Due to the current circumstances with Covid - 19, myself and my course mates find ourselves in a very strange situation, where we are deciding whether to move home and do our work due to the university buildings being closed but the work and teaching continuing.  Also having to decide if we can carry on with the projects that we all originally planned for our final major projects. Many cannot and are changing the project completely. 

For myself, I have decided to move back home and will be continuing with my project but will be adapting and making changes to the original idea that I had planned for this project. 

“The Grey Line” is a project that aims to create a wider awareness into sexual harassment and assault, with stories from all generations, ages, genders and sexual orientations. 

Originally “The Grey Line”, was going to involve me photographing the survivors whose stories I collected but in a way that hid their identity ie; photographing their figure, hands and eyes while also linking in aspects that look into the way their minds have reacted to the life changing situation that happened to them.  

Now however the element of photographing the subjects how I wanted to,can no longer happen. I cannot get up close with the subjects or travel unnecessarily to where they live or ask them to come to Bath to photograph them in the university studios. This means for the most part I will be focusing on the aspects in the stories that allow me to connect to their experiences and their emotions that they have felt or still feel. Which will be hard but hopefully will work out in the end. I can also relate to my own emotions having been through my own experience which I have chosen to add to the work as a way to help me lock in on my feelings and feelings that the other survivors have felt. 

I will be taking a more poetic approach with the images and will be restricted to how I can add in the human figure to connect the work together but this may mean I have to use myself and my family in some way, as they are the only people I will be having contact with in this situation, but I will also be experimenting with other possible ways to add in the human figure and body so people can relate with the audience of my work. 

The plan was to combine the text of the stories in the forms of quotes with the pictures, which will still be the case the only aspect here may be that the whole story will be used rather than just a snip-it of such a powerful situation that I feel needs to be shared in full capacity now, I will experiment with both and see what works best in my opinion and feels ethically right to me as a photographer too, due to the strength it has taken for these survivors to share their stories.

During lock-down I will be restricted to only going out for an hour a day to take photos while doing my hour allotted for exercises, this may change as time changes and adapted to the seriousness of the situation. I will only be able to go to places within walking distance or when on an essential drive going shopping I will be able to take photos from the car while my mum drives. This will restrict highly the types of images I take and how to make them different each time I go out in the same places. 

In some ways it will be a challenge to adapt, experiment and change the environments around me to look different, such as the rooms in my house, the village I live in and the route to the shops. I feel it will be a hugely inspiring challenge and I will notice more things about the area I live in, in more depth by noticing things that I haven’t before, as they stay the same and change around me during this length of time. Seeing differences at different times of the day and within the changes of the situation as it progresses. 

As a photographers we are meant to be able to change and adapt to unforeseen circumstances as nothing ever goes perfect and this situation is the same, if not more so which will be what makes the work being created so unique and special and work to be extremely proud off.