bibliography (note that whilst still provisional this is expected to be

substantial, containing the key reading, relevant websites, salient articles
and publishing details)
Books:

Boym, S. (2002) The Future of Nostalgia, New York: Basic Books.

Farr, I. (ed.) (2012) Memory: Documents of Contemporary Art. London:

Whitechapel Gallery.

Garrett, S. (2005) Forget Me Not: Photography & Remembrance. New York:

Princeton Architectural Press.

Gibbons, J. (2007) Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection

and Remembrance. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.

Naficy, H. (1999) Home, exile, homeland: Film, media, and the politics of
place. London: Routledge.

Ricoeur, P. (2004) Memory, History, Forgetting. Chicago: The University of

Chicago Press.

Roberts, S. (c2007) Motherland. London: Boot.

Stewart, S. (1993) On Longing: Narratives of The Miniature, The Gigantic,

The Souvenir, The Collection. London: Duke University Press.

Vijay, A. (2005) Diaspora, Memory and Identity: A Search for Home. Canada:
University of Toronto Press.

Articles:

Boym, S. (2012) Nostalgic Technologies: Multitasking With Clouds, in

Photoworks: Futures Past: History, Memory, Nostalgia, (Spring / Summer
2012), pp. 6 13.

Bull, S. (2012) Digital Photography never looked So Analogue: Retro Camera

Apps, Nostalgia and the Hauntological Photograph, in Photoworks: Futures
Past: History, Memory, Nostalgia, (Spring / Summer 2012), pp. 24 25.

Heiferman, M. (2012) Get Back To Where You Once Belonged, in

Photoworks: Futures Past: History, Memory, Nostalgia, (Spring / Summer
2012), pp. 76 77.

Smith, R.R. (2012) The Real Thing, in Photoworks: Futures Past: History,
Memory, Nostalgia, (Spring / Summer 2012), pp. 74 75.

Sternberger, P. (2009) Me, Myself and India: Contemporary Indian

photography and the diasporic experience, in Photographies, Vol. 2, No. 1,
pp. 37 58.

DVDs:

Nostalghia (1983) Andrey Tarkovsky [Film]. USSR, Italy: Mosfilm

Signed: (STUDENT)
Signed: . (TUTOR)