Some final thoughts

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.  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.  However, there are areas worthy of a bit more discussion and thought.

·         The first says ‘Use technical and interpersonal skills to capture images which reflect your ideas’.  I would particularly like to home in on the ‘... and interpersonal skills ...’ aspect.  I’m sure that this is primarily about the photographing of strangers or relative strangers, with their knowledge, agreement and involvement.  I’ve certainly done that – especially in the final two assignments.  I have done it and, I think, had satisfactory outcomes from it.  But it is only a start.  I’ve drawn comparisons a few times between making portraits and conducting interviews.  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.  I would, perhaps, be critical of myself for not making better use of that skill in Assignment Five.

·         The second learning outcome is to ‘Demonstrate the importance of note taking, research, ideas and concepts to the process of developing a story’.  In the course of studying this module, I have certainly done quite a bit of researching & planning – maybe a bit too much at times.  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.  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.

·         And then we come to ‘Demonstrate a good level of ability in the effective selection and editing of images to achieve objectives’.  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).  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.  I’m not sure I’ve quite worked out how to resolve that, yet.

·         Finally, there is ‘Show that you can reflect perceptively on your learning experience’ and I have to say that I think I’ve done plenty of that, too.  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.  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!

And that almost brings me to the end; but not quite.  Putting things together for assessment has led me to think about one or two other aspects of my approach.

This is a familiar sight to OCA students – and probably to tutors/assessors, too.

This notebook is where most of my thoughts, ideas, plans, reflections etc have started out whilst studying this module.  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.  Now, I’m not sure that I work that way.  I sit down and scribble notes ... and the ideas get developed that way.

And this is about as ‘visual’ as my own approach gets, judging by my final notebook.

Is that bad/wrong?  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?  I know that I ‘soak up' everything that I see – in magazines, on the Internet, at exhibitions.  But ought I to do more cutting and sticking?  I certainly don’t want or intend to do it because it’s what seems to be catching the eye of the assessors.  This process has to be about what works positively in my own creative activity.  But it has set me thinking about a very, very fundamental principle.  I think in words not images.  Right now, after 62 years, that’s where I am.  But should the development of an effective creative process be encouraging me to change?  That’s a tough one and I don’t know the answer.

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.  There are three main reasons.

·         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.

·         Photographing people involves more organisation and diary planning around availability; and that has certainly contributed.

·         But I also think that it is a reflection of my own wish to be serious about what I’m doing.  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.  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.

And then one last thought of all; this module has, without a doubt, given me the confidence to make images of people.  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.  Time will tell!

Assignment Five – Two comparisons found recently

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.

The first arose when I received my copy of ‘Behind the Image’ by Anna Fox & Natasha Caruana, 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 Karen Knorr image – ‘Those who fear ...’ from the ‘Gentlemen’ series, made in the 80s.  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.  A bit of internet research revealed that she had produced two other series, ‘Belgravia’ and ‘Country Life’, both of which are made up of images in a similar format.  This is a link to the ‘Belgravia’ series - 'Belgravia' - Karen Knorr.  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’.  She says:

“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.  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.”

Karen Knorr, in notes accompanying her series ‘Belgravia’,

I wish I’d read that before or during the work I was doing.  It both informs and articulates what I have been attempting to do with the image/text combination.  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.”  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.  I certainly like the principle.

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^th May 2012.  This is Galimberti’s website - Gabriele Galimberti – and this is the series that was featured - Toy Stories.  The series shows children from all over the world, photographed with their toys.  The accompanying notes on the site say “Who doesn’t remember a favourite childhood toy?” – and there is the obvious comparison to my own images of mature adults with items, often toys, that they still retain from their childhood.  The notes are written by Arianna Rinaldo, and she goes on to say of one’s favourite toy – “The one that sometime, dozens of years later, we find at the bottom of the closet.  And we let a tear drop.”  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.

I am a little puzzled by one aspect of Galimberti’s work.  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.  It would be hard not to when photographing young children, of course.  But it seems that he seeks to organise the ‘set’ into what are perhaps best described as ‘formal’ patterns.  This one of a boy with his Lego is a good example - example.  The formality of that presentation seems to be more about the photographer than about boy, which puzzles me, as I say.  Would Niko, aged 5, choose to lay out his Lego in that way?  And what does the portrait tell us if that order and formality is, presumably, being imposed on him and his favourite toy?  I’m not sure.  Still, an interesting series and it makes for a useful comparison to the work that I have been doing for Assignment Five.

