Assignment 2 – Collecting (re-worked)

Collecting – Behind Glass

Follow the links below to see the original assignment submission and my tutor’s feedback:

My original response to Clive’s feedback was a feeling a disappointment.  He thought the overall concept was good, but pointed out that my original title of ‘point of connection’ was actually wrong in as much as I was in fact viewing the subjects without their awareness so it was voyeurism rather than a connection.  He also felt that some of the images didn’t quite embody the concept.

Although I meant to rework this at the time, I have actually only come back to it at the end of the course.  What this is has meant, is that I have come back to it with fresh eyes and the increased knowledge that working through the course work has given me.  The different time of year and lighter evenings has also given me an opportunity to explore different lighting and given the work greater depth.

I reread the feedback, picking out the comments Clive made about the images he felt did work and also took on board the editing suggestions he had made.  In the end I have discarded all but three of the original images.  One thing i learned from Assignment 5, was that when you refine and refocus your objective you find that work you originally overlooked actually fulfills the brief better. Having redefined the concept to the idea of ‘heads’ behind glass, I reviewed my images and found a few more  in my archives that fitted this brief and I also shot some new images which I feel gave another dimension to those that were mostly shot in the winter time.

My learning from reworking this assignment is that:

  • redefining and refocusing your thoughts about the set really helps you hone in on the best images to enhance your vision
  • that printing them out and moving them around really helps with positioning the images in the set
  • that I am much more observant of everything in a frame and I think this has helped in my composition.
  • that actually feedback is good for challenging you and making you look again, which ultimately has resulted in a more satisfying set of images.

 

Assignment 5 – Rework Reflection

So I’ve finished the course!!

I received my final report from Clive, and it said ‘completed‘!!  It feels like a real milestone. read the report here

Debra Flynn. Brighton Day Out #3, 2018

Of course I do still need to tidy up a few bits and pieces on the blog and get it ready for assessment, but I am really pleased that the first course is under my belt.  I am definitely feeling more confident about my progress and my abilities so I hope to hold on to that to take into the next course.

The final assignment has taught me quite a lot in terms of putting together a series or images.  Clive really helped me hone in on what I should be focusing on and it’s amazing what a difference it makes when you look through your images with a different intention.  In fact he encouraged me to see that I already had all of the images I needed to meet the brief, I just hadn’t focused on the right area.

See my Assignment 5 – Photography is Simple (Reworked) here

I am much happier with my reworked assignment and the discovery of Tony Ray-Jones work was a revelation for me.

So off to complete all the loose ends and prepare for the submission for assessment in November . . . . . .  . .

Assignment 5 – Photography is simple (reworked)

Brighton Day Out:  A sky view

(click on any image to see full screen gallery)

click here to view black and white versions of the images

click here to view contact sheets

The brief

Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject of your own choosing. Each photograph must be a unique view of the same subject; in other words, it must contain some ‘new information’ rather than repeat the information of the previous image. Pay attention to the order of the series;  here should be a clear sense of development through the sequence.

In your assignment notes explore why you chose this particular subject by answering the question ‘What is it about?’ 

 

“There are two fundamentals in all picture taking – where to stand and when to release the shutter … so photography is very simple.”                 (Jay & Hurn, 2001, p.37)

 

‘What is it about?’

In the late 1960s, early 1970s, Tony Ray-Jones toured English seaside resorts documenting the quirkiness of English culture, which, according to the quote below, he thought was disappearing. 

My aim is to communicate something of the spirit and the mentality of the English, their habits and their way of life,  the ironies that exist in the way they do things, partly through their traditions and partly through the nature of their environment and their mentality. For me there is something very special about the English ‘way of life’ and I wish to record it from my particular point of view before it becomes Americanized and disappears

Source: http://shooterfiles.com/2016/01/master-profiles-tony-ray-jones/

He is considered to be one of the original street photographers and brought a style of photography to the UK that hadn’t been seen before.  His images documented social anthropology in an often multi-layered complex way that could be both nostalgic and humorous. Click here to read my review of Tony Ray-Jones work.

As soon as I discovered Ray-Jones’ work, I felt an immediate connection with my own work and felt inspired to create a set of images that echoed his ‘Day Off: An English Journal’ set.  As I live on the South Coast of England not far from Brighton where many of his images were taken it seemed like 50 years on it would be interesting to revisit the subject.

