tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36459276539011459902024-02-20T09:30:19.713+00:00Stan Dickinson's OCA 'People & Place' BlogstanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-24703855972367788142012-06-04T14:05:00.000+01:002012-06-04T14:05:18.400+01:00Some final thoughts<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">With
everything now ready for assessment submission, this seems like a good time to
record some final thoughts about ‘People & Place’ & my own state of
development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ‘learning outcomes’
listed at the beginning of the module would seem like a good place to start.
They define what we should be able to do by the end of the course and looking
at them now, in overall terms, I’m comfortable that I have demonstrated that I
can do all of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, there are
areas worthy of a bit more discussion and thought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The first says <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Use
technical and interpersonal skills to capture images which reflect your ideas’</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would particularly like to home in on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘... and interpersonal skills ...’</i>
aspect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure that this is primarily
about the photographing of strangers or relative strangers, with their
knowledge, agreement and involvement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve certainly done that – especially in the final two assignments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have done it and, I think, had satisfactory
outcomes from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is only a
start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve drawn comparisons a few
times between making portraits and conducting interviews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have vast experience of the latter but6
still very limited experience of the former – but I reckon that, with practice,
I can use what I know from 20+ years of drawing out peoples’ experience,
personality etc to inform and enhance my approach to making portraits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would, perhaps, be critical of myself for
not making better use of that skill in Assignment Five.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The second learning outcome is to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Demonstrate the importance of note taking, research, ideas and
concepts to the process of developing a story’</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the course of studying this module, I have
certainly done quite a bit of researching & planning – maybe a bit too much
at times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a feeling that my
interpretation of ‘research’ in a traditional and even dogmatic fashion might
have contributed to the frustratingly ‘blinkered’ view of the brief that caused
me trouble early in the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of
my next books for study is ‘Behind the Image’ by Anna Fox and Natasha Caruana,
published by AVA, in the Creative Photography Basics series; and this will
hopefully help me develop the way I go about this aspect of my work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And then we come to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Demonstrate
a good level of ability in the effective selection and editing of images to
achieve objectives’</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, I
feel reasonably comfortable with that side – though I have made a few changes
to my selections between submission to my tutor and submission for assessment.
One aspect of this process that I’m not sure I have quite got balanced in my
own mind is the potential dilemma/conflict around presenting ‘variety’ (which
is often asked for an encouraged in assignment briefs) and ensuring ‘focus’
(which is often important in trying to get across a particular view or
message).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It came up, for me, in
Assignment 4. In seeking to select a variety of images that would offer choice
for a magazine editor, I end up failing to present a focused, personalised view
of my subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure I’ve quite
worked out how to resolve that, yet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Finally, there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Show
that you can reflect perceptively on your learning experience’</i> and I have
to say that I think I’ve done plenty of that, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a bit nervous about how I would handle
it in the ‘public’ environment of this blog, but I’ve just gone for it in the
end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might have bored the pants of
anybody that chose to read my thoughts, but at least I’ve reflected – and hopefully
with a touch of perception at times!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And
that almost brings me to the end; but not quite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Putting things together for assessment has
led me to think about one or two other aspects of my approach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
is a familiar sight to OCA students – and probably to tutors/assessors, too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzSZCpUqceNbJV7lO8-0IImCYk9lnie4qASSevuzt6lGchqIPKc9ln0BSUyEGKgeO7d-YxsMnihVbBonQiyooOAGAhtadejlR8Te4CWcjjVMhyphenhypheniJj1n2u7Mlp3J5978Rcz6OCNLUSTbo/s1600/Notebook-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzSZCpUqceNbJV7lO8-0IImCYk9lnie4qASSevuzt6lGchqIPKc9ln0BSUyEGKgeO7d-YxsMnihVbBonQiyooOAGAhtadejlR8Te4CWcjjVMhyphenhypheniJj1n2u7Mlp3J5978Rcz6OCNLUSTbo/s320/Notebook-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
notebook is where most of my thoughts, ideas, plans, reflections etc have
started out whilst studying this module.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There have been a few examples on WeAreOCA and elsewhere, recently, of
students presenting very ‘visual’ note/sketch books; and this approach seems to
have been praised by the tutors/assessors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now, I’m not sure that I work that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I sit down and scribble notes ... and the ideas get developed that way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5caxJxmyMnA2NcnoFcGJPAepHnmzMCZLt8zgtbppAovr_VGZtlJr_l3zLacfp4dExo7CEZ25VDjn56NnWlX20Haq6H6q1qRlhbyN4b7r6fxkArRR6nxhEKE-4nKWVYPz_KNtN76Up6RI/s1600/Notebook-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5caxJxmyMnA2NcnoFcGJPAepHnmzMCZLt8zgtbppAovr_VGZtlJr_l3zLacfp4dExo7CEZ25VDjn56NnWlX20Haq6H6q1qRlhbyN4b7r6fxkArRR6nxhEKE-4nKWVYPz_KNtN76Up6RI/s320/Notebook-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">And this is about as ‘visual’ as my own approach gets,
judging by my final notebook.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyrAalofzb9krgFPnkJnCkkZekHxnVSex8Y9CM5dj3W2eygT3LsMIi-2MeHDOsZFSvzfIAR-3as1qsU3lgh2bQEPj68E3FSyLWwYxREwAxg65h-taaK-VZwJPwed4xMS1fre4K9hyMOs/s1600/Notebook-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyrAalofzb9krgFPnkJnCkkZekHxnVSex8Y9CM5dj3W2eygT3LsMIi-2MeHDOsZFSvzfIAR-3as1qsU3lgh2bQEPj68E3FSyLWwYxREwAxg65h-taaK-VZwJPwed4xMS1fre4K9hyMOs/s320/Notebook-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Is
that bad/wrong?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should I be more ‘visual’
in my research, planning and reflection? Does it say something about me,
potentially, as a photographic artist, if I pursue my thoughts that way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that I ‘soak up' everything that I see
– in magazines, on the Internet, at exhibitions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But ought I to do more cutting and
sticking?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I certainly don’t want or
intend to do it because it’s what seems to be catching the eye of the
assessors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This process has to be about what
works positively in my own creative activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it has set me thinking about a very, very fundamental
principle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>I think in words not
images</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right now, after 62 years,
that’s where I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>But</u> should the
development of an effective creative process be encouraging me to change?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a tough one and I don’t know the
answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Another
thought at present is that this course has taken me a long time to complete – longer
than any of the previous modules, even though I’m only working part-time
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are three main reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I have, for the last twelve months, had the time-consuming ‘distraction’
of being OCA’s Student Association President; and that has impacted on time
available, without a doubt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Photographing people involves more organisation and diary
planning around availability; and that has certainly contributed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But I also think that it is a reflection of my own wish to be
serious about what I’m doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
days, I have a better understanding of what standard to aim for in the work I
produce and a stronger desire to achieve and maintain those standards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whilst I might, from time to time, say ‘enough;
I cannot afford to spend any more time on this, even if I want to make it
better still’; but I don’t ever say ‘that’ll do; it’s good enough’ – and there
is a difference, I reckon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And
then one last thought of all; this module has, without a doubt, given me the
confidence to make images of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
may still have a lot to learn, but my appetite is ‘whetted’ and, whereas I
might once have felt that portrait making was not for me, I now feel that I may
do more; and might yet come back to it as a significant part of my photographic
practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time will tell!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-62789435345322446252012-05-28T15:59:00.001+01:002012-05-28T15:59:52.713+01:00Assignment Five – Two comparisons found recently<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Two
interesting pieces of work have become known to me over the weekend, both of
which offer some comparison with my work for Assignment Five.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
first arose when I received my copy of ‘<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Behind
the Image’ by Anna Fox & Natasha Caruana</b>, the next in the Basics of
Creative Photography Series published by AVA Publishing. I havn’t looked at the
book in any detail at all yet but, flicking through, my eye was caught on Page
127 by a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Karen Knorr</b> image – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘Those who fear ...’ from the ‘Gentlemen’
series</b>, made in the 80s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What caught
my eye was the square format portrait of a man, with centre-justified text
below; text that was clearly more than a caption but part of the ‘art’ she was
creating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A bit of internet research
revealed that she had produced two other series, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘Belgravia’ and ‘Country Life’</b>, both of which are made up of images
in a similar format.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a link to
the ‘Belgravia’ series - <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.karenknorr.com/photographs/archives/belgravia/"><span style="color: #888888;">'Belgravia' -
Karen Knorr</span></a></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her arrangement of
text and image is very similar to my original arrangement; and the principle of
the combination is also interesting, especially when I note what she says about
it in the notes accompanying ‘Belgravia’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“The
meaning of the work can be found in the space between the image and text:
neither the text nor the image illustrate each other, but create a ‘third
meaning’ to be completed by the spectator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The text slows down the viewing process as we study the text and return
to re-evaluate the image in light of what we have read.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Karen
Knorr, in notes accompanying her series ‘Belgravia’,</span></i><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
wish I’d read that before or during the work I was doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It both informs and articulates what I have
been attempting to do with the image/text combination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also note what she says about her subjects
performing their identities “... in a collaborative fashion ...” with her; and
that there is “... real complicity between us.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I don’t think I got as far as being able to claim that of my series, but
it was true in a number of cases; partially true in most; and with a bit more
practice and development, might be true of other work in the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I certainly like the principle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In
contrast, and related to the principle behind my own series, is a more recent
piece of work from Italian photographer, Gabriele Galimberti, which appeared in
The Times Magazine last Saturday 26<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> May 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is Galimberti’s website - <a href="http://www.gabrielegalimberti.it/index.php?leng=1&idm=94"><span style="color: #888888;">Gabriele
Galimberti</span></a> – and this is the series that was featured - <a href="http://www.gabrielegalimberti.it/lavori.php?idlm=88&id=97"><span style="color: #888888;">Toy
Stories</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The series shows children from
all over the world, photographed with their toys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The accompanying notes on the site say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Who doesn’t remember a favourite childhood
toy?”</i> – and there is the obvious comparison to my own images of mature
adults with items, often toys, that they still retain from their
childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The notes are written by
Arianna Rinaldo, and she goes on to say of one’s favourite toy – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The one that sometime, dozens of years
later, we find at the bottom of the closet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And we let a tear drop.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
touch of sentimentality creeping in there, perhaps – but we’re into the same
emotional area at least – memory of childhood; the links between childhood experience
and the adult; the feelings evoked by the physical manifestation of a childhood
experience in the form of a toy/possession still there in adulthood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
am a little puzzled by one aspect of Galimberti’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He does, it seems from the notes and from the
article in The Times Magazine, collaborate with both parents and child in
creating the image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be hard not
to when photographing young children, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it seems that he seeks to organise the ‘set’
into what are perhaps best described as ‘formal’ patterns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This one of a boy with his Lego is a good
example - <a href="http://www.gabrielegalimberti.it/lavori.php?leng=1&idlm=88&idlm2=&idlm3=&id_l2c=557&searchstring=&pag=0&id=97"><span style="color: #888888;">example</span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The formality of that presentation seems to
be more about the photographer than about boy, which puzzles me, as I say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would Niko, aged 5, choose to lay out his
Lego in that way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what does the
portrait tell us if that order and formality is, presumably, being imposed on
him and his favourite toy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, an interesting series and it makes for
a useful comparison to the work that I have been doing for Assignment Five.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-9560135128771664772012-05-24T16:56:00.002+01:002012-05-24T16:56:56.133+01:00Preparing for Assessment – Assignment Four<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
is another assignment that I felt less than satisfied with when submitted &
the reasons are documented earlier in this blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Going back to the notes, feedback and images
over the last week or so, I find it a bit of a mixed bag – some work and some