Assignment Five: Some post-feedback reflections & the final images

This assignment has, as mentioned above, been to my tutor and I’ve had his feedback & made a few amendments as a result.  This note is to pull together my experience and record some reflections.

·         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.

·         There were some comments and questions for consideration.

§  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.  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.  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.  The question of ‘the pose’ is a complex one, of course.  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.  Why would they be doing that with these objects in their hands?  Creating a sort of ‘narrative’ was one option that I considered – have them pose as if preoccupied with the object in some way.  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.  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.

§  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.  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.  I think that the truth is that it might indeed have that effect.  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.  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.

§  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.

§  My tutor agreed that the landscape format works better than the portrait format, with text below the image.  Consequently, I have changed them all to that arrangement.  I think it evens the balance between the image and the text.  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.  I have also looked at the font and its size.  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.

The final versions are here.



·         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.  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.  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.  Clearly, in a true commercial assignment, one might be using medium format or some other higher resolution equipment.

So, looking back, what have I got out of this assignment?

·         A much better understanding of, and confidence with, some basic principles in makig portrait images with photography;

·         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;

·         A starting point for something that I can continue to explore;

·         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.)

·         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.

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.  Certainly the first assignment of my new module, Progressing with Digital Photography - here – has no people in it at all!  So, maybe not!  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.

Now – there’s an outcome from this module!  I would never have said that eighteen months ago when I started out!

Musing on a da Vinci – several in fact

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.  It was indeed so, with most of his surviving paintings together in one place for, probably, the first time and, probably, the last.  So, by definition, by reputation, by the word of the press, this was always going to be a significant event.  People are going to say ...

“I remember when I stood in front of the ...”

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.  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).  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.  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).  There was a definite sense of personality, the subject as a real, living, breathing, speaking, thinking natural human being.

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.  We also stood in front of several others – the ‘Madonna Litta’, the two ‘Virgin of the Rocks’, and so on.  But it was the renewal of acquaintance with ‘The Musician’, and the thoughts which followed, that had the most impact.

It is an object, in the end.  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.  But it is a unique physical object, empowered by what I and others make of it.  Leonardo stood and looked at it with his own eyes, more than 500 years ago.  He didn’t look and say ‘it’s finished’, because it isn’t – hence the slight sense of inconsistency across its surface.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t look at it and say ‘that’ll do’ either!!!  But he did look at it with his own eyes – and now I’m looking at it with mine.  It won’t look exactly the same but it won’t look dramatically different.  He applied his brush to this surface at which I am looking.  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.  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.  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.

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.  It is much reproduced but remains utterly unique.  Compare that to the digital portraits I will make for Assignment Five!

Assignment Five related – Reflections on Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize Exhibition

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 - Link to Taylor Wessing Prize.  (Other exhibitions seen last week, as well, and further reflections will follow.)  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!  There was more variety this time, I would say, and I enjoyed it more.  It was also certainly useful in the context of my Assignment Five brief to produce a series of portraits.

The presentation of the prints is worth mentioning.  It was simple, ‘unobtrusive’ and quite ‘traditional’.  Off-white mounts and slim, dark wood frames worked well and tied everything together successfully in an exhibition with 60 different artists.

The outstanding print, for me, was ‘Malega, Surma Boy, Ethiopia, April 2011’ from ‘Faces of Africa’ series by Mario Marino.  I later discovered that it is the front cover of the catalogue, too; though not a prize winner.  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 - http://www.mariomarino.com/.  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.

The winner has already had plenty of publicity – like last year, a red-haired girl with an animal, but guinea pig rather than horse!  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.  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.”  I wouldn’t argue with that.

Overall, though, what do I take from this exhibition, particularly in light of my Assignment Five work?

·         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.  It’s just up to me to execute them to a decent standard.

·         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.  That collaborative, aware, posed-but-not-staged look is what I feel most keen on and most comfortable with for the assignment work.  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.

·         Many of the subjects are standing holding something – a concept that links directly to my own proposed approach.  Indeed, the winner is a portrait of someone standing, facing the camera, looking into the lens, holding something of significance!

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.  Just need to get some sessions organised!  I’ve spoken to quite a few potential subjects now, but it all needs organising.

A long gap!

