When Are We At Our Happiest?

I found an online article explaining when we're at our happiest and why. http://www.ageuk.org.uk/health-wellbeing/keeping-your-body-healthy/is-this-the-happiest-time-of-your-life/

Apparently from our mid 40's up we're gradually getting happier until we're happiest after the age of 70 and we reach the peak of happiness whilst in our 80's. Teens and 20's are averagely happy but it declines until we reach our 40's. Obviously it isn't this way for each individual but it is a proven statistic for the average population.

I want to make a short questionnaire and ask random people to fill it out during my next visit in Manchester, I'll ask people from all walks of life and of all ages. I will ask for their age, what makes them happy, and what has been the happiest moment of their life. I want to compare what makes people happy to try and find some patterns and trends.

A Developed Idea

I had a change of thought the other night and decided against interviewing a homeless person, this was due to a talk I had with a Media student. Ryan, the media student that I was speaking to said he had to produce a similar sort of video to what I'm doing, well similar in the way that it involved interviewing a homeless person so I asked him how it went and all he had to say about it were negatives. ''None of the homeless people we asked would contribute'', ''We were told to go away'', ''Everyone had their eye on us thinking we were up to no good.'' These words had put me off attempting it myself so I spent that night coming up with alternative ideas. I came up with the idea of asking random people of all ages to write down what makes them happy whilst I secretly judged them on what sort of a person they were, this was obviously a very brief and initial thought.

The night after I had another thought and realised with my new approach of just asking members of the public what made them happy, I was losing my 'inside out' point of view so then decided to go back to interviewing a homeless person as well as asking other people what makes them happy and asking them to write it down.

I will look at some stats of what age groups seem to be the happiest and why and put it to the test next time I go into Manchester.

I'm not sure exactly what my final focus is going to be so by taking multiple routes when I'm out there, I can have a wider choice of the end product!

Attempt 1

Today I went to Manchester City center with my friend Adam with the purpose of interviewing a homeless person. It was early afternoon and we'd been walking for just under an hour when I spotted the first man that looked to be homeless, he was sat on a busy street on Oxford Road, begging for money. As we approached him, I got very nervous and didn't want to ask him if I could interview him because I was scared of the rejection...Yet I did pluck up the courage to do it and I went back and said ''Hi I'm a Salford University student and I'm doing a photography project on 'Society', I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about your life...? I'll give you a couple of quid for your troubles..?''...Yet the man said he didn't want me to so I walked away, forgetting to hand him some change, which I later on thought and felt bad about. This did knock my confidence quite a bit so I gave up for the day and told myself I'd have to try again another time.

Initial Research

I decided that my initial idea was to interview a homeless person and find out a very detailed version of their whole life then ask them what made them happy throughout each of the main events that the person describes, I would ask them what made them happy all the way up to what makes them happy now then re-create the things the person has said through a series of images which I would then put together to form a sequence video. The video would be a subtle reminder to people that they should appreciate what they have and not take anything for granted and also that no matter how little we have we will always have something that makes us happy.

After I expressed my idea to my tutor and my peers I was given some names of practitioners that they thought might help me when pursuing my idea.

The first thing I was told to look at was the Inside/Out debate by Abigail Solomon-Godeau. My tutor suggested I look at this because I said I wanted to get inside the situation of being homeless by sitting with the homeless person and asking about their life in detail and even though for a short while I'd be sat onthe cold floor and listening to the homeless persons's story, I still wouldn't be 'inside' their way of life. This module is to portray a point of view and to do so on a deeper level, being 'inside' someone else's life would portray a point of view very different to my own.

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Chapter 6: Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s “Inside/Out”

Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s “Inside/Out” begins by going back to the discussion of Susan Sontag’s “On Photography”. Solomon-Godeau re-evaluates Sontag’s argument but brings up the bigger issue of photographers being inside or outside a situation. Sontag’s idea of photography is that it objectifies people (the subjects) and the use of the camera removes any social or moral boundaries. Because of this, photographers look onto and “visit” a situation but never interfere which makes them “supertourists” and consequently prevents viewers of the photographs from empathizing with the subjects. Sontag felt this was indicative of Diane Arbus’ work where there is a greater distance between the viewer and the subject because she is outside the situations she is shooting. Solomon-Godeau categorizes that photographers are either inside or outside the situation. She asks if this means that being inside is good and being outside is bad, though inside seems to represent truth while outside represents objectivity, both of which may be desired under certain circumstances. If Arbus is considered outside photography, Nan Goblin was considered an inside photographer because of the way her work created a more intimate relationship between the viewer and subject as a result of her own relationship with the subjects.

