Assignment 1
Click subsections to view individual parts of the assignment or scroll down to see the continuous version of the assignment.
1. Final Assignment 1
2. Thoughts & Research
3. Contact Sheets
4. Final Contact Sheets
5. Pre Reflection
6. Tutor Report
7. Post Reflection
Assignment 1 - Two Sides of the story
The Postcard.
Click subsections to view individual parts of the assignment or scroll down to see the continuous version of the assignment.
1. Final Assignment 1
2. Thoughts & Research
3. Contact Sheets
4. Final Contact Sheets
5. Pre Reflection
6. Tutor Report
7. Post Reflection
Assignment 1 - Two Sides of the story
The Postcard.
We go unnoticed, lost and estranged like ghosts seeking form and meaning. We need comfort and contact yet distance condenses our lives into short messages. Presenting our best side and forgetting the everyday same old, same old. Is this the point missed? Have we got the balance wrong. Living for the weekends, the holidays, the special days that pepper the years we ignore the everyday majority, we live for the future and long for the past and everything in between is lost.
Everyday we live and share two side of the same story, at home, at work, the internal and external. We show what we want on display, we filter and mask what remains. In a world surround by people we still feel a loneliness. The emptiness within our head, our very own personal echo chamber a product of solitude and the melancholy of the mundane. Life is good.
Everyday we live and share two side of the same story, at home, at work, the internal and external. We show what we want on display, we filter and mask what remains. In a world surround by people we still feel a loneliness. The emptiness within our head, our very own personal echo chamber a product of solitude and the melancholy of the mundane. Life is good.
Research and Thoughts
On my first assignment I did for EVY (Square Mile) I spent far too long on. It led to wasted time and set up the course in terms of time management. So I am going to be extremely mindful of this for this for assignment.
My initial thought on this was keep it simple and quite conservative. How best to approach two sides of the same story? The most natural and first thing that springs to mind is a combination self portrait and persona. I work for the NHS and there is are very obvious public and private personas at play, and of course has healthcare workers we are all healthy people and we all practice what we preach but of course we are human and we are not perfect. The thought was an idea to present the two sides and to a point almost misrepresent my private personas. I drink alcohol but is it to excess, I like junk and fried food but is it to excess, I have smoked but do I still smoke so on and so on against my public role within the healthcare role the activities I undertake.
Another thing I was thinking about for this assignment was an ongoing local news article regarding Derby City shopping center Intu and the Eagle Center Market and the effects the big commercial giant has had on the market. I was trying to stay away for a go to cliche subject like rich and poor but I felt that this also had possibilities and had something to offer in that Intu and the eagle center market share the same retail grounds and are part of the same building complex not only that but Intu has in the last six months brought the market from the local council. It is now the same entity. It is a project that it something that I wouldn’t normally look to do so also services has a way trying something different that pushes me a little outside of my personal comfort zone while remaining quite conservative.
Shopping centre test -
On my first assignment I did for EVY (Square Mile) I spent far too long on. It led to wasted time and set up the course in terms of time management. So I am going to be extremely mindful of this for this for assignment.
My initial thought on this was keep it simple and quite conservative. How best to approach two sides of the same story? The most natural and first thing that springs to mind is a combination self portrait and persona. I work for the NHS and there is are very obvious public and private personas at play, and of course has healthcare workers we are all healthy people and we all practice what we preach but of course we are human and we are not perfect. The thought was an idea to present the two sides and to a point almost misrepresent my private personas. I drink alcohol but is it to excess, I like junk and fried food but is it to excess, I have smoked but do I still smoke so on and so on against my public role within the healthcare role the activities I undertake.
Another thing I was thinking about for this assignment was an ongoing local news article regarding Derby City shopping center Intu and the Eagle Center Market and the effects the big commercial giant has had on the market. I was trying to stay away for a go to cliche subject like rich and poor but I felt that this also had possibilities and had something to offer in that Intu and the eagle center market share the same retail grounds and are part of the same building complex not only that but Intu has in the last six months brought the market from the local council. It is now the same entity. It is a project that it something that I wouldn’t normally look to do so also services has a way trying something different that pushes me a little outside of my personal comfort zone while remaining quite conservative.