No posts for more than a month – it feels quite difficult to pick up the threads after such a long gap.  A brief explanation might be a good place to start.  A holiday in France takes up some of the time – and that has also provided some opportunity for reflection (which will emerge through later comments and imminent project/assignment write-ups) as well as supplying photographic opportunities, both for this course and for pleasure.  The OCA Student Association Presidential Election has also intervened – and my election to the role has resulted in some immediate work since I returned from holiday.  The day job has needed some attention, with a few business issues around.  So, those are the ‘excuses’!

Actually, though, there has been something else going on, and I wrote these reflections in the notebook that I have kept alongside this blog for the People & Place course.  I have transcribed it more or less exactly as I wrote on the morning of 9^th June, staying in a house in Carcassonne, SW France.

“Just before I left for France on 31/05/11, I reached a conclusion that, try as I might, some of the images for Assignment 3, particularly those of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park Visitor Centre, are simply not good enough.  OK, the assignment hasn’t inspired me etc, etc, but the noisy, underexposed and repetitive images for that site just aren’t good enough.

“Alongside (or maybe because of) that, I’ve been having one of those crises that I now understand dog the world of creative arts.  It has been present during the first half of my holiday.  How do I take photographs of this holiday?  The ‘OCA student’ wants to have meaning and purpose in what I do ... the ‘budding artist’ wants to find feeling and emotion ... but the ‘tourist’ wants to record what he sees ... and the ‘partner’ wants to take back what he knows might ultimately please his fellow traveller.  Out of all of that, and the Assignment 3 work, comes the big question(s) – the dog!  What am I doing? Do I have anything to say? Do I ever have any emotional reactions to anything? Am I worthy? ... and so on.

“There was some related discussion on the OCA Flickr forum – emanating from a question about the Landscape course.  Two or three things emerge:-

·         Eileen posts a link to the work of David Moore & comments that he creates ‘a real sense of place’.  That phrase makes me follow the link, and I find images of rooms ... but focused on detail, incomplete images that leave a sense of what is happening outside the frame ... but with (for me) real aesthetic quality in the graphical structures and the use of colour.

·         I am reminded of my earlier research of magazine images of spaces and places, which use the same ‘partial’ presentation device.  But I am also reminded of images that I have made myself, in the past – a venetian blind & its shadows in Honfleur, some steps in Spain, a tree and a door in Niguelas.

·         Then Clive W pops up in the Flickr forum discussion and says – don’t go looking for emotion, and don’t expect ‘Wuthering Heights’ .. but try and let it come to you.

“And now, maybe, I can see a way forward.  We visited Abbaye St. Hilaire yesterday – a 13^th-14^th century abbey in L’Aude, famed for its cloisters and for the fact that its monks invented sparkling wine (before Champagne)!  Doing the tourist bit, with 18-200mm lens loaded, feeling frustrated because I know I’m not creating images that mean anything to me, I switch to an 85mm prime lens and begin looking for detail, for ‘partial’ or ‘partially complete’ images that are visually attractive, graphically interesting, but also convey ‘place’ ... and now, just maybe, there are some creative juices flowing again!!!”

These are a few of the photographs that I took that day.  I don’t pretend they are anything so very special, but they made me feel better!

The “Big Issue” Issue

Last Wednesday, I received an e-mail from OCA Photography Course Leader, Jose Navarro, asking me if I would like to be the second OCA student to take part in a collaboration with ‘Big Issue in the North’.  Not fully aware of the requirements, I nonetheless said ‘Yes’, and Jose said he would send me further details in another e-mail, which I received later in the day.  The opportunity to have one of my images published in this magazine – bigissueinthenorth – felt genuinely exciting.  I have never had anything published anywhere before and, as I travelled to a business meeting that day, I was pondering which of my images might fit the bill – something from the recent street work, perhaps?

To be honest, Jose’s second e-mail caused me some trepidation.  It spelled out the brief, which was to supply 10-20 images, by Monday, on ‘one or several topics relevant to this week’.  There was more detail and supportive advice, but it was the thought of producing 10-20 topical images that alarmed me.  I certainly interpreted it as meaning new images – how else would they be topical, unless I was very lucky – and time was limited (not least because I had family commitments for most of the weekend).  The opportunity was too good to miss, though, and I’d said ‘Yes’, plus there is nothing like taking on a challenge!