don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paying particular attention to
the tutor feedback on individual images, I have decided to make some changes
for the assessment submission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three images
were part of the original submission but have now been replaced and I have also
changed the order.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
is the first that has been replaced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSmWpFjKuIq653c7R9BiIpcO3PfU4GyMvbCZl7YzTy-SWp6B43uUNphp4hLDQWxnCZRGP6Sj7ItRZ65bSOfr45bXWkGQU7KsI06NWeYBO6RxFnGYNsiIskouvZ4n6nivuZei0LgNGS0w/s1600/Assignment+4+Image+-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSmWpFjKuIq653c7R9BiIpcO3PfU4GyMvbCZl7YzTy-SWp6B43uUNphp4hLDQWxnCZRGP6Sj7ItRZ65bSOfr45bXWkGQU7KsI06NWeYBO6RxFnGYNsiIskouvZ4n6nivuZei0LgNGS0w/s320/Assignment+4+Image+-6.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
have to agree with the comments from my tutor – particularly about the man
facing the camera mid-frame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looks
uncomfortable and it detracts from the notion that this is a bunch of people
having a good time in Holmfirth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the
time, I felt that some of the alternatives were a bit generic, but I have
replaced it with this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdlYD8XwNY2T4y8d_a4Re9DDt0ACVtyZswz8rlcz_QoqtoW1TVHg46AexgrAtyNM-7Pi5fb4rxsQlo6bWNoOBSbISR8VFQLcmSnirYk382gzHGxOb0rrPhFhzitE272QPlxfCBrrfKVls/s1600/Assignment+4+Image+Small+09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdlYD8XwNY2T4y8d_a4Re9DDt0ACVtyZswz8rlcz_QoqtoW1TVHg46AexgrAtyNM-7Pi5fb4rxsQlo6bWNoOBSbISR8VFQLcmSnirYk382gzHGxOb0rrPhFhzitE272QPlxfCBrrfKVls/s320/Assignment+4+Image+Small+09.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">At
least here there is some interaction going on; it confirms the notion of
Holmfirth as a busy market town; and there is a little bit of colour &
narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact that it is generic
is less of a problem since it would be appearing in an article about Holmfirth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Next
one for the ‘chop’ was this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNIO2e8rukuNnT3RUyKPamGTYDHxbwisfwZtVyZ9C6wnvKn9NZY5fPIjCSrByJ9gY25B5e9jHiiPp-R_bTo4WDsy44DDnYmaHbUQUVBzJnmlo08AAYgm-aYOQLBVgWbirJOVzmtQhhARQ/s1600/Assignment+4+Image+-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNIO2e8rukuNnT3RUyKPamGTYDHxbwisfwZtVyZ9C6wnvKn9NZY5fPIjCSrByJ9gY25B5e9jHiiPp-R_bTo4WDsy44DDnYmaHbUQUVBzJnmlo08AAYgm-aYOQLBVgWbirJOVzmtQhhARQ/s320/Assignment+4+Image+-7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It
was doing its job in the original selection – illustrating tour guide Gary
about his business – but shot quickly through the door of a coach it lacks any
formal qualities and is technically suspect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I guess the ideal would have been to go back and do more work on a Gary
image – but I already had this one from the original shoot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Properly caption, (i.e. explaining that this
is Gary the tour guide, waiting for coaches to arrive at the bus station,
something that he does every day, making this a familiar site in Holmfirth
centre) this would also work effectively, and it has better formal and
technical qualities – in my opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiAgZIXF-x13Sq0KKGFdSkVWLehzDdnbZR1mW5Xd0LPSJamp3DoxeZINQuAbrvEQWwryfuZK_Zn8GAJUWmZKb_-rOgM3hwE0mwwpRU89zrJvqJ3G8a6IpLyDfQn5gpoxYHhWogodzBo9s/s1600/Assignment+4+Image+Small+05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiAgZIXF-x13Sq0KKGFdSkVWLehzDdnbZR1mW5Xd0LPSJamp3DoxeZINQuAbrvEQWwryfuZK_Zn8GAJUWmZKb_-rOgM3hwE0mwwpRU89zrJvqJ3G8a6IpLyDfQn5gpoxYHhWogodzBo9s/s320/Assignment+4+Image+Small+05.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Thirdly
– again responding to tutor feedback, but this time a little more reluctantly –
I have decided that this one can go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-D9FQRuFnbYnLRo5aaT-JI_-bMSpfVJcypKY1iHCJz3ePoX6TQCjatCeQPLzc2YNTwIEuNJehu0IXcogpV6a6Cbh0JRG6VX-Yu4jtVDQj53DGa3vs5ZjqURG-SEbWlDQm061CDi2YXU/s1600/Assignment+4+Image+-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-D9FQRuFnbYnLRo5aaT-JI_-bMSpfVJcypKY1iHCJz3ePoX6TQCjatCeQPLzc2YNTwIEuNJehu0IXcogpV6a6Cbh0JRG6VX-Yu4jtVDQj53DGa3vs5ZjqURG-SEbWlDQm061CDi2YXU/s320/Assignment+4+Image+-11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
don’t think there is anything wrong with the image itself, but the question raised
was whether images of old stone buildings were being overdone and whether this
actually adds anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Might there be
another image that would introduce other aspects of the town that are not
covered here?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s actually pretty hard
to overdo the old stone bit in Holmfirth – it’s everywhere around you and
creeps into most images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I take
the point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One bit of Holmfirth
history/culture not covered in the original images is the Picturedrome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s an old cinema, that still performs that
function as well as acting as a venue on the gigs circuit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Worth also mentioning that short silent comedy/feature
films were being made in Holmfirth before they were made in Hollywood!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I have replaced the above with a similar
image, but one that shows the Picturedrome and signifies its history – as well
as its dual function as a rock band venue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp320nb9zGV1nPJK_XpcpX9ZfimbiEAq3Ai-U0aJM5oK3Z9ZAr2RQsrPA8pg7v-VI6nrEDTeTFoCO18aZleezBOqHCdMtiUm-Ck8Dr2aE3JwfH8hBsId_LBP4Q_GKISqJvdBn-PC0M0Sg/s1600/Assignment+4+Image+Small+08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp320nb9zGV1nPJK_XpcpX9ZfimbiEAq3Ai-U0aJM5oK3Z9ZAr2RQsrPA8pg7v-VI6nrEDTeTFoCO18aZleezBOqHCdMtiUm-Ck8Dr2aE3JwfH8hBsId_LBP4Q_GKISqJvdBn-PC0M0Sg/s320/Assignment+4+Image+Small+08.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Making
these replacements had impacted on the order of the images, both from a
narrative and a ‘visual pattern’ viewpoint, so I will be presenting the order
differently – but that will be clear from the prints submitted, so I’m not
repeating all the images here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with
the other assignments, several of the prints have also had a ‘tweak’ before
submission <span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">and
I have ‘rationalised’ sizes to two crop ratios.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There were several variations in the original submission and I recognise
that this is an area where I need to be more consistent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Another
concern for both me and my tutor was that this series lacked any clear
direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was I actually saying
about Holmfirth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where was the emotional
expression?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might have needed to
completely reshoot in order to address that one, but I have recently had
another opportunity to make a series of images about the neighbourhood, as my
first assignment on Progressing with Digital Photography.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I deliberately made it a more personal view
and the outcome is <a href="http://stansocapwdp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/assignment-one-submission.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Even
more stone – must say something about me, perhaps?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
</div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-67319489597721495122012-05-16T17:37:00.006+01:002012-05-16T17:37:58.584+01:00Preparing for Assessment – Assignment Three<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
assignment gave me a lot of trouble, as I’ve already recorded earlier in this
blog and elsewhere in notes exchanged with my tutor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t intend to revisit those struggles –
partly of my own making, I think, but also partly related to the nature of the
brief itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What matters here is how I
have looked at the assignment for my assessment submission and the changes that
I have made – and why.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All the images have been reprinted, with small adjustments to
just about all of them as my Photoshop and printing skills have improved since
they were first done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I have taken note of some specific suggestions from my tutor,
resulting in:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The replacement of one of the interior images of Huddersfield’s
Queensgate Market, which seemed to add little – this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2fDfU9-CtOdqzrPCovk_nSb8QMrKfZKrOxeGCiBARXG2IrHZU9afvW1I3XGDRVByAwCWSacEUEDkZ2lG03AgKr8avN6AROWaqgynZ3MWmjE2dRWVB43oaLFQQf3wnrypulW8Em_cTDEk/s1600/_DSC3659-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2fDfU9-CtOdqzrPCovk_nSb8QMrKfZKrOxeGCiBARXG2IrHZU9afvW1I3XGDRVByAwCWSacEUEDkZ2lG03AgKr8avN6AROWaqgynZ3MWmjE2dRWVB43oaLFQQf3wnrypulW8Em_cTDEk/s320/_DSC3659-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 108pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The new image is an external view that includes the ‘iconic’
external artwork referred to in my original notes and also shows the external
extension of the concrete curves into the external structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is questionable whether it strictly meets
the brief, which focuses on function, but it does add variety – and I guess one
of the buildings functions would be to act as an iconic reference point in the
town’s architectural landscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
certainly does that, as this images shows –and with a strong reference back to
its 1970’s origins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGhBYWZ2VY0KBiJmjqbktnkqzrW-qRcrrYinxmkeM1s3oEiNvXCvATx6WzY6Pcy3OhWLjJ2gtW-52RxQ_Xek1aPgzN-k3oyPW5SQ3_T3UBFgIQmaGZx-UJp6OczbjRMjw-oNXCKhVkPA/s1600/_DSC5712-Edit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTGhBYWZ2VY0KBiJmjqbktnkqzrW-qRcrrYinxmkeM1s3oEiNvXCvATx6WzY6Pcy3OhWLjJ2gtW-52RxQ_Xek1aPgzN-k3oyPW5SQ3_T3UBFgIQmaGZx-UJp6OczbjRMjw-oNXCKhVkPA/s320/_DSC5712-Edit.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 126pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There is also a change in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park Visitor
Centre group; this time an additional image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My notes referred to the fact that this building acted as a bridge
through formal gardens, but there were no images that confirmed that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The closest I could get was this image, which
confirms the busy, transient nature of the space’s function, but also
demonstrates, to a degree, how it uses the large window space to involve the
visitor in the external aspects of the park as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70fhqyDvFlP-d0sqUDYXEwqBjj0OhPpOK-mL0Ih2BZiRM7g9DCc5K5CoS3kzUZY2of4f4Byvkzc9Ynxhbks7uoFn_1_QHRGhKdt8uyiV3zEstXx0T9sUwQLJAjUk9pYMVIqQXnCalgjY/s1600/_DSC4491-Edit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70fhqyDvFlP-d0sqUDYXEwqBjj0OhPpOK-mL0Ih2BZiRM7g9DCc5K5CoS3kzUZY2of4f4Byvkzc9Ynxhbks7uoFn_1_QHRGhKdt8uyiV3zEstXx0T9sUwQLJAjUk9pYMVIqQXnCalgjY/s320/_DSC4491-Edit.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As well as these small changes, I have introduced a new location
into the series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whilst working on the
assignment last year, I had photographed a house that we stayed in on holiday
in France, and its gardens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Working
under my restricted interpretation of the brief, I had originally decided not
to include it, but having been encouraged to take a less restrictive approach,
I have now added it in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my key
reasons for doing this is because I felt that the images I took then
represented something closer to a personal response to a ‘place’ and less of a
mechanical response to a brief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my
mind that gives them a little more merit and value than some of the
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also adds another dimension
of variety to the overall submission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are the images.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhURMP6drRiPpgnN4SVhD_P9NnajzcJprNRJzU8SejEV_5b4UNCdXWIAsoWGWYu8BLxLiK_5yuxKn9Le2DlMd3DkWNrb-ze0d2ozn-gZf5GJ9FX7ByaZ2Csf93ov77CcPzuq-dRZ-Wt8/s1600/_DSC4334-Edit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVhURMP6drRiPpgnN4SVhD_P9NnajzcJprNRJzU8SejEV_5b4UNCdXWIAsoWGWYu8BLxLiK_5yuxKn9Le2DlMd3DkWNrb-ze0d2ozn-gZf5GJ9FX7ByaZ2Csf93ov77CcPzuq-dRZ-Wt8/s320/_DSC4334-Edit.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
am, overall, still left with a feeling of dissatisfaction about the outcomes on
the assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whilst I have produced,
in the end, a large set of images covering a variety of places and spaces,
which meet the requirements of the original brief, I find them largely
uninspiring and uninspired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-27147600547542218932012-05-15T15:03:00.000+01:002012-05-15T15:03:08.513+01:00Preparing for Assessment – Assignment Two<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It
has occurred to me that, as I review and amend assignments prior to submission
for Assessment, it makes good sense to record what I’m doing here and tag it to
the assignment so that the assessors can complete the ‘story’ of each
assignment’s development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will just
record one thing here, first, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The course notes clearly state that ‘Assignment One: a portrait’ is “...
not submitted for formal assessment.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am following that instruction and not making it part of my review or my
assessment submission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">For
Assignment Two I worked on a street photography series, looking at people
eating in a public space i.e. all engaged in a similar activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I submitted twelve images and received what
at the time seemed like mixed feedback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Actually, the gist of it was probably that I had tried something
difficult (matching the brief for the assignment with my own interest in doing
a street project) and perhaps not quite succeeded in doing much more than
making ‘a good fist of it’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking
back, and considering that I have subsequently, at times, made life difficult
for myself by trying to follow a brief too closely, I feel that the criticism
was perhaps a bit harsh – though I recognise that it wasn’t directed in any
negative sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I aimed at
something quite subtle, and that was perhaps, above all, where I made the task
difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had researched the subject
and found very little in ‘classic’ street work that didn’t take a negative
angle on what is, after all, a decidedly common activity (in the sense of being
frequent and normal, not ‘common’ in the pejorative sense!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had I set out to capture images of people
with their mouths wide open at the ‘decisive moment’ when the food entered,
perhaps the images would have been more obviously a match for the brief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking back at a distance of more than a
year since I took them, I still quite like the series; though I do accept that
it is subtle and so, perhaps, lacking in impact.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There
were some practical comments on individual images, which I have largely taken
on board, and there was certainly room for improvement in some of the
prints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have reworked a reprinted all
of the images for submission purposes – some with quite small changes and
others more significant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One important
step that I have taken is to re-crop several.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I submitted the originals in a whole range of sizes and ratios, cropping
each to what I believed worked best for that individual image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recognise that this isn’t good practice in
a series and so have essentially reduced the variants to just two – either a
3:2 ratio or square – with just one ‘portrait’ orientation amongst the
3:2s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is certainly an improvement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
other significant change is to alter one of the images – the original Image
11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have changed this ...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">...
