Step 1.
Collate at least 2 pages of images in your design sheets off the internet (Or books, journals & magazines).
Try searching using the term using Google images...
"Decay in Photography"
This search will probably generate images of decaying buildings.
Add on the end of "Decay in Photography" additional words...
Shoes - Leaves - boats - rust - metal - and any others that you can think of.
Put together 2 pages of images that you find and see if this helps with generating an idea.
Step 2 - Your own ideas - (Generating ideas) 2 pages...
In my local woods, for some reason shoes are thrown away and if I look around they're easy to find and quite interesting to photograph, and once shot in situ, can easily be brought indoors or a more controlled environment and shot again different backgrounds. Other things to look out for - Dolls, burnt out cars or motorbikes that have been stolen and dumped.
Flattened drinks cans - run over by cars are scratched and degraded again easily shot in situ and easily taken home and shot under controlled conditions.
Food cans - keep some rather than throwing them away, leave them outside and allow them to go rusty. Look on Youtube and you'll find suggestions to increase the speed of the rusting process. Again options to shoot inside and outside.
Garage doors with peeling paint or even normal doors of old shops and work places.
Roadkill - not nice, but interesting and possible to remove from the side of the road and shoot in a more controlled environment?
Benfleet creek near Canvey Island just outside the station there are burnt out cars, rotting boats, jetties and all sorts. Canvey in general has loads of old industrial waste land with stuff dumped all over the place.
Shoes at home - do you have old shoes that you could shoot - how could these be shot to make them interesting.
Skin - Peoples skin starts to decay and wrinkle as you get older. Have you got grandparents who you can photograph either as close up portraits to show the decay process and how it affects their skin. You could get really interesting and shoot older peoples feet (if they don't mind)!
Dogs - do you know any old dogs? Look at Danielle Naude's 'Africanis' and do 4 old dogs like his images or maybe portraits of their faces which tend to show age quite well.
Mental health decay - it's more subtle, but if you're clever and capture the sense and mood in your images?
Rusty and old tools done as still life?
If you do small things like shoes try not to shoot just one pair of shoes. Try and find 4 different pairs of shoes.
Also consider scanning your objects on a flatbed scanner if you have access to one as another developmental stage.
Search Decay on my blog here www.listofphotographers.blogspot.com
Next stage - Planning and executing your initial shoot.
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