On Wednesday night, I did some research, some thinking, and some consultation with family & friends.  The nearest I got to anything specific happening that I could go and photograph was a ‘Green Fest’ in Huddersfield, but it sounded as though I might already have missed the opportunity.  However, I decided that I would pursue it in the town next morning.  I woke early, still concerned as to what I had let myself in for, and whether I could deliver.  I had an idea for an image on the subject of ‘sales collapsing in the High Street’/’recession in a Northern town’/’the reputation of the banks’ – nothing fancy, but I thought there must be somewhere that I could get a shot of a bank reflected in the window of a closed High Street shop (Yes, sounds like a cliché, but I needed to start somewhere!).

My supposition about the ‘Green Fest’ turned out to be correct – no sign of anything – but I did get my shot of the bank in a shop window, plus a few other possibilities.  I began to home in on the idea of ‘Two sides of the story’ – finding other ‘recession-related’ images that showed winning and losing/ups and downs.  I didn’t have a lot of time that morning, but felt that I might not have made a bad start with these.

There were no ‘stars’ but I resolved to keep going on this idea.  I went back to Huddersfield for two more short visits and one longer one, fitting them between business and family commitments.  I knew, by the time I completed the last of these sessions, on Monday lunchtime, that it didn’t feel to have gone well.  I couldn’t honestly say that I had one image with which I felt confident.  I probably had almost 20 that I could have put together as a sequence, and which would have provided a good narrative – in a magazine article, on a wall, in a book – but this was about producing one ‘stand out’ image.  On top of that, when I did the rounds of internet sites that afternoon, the publicity was out on the first OCA submission for this collaboration – here – and it was clear that there had been a very different approach with Ben’s image.  It is a carefully thought through assignment image, well-constructed, well-lit, and a credit to his creativity, which has been captioned to give it topical reference.  I, on the other hand, had been looking for visually interesting, well-observed street shots.  Nothing wrong with that in principle, of course, except that I hadn't found many and didn’t feel confident about the outcome!

Unfortunately, with a deadline to meet, I didn’t have any alternative.  I captioned a selection of the images as best I could, and sent them off to Jose – the five above plus the seven below.  I have not included the captions and titles, for the sake of brevity.  I did also express my concerns in an e-mail to Jose, of course.

The eventual decision, in an e-mail this morning, is to select the second of the first batch of five above – ‘Destiny and Revival’ as I had titled it.  Its topicality will be improved by producing a caption that links it specifically to news of struggling High Street sales, and it will be cropped, as below.  This is partly to focus the message and also to make its proportions more suitable for publication (though the original image, before I tightened the crop myself, might have overcome that anyway).

So, I will have one of my pictures published in ‘Big Issue in the North’ next week commencing 11^th April.  How do I feel?  In truth, (and there is little point completing a learning blog unless it contains the truth!) disappointed.  Why?  I don’t feel it does justice to me, OCA, and my fellow students.  It’s a photo of a shop front!!  OK, I know that it has an eye-catching quality and I know that it probably works, and I’m going to reflect on the 'how and why' of that in a moment – but, in the end, it’s a photo of a shop front!  I spent quite some time agonising over how I would deal with this challenge, and quite a lot of time pounding the streets of Huddersfield in the last few days taking all sorts of images, and the outcome is a photo of a shop front!

Right, I’ve got that off my chest, now to look at the learning aspects and to draw some positives from the experience.

·         The reason that this image can, potentially, work in the magazine is that it has a strong, clear message that is bound up in the unfortunate name of the shop and the uncompromising nature of the posters they have chosen to put in their windows as they face their demise.  It is what stopped me dead in the street as I passed it, and it is what can catch the eye on the page of a magazine.  I might feel the need to go all ‘artistic’ (sorry) and get upset that I’m not having the opportunity to demonstrate my creative skills, but an editor of a news publication wants images that get a message across.  Welcome to the world of journalism, Stan!

·         There are, I suggest, broadly two ways that one can approach the brief for the Big Issue collaboration – to look for/take a creative, ‘quality’ image, which has the potential to be captioned in a way that will link it to a topical news item; or go out and photograph something that you know will link to a topical news item.  I chose the latter, but on reflection, didn’t have a sharp enough idea of what I was looking for.  I think the notion of '10-20 images' intimidated me and I set out for quantity over quality.  Without a very clear idea of what I was photographing, that was always going to be difficult.  Knowing that there is an event or a demonstration, or something specific to go after is the ideal way to follow the second approach.  But ‘topicality’ is vital – and the caption can have almost as much to do with that as the image itself.