Shopping centre test -
Fig 1. Shopping Center
Fig 2. Market
The test images were taken on my mobile, showing clear and obvious two sides of the same story and therefore a success. However on thinking a little more on this idea I believe this story would be quite closed in terms of visual options leading to repetitive, open/closed, busy/empty, rich/poor type images. Although the idea is out of my comfort zone, it was a little to conservative, almost a go-to project. It was an idea that maybe was borne out of the desire to work through this assignment quickly. It didn’t feel like me.
Persona Test - The elements that needed to be thought about was the staging of health care situations, wound care, taking blood and blood pressure seemed logical but needed planning in terms of props and staging. The private persona element would be straight so I decided to carry out test staging.
The test images were taken on my mobile, showing clear and obvious two sides of the same story and therefore a success. However on thinking a little more on this idea I believe this story would be quite closed in terms of visual options leading to repetitive, open/closed, busy/empty, rich/poor type images. Although the idea is out of my comfort zone, it was a little to conservative, almost a go-to project. It was an idea that maybe was borne out of the desire to work through this assignment quickly. It didn’t feel like me.
Persona Test - The elements that needed to be thought about was the staging of health care situations, wound care, taking blood and blood pressure seemed logical but needed planning in terms of props and staging. The private persona element would be straight so I decided to carry out test staging.
Fig 3. Skin Tear
Skin tear was a simple test to get back into creating a wound something that I experimented with a couple of years ago before this degree. I made the fake blood from scratch using non toxic pva glue, red and blue food dye, the skin tear was created using liquid latex and some cheap face paint to blend it all together.
I also staged taking blood using out of date stock and some fake blood in the bottle, of course making sure to not to inflict any injury on the model (my wife) who placed trust in abilities. Of course I tested the whole thing on myself to ensure it was safe to continue with the test image. The test image is a self portrait and taken on a 10 second timer.
Skin tear was a simple test to get back into creating a wound something that I experimented with a couple of years ago before this degree. I made the fake blood from scratch using non toxic pva glue, red and blue food dye, the skin tear was created using liquid latex and some cheap face paint to blend it all together.
I also staged taking blood using out of date stock and some fake blood in the bottle, of course making sure to not to inflict any injury on the model (my wife) who placed trust in abilities. Of course I tested the whole thing on myself to ensure it was safe to continue with the test image. The test image is a self portrait and taken on a 10 second timer.
Fig 4. Taking Blood.
The square format was used to close in the images, I wanted to isolate the task, I wanted to remove all other background context.
Has soon has I reviewed the images in camera I could see straight away it was never going to work for me it was to direct, to focused. It is an event that had little room for the viewer. Even if I continued to try out the private element for this idea it wouldn’t work. It just didn’t feel right.
So I continued just taking portraits and self portraits on the 10 second timer, one continuous light. I tried straight deadpan portraits, I got my model (my wife) to write one word notes about how she sees herself I also did the same.
The square format was used to close in the images, I wanted to isolate the task, I wanted to remove all other background context.
Has soon has I reviewed the images in camera I could see straight away it was never going to work for me it was to direct, to focused. It is an event that had little room for the viewer. Even if I continued to try out the private element for this idea it wouldn’t work. It just didn’t feel right.
So I continued just taking portraits and self portraits on the 10 second timer, one continuous light. I tried straight deadpan portraits, I got my model (my wife) to write one word notes about how she sees herself I also did the same.
Fig 5. Fat
One image out of the shoot one image out of 200 stood straight out. The gaze with its direct address was stark, body positions square almost unflinching, composition simple and straightforward. A self portrait with my wife, my lover, my bestfriend and the mother to my beautiful children. And yet the space and distance between the two of us seems to lie, all of this tension without any real context created a possible narrative, we begin to form opinion on what is happening or has happened. This is something to work with.
