Swapping Personal Photos

In this assignment we were ask to swap photographs of either our home or pictures of ourselves growing up with a person whom we don't know very well. I swapped with a girl in Textiles called Jaqui. We decided to take photographs of our own spaces within the house because the pictures of when I was a child are a little embarrassing. The main point in this swapping of photographs is to let someone use you as a first hand source and to let you feel what other people would feel when you are asking them personal questions.
When i started to analyse jaquis photographs made me start comparing my own pictures in my head because I was thinking about what Jaqui may be thinking and analysing about my photos. The way in which we took the photographs were quite different as I had been taking far away shots of the rooms in my house whereas Jaqui zoomed in on details showing more of her personality.
When I was looking at the pictures I started to bullet point things that I felt she portrayed in her pictures. There were 11 pictures of her personal space, 6 of them were taken of her room. What i found throughout the pictures is the tidiness and the cleanness of the home. Everything was so neat and precise in where it sat. Starting with the pictures of Jaquis room I realised she had a lot of Cuddly toys. Majority being 'Me to You' Bears. The Bears show that she has a very cute personality and close friends who give her these bears as gifts for birthdays and Christmas. Looking closely at the bears I noticed she has a boyfriend as there is 2 bears which are stitched together with a (Love You) heart. Another picture reveals that Jaqui is trendy and is into her fashion, this is probably the route she'd be taking in textiles. She is very neat and tidy as her clothes were on hangers and shoes were in boxes stacked in a neatly together. Looking at her hangers and Shoe boxes I found out her sizes and where her shopping takes place. The usual were New Look and River Island. A picture of her bed showed that she had just been shopping and placed everything on her bed. The bed has a Gold throw and brown and beige cushions. These colours are neutral and relaxing which makes me think she likes to relax and cosy in bed. There is a remote on the bed which tells me that she likes watching Tv when relaxing and what confirms this is her big Tv in the corner surrounded by her little bears. On the bed was also a new look bag and waterstones bag which confirmed my analysis of her shopping habits, also revealing that she likes to read. Her favourite colour is shown to be more neutral colours shown on her bed covers and the pale pink dresses which are hung up. Another picture shows two towers of bangles which together would be about 40 bangles which shows that she likes to accessorize and has a big bangle collection. These bangles are neatly stacked on a bangle rack which shows she is very tidy and organised.
Pictures 7 to 11 were pictures around the house 2 of which included her mum and her brother. This gave the impression of a close family as she wanted them to appear in her pictures. In one of the pictures was Jaqui's mum in the utility where there are lots of cleaning products and the mums head looking as if shes busy doing chores. There was a pair of trainers on the surface tops which tells me that someone likes to excercise or does a sport. The cleanliness is a big feature to the pictures, this makes me think that maybe the mum likes to keep the place tidy which is rubbed off on Jaqui shown in her tidy room. The house looks very modern and very well looked after. The colours in the house are mainly blue making the house very fresh. There is a picture of her brothers room which shows his medals on a shelf. With close inspection I found hockey gear which I figured might have something to do with the medals. He is also into his Xbox as there is a sports game sitting on his desk. The walls of his room are blue, this may be related to his supporting of rangers football club as there is a rangers calendar on the wall. In the bathroom is a corner bath and a shower. I figured that Jaqui took the picture of the bath to show that she likes to have relaxing time in the bath to take all the stress away. The bathroom is also blue which is the theme running through the whole house.


After meeting up with Jaqui to discuss our analysis of each other's photographs we found that we had each other pretty much spot on. A few things which I got a bit wrong were that Jaqui was a tidy person influenced by her mum. She told me that her mum would tidy up after her and her brother. Another thing was my assumption of her loves for relax time in a bath was actually the opposite, she told me she hates baths and would rather a shower because it's much faster. I was correct in thinking that she loves her teddies and has a boyfriend and her love for fashion.
When Jaqui was telling me about what she thought about my photographs, I was really surprised how accurate she got me. she noticed that my favourite colour was purple and how I was exercising to tone up and that I like my things organised and separated for easy access. She also noticed my mums charm hung on her bed and how she liked to collect ornaments.

Doing this experiment really makes you think about her personal space and how people might portay you through your belongings. I felt quite nervous about doing this as I didn't know if Jaqui would find me really odd but after the conversation on our pictures I found that we were quite similar in what we like and dislike.