·         I have learned what it feels like to work under pressure and to a deadline – some of the pressure self-imposed, in truth.  I don’t actually mind that, and I didn’t mind it on this occasion, but I wish I could have felt more satisfied with the outcome.

·         At a more trivial level, I now know about Dropbox, and I’ve seen a few corners of Huddersfield that I hadn’t seen before!!

·         And, of course, I will have a picture in The Big Issue next week.

Thanks, Jose and OCA, for the opportunity. I really do wish I’d done a better job of it and I can’t help a sense of frustration – but there we go.  I hope these notes are helpful to others who want to take up the challenge.  Good luck, and I look forward to seeing some fantastic images.

Does it matter how I shot it?

A number of the photographs I took in Manchester were taken with my compact Ricoh camera at my side, set to silent shutter, operating the shutter with my thumb, with a wide focal length and a preset shutter speed of 1/125^th second.  Not all of them worked successfully, of course; several need a bit of manipulation to make them ‘presentable’; and there were no ‘stars’, as I said in the last post.  As far as I could tell, this was the only way I was genuinely going to get close-in candid shots of the sort of ‘moments’ I wanted without making the subject aware, which would defeat the point of the shot in the first place.  However, I have sensed some ‘disapproval’ f this methodology and, interestingly, when I put the pictures up on Flickr, someone asked whether the one of the guy in a blue jacket with a walking stick was a ‘hip shot’, which also made me feel a bit sensitive about the methods I’d used.

So, I posted a question amongst fellow students in the Flickr Group to canvas opinion.  The discussion is here http://www.flickr.com/groups/ocarts/discuss/72157625836731317/ 

I’m not entirely sure how much this has helped.  In the context of this course, it is important to show that I can handle a variety of methods to get the results I’m looking for.  I need to do more work with the DSLR, of that I’m quite sure, but I should probably stop beating myself up over the ones that I took surreptitiously.  Think of Walker Evans with his camera under his coat on the NY Metro!  Don’t think I want to go that far, but if I can get decent quality shots this particular way as part of my work, then I don’t see that it matters.

I’ve not been idle!!

The lack of posting on here over the last ten days hasn’t been due to a lack of activity, or reflection.

By the beginning of last week I felt that everything had ‘stalled’ on ‘People Unaware’.  There wasn’t a suitable ‘Comfortable Situation’ to kick-start the projects.  I had been trying to get out and take some photographs anyway but, useful as that had been, I didn’t feel much of a sense of direction, as the last few posts have indicated.  Several factors behind all that – busy with work; time of year; genuine indecision about how I wanted to go about things; lack of opportunity in the local towns to try out some ‘street’ work; and so on.  I had no desire to get bogged down, though, and decided to find some time to go into Manchester in the hope and expectation that there would be more opportunities there.

My plan was to visit the city in the middle part of the day when there would be more people around – arrive mid-morning; research one or two likely locations; then go back a do some shooting during the lunchtime period.  I chose lunchtime for two reasons – more activity; and a notion that I might start to look at images of people eating in the street/public space for Assignment 2.  I gave some thought to equipment and decided that I would ‘travel light’ – either my DSLR and a couple of lenses (one in my pocket), or the Ricoh compact.

Part of my preparation was to go back to the ‘Street Photography Now’ book for inspiration and ideas.  I particularly read the first section – Walker Evans’ advice ‘Stare, pry, listen and eavesdrop.  Die knowing something’; street photographers’ ‘spontaneous and often subconscious reaction to the fecundity of public life’; ‘... a good street photograph is remarkable because it makes something very ordinary seem extraordinary’; and a paragraph that emphasises that street photographers have lots of failures to get to the outstanding image – ‘What the strongest street photographers possess, in addition to patience and persistence, is the ability to edit’.  Also interesting in that first chapter is the notion that many street photographers are shy and sneaky by nature – finding a way of working that suits them.  Then there are some comparisons – Cartier-Bresson’s ‘velvet hand and hawk’s eye’; William Klein ‘thriving on confrontation’; Elliott Erwitt and Matt Stuart’s visual fun; Trent Parke’s ‘maverick technical methods’.  I also took on board the statement that – ‘By far the majority of street photographers like to blend into the crowd, being as invisible and unobtrusive as possible ...’.