One image out of the shoot one image out of 200 stood straight out. The gaze with its direct address was stark, body positions square almost unflinching, composition simple and straightforward. A self portrait with my wife, my lover, my bestfriend and the mother to my beautiful children. And yet the space and distance between the two of us seems to lie, all of this tension without any real context created a possible narrative, we begin to form opinion on what is happening or has happened. This is something to work with.
Fig 6. Distant
On the same day and the days running up to this shoot - I was not feeling the love for photography I felt flat and I didn’t really know what to do, I had been just shooting stuff around the house mundane images something that were less than flattering. I have been shooting in the kitchen (I named the photographs - The Shit Tip Kitchen) for a few months mainly images of the mess the kitchen gets into - this started out of boredom. For some reason I found them interesting. I posted one or two up in forum and I told my wife what I had done, she was not best pleased. I tried explaining that all kitchens are like it at some stage during the day and I was ordered not to post anymore photographs of this type.
I left it and a few weeks later, I posted the same image on facebook just to see the reaction I would get in general. She went mental, because she believed that everybody in facebook land would think she really lived like this all of the time. Many people replied that the kitchen was pretty clean unlike their own kitchen of course this didn’t easy her anger. In fact from time to time I have to reminder my wife that facebook land is an online presentation of somebody's life and that a few Facebook statues and photographs is not a true representation and that she should not make comparisons. This fits with private and public persona, and how we screen and censor the images and posts we put on facebook in order to present how we want to be seen. Of course this doesn’t just mean the positive but also the negative.
On the same day and the days running up to this shoot - I was not feeling the love for photography I felt flat and I didn’t really know what to do, I had been just shooting stuff around the house mundane images something that were less than flattering. I have been shooting in the kitchen (I named the photographs - The Shit Tip Kitchen) for a few months mainly images of the mess the kitchen gets into - this started out of boredom. For some reason I found them interesting. I posted one or two up in forum and I told my wife what I had done, she was not best pleased. I tried explaining that all kitchens are like it at some stage during the day and I was ordered not to post anymore photographs of this type.
I left it and a few weeks later, I posted the same image on facebook just to see the reaction I would get in general. She went mental, because she believed that everybody in facebook land would think she really lived like this all of the time. Many people replied that the kitchen was pretty clean unlike their own kitchen of course this didn’t easy her anger. In fact from time to time I have to reminder my wife that facebook land is an online presentation of somebody's life and that a few Facebook statues and photographs is not a true representation and that she should not make comparisons. This fits with private and public persona, and how we screen and censor the images and posts we put on facebook in order to present how we want to be seen. Of course this doesn’t just mean the positive but also the negative.
Fig 7. The Shit Tip Kitchen
I thought about the portrait and facebook, it is not one you would personally post to show how much fun you was having, how great your life is, how much you love each other, you wouldn’t post this if you had fallen out, had a bad experience, how bad life was, or how boring it can be. Facebook seems to be very on or off in terms of experience and everything in between is just random but no matter what, the majority of personal photos we post are positive reflections, a representation.
This led to idea of, how would the portrait look alongside a typical personal post in facebook land. So I made a composite image using a number of screenshots of facebook posts and the portrait.
I thought about the portrait and facebook, it is not one you would personally post to show how much fun you was having, how great your life is, how much you love each other, you wouldn’t post this if you had fallen out, had a bad experience, how bad life was, or how boring it can be. Facebook seems to be very on or off in terms of experience and everything in between is just random but no matter what, the majority of personal photos we post are positive reflections, a representation.
This led to idea of, how would the portrait look alongside a typical personal post in facebook land. So I made a composite image using a number of screenshots of facebook posts and the portrait.
Fig 8. Life is Good.
The result was interesting but it seemed that the facebook format reduced the impact of the portrait, it was the conflict I wanted to explore, the two sides of people's life and online representation. Maybe it is too busy, but the conflict I had was the distance of facebook combined with the distance seen within the portrait seemed to mute maybe even too numb it was over effective it had neutralised itself.
On the forum I sort the feedback from others @Clive suggested maybe postcards could be a different approach, joking that “social media soooooo over”.The postcard is after all an old social communication, short, sweet messages sharing happy, fun and positive experiences from afar alongside a nice photo.
