I once again had a zoom tutorial with my tutor to discuss the notes he had sent me following my A3 submission. I always find that I read the written report in a negative light and when I speak to my tutor he is much more complimentary about my work and not as negative as how I have red the feedback. I think this both highlights my insecurities but also how having the face to face conversation is so much more useful than just trying to make sense of my tutor’s comments.

The key points of our conversation came down to:

  • My presentation is a ‘slideshow’ rather than a video
  • rework the piece removing a couple of images (the man outside the house and legs image). Felt they gave different connotations that I hadn’t considered.
  • clouds are too literal, we can / should be more subtle in our images.
  • no need to be explicit, be more subtle, eluding to something rather than actually portray it.
  • consider removing the music and keep the computer sounds maybe mixed with some ambient noises from the house.
  • be mindful of how I write up my research. Our conversation demonstrated my understanding of the subject, but the write would not demonstrate that to an assessor.
  • It was good to get feedback from my work colleagues, write that up
Version 2

I discussed with my tutor the other idea I had about putting pictures in the boxes I have bought and then displaying them like a hanging installation. He thought this was a really good idea and suggested I explored it. He said that the series would be the individual images of the people in the boxes and the presentation is the installation. I could even add sounds and talking to this. He suggested that I add it to my blog as Version 2 of this assignment. This excited me a lot and so I now wish to complete this idea as well.

Epistemic Responsibility

In relation to my comments about wanting to portray the reality of working from home during a Lockdown rather than a stylised version, My tutor mentioned Epistemic Responsibility. In essence this means that you have an obligation to know about what you are talking about and a responsibility not to mis-represent it.

The anaology given by O.G. Rose in is talk about the famous essay “The Ethics of Belief,” by W.K. Clifford (“Epistemic (Ir)Responsibility by O.G. Rose”) is that if a person allowed others to use a car that the owner knew was unsafe, even if the people arrived at their destination successfully and unharmed, the owner of the vehicle would still be guilty of immorality.

When we know something is true and disregard it, or when we believe in something without sufficient evidence, according to Clifford, we act immorally. For Clifford, all of us have a burden of “epistemic responsibility” that we must bear well; otherwise, we fail to live the moral life.


When applying this to my photographic work, I think my tutor is saying that we have a moral obligation to present the evidence for the beliefs we portray.

He suggested that I watch an documentary called the Living Dead by Adam Curtis, where it is alleged that that the Allies in World War II rewrote history to shed a better light on their part in the war. In Marianne Hirsch’s work she talks about how children of the holocaust victims ‘remember’ what happened because of the images and stories relayed to them, that created an emotional response they grew up. Therefore, if those memories were not told with epistemic responsibility they would, in Clifford’s belief, be immoral.

Moving on to Part 4

The next part is about text and images. My tutor recommended I talk to people and record them, get a real perspective on the subject I choose.

He suggested looking at the work of Sue ??, a previous student who created an image of a bridge and told the story of the people who had crossed it.

Surrealism

Because I had used the word ‘surreal’ in Assignment 3 with regard to the weirdness and strangeness of the time we have been living through, we had a conversation about Surrealism. My tutor warned against using the word in the context of photography as it a very specific genre of imagery that is a big subject in itself.

“as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.”

Andre Breton

This famous saying by Breton eludes to the surrealist idea that you can mix items that to all intents and purposes have no connection. It certainly conjures an image that forces you to want to solve it. Definitely something that I would like to explore.

All in all another good tutorial with my tutor and lots of things to consider.