Sophie Gerrard is an award winning documentary photographer from Scotland. She specialises in contemporary environmental and social issues. She studied photography at Edinburgh College of Arts and has an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from LCC. Her work has been published by clients including The Telegraph Saturday Magazine, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, The Independent on Sunday, Portfolio Magazine, Foto8, Greenpeace International, Scotland on Sunday and Geographical Magazine. Gerrard’s work has been exhibited internationally, and is now held in the Sir Elton John Photography Collection.
I have been inspired by both the documentary style of her work, and her ability to capture the settings of shoots as well as the stories of the people who live there. I think this gives the viewer more of an insight into life in these locations, thus giving her work a deeper sense of meaning. I plan to recreate this element of her work by documenting my daily journey to college as I think it’s an important part of my everyday life and it’s individual to me, thus linking to my title ‘Individual Identity’. I plan to shoot only the landscape as I tend to walk alone and want my work to represent this. It’s because of this that I have chosen to look at some of Gerrard’s images that focus mainly on location.
Image One shows an urban landscape in Mexico City. The viewer’s eye is drawn into the image by the leading lines created by the road and the pavement. The overall colouring of the image is very grey, which makes the location seem quite dismal. This is relevant to the fact that the most common texture within the image is concrete, relating to the urban location. The vast majority of this image is in focus, suggesting that Gerrard used a smaller aperture to achieve this deeper depth of field. I like the way the image has been composed as I think it guides the viewer’s eye through the image nicely.
The pink colouring of the house in Image Two contrasts the dull grey of the pavement which makes it stand out. This image was also shot in New Mexico and the urban location is made clear to the viewer by Gerrard’s framing of the image – the entire width of the house is in the frame, suggesting that housing in this area is small and compact as is common in large cities. The image appears to have been lit naturally as the sky in the top right corner appears almost white, and would therefore provide a bright and even light. I like that the image is relatively simple in frame yet tells the viewer a lot about the location.
Image Three was taken in the rural village of Gonde in Maharashtra, India. The cloth in the immediate foreground is in focus while the background is out of focus, suggesting that Gerrard used a larger aperture to achieve this shallower depth of field. This, coupled with the bright colour of the cloth that contrasts the comparably neutral background, draws the viewer’s eye first to the foreground, and then through the image using the blurred wooden fence line as a guide. I like the composition of this image as the cloth is off-centre and I think this makes the image seem more natural and less staged.
Image Four shows the disused railway lines in Chhapra, India. The tracks provide leading lines to guide the viewer’s eye through the image, and the fact that they’re disused suggests that the area is very derelict and run down. The overall colouring of the image is very earthy and suggests that the location of the image is rural. A majority of the image is in focus, suggesting that a smaller aperture was used in order to achieve the deeper depth of field. I plan to try to use leading lines in my own work as I think it’s effective.
Individual Identity 
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