It’s the Suitcase from EVY assignment 5 again, it seems to be haunting me. I thought I could stay away from it in this unit. It is front and back, it is inside and outside, it is lost, it is found, it is memory, it is about distance and closeness, and maybe the loneliness we all feel from time to time even in a world full of people, a world full of ghosts, even when we are surrounded by loved ones. Life is good but not always, it is not perfect and we mask, screen and censor.
The suitcase contained at least a 100+ postcards all untouched, collected memories with no written messages. Could this old way of social communication - a post. Work alongside this portrait? Conflicting photographs and communications, two sides of the same story and two sides of the same surface, two different times a temporal disjunction
The suitcase is complex project but initially born out of my lost of my mother and that these found images almost became my surrogate photographs for the photographs I lack of her.
Why is the suitcase a symbol for me, why does it come back to my mum. I thought about how the lost seemed like being estranged, I dream about her from time to time, I she never speaks I have had dreams in the past where she returns home after years where she never died she just wanted to disappear not wanting to be found. So many questions never to be answered just silence. It’s been 13 years since she died (2004) at the age of 49 the same year facebook started, in fact it was in facebook that lead me to the man who found the suitcase and led to me being in possession of the suitcase. She never used facebook or knew about it, she texted sure but postcards were more familiar. I thought about the postcards, I thought about the suitcase, I thought about what would I write to my mum? How would I cover the important things that have happened and changed in the 13 years that have passed, all on a postcard, how could I present portraits of everything in between? A Postcard, a suitcase and a wish you were here.
I started to scan the backs of the postcards, print, write and test out the idea.
The result was interesting but it seemed that the facebook format reduced the impact of the portrait, it was the conflict I wanted to explore, the two sides of people's life and online representation. Maybe it is too busy, but the conflict I had was the distance of facebook combined with the distance seen within the portrait seemed to mute maybe even too numb it was over effective it had neutralised itself.
On the forum I sort the feedback from others @Clive suggested maybe postcards could be a different approach, joking that “social media soooooo over”.The postcard is after all an old social communication, short, sweet messages sharing happy, fun and positive experiences from afar alongside a nice photo.
It’s the Suitcase from EVY assignment 5 again, it seems to be haunting me. I thought I could stay away from it in this unit. It is front and back, it is inside and outside, it is lost, it is found, it is memory, it is about distance and closeness, and maybe the loneliness we all feel from time to time even in a world full of people, a world full of ghosts, even when we are surrounded by loved ones. Life is good but not always, it is not perfect and we mask, screen and censor.
The suitcase contained at least a 100+ postcards all untouched, collected memories with no written messages. Could this old way of social communication - a post. Work alongside this portrait? Conflicting photographs and communications, two sides of the same story and two sides of the same surface, two different times a temporal disjunction
The suitcase is complex project but initially born out of my lost of my mother and that these found images almost became my surrogate photographs for the photographs I lack of her.
Why is the suitcase a symbol for me, why does it come back to my mum. I thought about how the lost seemed like being estranged, I dream about her from time to time, I she never speaks I have had dreams in the past where she returns home after years where she never died she just wanted to disappear not wanting to be found. So many questions never to be answered just silence. It’s been 13 years since she died (2004) at the age of 49 the same year facebook started, in fact it was in facebook that lead me to the man who found the suitcase and led to me being in possession of the suitcase. She never used facebook or knew about it, she texted sure but postcards were more familiar. I thought about the postcards, I thought about the suitcase, I thought about what would I write to my mum? How would I cover the important things that have happened and changed in the 13 years that have passed, all on a postcard, how could I present portraits of everything in between? A Postcard, a suitcase and a wish you were here.
I started to scan the backs of the postcards, print, write and test out the idea.
Fig 9. Postcard
I needed to text to be honest and authentic but in a way that is open but doesn’t directly lead the viewer to what it is. Something that is personal to me, something that doesn’t say “Mum” that has no direct signs of death or being overly sentimental.