I have visited the British Airways i360 on two separate occasions, once for a sunset flight and once on what turned out to be hottest and sunniest day of the year (2018).  I have used these to observe and document how people use their time off and, (returning to my earlier work in assignment one), how they occupy a space.  What struck me more than anything was the juxtaposition of people having paid to take this ‘flight’ in order to experience a unique view of the city, they then spending much of the time looking at their mobile phones, or taking selfies with their backs to it.  This was particularly noticeable on the sunset flight when the sky was the most amazing colour.  I’m not sure we’ve become ‘Americanized’ as Ray-Jones feared, more that we have become ‘technolised’!.                                                                                            (295 words)

Click on the links below to see:

Bibliography

Ray-Jones, T. (1974). A Day Off: An English Journal (First ed.). London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Walker, F. D. (2016, January 25). Master Profiles: Tony Ray-Jones. Retrieved from shooterfiles.com: http://shooterfiles.com/2016/01/master-profiles-tony-ray-jones/

Assessment criteria: Context

click here to see exercise 5.2 on context

Assignment 5 – ‘Hangout’

Having submitted my final assignment, I was finally able to talk with Clive (my tutor) face to face.  Work commitments have meant I’ve only had written feedback up until now so it I felt it was really important to actually speak with him this time and I’m really pleased I was able to.  Certainly a learning point for future courses; to speak with my tutors more often.

Clive had looked at my assignment and my blog and gave me some great feedback. 

He felt that I need to get away from the ‘day out with my kids’ theme and try and put some distance between myself and subject to give them a more observational and dispassionate feel. More of a comment on what a family does on a day out rather than this particular family.

He suggested I take a look at the work of Tony Ray-Jones as he felt my work was somewhat reminiscent of his and Martin Parr, although Martin Parr is a little less flattering of his subjects. Having now done so, I totally get what he means.  My write up Tony Ray-Jones can be read here.

On the individual images Clive felt that image #1 was weak and very ‘postcardy’ which I completely agreed with him on.  I had included this image to try and set the scene, but to be honest it doesn’t inspire me so why I thought it would anyone else is a silly.  I only have 10 images to make an impact and I chose that one!!!! 

he picked out image #2 as interesting and #9 as a good ‘stock’ shot but not adding much to this project.He thought #7 was a strong image.  Having looked again at that and Tony Ray-Jone’s work I think I understand what I should be looking for now.

I suggested redoing the whole assignment, which Clive thought was a possibility but also that having looked at the contact sheets there may be enough, with some re-editing to refocus this set of images.  Having had another look through, I do think this is a possibility so am going to try that first. Especially with the inspiration from Ray-Jones and Parr I think I have the basis of what could be an interesting study.

In relation to my blog, Clive advised to change my banner photo to something more appropriate to work I have been producing as he felt that it might give the wrong impression of the kind of photographer I am to an assessor.  I have taken that advice and changed it.

I was reminded about buying a clam shell box, which I’ve already done and about printing my images ready for assessment, making sure to leave a decent sized boarder on the sheet.

Thanks again Clive, it was great to talk with you

My actions from this:

  • look up Tony Ray-Jones’ work and relate it to my own
  • rework my assignment from a more observational and dispassionate viewpoint
  • let Clive know when I’ve redone it so he can give feedback
  • start preparing my work for assessment in November

back to Assignment 5 – Photography is simple (reworked)

 

Assignment 5 – Self Reflection before feedback

Reflection

“Check your work against the assessment criteria for this course before you send it to your tutor. Make some notes in our learning log about how well you believe your work
meets each criterion.”

For this final assignment of Expressing your vision I have returned to my first love of documenting my family on a day out in Brighton.

I knew I was going to use this for this assignment, so I was more conscious of the images I was taking and am lucky that they are so used to seeing me with a camera in my hand that they largely ignore it!  Unlike my last assignment where I was able to go back and start again because I wasn’t happy with the results, this time it was a ‘one day only’ opportunity – so No pressure!! 

Technically, I have often struggled with taking picture of people moving in the past but since finding the auto ISO setting on my camera, I am now able to reduce blurring so am much more confident in that respect.

Having taken over 200 photos, my biggest challenge was whittling it down to just 10 photos.  Unlike other assignments where I ‘made’ the images and could take what I need for the project this was more about selecting 10 images that work individually, together and tell the story. To do this I set myself some strict criteria, each image must contain either a member of my family or myself (in some way).  It must add new information as per the brief and it must be compositionally pleasing.  I also wanted them to work together as a set and tell the story of the day.

Needless to say there were a number of permutations considered until I came up with my final 10. So I tried to imagine what it would look like as a magazine article and picked images that I thought would go enhance the story.  It meant having to leave out some images which I really liked, but I guess that’s what this assignment is about.  The ability to express your viewpoint for a subject within a limited number of images giving more impact and greater context to them.

mock up of what a magazine article might look like

Ultimately I am pleased with the results and the images I have chosen.  I do believe they are a coherent set which tell the story I wanted to tell and meet the criterion of the brief.  This section more than any other has made me think about how I select and present my work.  

and just to prove I was there on the i360 here’s a picture of me taken by my husband. A rare event indeed 😉

Ralph Flynn. The Day Trip, 2018

back to Assignment 5 – Photography is simple

Project 3 ‘What matters is to look’ – research point

What Matters is to look

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1932

This image by Henri Carier-Bresson is described as ‘one of the most iconic photographs of the twentieth century’. Personally I’ve never seen it before.