for this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqpaeVPiLyTmZceDPqm6lm4oiX6K3AH7LvPSmye7R9cm7bALALczou-kU0mnIq0MXtRojOG4dhVTRyMQJ9lgvcE8r5alntHu2gwyfzrvimOW7BV5fcrH1G0yOyKmQvAEAnpOFXCXw4Bm0/s1600/Manchester+21-3-11-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqpaeVPiLyTmZceDPqm6lm4oiX6K3AH7LvPSmye7R9cm7bALALczou-kU0mnIq0MXtRojOG4dhVTRyMQJ9lgvcE8r5alntHu2gwyfzrvimOW7BV5fcrH1G0yOyKmQvAEAnpOFXCXw4Bm0/s320/Manchester+21-3-11-11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Not
a particularly radical alteration, but it perhaps works better as an
illustration of small groups creating their individual spaces than the previous
one did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a notion that the statue
of Queen Victoria added some historical perspective, but I think my tutor was
right in saying that it didn’t work especially well in that respect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Street
photography with a light touch may be an accurate summary of this piece of
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It demonstrates that I have been
able to find a way to create decent images of people who are, largely, unaware
that they are being photographed; that I have been able to do that within the
context of a particular theme; and hopefully, that I have been able to make
some sensible decisions about what works best in the series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned a lot, at least, and feel
reasonably comfortable with the outcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-69188640719018683582012-05-08T17:13:00.000+01:002012-05-08T17:13:05.923+01:00Assignment Five: Some post-feedback reflections & the final images<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
assignment has, as mentioned above, been to my tutor and I’ve had his feedback
& made a few amendments as a result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This note is to pull together my experience and record some reflections.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The tutor feedback is good, with positive comments on the time
and care I’ve taken to plan, make images, write up etc, plus the development
that this assignment demonstrates compared with where I started out on the
module.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There were some comments and questions for consideration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">He suggests, rightly, that the rationale for the ‘front-facing’
pose was probably not as fully explained in my supporting notes as it might
have been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, in the context of
this assignment, it is about presenting my subjects to the viewer in a natural
and collaborative manner that acknowledges what we are doing and their
involvement in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My subjects look the
viewer in the eye; they acknowledge that they are being viewed with their
childhood possession; they present themselves openly and directly to the
viewers’ gaze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question of ‘the pose’
is a complex one, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have done
some reading on it here and there, which I’m not going to attempt to analyse
here; but I did not want to go down the (what I feel is) unnatural route of
asking them to look at some imaginary point off-camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why would they be doing that with these
objects in their hands?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Creating a sort
of ‘narrative’ was one option that I considered – have them pose as if preoccupied
with the object in some way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the one
hand, that would, I believe, have been harder for the subjects to achieve
successfully, but more importantly, we are then, as viewers, seeming to observe
them occupied in some task, absorbed in their activity, when we all know, in
the context of this project, that they are posing for a photograph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, these images are, in the end, no
more honest or real than any others, but they do at least, to my mind, present
open collaboration and involvement, which adds a ‘layer of reality’ to the
outcome that makes them more accessible to the viewer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Another, related factor, again raised quite rightly by my tutor,
is that some of my subjects don’t look entirely comfortable in front of the
camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since the brief I was working to
suggested that these images were to be used in the context of a promotional
campaign by a children’s charity, might that slight air of discomfiture work
against the objectives of the campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think that the truth is that it might indeed have that effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t suppose I’m the first person to have
become more interested in capturing something about my subjects than in
perfectly fulfilling the brief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a
commercial context, that would have been a dangerous route to go; but
hopefully, in the context of a creative arts course, the exploration of something
subtle in these subjects’ character through my portraits is a little more
acceptable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There were some technical comments, notably that I might need to
consider some slight adjustments to the skin tones in some of the images –
again, valid points that I have taken on board.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">My tutor agreed that the landscape format works better than the
portrait format, with text below the image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consequently, I have changed them all to that arrangement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it evens the balance between the image
and the text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Text placed below felt too
much like a caption, a subsidiary add-on; and moving the eye up and down
between image and text feels less comfortable than the natural side to side
moves that we make, when reading a book, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have also looked at the font and its size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an area where one might seek design
input if following the project through; but I’ve chosen to keep it simple for
now – though I have changed from Arial to Tahoma and reduced the font size a
little.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
final versions are here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One thing my tutor commented on that has also been in my mind is
the size and resolution on these images in the context they would be used if
this were a real advertising campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The original 10 megapixel D80 images, cropped to this square format,
would not be good enough, I suspect, for a large poster campaign, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have experimented with one of them at A3,
which works fine, but I suspect going much beyond that would be difficult – and
one of the images was quite a tight crop from the original – something I had
already acknowledged in my notes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Clearly, in a true commercial assignment, one might be using medium
format or some other higher resolution equipment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So,
looking back, what have I got out of this assignment?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A much better understanding of, and confidence with, some basic
principles in makig portrait images with photography;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A small set of images that demonstrate I can take a concept;
research, plan, prepare, execute, and follow through to a conclusion that hangs
together as apersonal expression/exploration of that concept;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A starting point for something that I can continue to explore;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Some further sound practice in processing images and
photo-editing; these are nowhere near perfect but I’ve done things in the
context of this assignment that I could never have done before. (Need to learn
more about the use of Curves in Photoshop.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Some enjoyable, productive and creative interaction with people –
especially my subjects, of course, to whom I’m indebted, but it has also been
interesting to pick up feedback from other people – fellow students (thanks!);
tutor(s) (thanks!); and then almost everyone with whom I’ve discussed the
project ... it gets very positive interest from everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
have only scratched the surface of people photography, and I don’t know whether
or not it is something I’ll do much more of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly the first assignment of my new module, Progressing with
Digital Photography - <a href="http://stansocapwdp.blogspot.co.uk/"><span style="color: #888888;">here</span></a> –
has no people in it at all!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, maybe
not!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, I would like to follow through
with the concept underlying this assignment so, truth is, I’d be very
disappointed if I don’t end up exploring people photography quite a bit more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now
– there’s an outcome from this module!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
would never have said that eighteen months ago when I started out!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-45810839245677792922012-04-29T15:44:00.001+01:002012-04-29T15:45:27.484+01:00Assignment Five – Submission & Feedback<br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Assignment
Five has been completed; sent to my tutor; and feedback received.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The feedback is positive, with some useful
suggestions for improvements, which I will take on board, more or less without
exception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the set of images
that I submitted, with the text incorporated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfqEgcW6cbDDMPgnOfzv0yPADkum0nxMoZ81BDyR8R7lH_oo9YmKhUCPgp6sKDcx4Y6UBuqDy2-OHuU2WzrvVcMVllEtKPL3ashOBkm0v7pbLaVCT8iZ_Ztz2UCrvNcQ-cKy5WkW-noE/s1600/JP+With+Text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfqEgcW6cbDDMPgnOfzv0yPADkum0nxMoZ81BDyR8R7lH_oo9YmKhUCPgp6sKDcx4Y6UBuqDy2-OHuU2WzrvVcMVllEtKPL3ashOBkm0v7pbLaVCT8iZ_Ztz2UCrvNcQ-cKy5WkW-noE/s320/JP+With+Text.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUobgtSi6pivrO_D59hyphenhyphenEqq7by51gJ43Fpp4VkPb4YBCeWTAycZ6URRi4wbwiqlbk0l_qnoltH9DEu-ydmSXjeNinOLpEU7d4DqkAVnma9NOPBQRtij4B_cN6-Iw7bhYuWX2k2JD2OqkY/s1600/SG+With+Text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUobgtSi6pivrO_D59hyphenhyphenEqq7by51gJ43Fpp4VkPb4YBCeWTAycZ6URRi4wbwiqlbk0l_qnoltH9DEu-ydmSXjeNinOLpEU7d4DqkAVnma9NOPBQRtij4B_cN6-Iw7bhYuWX2k2JD2OqkY/s320/SG+With+Text.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3dPot7WFa18x-wyNzpaSu2N80bcOHADuE_457wb0MaeI4l01D-eJIbsP8rWmEgTFeBEZCDKjGPsrB_FRJMsRP6eSR-iO_LdQabsVFiMgejp_WABG3bhyphenhyphenJ4MbBgojwack9vtiUJ-VDRM/s1600/PA+With+Text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3dPot7WFa18x-wyNzpaSu2N80bcOHADuE_457wb0MaeI4l01D-eJIbsP8rWmEgTFeBEZCDKjGPsrB_FRJMsRP6eSR-iO_LdQabsVFiMgejp_WABG3bhyphenhyphenJ4MbBgojwack9vtiUJ-VDRM/s320/PA+With+Text.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE54e8U2yYFyAr4CxGrFGFfKndWrL9sq2F0ruOFHig27cPHyBfYR3UmyQwBx_4Ss0LXgqptfKxn3P4mIIRtTruk8L9J_03VtSPF6b5VLVt5YtpCuTzgMGSAudDOiXXLER1jrTQ9oGb8ro/s1600/JE+With+Text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE54e8U2yYFyAr4CxGrFGFfKndWrL9sq2F0ruOFHig27cPHyBfYR3UmyQwBx_4Ss0LXgqptfKxn3P4mIIRtTruk8L9J_03VtSPF6b5VLVt5YtpCuTzgMGSAudDOiXXLER1jrTQ9oGb8ro/s320/JE+With+Text.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">I did make one change after
sending off the submission to my tutor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It suddenly dawned on me that there was an alternative and perhaps
better way of combining the image and the text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can’t work out why it hadn’t occurred to me before, but a landscape
presentation, with the text beside the image rather than below it, seems to
work better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure it has to do with ‘reading’
the relationship side-to-side as more equal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Below the image, it’s hard not to see the text as a caption, whereas the
arrangement below is more ‘democratic’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I send this to my tutor after the initial submission, and he agreed that
it works better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, this also
uses a different font.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
version of this particular image also includes a bit of work on the skin tones,
as suggested in the feedback. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a
bit more work to do on all the images in that respect, I think, before
submission for assessment; and I will adjust them all to a ‘landscape format’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All in all, though, the feedback is that I
don’t need to do a huge amount more to get this assignment ready for
submission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will post the final
versions on here when they are done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’ve
definitely got a lot out of this assignment, as I’ve said in previous posts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-88107022144660752972012-04-07T14:00:00.000+01:002012-04-07T14:00:46.214+01:00Assignment Five – The last two images<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I finished the shooting for Assignment Five last weekend and have processed the two images, on and off, over the last week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m happy with the outcomes, overall, though I have a ‘technical’ regret over the first one, which is below.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwpdb_99e6xEOrd-iIPAAjbTfTFEdYzZdq8VwSvwd8a4vz0hCb0xSmEQKp1cWyL_dv85bYCCzLSRNg3NKwPVOGASidaiIAtdsVbI304qdeQL-Ihg920TZI1j8uPk-8w14TK_E5eyIHAqg/s1600/Assignment+5+LD+1+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwpdb_99e6xEOrd-iIPAAjbTfTFEdYzZdq8VwSvwd8a4vz0hCb0xSmEQKp1cWyL_dv85bYCCzLSRNg3NKwPVOGASidaiIAtdsVbI304qdeQL-Ihg920TZI1j8uPk-8w14TK_E5eyIHAqg/s320/Assignment+5+LD+1+Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">My concern is to do with the eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a cloudy but bright day and, with hindsight, I might have done better to use the reflector to get more light into the eyes and therefore more of a highlight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic ‘information’ is there, and I’ve done quite a bit of work in Lightroom & Photoshop to make something of it – but using the reflector would have helped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, it works successfully and is another good narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trophy is the first of many that Lance won playing football, and the envelope contains an invitation for a trial with a First Division football club back in 1955 – and indeed an invitation to play for their youth team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s more behind the story as well, but not relevant here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There might be a question mark over the way I’ve framed the image, with the positioning of the goalposts behind his shoulders & neck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first thing to say is that Lance chose the position he stood, precisely where he would have been for the kick-off when playing at ‘left half’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked that – it made him part of the process of making the image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that position determined, I chose to make the goalposts very much a prominent part of the background – deliberately slightly off centre from his body/head, but still boldly part of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it works fine, but I guess some people might have made a different choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The second image from last week is below.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIsTHw77-WH09W5h-fdkdhLBvT18_aD4PrD_5J2FzKWNYgyCQWVdLJEHQyqlcPxZEaOuZA20D8coBPQI0iTHDLFjVtDl73k4RQGv2xyY7x5yosEyDpxsGssBwY4LrE65vCRuEuusU8Rag/s1600/Assignment+5+ED+1+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIsTHw77-WH09W5h-fdkdhLBvT18_aD4PrD_5J2FzKWNYgyCQWVdLJEHQyqlcPxZEaOuZA20D8coBPQI0iTHDLFjVtDl73k4RQGv2xyY7x5yosEyDpxsGssBwY4LrE65vCRuEuusU8Rag/s320/Assignment+5+ED+1+Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I had the same issue with light and eyes here, but to a lesser extent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This image was made in a much more public place – a busy high street, with passing shoppers and cars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a narrow street, and we’re actually working across the road from the shop, just into the top of a narrow private alleyway that is more or less opposite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t necessarily very comfortable for the subject to have to pose, in public, and it was somewhat chilly, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I decided not to further complicate things by having someone standing with a reflector as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some challenges in photographing a black doll with a shiny head in the open air on a day with lots of white reflected light!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, putting all those things to one side, I’m pleased with the outcome on this one, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ‘story’ is another good one – Elaine was born in the house in the background; her mother bought her the black doll when she was a little girl; and her mother crocheted the dress that it still wears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There isn’t any significance in the house being No 13 – at least I don’t think so – but it’s another little twist to the tale, as is the bright pink signage that now publicises the shop.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">With the last two images ready, I’m now at the stage of writing up the assignment for submission to my tutor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said I’d try and do it by the end of March; 7<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> April today; so not too bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-66144478933945424362012-03-25T11:22:00.000+01:002012-03-25T11:22:28.314+01:00Assignment 5 – more portraits<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There has been some good progress with the assignment shoots over the last couple of weeks, with four more portraits made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two final ones that I need are due to be done next weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m reasonable happy with how they are turning out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think my confidence in dealing with portrait sessions has developed a little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have continued to make a few technical mistakes but nothing that hasn’t been recoverable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get annoyed with myself when I forget something simple but there is a lot to think about when you put somebody ‘on the spot’ in front of your camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you persuade someone to make themselves available to you for an hour or so, you have a sense of responsibility to make it come out as something decent; and these are friends, neighbours, relatives etc, not professional models, so you need to help them to be at ease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve tended to keep to the simple concept, as planned, which means I’m not asking them to do too much, but it takes a bit of care to ensure the subject looks relaxed and natural.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve tried to not rush things; standing to one side of the camera, watching their facial expressions carefully, waiting for the right moment to press the remote release, and being prepared to wait quietly, just saying the odd word of encouragement/direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know it feels odd for the subjects, but I think I’ve eventually got there with all of them – sometimes it’s been one of the first shots, sometimes the last, but I’m learning to be patient and relaxed myself – which helps!