Title: Symbols
Exercise:
This exercise is designed to help you think further about symbols and how they can be used to represent different subjects. Using the following list suggest a number of symbols for each concept and what sort of photographs you might take. There is no need to take actual photographs unless you feel inspired to!
The subjects are:
- Growth
- Excess
- Crime
- Silence
- Poverty
Approach:
I recorded a number of responses to each prompt – a bit like a word association exercise – and then thought about how they might be visualised:
| Prompt | Associations | Possible Images |
| Growth | Plants, children, populations, money, cities, stains, mould, animals. buildings | Seedlings, shoes of ascending sizes, height lines on the wall, piles of money growing in size, Monopoly houses – 1 and then a group and then a hotel, Lego people – 1 and then a group |
| Excess | Capitalism, consumerism, something left over, too many, different lengths, gluttony, bonus, over-indulgence | Massive groups of objects, something longer than another, a large yacht, three buttons and only two button holes, my shoes, an electric socket with a large number of wires |
| Crime | Robbery, mugging, knife crime, weapons, police, stab vests, Kevlar jackets, campaigners, crowds, looting, theft | Broken window, knife, money on the floor, scattered contents of drawers and cupboards, police type note book |
| Silence | Lack of voice, deafness, peace, quiet, enforced, meditation, chosen, religious order, listening, exams | Closed mouth, headphones, back stage at a theatre, library shelves, sign language |
| Poverty | Drought, climate change, women, homelessness, penniless, hunger, lack, loss, inequality | Empty fridge or cupboard, torn clothes, dirty sleeping bag, dirty water in a cup, dead crops |