The postcard was I think the earliest form of social media, a way of letting people know what they was doing, where they were and what it was like. Commonly sent when people were on there travels, photographs and pictures of the places they visited. Kodak produced a camera in 1907 that took photographs in postcard format and could be printed with a postcard back this is analog facebook of their era. A personalized photograph with a written message on the back of course I imagine that this would have only be accessible to the wealthy and these postcards are place I can afford to visit
The work is in part a continued exploration of the object and memory, its front and back surface and how it feels to hold, connect, explore and examine. Everytime I pick up a photograph I instinctively flip it over, looking for additional information - a date, a message, another layer of detail in the hope the memory may become clearer. The front and back never seen at the same time but still shares the same space.
The portraits almost misrepresentation to the point somebody could draw their own negative overview of this family unit, this could be reinforced when paired with the surrounding environment, the bare undecorated cracked walls, the untidy kitchen the deadpan presentation the portraits with their distant disconnected stark and cold stance. We focus on the highs and we miss out the everyday and the inbetweens. I am looking at them and they are looking at me. Of course I know the truth, the setting of the photographs and my intent. They were taken in the middle of decorating after not long moving into a new house, the kids laughing when being directed not to do anything, don’t smile looked bored, my wife really not happy when photographed in a shit tip kitchen the aftermath of general mess at the end of a day of solid decorating stop down tools a few beers, a take away I can’t be arsed we will sort it in the morning.
Regarding the assessment submission because the work is a Postcard format to remain true itself it needs to be presented in such a way but could also be presented in a different way accordion or book format. This could add a different layer the text present next to the following image which could create further disjunction.
Magical thinking driven by the carrots of happiness, success and the everyday christmas wish list. Living for the weekend and dreaming of the next. Holidays and family snapshots, we pass each other along the way. We share trophies on the mantelpiece, the everyday banality hidden away in the dusty draws. This is not a true representation of my life or how I feel all of the time, it is a photograph, a feeling, a thought in brief in time, it is a an exaggeration of the in betweens.
The juxtaposition of the deadpan and the postcard text the objective and the subjective I believe helps creates a possible narrative not for me I know why I made and what I made. But for the viewer who adds their own experience and interpretation, things that are beyond my control.
The postcards are places I have never been to, places I can only ever dream about, a destination without an address.
The work is self exploratory and indexical in nature not just via photograph but also via the postcard and the text that is scribed on its surface. They both share and connect even though they are presented separately, even in light that they are conflicting. It is the idea of ontology self study of being.
Susan Sontag points out
“A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened, the picture may distort, but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist which is like what’s in the picture”
(Sontag 1977;5) on photography
And yet the work is also symbolic in that the postcard and the text does not openly look like or reflect what’s is within photograph.
“A sign that is symbolic is not caused by a material relationship to its object”
The postcard and text is memento mori without a direct signal of death, a letter to heaven in the form of a postcard if you like - although I don’t believe in any religion or god but for whatever reason the idea of beyond gives me a sense of comfort I guess it is a way to offload. It is a what if, what would I say if. It is an imagined future because my mother's future end with her 13 years ago. It is seated in the past but presented in the present, the somewhere and nowhere. Something from the past and a future that has not happened, viewed in the here and now like a ghost. It is similar to the idea of Derrida’s Hauntology something that I have yet to really understand like most of the critical theory and various philosophies that run within photography at some level.
The text almost reflects some notions of “Spectacle of society” the idea that we represent ourselves and experiences in short text and positive photographs to reinforce the message. We focus on the big events and dodge, skimming over the everyday. The system drives consumerism that alienate us, creating distance via the virtual world of the internet we forget the everyday. We aspire to the trophies of success, we display the perfection of family and relationships we have and share, we display them publicly and we leave everything else behind we do this via the photograph alongside the short posts on social media platforms we all continue to chase happiness, comparing and measure ourselves against these snapshots that have been screened, selected and presented in the best possible way.
