Diversity in DCU
CM121 Photography Assignment
Y. Owens, C. Read & L. Waugh-Daly
The main goal with this assignment is to tell a story. We decided that a story that everyone in DCU can relate to is the story of adjusting to college life. We chose this because it is such an integral part of our lives and has shaped the way we view the campus, our classmates and ourselves. It is also important to show the real struggle of finding your place in the world or in this case, DCU. Anyone can identify with our story because whether people admit it or not, everyone has felt like they don’t belong at one stage of their lives.
In order to create our photographs as they are, we needed to give ourselves roles. The group had three members: Lucien, Yasmin and Clodagh. Clodagh was responsible for taking the photographs (we used her Canon Powershot SX530HS for this assignment), Yasmin was the primary model in our photos and Lucien was our head of editing. Lucien has previous knowledge of Adobe Photoshop but Yasmin and Clodagh worked with him and themselves gained a better understanding of the editing software.
We met one day in the cafeteria to brainstorm some ideas, and our finalised photos contain elements of our own individual ideas. We all came to the conclusion of telling a relatable story that anyone who is viewing it could relate. All three of us took up the task of writing the report because it was important to gather and showcase all of our experiences.
We took the photos as a unit with Clodagh behind the camera, Yasmin in front of the camera and Lucien being our ‘good eye’. In order to capture the essence of DCU, we needed to find places that were central to the DCU society. We chose in front of the DCU sign outside the Helix, a lecture hall in the Building Building, the street in the Henry Grattan, the cafeteria and NuBar. Each of these places have left an impact on each of us and we decided that they would best suit our story.
We chose the DCU sign, as it symbolises a student’s first day; the main focus of the photo is the anticipation of the new adventures that DCU holds.
We chose a lecture hall in the Business Building, because although it plays host to a gathering of students with similar interests and career paths as you, sometimes it can be the loneliest room in DCU.
We chose the Henry Grattan because — quite honestly — it where we spend the majority of our time on campus, being Humanities students. The Henry Grattan houses a place for students to come together, learn and educate others. When we were working on this assignment, campaigns for Student Union were taking place: highlighting further the community spirit that can be felt on campus at the best of times, one that our model is visibly on the fringes of when she first arrives.
We chose NuBar and the cafeteria because they are vital venues for socialising in the college and a place for students to hang around and chat with friends. People come to these areas to wind down, relax and to live the stereotypical college lifestyle.
Each photo is open to interpretation, as we cannot see the model’s face, so the viewer can immerse themselves as a first-person figure in each of the situations.
We used the motif of the rainbow (a widely-accepted symbol of diversity) to thematically tie the photos together: in the final image, the model’s iconic hat is emblazoned with a multicoloured spectral pattern:
Our interpretation of diversity in executing these photos was based upon the different aspects of the DCU campus and student life. The locations, situations and — to some extent — people featured are recognisable to any DCU student. In a sense, the most important diversity in these photos is the diverse interpretations of the viewers.
Original unedited photos:
