Hospital - Isolation - Establishing Image

For the isolation image of Establishing Image I used a patient in a hospital that was bed bound with no visitors for a number of days. I thought this was a good representation of isolation because the woman was completely isolated from the outside (normal). This is a very negative representation of isolation.

This first image shows the woman (Nel) still heavily sedated after being in theatre. I feel that this is a very 'real' impact shot that lines up for an interesting story. Small aspects of the image such as her head being tilted with her mouth slightly open adds to the rawness of the image showing a woman in a very vulnerable situation that isn't often photographed due to the sensitivity. Also, her arms being limp to the sides of her enhance the same effect.

The lighting in the ward was poor and I didn't feel comfortable with turning more lights on due to the environment I was in. Therefore, I compensated by using a very high aperture and ISO. The downside of this is that I had to sacrifice some quality. Also, the colours in the image were very dull which is why I chose to convert it to black and white.



I carefully shot the image from this angle to reinforce the idea that Nel was alone and that she did not have anyone (me) there with her. I chose to do my first shoot with her still sedated because I felt that she would act slightly differently if she was conscious which would make the image less powerful.




I chose this image for my final 3 because I feel it shows that people in hospital in some ways lose an element of their humanity due to the need for them to be wearing a tag to identify them.

I converted this image to black and white for exactly the same reason as the image above, due to the bland colours. I felt that it had a better impact without the few colours and helped portray the cold isolation of the patient.

I dropped Nel's face out of focus because I did not feel that it was the main focus of this image. I did not remove this aspect from the image completely because I think it makes it more personal and gives more information but the tag on her wrist is the main subject of this photo which is why it is the only part of the frame that is within the focus point. I achieved this by using a high aperture of f/2.8.




The final of the 3 images shows Nel on another visit where the sedation has fully worn off and she is seen peacefully sleeping. The elements of her being isolated and wearing the tags still remain but a different atmosphere is portrayed due to her looking far less ill. Her head is straighter on the pillow, her mouth is closed and her hands are gently folded across her chest. This shows that she is more comfortable than in the other images and that she has more control which shows less vulnerability although a similar amount of isolation.

Again, I converted this image to black and white because I feel that is adds to the feel of isolation and makes the image technically better due to removing the dull and flat colours.