As part of my research into Henri Cartier-Bresson, I watched ‘L’amour tout court’ on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/106009378 (accessed 10/01/2018).

The film is an interview with HC-B made by Raphael O’Byrne entitled ‘Just Plain Love’
It is in French but has English subtitles
 
HC-B starts by saying that most people don’t look properly at their subject, they just press the shutter buttons
 
He intermates that his parents were strict and prudish, whilst he frequented bordellos 
Left-wing catholics
 
HCB went to Africa
He is a bit of crusader for people less fortunate than himself.
He been in jail and then to the commandos, he feels like an escaped prisoner
 
HCB and Klavdij Sluban hold a regular photography workshop with the inmates in the Fleury-Mergois.  Sluban is now also going to a prison in Georgia.  At first the inmates seem very cautious and suspicious, but are soon running around taking photos, mostly of themselves.  He says that the inmates either refer to themselves as before incarceration or after, but not during.  By giving them a camera, we see their view of the prison, rather than the photographers.
 
HCB reviewing his famous leaping man image, said it was just luck, but that you need to leave yourself open, you can’t just want it to happen, because it won’t
 
He has framed his images, using geometry, divine proportion. Which he instinctively knows where it is.  It’s about capturing the physical rhythm of a situation.
 
Form should come first, light is the icing on the cake. Interview with writing, says that HCB was always looking, will see things others don’t see.  He sees the form or geometry of an image and the people within it provide the interest.
 
HCB you either have it you don’t.
 
Arkivah – people need to love to look, you can’t look at something you don’t love
Art is not a visual think, is a sensual think, if you don’t taste it you won’t see it.

 

just plain love a film by Raphael O’Bryan

the gaze should pierce 

wanting won’t work

physidcal rhythm

light is like purfune to me.

giocometti?

to look means to love – painter

suite nl3 en re mineur sarabande, bach

suite no3 en ut majeur, parelude, bach

suite no 1 en sol majeur, courante, bach

suite no 9 courante, haendel eric heidsieck

Jo Teasdale

I was really motivated by Jo Teasdale’s presentation at Brighton and Hove Camera Club on 23.01.18.  She presented projects she is currently working on, one of which is “Looking Forward, Turning Back” series really inspired me.

read more about:Jo Teasdale’s; Looking Forward: Turning Back (accessed 28.01.18)

Looking Forward: Turning Back by Jo Teasdale

In Jo’s blog she says:

The concept came about when I thought how I took my photographs. Looking, watching and waiting, trying to keep alert for those individual moments in time when a picture is born. So taking a photograph of a particular view we naturally look around at what is in front of us. It occurred to me we never see what is behind us, there’s no reason to, we have found the view we wish to photograph. However, if we were to turn around what would we see? I wanted to capture precisely this

I found this a really interesting juxtaposition between in front and behind, in terms of Assignment 3 – Decisive Moment, I feel that this is something I could use or expand to incorporate the other themes.  Jo’s image above definitely engenders both landscape and a decisive moment.

Following this presentation, I went out the next day to have a go at taking a similar image.  I found out I can ‘overlay images’ in camera, so used this feature for this image. I chose to stand inside one of the shelters to take the images, as I wanted to explore the idea of Henri Cartier-Bresson that form and frame of the image can be prepared in advance and provides structure to the image. 

Mewsbrook – 24.01.18 – overlay image in camera

I would like to explore this idea further, taking an image of a person coming towards the camera and then from behind as they walk away. The decisive moment will be as they pass me, but the viewer will only see the before and after.

 

Mind Whirring

At the moment, I have a number of ideas for Assignment 3 – The Decisive Moment, and was hoping to get out with my camera a start my set, but to be honest, I don’t think I can.  For the last assignment, I mapped out my thoughts and came up with a coherent idea and then prepared my equipment to go out to the right places to capture the images I wanted.

At this stage, ideas are are whirring around inside my head and I just haven’t nailed it down yet, so I think it would be foolish to just go out with my camera and hope I get what I’m looking for.  From the research I’ve done so far, I am convinced that the photographers, researched their locations, including the time and and usage before taking their cameras out.

So I’ve given myself some SMART objectives to get this done:

  1. to nail down my concept and make a decision by the end of next week (2.2.18)
  2. to research my chosen location/s by 9.2.19
  3. to have taken all images by 28.2.18 to enable printing in time for submission.
  4. to carry on with the coursework (Part 4) so that I don’t loose momentum.