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">These are the four most recent outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisqRj7J5gTkNcosSyTevvN1NXBkhvyvr7QSJWmbru8tNsa9upAjexZOpCqKejPTBzE_qiA-pFRNNqW4jdmetsVByJ7N1z4elJKT23jc5BBknqWMc0d_Ps84R6CYmv19227voOO2vwpyBI/s1600/Assignment+5+JE+1+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisqRj7J5gTkNcosSyTevvN1NXBkhvyvr7QSJWmbru8tNsa9upAjexZOpCqKejPTBzE_qiA-pFRNNqW4jdmetsVByJ7N1z4elJKT23jc5BBknqWMc0d_Ps84R6CYmv19227voOO2vwpyBI/s320/Assignment+5+JE+1+Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ImcBuBw5zqLsUssT_ZEbTomoTQhyjoVBy3Nw4MJukoVfHkBz1fil4aqLOK7ULc_Zo1mStuCxh1epAJo0T7PRUa4VT0C569300Nz24j1ZCbRh5ZAtnLLJyHlZ7Bk8ltDlm41BAjwC7kw/s1600/Assignment+5+FA+1+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ImcBuBw5zqLsUssT_ZEbTomoTQhyjoVBy3Nw4MJukoVfHkBz1fil4aqLOK7ULc_Zo1mStuCxh1epAJo0T7PRUa4VT0C569300Nz24j1ZCbRh5ZAtnLLJyHlZ7Bk8ltDlm41BAjwC7kw/s320/Assignment+5+FA+1+Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXdgLGIYpVwca2CJ4f6-Z_RD8mdR4Pes5j1rb6uKW2dqouEw2PvtuH8-2_pKcChZCDWykFW1SJXrQWB9r_7vtP_dtWATTzEZ3Hr7xsC9G0R4gCeFGy3w7pJosbepi-HYbte5cBuwgyNs/s1600/Assignment+5+VD+1+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXdgLGIYpVwca2CJ4f6-Z_RD8mdR4Pes5j1rb6uKW2dqouEw2PvtuH8-2_pKcChZCDWykFW1SJXrQWB9r_7vtP_dtWATTzEZ3Hr7xsC9G0R4gCeFGy3w7pJosbepi-HYbte5cBuwgyNs/s320/Assignment+5+VD+1+Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGG-ynpwczcD3oUg8lw-WqYIJrfCFRlC6u6EVpbWuuHix7Yc4iDntd3DV-JaKDYOX_S-hlMDvd8-iDxwhxIHED2j8_zX95-NcAacETixqBm-PTi4TnUQszOfw3_Ai49vbCmhdxd2V1_q0/s1600/Assignment+5+PA+1+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGG-ynpwczcD3oUg8lw-WqYIJrfCFRlC6u6EVpbWuuHix7Yc4iDntd3DV-JaKDYOX_S-hlMDvd8-iDxwhxIHED2j8_zX95-NcAacETixqBm-PTi4TnUQszOfw3_Ai49vbCmhdxd2V1_q0/s320/Assignment+5+PA+1+Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One thing that is emerging, for me, and it isn’t a surprise, is that these are portraits of the <u>people</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever the pretext, and the presence of the items retained from childhood provides that and a narrative as well, it is something about the subject that I’m really trying to capture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether or not I am succeeding is another matter, but it’s what I find myself looking for.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’ve also been working some more on the text to go with the images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideally, it should just give enough of a clue to encourage the viewer to read the image, but leave some questions hanging for the reader to think about – a bit of a tall order, but that’s what I’m trying for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to include one example in this post, but I might put more in the OCA Flickr group, just to see whether there is any reaction to the principle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Below is the first of the four images above, but with its text added.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anyone views/reads this and has any comments whatsoever, I’d be very interested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The text should be just about readable, I think; if you click on the image.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtxlsiNYzH_z_xe-BdlX-otcfAG8Dwz2duEHMnNw-cByjGkDzG5O7j2dZOQmcSXqXeHclXiSqkOjLU63uNoR__03T8PLRrKEbyQozsbLn0gww8YiVbMT1WkZWyzAU2Q51r-oEheSYDpQ/s1600/JE+With+Text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtxlsiNYzH_z_xe-BdlX-otcfAG8Dwz2duEHMnNw-cByjGkDzG5O7j2dZOQmcSXqXeHclXiSqkOjLU63uNoR__03T8PLRrKEbyQozsbLn0gww8YiVbMT1WkZWyzAU2Q51r-oEheSYDpQ/s320/JE+With+Text.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-26698497347863347122012-03-10T16:56:00.001+00:002012-03-11T07:19:18.000+00:00RPS 154th International Print Exhibition – Study Visit, 9th March 2012<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As an RPS member for 3 years, I have been aware of this annual competition but this is the first time I have had an opportunity to see the travelling exhibition that results each year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were 120 images on show, chosen from just under 3000 entries – from all over the world, as the title suggests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to say, in honesty, that I approached the exhibition with some degree of scepticism, fearing, in short, that it might display more of the RPS’ tradition than a celebration of photography today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having seen it, I think the scepticism was misplaced and, whilst that RPS tradition was present in no small numbers, the overall reality was an extremely wide range of images representing many photographic genres, both traditional and contemporary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The images are <a href="http://www.rps.org/international-print-exhibition/The-154th-International-Print-Exhibition-2011" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> and the catalogue is downloadable as a pdf on that page.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The very wide diversity of images on display has a number of implications:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It certainly makes for interesting comparisons.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It confirms, maybe even celebrates, the diversity of the photographic practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The RPS President in the intro to the catalogue says that it combines “contemporary cutting edge and more traditional work”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just how cutting are the edges on display might be open to debate – but some are certainly edgy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It means that the hanging of the exhibition has its challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where there was an attempt to put together themes, it was sometimes a little forced; and the 'hanger' can end up, with ‘odds and ends’, which certainly seemed to happen here on occasions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Going down the ‘random’ route has its merits, but it then challenges the viewer to cope with the variety that meets the eye on any particular occasion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All-in-all, the hanging of this exhibition didn’t trouble me a great deal – other than the very practical fact that some images were hung a bit high for those of average/short stature (and those of us looking through varifocal lenses)!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This level of diversity in an open competition does mean that one is, on the whole, viewing individual images outside of their context and without any supporting information about the artist or their intention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are very obviously part of a series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One can always do more research afterwards, of course – see below – but it can make the ‘reading’ in the exhibition difficult and it certainly led to a large part of the discussion that took place during and after the visit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One striking factor was the truly international nature of the exhibition with, in particular, many Asian photographers represented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This may partly reflect the international reputation of the RPS.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There was a lot of ‘over-processing’ (in my opinion), though it wasn’t as prominent or dominant as I had feared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was no bad thing to be able to make direct comparisons between heavily HDR-ed landscapes/cityscapes and those images with more obvious ‘purpose’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t recall any of the former generating discussion amongst the group!</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">With 120 images on display, it isn’t possible to include comment on all, or even very many of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed it isn’t even easy to spend much time looking at most of them whilst present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am going to focus on a few that were the subject of significant discussion, and which I have subsequently followed up with further online research.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’ll start with the striking images – there were two in the exhibition – from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tobias Slater Hunt</b>’s <a href="http://tobiasslaterhunt.co.uk/?page_id=392" target="_blank">Closer to God</a></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a classic example of how viewing just 1 or 2 images tells only a tiny fragment of the whole story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The distinctly unglamorous and deadpan portraits of two naked women, both with, seemingly, disfigured faces, will have caught the attention of everyone visiting the exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few will, one suspects, have taken the trouble to find out more, and many will have gone away unsure just what is going on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as I went to research further, I realised that I had seen another image from this series – at the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait exhibition, which I wrote about previously <a href="http://stansocablog.blogspot.com/2012/01/assignment-five-related-reflections-on.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having read Slater-Hunt’s statement, I admit that I am still not very clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Closer to God’ is itself part of a wider piece of work, linking to Dante’s Inferno and Renaissance paintings, whilst also reflecting the photographers own experience of living with chronic illness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The images are manipulated – and does that mean the ‘disfigurements’ are themselves not real?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question is still hanging in the air for me – but I don’t feel motivated to explore the complexity of the work any further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The images on display certainly provoke questions, but how far can those questions take the viewer without at least some of this background?<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Another image that provoked much discussion was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Aaron Dempsey’s</b> ‘The Dolls School’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A young girl, dressed in a white cotton nightdress, sits on one side of a double bed, looking, without expression, into the camera (i.e. directly at the viewer). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bedclothes are folded back and there are two pillows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bedroom has an ‘old-fashioned’ look and there is an open fire burning in a fireplace beside the bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Above the brass bed end hangs an image (could be painting or could be photo) showing a young girl ‘schooling’ her dolls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was discussion of the photographer’s intent, in what was clearly a carefully ‘staged’ image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many felt that it hinted, quite powerfully, at child abuse, in one context or another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further investigation reveals that Aaron Dempsey does indeed stage his (assumption here – regarding gender) images, and that this is from a sequence entitled ‘Dreams’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This series recreates female dreams, mainly fear-related, as recounted by the dreamer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This particular one is that of a six year old girl and can best be seen, with the rest, via Dempsey’s Facebook page, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.124612394235261.17415.122482274448273&type=1" target="_blank">here</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dempsey’s work feels inspired by the likes of Gregory Crewdson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If my gender assumption is correct, the exploration of <u>female</u> dreams is interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another useful observation, for me, would be to note the effectiveness of the use of text/caption when the images are presented on the Facebook page as opposed to the single, uncaptioned (though titled) image in the exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As already discussed in a previous post <a href="http://stansocablog.blogspot.com/2011/12/assignment-five-more-background.html" target="_blank">here</a>, I am certainly going to use text as part of the image presentation for my final assignment in People & Place.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The ‘winner’ of the informal OCA Study Visit competition for best photo went to ‘Recess’ by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Feng Zhang</b>, which I can’t reproduce here and nor can I find a link, other than to say that it is on page 70 of the catalogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two young girls are sleeping, presumably in a break from their schooling because they are lying on wooden tables with their heads resting on colourful ‘Western-style’ school bags.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are looking from directly above them, perhaps from a balcony, and can see the rough concrete floor beneath their tables, a worn and crumbling wall, plus various wooden stools around the tables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stools and the tables are of old, heavy rough-hewn wood, in contrast to the girls’ more modern dress and their up-to-date school bags.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lighting is soft and natural, highlighting the two girls across the centre of the frame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tones, the textures, the subtle colours, the soft lighting, and the quality of the print all made it an eye-catching image, but further looking raises questions about the intent – the contrast between the old and the new, the softness of the human forms with the hardness of the wood and concrete, the anomaly of sleeping in such rough hard surroundings, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The angle of the shot – looking down on the scene, implies a captured moment, even if it is, in reality, a posed shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The natural light and the gentleness with which the image has been processed lends it a realistic feel, whether or not it is in fact ‘real’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Which I find to be in sharp contrast with another image much discussed on the visit – <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=941&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnso&tbnid=tG7mhn1EPCASjM:&imgrefurl=http://www.obscurajournal.com/finalists.php&docid=ToNyIFha3j27xM&imgurl=http://www.obscurajournal.com/images/goalChanKwokHung.jpg&w=500&h=329&ei" target="_blank">'Goal'</a> by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Chan Kwok Hung</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is certainly a striking image, with young boys – Buddhist monks in training – playing football, seemingly on a hillside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The colours and the composition, not least the captured instance, absolutely grab the viewer’s attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Striking as it may be, however, the image made me uncomfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The heavy processing, the unnaturalness of the light (the source of which is very hard to pin down), the perfection of the composition (such as the ball in the very centre of the image and exactly positioned between the two main protagonists in the football game) all made the image feel unreal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found myself questioning its veracity and wondering whether it was, in fact, a manipulation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may not be – but if that is the case, the photographer hasn’t done himself any favours, in my view, by presenting it in this ‘other-wordly’ style. (Edit after original post - I forgot to mention that Chan Kwok Hung was winner of the CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year Award last year with <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/pictures/111027-best-nature-pictures-2011-environment-animals-science/" target="_blank">this</a> image. Again - a stunning image, but I find myself questioning the appropriateness of the processing. Does it detract from the messsage? I feel it might.)</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Another general reflection that has run through my mind after the event takes me back again to some previous thoughts on painting and photography.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a few images in the exhibition with the ‘painterly’ feel about them – ‘Mist’ by Jialiang Luo and ‘Okavango Scene with Wild Dogs’ by John Cucksey being two (very different) such images that spring to mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One could question the point of creating a photographic image that has the look of a painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then likewise, one could question the point of painters who paint in an ultra-real, ‘photographic’ style – Gerhard Richter being one highly respected example, and I discussed others in my blog after seeing the BP Portrait Prize exhibition last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s certainly an interesting debating point and, at the very least, a challenging observation that artists from these two different mediums choose to work in this way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are the photographers frustrated painters and/or the painters mocking the photographers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my mind it is the intention and the outcome that matters, not a generic view of which is right/wrong/best/appropriate or whatever.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So, many thanks to Gareth, Jose, and Maggie (who I am tempted to refer to as Mary!) (a comment that will only be meaningful to those present!) for organising and attending another useful and interesting study visit; it has certainly provoked some useful reflection and learning for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-41767195523061425512012-02-27T14:44:00.002+00:002012-03-10T16:58:20.637+00:00Assignment Five – Update<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Progress remains slow, but it looks as though March will be an active month in the context of this assignment, and might even see it close to completion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This note is just to pull together a few developments.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I made the decision earlier in the year to keep things simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the first shoot, I did experiment with some different poses but came to the conclusion that a straightforward ‘facing the camera’ style was the way to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It fits with, for example, the Martin Parr Oxfam examples that I referred to earlier; it fits with what I saw in the Taylor Wessing portrait exhibition; and it takes away one of the variables when dealing with the subjects during a shoot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it happens, it’s also the approach that I like best, personally, so I’m not going to worry further about that but just stick to the simple approach.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I did, briefly, experiment with the idea of using Google Streetview as a source for the background in the images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The attractions were a) it could give me complete flexibility of ‘place’ or ‘context’ and b) it could introduce an element of true/false/real/unreal into the narrative and a further question in the mind of the viewer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a go at a self-portrait, with a Newsbook that I kept when I was around 5-6 years old, superimposed onto a Streetview image of the school where I made it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the best version of the outcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGV6vhlARfHemv5m4YPk5aM-pNnVqnFZuwYgdit-Yfx7OIDpBpFB13A0vo4JuqRF1-tGuQtIT_3DU9_pA-L6Bu9eMrEOhKrFrhJKWCLrB3uJ2u8RcnhcWC5jaoxzNGaYNTgDo_1iWavo8/s1600/Stan+with+Newsbook+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGV6vhlARfHemv5m4YPk5aM-pNnVqnFZuwYgdit-Yfx7OIDpBpFB13A0vo4JuqRF1-tGuQtIT_3DU9_pA-L6Bu9eMrEOhKrFrhJKWCLrB3uJ2u8RcnhcWC5jaoxzNGaYNTgDo_1iWavo8/s320/Stan+with+Newsbook+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It took a bit of planning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m kneeling on the floor, in front of a black background, in order to try and get the camera angle somewhere close to that in the Streetview image; and getting the right lighting balance between me and the background, even to this standard, took some doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’ve aimed at something resembling fill-in flash that would have isolated me from the more distant background, had I actually stood in front of the school.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t right – though I’m quietly pleased to have got it this far!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, as a few people intimated when I shared this will the OCA Flickr group, it is a step too far at this stage – back to the ‘keep it simple’ principle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I have now completed two shoots, and I have enough volunteers in place to complete the assignment, when I can get further sessions organised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m expecting that to be done by the end of March or very early in April.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an earlier post, I used one of the images from the first shoot to trial the image/text combination, and I expressed some dissatisfaction with the image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having looked again at some others from the session, I think this one is certainly usable – less flattering as a portrait, perhaps, but potentially as interesting, if not more so.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUa6sHg2Gbdy9y17wmT2_l4D0AQWokNr_f4EIbEQ3N5tGgaDJFty6s0zjTKwXUSB347awlw9pxlKPUmlkLYfbTgZ6jxa013vMDVS4MyubwyhqPJ4frvwATTv-zMeVLcqmJg1mUUR4cHPI/s1600/JP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUa6sHg2Gbdy9y17wmT2_l4D0AQWokNr_f4EIbEQ3N5tGgaDJFty6s0zjTKwXUSB347awlw9pxlKPUmlkLYfbTgZ6jxa013vMDVS4MyubwyhqPJ4frvwATTv-zMeVLcqmJg1mUUR4cHPI/s320/JP2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This is my chosen image from the second session.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLg7ut37uJgV0M_TkfLrqcZrArJ8huZoGP-PWi8asvp3k4rbgKrxGVZy3NFJz5DQI2TAGv8hCaKgvyUCGs32sLP1U6pLYGtDuh0Zt8tAtTs35opmurv8Y_yj1Sui6mJNA6Q02PJLTvqak/s1600/Assignment+5+SG-1+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLg7ut37uJgV0M_TkfLrqcZrArJ8huZoGP-PWi8asvp3k4rbgKrxGVZy3NFJz5DQI2TAGv8hCaKgvyUCGs32sLP1U6pLYGtDuh0Zt8tAtTs35opmurv8Y_yj1Sui6mJNA6Q02PJLTvqak/s320/Assignment+5+SG-1+Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The earlier experiment with image and text together suggested that the text needs to be shorter rather than longer – more like 50 words than 100 – which gives me good guidelines for the final format.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is now just a case of completing six more of shoots, hopefully within the next 4-5 weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><strong>Edit 29-02-12</strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Following Clive's very kind & helpful input in the comments, I've done some minor 'tweaking' in PS, with these results.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHUi6CtzETSOJdE-3FCcI-XgDfhK-zqUPA47zZfywXt6xB6_jMaPi-m0Bawcy-2cSXfbA2H8KLMEZqoCqLKW3_hL7kmAFYZnowLQ1u51FToGx2ucfj9xR71UoCS4wFacmEo9u_10malSs/s1600/JP2-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHUi6CtzETSOJdE-3FCcI-XgDfhK-zqUPA47zZfywXt6xB6_jMaPi-m0Bawcy-2cSXfbA2H8KLMEZqoCqLKW3_hL7kmAFYZnowLQ1u51FToGx2ucfj9xR71UoCS4wFacmEo9u_10malSs/s320/JP2-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweiFiAUlPrXERMMVzQa0WIFlaAcM0v8cy9E8fFXD6or634MRjLE-MQ0ha0QYUddPQIrlTmczwYlO9NH4iL7j7Rjg4fd86HEWIeBJ7BY74trrj0M86GHOxfZr6IuLbIAaEw9MPfA4gxnE/s1600/Assignment+5+SG-1+Small+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweiFiAUlPrXERMMVzQa0WIFlaAcM0v8cy9E8fFXD6or634MRjLE-MQ0ha0QYUddPQIrlTmczwYlO9NH4iL7j7Rjg4fd86HEWIeBJ7BY74trrj0M86GHOxfZr6IuLbIAaEw9MPfA4gxnE/s320/Assignment+5+SG-1+Small+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
I havn't changed them dramatically, but I can certainly see an improvement - more in the originals than in the small versions on here, I'd say.</div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-25888453809776319792012-02-16T14:34:00.000+00:002012-02-16T14:34:48.562+00:00New CourseJust a short post to say that I have started my next OCA Module, 'Progressing with Digital Photography' and the new blog is set up, with a link here, on the right. I'm aiming to make a steady start with that one whilst completing Assignment Five of this one.stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-15070113715116326832012-02-06T17:06:00.000+00:002012-06-03T17:24:33.801+01:00London Visit – two other exhibitions<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Whilst in London a couple of weeks ago, I also took in two other exhibitions that I’ve not yet written up in here.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The first has been running at the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Tate Modern</u></b> for some time now - <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=2&showid=3142" target="_blank">Photography: New Documentary Forms</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Set out in five different rooms, it is made up from the Tate’s in-house collection and explores the ways in which five contemporary artists have used the camera (or more specifically photography) to ‘explore, extend and question the power of photography as a documentary medium’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to say that, for me, it works successfully – five artists, five quite different approaches, none necessarily fitting what one might expect from the term documentary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Mitch Epstein</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> – large format camera; big colour prints; ‘deadpan’ landscape images; a touch of the ‘Dusseldorf’ school about it; but each image, in its own way, documenting the impact of US power companies within the landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Luc Delahaye</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> – similar form of picture-making & presentation; this time in combat zones but not showing the combat; capturing, in a reflective way, the everyday happenings (compare Donovan Wylie in earlier post here).<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Guy Tillim</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> – comparable presentation – large colour prints – but much more immediacy about the subject matter; events surrounding an election in the Congo; more like the ‘newsy’ documentary photography.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Boris Mikhailov</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> – older work; most notable, for me, the ‘Red’ series, depicting Soviet Russia with images linking (for obvious reasons) via the colour red; a wall-full of images that worked together in a seemingly random way to create a single piece of artwork, whilst at the same time documenting the specific; I was reminded of Anders Petersen’s exciting and vibrant presentation of large black & white images in ‘From Back Home’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Akram Zaatari</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> – the artist, this time, isn’t making images but using them; a selection and presentation of photographs from the archives of a Lebanese studio photographer, Hashem el Madani, covering 1940s-1970s; directly comparable in approach, and even to an extent in content, with Jeremy Deller’s ‘Poking About’ at the Impressions Gallery, Bradford.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This was a cleverly and provocatively put together exhibition, making interesting use of existing images in the Tate’s collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, it was particularly interesting to be able to draw comparisons with other work that I’ve seen in the last year or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It informs the awareness of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>both similarity and difference in photographic styles e.g. to link together Mikhailov/Petersen/Engstrom, in a kind of emotional, energetic group, where the images grab your attention and assail you, even if they aren’t always comfortable or easy to deal with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then one can put together Epstein/Wylie/Roberts/Delahaye in a more reflective, much less invasive, rather studied approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first set will use the visual impact of many images (apparently, but of course not actually) thrown together to impact on your senses;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>whereas the second set will carefully construct individual images that invite careful study of their detail and individual analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reflecting on my own approach – I am probably more at home with the second group, but can also sense, as I’ve hinted before, how I might benefit from a little more of the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It occurs to me, though, that it perhaps requires an awful lot more confidence to do what the first group do – the confidence to allow yourself to have an emotional reaction to what you see and to capture that reaction, honestly, and to be prepared to present that reaction openly for the viewer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s another variation on a theme I’ve reflected on here before, of course, and not one that feels easy at my stage in life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then there was the visit to the<u> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">V&A’s</b></u> new <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/photographs-gallery/" target="_blank">Photographs Gallery</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a permanent exhibition, just opened in October 2011, and featuring dozens of prints from the V&A photography collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It includes lots of the ‘big names’ from the history of photography – right back to Fox-Talbot & Fenton, through Emerson, Stieglitz & Cameron, via Cartier-Bresson & Man Ray, to Cecil Beaton, Harry Callahan & Diane Arbus ... etc, etc, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a surprisingly effective presentation of photographic history and well worth a visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It <u>is</u> history, not theory or even remotely contemporary, but with a little pre-knowledge and some time spent genuinely looking and thinking, one can see very well the development of photography as art, science, document, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was good, for example, to see something like Robert Howlett’s 1857 portrait of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (there’s a link on the page I’ve linked to above).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t help thinking that it would have stood a good chance in the Taylor Wessing Portrait competition, if it had been in existence then!<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-50510180157283786722012-01-25T20:37:00.001+00:002012-01-25T20:37:48.835+00:00Musing on a da Vinci – several in fact<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Leonardo da Vinci, Painter at the Court of Milan – an exhibition at the National Gallery, which was billed as a once in a lifetime opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was indeed so, with most of his surviving paintings together in one place for, probably, the first time and, probably, the last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, by definition, by reputation, by the word of the press, this was always going to be a significant event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People are going to say ...<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“I remember when I stood in front of the ...”<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Actually, I do remember when I stood in front of a da Vinci painting (no, no that one in the Louvre!), in the Pinacotecca Ambrosiana in Milan, in 2006; me, Jayne, the painting, and no one else in the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t aware then that there were so few surviving da Vincis, and I hadn’t known this particular painting either, but it still had an impact on me (both of us, actually).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stunning detail; an arresting look in the subject’s eyes, not looking at us but out of the frame to our right; vibrant colour, especially in his hair; a slight sense of inconsistency across the surface of the painting, I recall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could examine it in that level of detail because we stood right in front of it, could have touched it if we’d chosen (dared).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a definite sense of personality, the subject as a real, living, breathing, speaking, thinking natural human being.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We stood in front of it again, last Thursday evening and, amazingly, with no one else in the room, close enough to touch it had we dared! The painting is ‘Portrait of a Young Man – (The Musician)’, and it was now hanging on a wall at the National Gallery, on loan from Milan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also stood in front of several others – the ‘Madonna Litta’, the two ‘Virgin of the Rocks’, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was the renewal of acquaintance with ‘The Musician’, and the thoughts which followed, that had the most impact.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It <u>is</u> an object, in the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw it in Milan; I saw it in London; and it has been transported from one place to the other, so that I can stand before it again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it <u>is</u> a unique physical object, empowered by what I and others make of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leonardo stood and looked at it with his own eyes, more than 500 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t look and say ‘it’s finished’, because it isn’t – hence the slight sense of inconsistency across its surface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m pretty sure he didn’t look at it and say ‘that’ll do’ either!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he <u>did</u> look at it with his own eyes – and now I’m looking at it with mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It won’t look exactly the same but it won’t look dramatically different. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He applied his brush to this surface at which I am looking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, in the few moments we beheld it in Milan, and the few moments we beheld it in London, Leonardo’s efforts were made for no others than Jayne and me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that moment, there was no other interpretation, no other reading of this object, than those brought on by our eyes, our minds, our experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s more, whilst we were certainly the direct recipients of da Vinci’s purpose and his labours, he had no control, however skilled and learned, on our interpretation and reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But it remains a unique object that will return to its wall in Milan, spatially close to where it was created, back from perhaps the longest journey it has ever made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is much reproduced but remains utterly unique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compare that to the digital portraits I will make for Assignment Five!<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-38315151533474522722012-01-24T15:56:00.000+00:002012-01-24T15:56:26.146+00:00Assignment Five – an example<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Writing up my thoughts on the Taylor Wessing exhibition & then reading comments from Clive & Dave made me think that it was time to ‘mock-up’ something from the one portrait session that I have managed to organise, more than a month ago now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I came away a bit frustrated with myself because I didn’t manage to get things just right, from the technical point of view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not going to dwell on the specifics too much here, however, I was shooting in a brightly lit motor garage but also felt I needed to use some flash and a wide aperture to avoid a slow shutter (and the noise that results if I start cranking up the ISO setting on the D80).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did have an assistant, as Clive suggests, and he was holding a large white reflector behind me to bounce the flash rather than have it direct onto the subject. The result isn’t a disaster by any means, but there is some very nasty shadow across the subject’s midriff (from light that did go direct) and the foreground is less in focus than I had intended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s usable but not up to the standard I would have liked.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">However, I have added some text, which is what I have in mind for the final submission, and produced this version.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll need to give careful thought to font size & type in the final versions, and also think carefully about just how much text to include.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feel that it’s important to support the image with enough narrative to encourage the viewer to read it ‘correctly’ but I don’t want the text to take over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s one of the reasons I’ve produced this version now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to test the water, see what it looks/feels like, before doing the rest of the sessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My initial reaction is that this amount of text could be a little too much, but I now have something to work with, at least.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_k9FMgE_BqrCY-fx8P10vEO8NBXkoHb79xnjublPiut094vSUhPzYBOMrH8NIJxARHivE6EahtxK2arymODp7a0EREfLqR67jfgQw6kVjj9jQJIGvrl5Sw7VahtVby6_tDFaNs8j_4-s/s1600/JP1+with+text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_k9FMgE_BqrCY-fx8P10vEO8NBXkoHb79xnjublPiut094vSUhPzYBOMrH8NIJxARHivE6EahtxK2arymODp7a0EREfLqR67jfgQw6kVjj9jQJIGvrl5Sw7VahtVby6_tDFaNs8j_4-s/s320/JP1+with+text.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">(Incidentally, I’ve since experimented with firing the flash through a diffusing layer rather than bouncing it – more ‘soft box’ than ‘umbrella’ – and I think I can get better results that way, if I need to use flash again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too late for this session though, unfortunately.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-36432823438417152422012-01-23T16:42:00.001+00:002012-01-23T16:43:30.964+00:00Assignment Five related – Reflections on Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize Exhibition<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Last Thursday, I was able to see the Exhibition of the 60 selected images in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, at the National Portrait Gallery - <a href="http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/photoprize/site11/index.php" target="_blank">Link to Taylor Wessing Prize</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Other exhibitions seen last week, as well, and further reflections will follow.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw the same exhibition two years ago and observed that it seemed to be populated, mainly, with Djikstra-esque images of young, sickly-looking East European women – a bit unfair, but with a degree of truth!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was more variety this time, I would say, and I enjoyed it more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was also certainly useful in the context of my Assignment Five brief to produce a series of portraits.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The presentation of the prints is worth mentioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was simple, ‘unobtrusive’ and quite ‘traditional’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Off-white mounts and slim, dark wood frames worked well and tied everything together successfully in an exhibition with 60 different artists.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The outstanding print, for me, was ‘Malega, Surma Boy, Ethiopia, April 2011’ from ‘Faces of Africa’ series by Mario Marino.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I later discovered that it is the front cover of the catalogue, too; though not a prize winner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a beautiful honesty and dignity about the portrait – and indeed, the others in his series, now that I’ve had chance to look further - <a href="http://www.mariomarino.com/" target="_blank">http://www.mariomarino.com/</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I particularly like the superb use of tones and textures – brown skin and a brown wall behind – sounds unexciting but looked really, really, good.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The winner has already had plenty of publicity – like last year, a red-haired girl with an animal, but guinea pig rather than horse!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t especially stand out, for me, but to be fair, it does make great use of the hair colours and there is a tiny ‘punctum’ (!) scratch on her right hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, as acknowledged by the Director of the National Portrait Gallery in his Foreword to the exhibition catalogue: “The question of what makes a great photographic portrait is generally considered to be a subjective matter.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wouldn’t argue with that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Overall, though, what do I take from this exhibition, particularly in light of my Assignment Five work?<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Actually, some encouragement, first of all; I’m capable, I think, of making a decent shot at the portraits I have in mind for the assignment and the sort of subject matter and style that I’m planning could sit perfectly well within this group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just up to me to execute them to a decent standard.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Well over 50% of the 60 exhibited (from 6000+ entrants) are shot with the subject facing the camera and looking into the lens – many in a very simple, standing, frontal pose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That collaborative, aware, posed-but-not-staged look is what I feel most keen on and most comfortable with for the assignment work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I think I’ll stop worrying about trying to do anything too clever or more emotionally-charged/staged and just get on with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Many of the subjects are standing holding something – a concept that links directly to my own proposed approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the winner is a portrait of someone standing, facing the camera, looking into the lens, holding something of significance!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So – glad I found the time to do this and it has encouraged me to follow the direction that seemed right in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just need to get some sessions organised!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve spoken to quite a few potential subjects now, but it all needs organising.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-82933492450914809722011-12-18T12:27:00.001+00:002012-01-02T15:17:41.956+00:00Assignment Five – more background & thinking<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As I said in the last post, the idea for this project came to me some years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coincidentally, about six months ago, there was an article on the Guardian website about a project that Martin Parr had done for Oxfam, which has some similarities with what I have in mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The article is <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2011/may/12/martin-parr-floods#/?picture=374457514&index=0" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Vietnam, he photographed local people with something that they regarded as sufficiently precious to ‘save’ by taking it with them to a higher part of their dwelling when the floods came. This led to a project back in the UK, where he photographed ‘celebrities’ with whatever they would choose to save in the event of a flood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not surprisingly, there are interesting differences between the two groups, with the Vietnamese showing a strong preference for identity cards, school books and means of cooking rice, whereas the Celebrities favour laptops, diaries, sketchbooks and the like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said; paintings, photographs & other images crop up in both groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of course, my interest in the Parr work is less about what it says and more about the way it goes about saying it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The style of the portraits is, on the whole, simple – a basic front on pose, standing, facing the camera, usually holding whatever it is they choose to save.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The faces are unsmiling, quite deadpan, not expressing any obvious emotion, but they work as portraits – as simple expressions of these peoples’ personalities and lives, rather less self-conscious in the case of the celebrities, unsurprisingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Vietnamese images look as though they have mostly been shot in natural light whereas the celebrity shots have the characteristic Parr ‘ring-flash’ look (I think).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very early in this course, I looked at Avedon’s portraits and read about his method.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of the famous image of the young boy with a rattlesnake - <a href="http://www.richardavedon.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=7&p=7&a=0&at=0" target="_blank">here</a> - </span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">the pose is similar but the outcome is something much harder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think I’m in the business of making Avedon-like portraits and the Parr approach is probably a better model for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do, though, want to try and explore the story, the narrative of the emotional link between this person, the object, maybe the place, and certainly the childhood that the object represents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m setting myself a very tough task trying to get all of that into a single portrait – it’s probably impossible, but I feel that it’s worth having a go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is something to learn from stretching oneself and looking at what results.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I have also been looking through some of my books for elements of ‘theory’ that might relate to what I’m doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One piece that certainly struck a note was in ‘Photography: a Critical Introduction’ ed. Liz Wells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Chapter 5 ‘Spectacles and Illusions’, page 221 talks about the ‘Grammar of the Ad’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It refers to Barthes’ ‘denoted’ and ‘connoted’ messages, and the potential significance of the latter in advertising.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My brief, as I have written it for myself, is to produce images that may be used in advertising and, in any case, the notion that there is communication going on at different levels is an interesting one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ‘denoted’ messages, supported by the accompanying text, will be the specific stories of the relationships between these people and their retained objects, but the ‘connoted’ messages, if I do my job effectively, will be to do with the way in which we are all products of our childhood experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Maria Short’s ‘Context and Narrative’ about which I wrote in here a few weeks ago, there is a chapter on ‘Signs and Symbols’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amongst others, it features work by Emma Blaney entitled ‘The Spectre of the Impossible Desire’, in relation to which there is a reference to “... the meaning that is often invested in small everyday objects...” as “... triggers for deeply embedded memories ...”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somewhere in here, I feel, is a theoretical context for the work I want to do in this assignment.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The memory and emotion triggered in the mature adult by the object that they hold, touch or look at, which they also held, touched and looked at when they were a child;<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The presentation of that relationship and its emotional implications in the image;<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The context of the relationship, as presented, which includes:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‘place’; the location or background;<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The style and physical qualities of the image;<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Text which will accompany the image;<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Nature and quality of media;<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Inevitably, the reading of the signs in the image – by the viewer;<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And so, the connoted message(s) about childhood experiences and their relationship with the adults; and, in the context of advertising, the resulting action that the advertiser seeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When I start analysing the possibilities to that degree, I start to find the whole thing somewhat daunting; but I think I need to keep my feet on the ground here and not try to be too ambitious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or at least I need to keep a range of options open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back to the Parr work with Oxfam and its relative simplicity – it will perhaps make sense to take at least one version of each portrait that follows this type of simple approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way, if other experiments fail, I at least have the potential for some consistent and usable images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This also fits with my thinking early on in the course, when I was favouring the contemporary ‘deadpan’ portrait style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best option will be, I think, to try out a few versions of each but to always make sure I have at least one that is – front-facing; looking into camera; unsmiling; deadpan; holding the object; etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trouble is – will that explore the emotional aspects that I’ve listed above?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t going to be easy!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Another angle on what I’m planning in this assignment is the use of text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each image will be accompanied by 50-100 words that encapsulate the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am kind of conscious that this could be interpreted as a ‘cop-out’ – the text doing the work that I should have done in the image!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That shouldn’t be the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The image must contain enough ‘signs’ for the viewer to form a ‘message’ in their mind and to be drawn to read both itself and the text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a whole chapter in Short’s book on the use of text and I also need to look at Barthes’ ‘The Photographic Message’ where he discusses this relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Above all, though, important as it is to consider the theoretical context of the assignment, I want to produce a piece of work, images and text, that I feel enthused by; something that expresses the interest that I feel in exploring this particular subject area; something, also, that picks up on the interest that has come back from the people with whom I have discussed the project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m actually writing this after completing my first session with a subject, though much of what I’ve said above was going around in my mind before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first session has confirmed that getting everything right is going to be a real challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has even made me question my own ability to carry this off at a technical level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I am keen to see this through, so ‘onwards & upwards’ as they say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-66692994658635815372011-12-05T16:01:00.002+00:002012-01-02T15:19:33.374+00:00Assignment Five – the background and the brief<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I have a direction and a brief for my final assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The course brief is open-ended, of course, but essentially boils down to – writing yourself a realistic client brief; completing the brief by producing 8-12 images; submitting with an appraisal/analysis of what you have done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have decided to base it on a photographic project idea that has been in the back of my mind for 2-3 years and which seems to fit very well into this context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The project actually has the potential to go on developing beyond the assignment as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The idea came about when I was studying Introduction to Digital Photography and used part of an old photo of me as a child in the ‘Real or False’ Assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Digging out the old photo, plus some other items from my childhood, led me to think about the type of things we hang onto from our childhood, into adulthood and, sometimes, into later life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do we keep?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does it mean to us and why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does it feel like, for example, to hold an object in your hands that you held when you were, say, five years old – maybe even something you created then?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From those kind of thoughts came the idea of making photographic portraits of people in which they were holding (or interacting in some way with) an item that they still have from when they were a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t done anything about it but when I started out on People & Place and read the open nature of the final assignment, I thought there might be an opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of course, the whole idea of the assignment is that it involves creating and responding to a realistic brief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I have written one – here:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWP6mr7hnaOjYwTtMIj_esD5g1Rdb-pT8KAMp47kX9T_WKTYPZnv5n6v3WxRUnJ_KNDcgGx6A-uK_Q1MdfgEGcTwjaCECjENGknJf1yhuJWdl9kzSk4JKmEONdw2nYnvXywdjB9qYNDU0/s1600/Assignment+Five+Brief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWP6mr7hnaOjYwTtMIj_esD5g1Rdb-pT8KAMp47kX9T_WKTYPZnv5n6v3WxRUnJ_KNDcgGx6A-uK_Q1MdfgEGcTwjaCECjENGknJf1yhuJWdl9kzSk4JKmEONdw2nYnvXywdjB9qYNDU0/s320/Assignment+Five+Brief.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">My tutor has also kindly taken a brief look at it and agrees that it has the potential to fit the bill for this assignment.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I have also given some thought to the theoretical context of the project/assignment, and done some initial research on other comparable photographic work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’ll make that the subject of another blog post.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">My first portrait session is organised, too – for the coming weekend!<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-70716055640485190652011-11-21T16:59:00.001+00:002012-01-02T15:19:59.638+00:00Exhibitions in Bradford<span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I managed, recently, to get back to Bradford again, to take a proper look at the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Donovan Wylie</b> exhibition that I glanced at during the RPS Event a few weeks ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As planned, I was also able to take in the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Daniel Meadows</b> show at the NMM, plus a visit to the Impressions Gallery, where I saw two more exhibitions – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Red Saunders’</b> ‘Hidden’ and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jeremy Deller’s</b> ‘Poking About’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all had impact, in their different ways, and I have been able to take something away from each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having reflected over a few days since the visit, there is a lot I could write up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to try and distil things down into a few bullet points here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll take them in the order that I saw them.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jeremy Deller – ‘Poking About’</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Deller is a conceptual artist and this is his response to, or choices as a result of, being asked to ‘poke about’ in the archives of Bradford Museums’ photographic archives – notably, from my own point of view, a collection of thousands of glass negatives from a Manningham Lane photographic studio that was in business from 1926-75.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It was the ‘social’ aspects of his selections from the latter, especially from portrait photos from the 1950s, which caught my attention and interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was when ‘affluent’ Manningham Lane changed its characteristics significantly as it was populated by the new immigrant arrivals from Asia and the Caribbean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The portraits present a fascinating impression of the new arrivals – dressed to the nines for the recording of images to send back to friends and family (one assumes).<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Often stiff and formal, not much removed from the old-style Victorian portraits with the requisite side table and vase of flowers, they nonetheless present a fascinating narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But of what?<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All these exhibitions were part of Bradford’s recent photographic festival – ‘Ways of Looking: Evidence’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These images present evidence that there was a studio on Manningham Lane, which recorded the major change that its neighbourhood went through in the 1950s – but of what else?<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Apparently the smart suits worn by the men were often loaned by the studio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are several images of racial mix – usually Asian man & white woman – but then you see the same woman, in the same clothes, photographed with two different men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We soon read our own versions of the story into what we look at, but we really have no idea of the ‘truth’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I found this a really thought-provoking presentation, despite its apparent simplicity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another excellent example of an artist using the photographic medium in which, on the one hand we are encouraged to look at the photograph as document, with all its connotations of truth and reality, and yet, on reflection, begin to question the whole foundation of what we’re looking at.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is some form of truth – but about who and what?<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Red Saunders – ‘Hidden’</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Epic-scale prints of ‘supposed’ photographic evidence of significant historical events that have been somewhat ‘hidden’ by the traditional grand narrative of British history, these images are staged reproductions of Saunders’ view of what these events might have looked like, had they been photographed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A few comparisons sprung to mind on viewing this exhibition – advertising posters, especially for epic feature films; the classical tableau paintings; and other modern staged photography, such as Gregory Crewdson and Tom Hunter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m also reminded of other historic paintings I’ve seen recently, such as two images of major historical events in Parliament, which I saw in the National Portrait Gallery.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Very carefully staged and constructed, obviously deliberately presented in massive scale for impact and, maybe, credibility, Saunders works <u>are</u> provocative images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They say, very strongly, look at these events; see them as important aspects of our history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s where the comparison with the two National Portrait Gallery images comes to mind – ‘grand’ paintings that ‘record’ major events in the ‘grand’ narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure this is what Saunders was getting at with these pictures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Unfortunately, I’m not sure, as presented in this exhibition at least, he has carried it off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found them something of a mixed bag in terms of style and presentation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps I’m being over-picky, but two of them (Hilda of Whitby & Mary Wolstencroft) have too much of the ‘modern’ feel about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realise that doesn’t invalidate the approach, might even be deliberate, but the Hilda portrait was, for me, a photograph of a young 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> century woman, dressed up in a 7<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> century outfit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apart from the clothes, nothing seemed to say anything else.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I wasn’t particularly impressed by the quality of some of the large prints either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, reflecting back to comments on the Struth exhibition, I find I am questioning the effectiveness of presenting photographic images on this epic scale (see later comments on Donovan Wylie prints).<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Again, the approach is thought-provoking, but I found myself less convinced of the outcome in this case.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Donovan Wylie – Outposts</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This series, depicting Canadian military forward bases and operational installations in Afghanistan, follows the photographer’s earlier work on the Maze Prison near Belfast and British Army watchtowers in Northern Ireland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The images have a ‘bleached’ look about them – partly reflecting the Afghan landscape, I guess, but also in line with the quite muted colours of the earlier works referred to.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Scale of presentation is big, but smaller than the Struth and the Saunders, and it works – for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m guessing that they were maybe 1mx1.25m, comparable, I’d say, with the Simon Roberts’ ‘We England’ images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps this is the limit of where we should be pushing photographic prints?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It hardly fits with the artists such as Gursky & Struth, and if they can sell their massive prints at the price they do, good luck to them, but this scale works best for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When I looked at this series, I wanted to ‘classify’ it as a typography; but then I also wrote ‘... interesting to see it applied in a documentary context’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I was sensing some difficulty in ‘pigeon-holing’ Wylie’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having followed up the visit with some online research of what he has to say about the pictures, it’s interesting that (in an interview at the NMM, available on u-tube) he uses words like ‘scientific’ and ‘functional’ but then says there is an ‘emotional’ aspect as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interesting also, that the book accompanying the Bradford festival describes him as a ‘picturemaker’ and observes that these ‘visual images’ ‘... resonate enough to inspire ... thought and contemplation ...’ because they engage the viewer visually.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In the video interviews mentioned above, Wylie also talks about his fascination with the way humans control landscape and about ‘vision as a form of control’ – as in the watchtowers and the manner in which the outposts are watching the landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The notions of watching and looking were very much in my mind as I went around the exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wylie is looking at ‘looking’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some views are of the outposts themselves; some are of the view from the outpost; and then we, as viewers of the exhibition, look at both those views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In most of the images, nothing is happening, just lots of watching and looking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wylie says that he felt a real sense of fear – but I’m not sure that comes across in these images.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me it was all about this watchfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It did provoke an idea for me – in many ways totally unrelated to this subject matter, but relating to the idea of looking at ‘looking’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When on holiday in Switzerland last year, I was struck by the way in which, confronted by massive world-famous scenery, most visitors, having travelled from all around the world to see it, took out their camera and, standing in groups, took photographs of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was as though the shared experience was the taking of the photograph not the appreciation of the scenery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Makes me think that there is a project in here – exploring the global concept of ‘looking’ through the camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking Wylie’s approach, the subject matter might be the cameras, as much as the people or the scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a bit of a wild notion – to tuck away for future consideration!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Daniel Meadows – ‘Early Photographic Works’</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I can’t really do full justice to the scope of this exhibition in a simple post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been vaguely aware of Daniel Meadows before the publicity surrounding the show, but known little about him and never really engaged with who he is. But, I really enjoyed what I saw, at all sorts of levels, and have followed up with further investigation of his website <a href="http://www.photobus.co.uk/?id=1">http://www.photobus.co.uk</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Some of the resonance is at a personal level, I suspect – the Lancashire connection; the fact I lived through the 70s, when much of this work was done; the link with Martin Parr, whose work I’ve looked at much more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think there is also the recognition that a lot of the work he and Parr were doing at this stage was at or just beyond undergraduate level – so there is a sort of a learning/experimenting/searching resonance going on as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Particularly enjoyable, and worthy of thought for future work, were his ‘Digital Stories’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking at the website afterwards, I realise that this has been a direction for his work since the 1990s – largely, it seems using still images, but combining them together, with voice, music, text etc to create short (2-5 minute) ‘stories’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Considering that he has been doing this for more than fifteen years, you have to see him as a bit of a pioneer, in the context of the coming together of digital media today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-16562975215779587632011-11-13T15:59:00.000+00:002012-06-03T17:23:56.145+01:00Project 22: Adjusting the balance between person and space<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">These two images were both taken in the same location – Conwy, North Wales – during the summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I must admit that it was Project 21, making figures anonymous, that I had in mind when out with the camera that morning, but I think these two demonstrate the principle of Project 22 more effectively.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5NNE7zrS_5YISFX9nkkVZKz_Yf24B7BKOueB_xWZ5DmIX1449cJZiHpYzYiUkEpTExkaBRAyDWwCxHqgPXG2LxyF66W5T_27i3OZQaxRLkm6EwTndR2_7lzYGz1EiydWNBf1R757O40/s1600/Project+22-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5NNE7zrS_5YISFX9nkkVZKz_Yf24B7BKOueB_xWZ5DmIX1449cJZiHpYzYiUkEpTExkaBRAyDWwCxHqgPXG2LxyF66W5T_27i3OZQaxRLkm6EwTndR2_7lzYGz1EiydWNBf1R757O40/s320/Project+22-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The first is very definitely the picture postcard image of a row of Welsh cottages adjacent to the ‘smallest house in Britain’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Hinde would have been proud of me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a figure in the frame – walking into it and providing some scale – but it is essentially an image about place.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhBM1yoFfK6rxHygw1BUglq69UYbFdBoJwXKMf0bNYO8qd8xPUKmZieX43-e0VmVf3jms8YJ0I0I77LJA1pqK6k-1OhZBk_ILR5Pg-EXuNt-GUKtCMFhME9ykTnxhfRoJkbVjHD_K1nA/s1600/Project+22-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhBM1yoFfK6rxHygw1BUglq69UYbFdBoJwXKMf0bNYO8qd8xPUKmZieX43-e0VmVf3jms8YJ0I0I77LJA1pqK6k-1OhZBk_ILR5Pg-EXuNt-GUKtCMFhME9ykTnxhfRoJkbVjHD_K1nA/s320/Project+22-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In the second, the emphasis has changed quite dramatically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The figure is in the foreground and therefore takes up more of the frame; the cottages are slightly out of focus; and the figure is doing something, namely speaking on a mobile phone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The combination of the silver hair and the modern gadget adds another slight twist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This second image is, I would suggest, much more about narrative and provokes much more questioning for the viewer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be an unlikely image for a John Hinde postcard!<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-3758930745984552132011-11-13T15:02:00.000+00:002012-06-03T17:23:56.147+01:00Project 23: Selective processing and prominence<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Another piece of catching up that I need to do – completing and writing up some of the projects from Section 4 of the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One or two of them still some photographs taking, some like this one just need processing and writing up.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This project says produce two versions of the same image but use selective processing to alter the balance and prominence between a figure and its surroundings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have chosen this image that I took a few weeks ago in the new Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A single figure is standing beside a selection of Barbara Hepworth pieces, though at the same time seeming to ignore them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m actually going to show four different versions and the first version is a relatively ‘neutral’ one, more or less ‘as shot’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0ftLG5j2CLi1JaqBJ8DVLNHURkyhCCc3RhIhBRu7yJdVReSjY3OqHdFbQplOptim4NqO-AQdSZ7-7Oq4AAAQV4ZPoqaAYvPVYwxEhLx2Y08ZoxVNI-wBG5kwkBtNwhy4tEOk0eoD6dc/s1600/Project+23-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO0ftLG5j2CLi1JaqBJ8DVLNHURkyhCCc3RhIhBRu7yJdVReSjY3OqHdFbQplOptim4NqO-AQdSZ7-7Oq4AAAQV4ZPoqaAYvPVYwxEhLx2Y08ZoxVNI-wBG5kwkBtNwhy4tEOk0eoD6dc/s320/Project+23-1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Certainly the pieces of sculpture dominate the frame, but the figure of the man could be said to be more or less ‘in balance’ with the piece next to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the version below, the figure has been lightened significantly and becomes much more noticeable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the first image might be a, illustration from a magazine article about the gallery or about Barbara Hepworth, one kind of feels that, in the second, the man is the curator, or the gallery manager or the architect, or some such.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoGh-MM-4AYHG2ahkn0raa0RipL_E0PqgHGlr5jNINXwDGqfTFnipmo0k9VlzC5GVDmbMOuRofxoVyLTk9xFsjeD2MjxksoPCfam-6CznCAY2-y-g_ToOfGzqjEIELvR6mRzqTCUUACec/s1600/Project+23-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoGh-MM-4AYHG2ahkn0raa0RipL_E0PqgHGlr5jNINXwDGqfTFnipmo0k9VlzC5GVDmbMOuRofxoVyLTk9xFsjeD2MjxksoPCfam-6CznCAY2-y-g_ToOfGzqjEIELvR6mRzqTCUUACec/s320/Project+23-2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Taking the principle and reversing it, we have the version below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The background remains the same in all three of these versions but in the third the figure has been darkened, shifting the emphasis entirely towards the art works. With the man offering little other than a sense of scale.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFAJWVarqEFLmqIjh1mjErbCLvGdMuzMdUKvjbQDRbS1QWzXask3hZKjj0bcaxSYJAwszgQh73AWDyoT2AF2mekNr7_UIXE7e6qZU69aiKqa4IWeX3OmapU-u7oCHr5zPdMC19il0XlQ/s1600/Project+23-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFAJWVarqEFLmqIjh1mjErbCLvGdMuzMdUKvjbQDRbS1QWzXask3hZKjj0bcaxSYJAwszgQh73AWDyoT2AF2mekNr7_UIXE7e6qZU69aiKqa4IWeX3OmapU-u7oCHr5zPdMC19il0XlQ/s320/Project+23-3.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I did also try pushing the balance further, about as far as I could – by darkening the background <u>and</u> lightening the figure, with the following outcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRR_t-Ngp7Ne4ZS4AOIQij-hLqIL5_iTpsVOeJ6U3uTZfmvt3Mt43UhKLFv8jPsUTokOgTNIDkkLMcIs6TayNJhNGBDLZgZGQbXqvsibJtjJG4IBBwDuShRgPCZALjwI_XwDLAIG2i4G4/s1600/Project+23-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRR_t-Ngp7Ne4ZS4AOIQij-hLqIL5_iTpsVOeJ6U3uTZfmvt3Mt43UhKLFv8jPsUTokOgTNIDkkLMcIs6TayNJhNGBDLZgZGQbXqvsibJtjJG4IBBwDuShRgPCZALjwI_XwDLAIG2i4G4/s320/Project+23-4.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Pushing the relative balance much further than this begins to produce a surreal effect .<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-84057667441965959942011-11-10T17:34:00.001+00:002012-01-02T15:20:20.865+00:00Some Recent Reading<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It has been a while since I recorded any reflections on my reading in here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t that I havn’t been doing any – just that I havn’t got round to writing up.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A good place to start would be <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘Context & Narrative’ by Maria Short</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book was originally recommended by Photography course leader, Jose, on the WeAreOCA blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bought it immediately and have actually read it twice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a book that has the feel of quality about it – well produced, nicely printed (though many of the images are on the small side) and with a good tactile sensation to it (always an important starting point for me when it comes to books!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whilst the title might be taken to imply a specialised volume, it is actually quite wide ranging and covers a lot of ground without ever going into a huge amount of depth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After two readings, my overall reaction is a positive one, but with a few ‘mixed’ feelings.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The book is structured in short sections, with relatively sparse text but lots of examples and case studies – from photographers at all sorts of ‘levels’, students, professionals, well-known names’ and some less well-known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I say, it covers a lot of ground and is highly relevant to so many aspects of a degree in photography as a creative art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite the lack of depth, there are so many visual examples that it encourages you to think about the topics in a practical, applied, non-theoretical manner (even though it doesn’t shy away from the theoretical topics).<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I would see it as a resource that one could go to frequently, dipping in for ideas and inspiration, but certainly not using it as an in-depth study for a critical review, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m glad I’ve read it twice, to know my way around it, but I don’t think it is an easy book to ‘read’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t that the concepts are especially difficult; it’s more because it doesn’t develop ideas, rather prompting & then illustrating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall – a good book, a quality publication, and I’m glad I’ve got it; not sure that I have <u>learned</u> a huge amount from it, but useful to go back to, and has the kind of easy reference style that makes it easy to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Some other recent purchases/reads have been designed to try and develop my knowledge and understanding of critical theory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I won’t be doing the OCA ‘Understanding Visual Culture’ course, but I’d like to improve my awareness of the theoretical background to some degree, at least.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To that end, I’ve recently looked at three very different books.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Basic Critical Theory for Photographers’</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> by Ashley Grange – The title gives a very clear indication as to why I bought it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having read a three or four chapters (Berger, Szarkowsi, Sontag & Barthes), I put it down because I was disappointed by it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve already read the work of three of these four and was hoping for some clarity from this book, some pulling together of the ideas into a sort of summary, but I didn’t feel I was getting that. It does supply and kind of synopsis of each, and it may be that I need to look at it again, but I felt that it read a bit like the notes that one might make from reading, say, Sontag’s ‘On Photography’, rather than something the clarifies and explains her thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does have practical suggestions for further discussion, and so it might work better as a resource for classroom work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll go back to it – but disappointing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">‘After Theory’ </span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">by Terry Eagleton – This one came up from a recommendation, again, having been referred to by another OCA course leader, PeterH. I’ve skim read it once and am now looking at it again – so this will be a brief comment that I might pick up again later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eagleton is more of a literary specialist, of course, but the background on cultural critical theory is perfectly relevant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More to the point, here is an academic who can write in an authoritative, wide-ranging, but at the same time engaging, and even funny, style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a relatively small book, but the first three chapters give the kind of overview of the development of cultural theory, leading to the postmodern, that is definitely lacking from the Ashley Grange book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fundamentally, he is exploring where the cultural critical studies will go after postmodernism; and I have to say that I don’t feel entirely comfortable with his catholic/Marxist dimension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, this is a genuinely readable and highly thought-provoking book, which is probably doing more than any other has to help me engage with what cultural critical theory is about.