Project Proposal.

For my project I want to explore in to social identity’s in-groups and out-groups throughout generations to try and gain a better understanding in to why we discriminate and categorize others to boost our self-worth and self-image. This idea was developed while doing ‘my day in the life’ while being at work and watching a diverse range of people come in and out of the restaurant. I will research further in to where these emotions stem from and show from how our in-groups and out-groups change throughout our lives.

My main research will be coming from Taijfel theory on social identity as he explored different aspects in great detail. My plan for the next couple weeks is to capture different age groups in their own ‘in-group’ and find out why they belong to that particular group. Also, see what being in that group does to their self-image and self-worth. I want to show this through using Photoshop and creating surreal images as it’s a technique I would like to advance on and believe it’s one my strong points. I will be using a 4D element in this project, as part of my research is to go out and interview people from the public and see if others agree or disagree with Taijel’s theory on social identity. I want to try and find out more on other people’s experiences with in-groups and out-groups and how it makes them feel as a person. I want to start off this project with as much research as possible on social identity and also on photographer who explore social behavior. Alongside looking at photographers who create surreal images to see if I can link that in to my work and make it stand out from other social documentary photographers.

I will be making comparisons on different theories of social identity so see what they did to test these theories that they had, hopefully from that I can then link it in to my own images. As well as comparing different photographers who explore people’s social behavior in different ways. Through peer critiquing and with the help from tutors I will be able to stay on track and form a visual idea of what my final outcome will look like. I will be documenting down weekly on my blog what I’m doing and where I think this will take me for the following week so that I am constantly showing my process.