Since photographing a homeless person or asking them about their business may seem controversial in the way that it may seem like I would be 'using' that person to get what I want, it poses the question do we really care about our subjects or do we just want them to give us what we want?...A nice picture. I as a photographer genuinely believe that I do care about others, especially when photographing them or getting into their world. When asking the homeless person if I can sit with them for a while as they tell me their life story I will have offered to purchase some food in return, I wouldn't just expect the homeless person to give me what I want and get nothing out of it themselves, however I will not bribe.

I came across an article online of the response of two photographers after reading Susan Sontag's 'On Photography' which discusses whether or not it's right to photograph someone 'in need' or 'less well off than you' considering that you're only want from the shoot would be to have the photos at the end of it rather than help that person at all. The text below is a small part of the full article I picked out the bits that I thought fit with what I'm trying to express. The full article is on here: http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/sontag-photography-two-views

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"Essentially the camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own."
— Susan Sontag

Christian Molidor:

Reviewing Susan Sontag's book is analogous to printing in the darkroom. The forming image is sharp, trenchant - a good picture; but it isn't exactly the photo you had in your head.

Photography's inferior but inexorable version of reality is the bases of On Photography. Sontag discusses in the six essays not only the philosophical question of how reality may be perceived and knowledge gained, but she also reviews photography in its context: as a tool, an industry, an activity that "imposes a way of seeing" and therefore, actually alters reality. Sontag sees that photography, leveling everything, also beautifies. Let the subject be what it will - pollution, death, war … photography will tend to make it look aesthetically pleasing.

Having take hundreds of photographs in Southeast Asia, crying with camera on the evils of hunger and poverty, I agree. My photographs of India, for example, and the intense suffering I witnessed, are some of the most lovely I have. Colorful saris and strong, handsome faces do not bear the truth of the pain I tried to record. But perhaps those faces told another reality … one I was not wise enough to see.

To take a photograph, Sontag writes, "is to appropriate the thing photographed." This concept of getting-in-order-to-use-up is important in understanding photography's function. The appropriation, the stealing without touching, the having a semblance of knowledge, she likens to perversion. The author claims everything is camera grist and in the end, no matter what the photographer may want, everything becomes equal in value so long as it makes an interesting picture. Our learned and inherited preference for "images" over "real things" is a danger; but no less a danger than believing what we see without reason.

Sontag insists photography is an aggressive act which makes reality atomic, manageable, denies interconnectedness and continuity, and confers on each moment the character of a mystery. Alienating us from direct experience, the photo provides a more intense second-hand experience, an illusion of knowledge. Essentially disjunct, mute, the photo cannot tell the truth that comes only from words and narration.

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With in mind that I might be taking photos of a subject which doesn't shout out 'beautiful' yet I'll be trying to make my images 'beautiful', I thought I should look at some of the work by Sebastiao Salgado. Salgado is a photojournalist and social documentary photography from Brazil. He takes photos of things that aren't pretty yet creates beautiful looking images out of them. He captures something bad but makes it look beautiful.

My choice of subject matter may not be 'beautiful' and 'look nice as a photo', but it will tell the story that I want it to tell. 

Brief

We have been asked to create a short video following the theme of 'A point of view'. I began by mind-mapping different ideas.

I tried to think of things that weren't too literal to 'A point of view' yet seemed to struggle quite a bit. I started to think of my personal life and what was going on there, hoping for some inspiration. I thought about the struggles that my family has been through over the past year, this then developed onto the idea of seeing the view of someone who is worse off than you and once I had this idea in my head, there was no changing my mind!

Recently I've had a new look on life after receiving lot's of bad news from my personal life. I've been appreciating things a lot more and not taking as many things as what I did, for granted. I wanted my video to be a little reminder to people that we shouldn't take things for granted because you never know when it all might be taken away from you.

I had the idea of interviewing a homeless person to see how much their life has changed since becoming homeless and asking them what made them happy throughout the years, I wanted to document the change in the things that made this person happy, for example when this person was in their early 30's they might have had a decent job, a family, a pet, these things at this time would have made that person happy where as now maybe the things that make this person happy are littler things such as a person wishing them good day or someone handing them a half eaten sandwich.

I want to show other people that no matter how little you have, there will always be something that makes you happy, even if it is the smallest thing that you would have never thought of.