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And then, from the sublime to the ridiculous – and I am probably doing myself no favours by admitting to buying and reading this book – there is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘Critical Theory – A Graphic Guide’</b> by Stuart Sim & Borin Van Loon, which I bought in the bookshop at the Whitechapel Gallery when I attended the Struth exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t seen this series of books before, but there are ‘Graphic Guides’ to all manner of ‘difficult’ theoretical areas, including several of the key ‘players’ in the field of critical theory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may find that I pick up, for example, Barthes, Postmodernism, Foucault, Heidegger – to name just a few of the many volumes available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, yes, as the title suggests, this one does Critical Theory in pictures – cartoon-style – with short pieces of supporting text and even ‘mock’ dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, it isn’t an academic book and I’m not going to suggest that it is a great source of wisdom, but as a rapid overview of the origins and development of critical theory, from Marxism to, for example, Black Feminism, and as a very quick reference guide to how they relate to each other and who is who, it is superb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There, I’ve admitted it, I did buy and read this book!<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-74223617011406021152011-11-01T16:11:00.001+00:002012-01-02T15:20:40.226+00:00Assignment Four – Feedback<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I have now had the feedback from my tutor on Assignment Four and had the opportunity for some further dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall, the feeling is that I have done a solid job; planned well; met the brief; and produced a ‘good variety of thoughtful images’ that would ‘provide a good mix of illustrations for the magazine article’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">He commented, understandably, that whilst I had said that the town and the images have a ‘real mix of people’, the reality is very ‘white’ with few if any ethnic minorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a true representation of Holmfirth, on the whole, and my ‘real mix’ was more to do with the fact that there are still families around who have been farming the valley for hundreds of years, alongside others associated with the mills of the industrial revolution, combined with everything else up to today’s professional commuters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what the feedback does quite rightly demonstrate is that the perception of one’s images lies, ultimately, with the audience; and unless there is accompanying text to provide context or explanation, that audience will always read the images from their standpoint and their experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">There were specific comments on individual images but also a suggestion that I might have one too many views of the stone houses – perhaps Image 11 could be replaced with something that added a further dimension such as the cinema or the water that I referred to in my notes, or maybe a night time image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that is useful feedback and it is something I will give further thought to before my assessment submission.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The other significant overall comment, which I had picked up myself in my notes regarding ‘lack of emotion’, was that I didn’t seem to be expressing a point of view or making a particular statement about Holmfirth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be fair, I don’t think I set out to express a viewpoint, preferring (in the context of a magazine article) to reflect, without comment, and to document what I analysed to be the characteristics of the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point to learn from this, of course, is that such an approach should produce a competent and thorough outcome for a brief such as this one, but it won’t necessarily result in a set of images that make an impact on the viewer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I’ve been discussing Assignment Five with my tutor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More in here later, but I hope that I am homing in on an idea that could have more of an emotional content that will contrast with and complement the more structured and shall we say detached/rational approach of the last two assignments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-48289685977109374282011-10-31T21:02:00.001+00:002012-01-02T15:21:04.267+00:00“Photography & the City” – RPS Event at NMM<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On Saturday, I attended a Royal Photographic Society organised event at the National Media Museum, entitled “Photography & the City”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fellow OCA student, Rob, was also there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were four speakers through the day:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ian Beesley</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> – Social documentary photographer and course leader on the MA in Photography at the University of Bolton;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Roger Hargreaves</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> – photography writer & curator;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">John Davies</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> – contemporary documentary photographer;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Colin Harding</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> – Curator of Photographic Technology at the NMM.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ian Beesley</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> presented images that he has shot in Bradford from late 70s to today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were almost exclusively black and white and mainly of architecture or urban detail; though there were some portraits or groups, mainly shot in a deadpan, posed manner in front of buildings, and at least one shot of children playing in the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have included a link here to some of his images but there seems to be nothing on the web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these photographs had been made in the late 70s and early 80s, when Beesley was in his late twenties or early thirties, and he said in his presentation that looking back at them made him realise that they had been about recreating his past, revisiting his childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was born in Bradford and grew up there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The images were mainly high contrast, quite grainy, reflecting a gritty documentary style – he acknowledged Bill Brandt as an influence, including quoting him as having said that ‘photography is not a sport; there are no rules, I can do what I want’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A confident and entertaining presenter, he adorned his images with some enjoyable tales of their creation and of the characters who peopled the Bradford of his youth – not least the fight between two blind piano players in a pub car park!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, there was some content that I found useful and informative – not least the images themselves, which reminded me also of the early Don McCullen photographs of Finsbury Park, London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those were earlier than Beesley’s, and showed bombed out streets peopled by gangs and down-and-outs rather than demolished mills and streets where only the pub or fish shop had been left standing – but they had some common ground, and not just the high contrast grainy black & white presentation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">He said that he sees that he has been photographing change, and he had even been back to some of the locations specifically for this presentation, to try and photograph what, if anything remained from his images of thirty years before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In most cases, the answer was nothing, and he had even struggled to identify the exact location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he was trying to avoid suggesting that the changes hadn’t been for the better, but that feeling did come through anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reflecting again on the style of the images, the grainy black and white, which he also used for the updated ‘today’ images, I find that I cannot avoid reading them as nostalgic and, as Beesley himself said, seeking to recreate and revisit the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if all these images had been in colour?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which they clearly could have been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How would the narrative have looked then?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">John Davies</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, with an international reputation (<a href="http://www.johndavies.uk.com/">http://www.johndavies.uk.com/</a>) had a high level of credibility, for me, not least because I have already looked at some of his work during my Landscape course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, he struggled a little as a presenter and, at times, seemed to find it difficult to talk expressively about his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was interesting to note that he identified his early direction and inspiration as surrealism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He suggested that photography was more effective that painting in expressing a surreal aesthetic because of its connotations of reality, which gives it a strong potential to undermine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His early work was chiefly landscape in the more rural and traditional sense ‘tackling’ a scene from a high vantage point, looking down and exploring the topography, using changes in weather and light quality; but he then went on to ‘look at cities’ through their industries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw many of his characteristic high detail city landscapes, often exploring particularly ‘quirky’ architectural aspects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said that he often finds it difficult to explain why a particular location appeals to him, but he just sees some conflict, some edge, which ‘creates a sense of meaning’ for him – back to the surrealism and making people question the world and the tradition around them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When talking about <a href="http://www.johndavies.uk.com/mersey.htm">this image</a> of Ladbroke Grove, London, taken in 1985, he noted the queue of people at the phone box, and then remarked that he is sometimes surprised to realise that his photographs have become historical documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s an interesting one; his website describes him as a <u>contemporary</u> documentary photographer, so I interpret the remark to mean that the images are made now, for now, to reflect the particular conflict or edge that he has seen and to encourage the viewer to see today differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>25 years on, inevitably, some aspects of that edginess look dated.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was particularly interested in something he had to say about his creative process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was said in the context of a current or planned project about Britain as a warmongering nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said that he begins with a concept, with something to say, and then looks for strong graphic images that demonstrate that concept or message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, he was referring to his personal work rather than his commissioned work (I think), and he is well enough established to be able to take that approach, but I think that is something which could usefully inform my own work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My images of Holmfirth in Assignment Four, were made to a plan, to a brief, but not in relation to any overarching concept or message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I said in my previous post, and as will be clear when I write up my tutor feedback, the resulting series does its job and satisfies the brief, but it doesn’t have much emotion or obvious message in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The other two presentations comprised an examination of Trafalgar Square as a recurring photographic subject and location, from a very early daguerretype from before Nelson’s Column was built to mobile phone images of today; and an illustration & description of the work of the street ‘smudgers’ (‘stop me and have one taken’ photographers)..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of passing interest, there wasn’t too much in either to inform one’s image making, but I did reflect on the comparison between the ‘unchanging architectural backdrop’ of Trafalgar Square and the very definitely ‘changing architectural backdrop’ of Beesley’s picture of Bradford.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A useful day; good to have the opportunity to talk with a fellow student again as well; and I got the chance for a very quick look at the Donovan Wylie exhibition at the NMM, which I want to back to in the next few weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3645927653901145990.post-58150486573583632662011-10-12T16:51:00.001+01:002012-01-02T15:21:21.363+00:00Assignment 4 - SubmissionHaving made the final selection of twelve images, they have now gone off to my tutor, with accompanying notes. The twelve are as follows & then I have included my 'Summary & Assessment', which went with the detailed notes in the submission.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">My twelve images do, I believe, fulfil the brief, with enough range and variety to show the character of Holmfirth & its people and sufficient scope for a selection of twelve images to illustrate an ‘intelligent, thoughtful’ article in a travel magazine.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">There is variety in terms of subject, scale and type.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think there might, on reflection, have been more ‘detail’ type images but, as indicated in the notes, some do offer scope for cropping.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">There is, I think, a good range of signs and indicators as to the nature of Holmfirth & the people that one encounters – not a comprehensive range necessarily, but then that would be very difficult to achieve in any circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Some of the characteristics I came up with in my planning, those that I particularly wanted to demonstrate, were rugged, busy, rather quirky, complicated, quite eclectic; and my images have a sort of ‘no frills’ feel about them, which fits with those characteristics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My meaning here is that they don’t show a great deal of creativity in, for example, use of focus and focal length, camera angle, etc but this, for me, is a natural reaction to a rugged, no-nonsense, Pennine town.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Despite the variety of subject and style, I feel that they hang together successfully, and it is possibly the common theme of stone and stone buildings that supplies a visual link throughout.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">If there is one characteristic from my list above that could perhaps have been illustrated more effectively it would be the ‘busy’ nature of Holmfirth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is there, in one or two, but there might have been ‘people on the move’ type images that would have given another dimension.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">There are some aspects of the town that have not been illustrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Holmfirth has a historic link with cinema – both production and showing – which doesn’t appear; but I think a more important one is the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Water has been significant as a driver of the industrial revolution, as a source of destruction & death (three floods), and as a characteristic of the towns visual attraction today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Water appears in one image, but there might have been more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">One positive worth mentioning is that people appear in nine of the twelve images selected, which is genuine progress for me and a direct reflection of the way my photography has developed during this course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I have already referred to the specific progress in creating arranged, posed portraits.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I wonder whether a picture editor would feel that there were enough eye-catching images; maybe the choice of ‘openers’ is limited to just two or three – perhaps relates to my comment above about use of creative techniques.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">In reflecting on the series, I find myself making a comparison with some work that has featured a few times in my blog discussions – the ‘From Back Home’ works of Anders Petersen & J H Engstrom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My blog of 23<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> March 2011 contains some thoughts on this work and the reason I mention it here is that the series is all about a ‘place’ that is familiar to both of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In their case, they were producing a personal piece of work, reflecting an emotional expression of the part of Sweden in which they both grew up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The key word I want to bring up is in that sentence – ‘emotional’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think there is much sign of an emotional response in my images of Holmfirth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The series reflects more of an objective, stand back and observe attitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, perhaps, appropriate for a magazine article, but could be a legitimate criticism of the series from an aesthetic or creative viewpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a general observation, and one I have made elsewhere, I think ‘emotion’ is often lacking in the work I produce – something to be aware of and to reflect on again.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">This has been an interesting and useful exercise in which I think that I have successfully planned my approach around a brief; effectively moved forward in terms of my photography of people, including people aware and involved with the process; implemented the planning quite successfully; and produced a competent and workable set of images in the context of the assignment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>stanOCAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05515635092194160913noreply@blogger.com0