The act of writing letters to the dead is not a new thing. The ancient egyptians wrote to there recently deceased relatives, they wrote on pottery, papyrus and linen.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature/religious/lettersdead.html
This type of writing continues today, the act of writing letters to the deceased and attaching them to balloons so they fly to the heavens. The subject of death, mourning, memory, remembrance, belief systems, social attitudes is so culturally and anthropologically vast and complex it something I am not even scratching the surface. It may seem morbid but it is important, something in british culture we avoid until we come into contact with it and even then we try our best to avoid having to talk about it.
The postcards are devoid of a real stamp because there is no real address, the blue dot featured in the suitcase it is part of it, the blue dot is the stamp for the postcard, a symbol of a balloon. We seek comfort in the idea of a continued journey, that it is not the end, we continue to remember and that we try not forget so their journey continues after death in the form of a memory on a physical surface or object. It is not just a remember we will all die, but remember in death we will continue.
Of course these thoughts are afterthoughts. The possible theory and where the work may or may not sit is of no concern because the work is not made for that purpose to is made for me. People will view this work, interpreting and view it via their own experiences of their world. But I hope that the work creates a tension and a disruption between the photograph and the text and at least creates a question, what is happening here? Hopefully further questions of what is the relationship between the people in the photographs and the postcards? Who is the postcard it meant for? Hopefully I have left room for other people to move into even though it is made out of personal intention. It is a construct.
There is the deadpan aesthetic and is there to express the inbetweens of life, how we sometimes feel the mundane. The elements of the everyday we don’t openly share, a snapshot of emptiness, sadness, isolation and nothingness. It is the background within the photographs that is more important than the focus of the people within the frame. I do believe that this adds a trigger but would be fairly weak on its own, but the postcards strengthen this trigger. The photographic series would not work it is own and the postcards series would not work on its own but together it forms a narrative they become entwined in the absence obvious commonality.
However I am unsure whether the text is too leading I cannot gauge this or its impact on the viewer, it could be seen has a lazy route to deflecting the weakness in the narrative within the photographic element of series. It is me and it feels right but intuition is not an excuse to consider that it steadfast.
I needed to text to be honest and authentic but in a way that is open but doesn’t directly lead the viewer to what it is. Something that is personal to me, something that doesn’t say “Mum” that has no direct signs of death or being overly sentimental.
The postcard was I think the earliest form of social media, a way of letting people know what they was doing, where they were and what it was like. Commonly sent when people were on there travels, photographs and pictures of the places they visited. Kodak produced a camera in 1907 that took photographs in postcard format and could be printed with a postcard back this is analog facebook of their era. A personalized photograph with a written message on the back of course I imagine that this would have only be accessible to the wealthy and these postcards are place I can afford to visit
The work is in part a continued exploration of the object and memory, its front and back surface and how it feels to hold, connect, explore and examine. Everytime I pick up a photograph I instinctively flip it over, looking for additional information - a date, a message, another layer of detail in the hope the memory may become clearer. The front and back never seen at the same time but still shares the same space.
The portraits almost misrepresentation to the point somebody could draw their own negative overview of this family unit, this could be reinforced when paired with the surrounding environment, the bare undecorated cracked walls, the untidy kitchen the deadpan presentation the portraits with their distant disconnected stark and cold stance. We focus on the highs and we miss out the everyday and the inbetweens. I am looking at them and they are looking at me. Of course I know the truth, the setting of the photographs and my intent. They were taken in the middle of decorating after not long moving into a new house, the kids laughing when being directed not to do anything, don’t smile looked bored, my wife really not happy when photographed in a shit tip kitchen the aftermath of general mess at the end of a day of solid decorating stop down tools a few beers, a take away I can’t be arsed we will sort it in the morning.
Regarding the assessment submission because the work is a Postcard format to remain true itself it needs to be presented in such a way but could also be presented in a different way accordion or book format. This could add a different layer the text present next to the following image which could create further disjunction.
Magical thinking driven by the carrots of happiness, success and the everyday christmas wish list. Living for the weekend and dreaming of the next. Holidays and family snapshots, we pass each other along the way. We share trophies on the mantelpiece, the everyday banality hidden away in the dusty draws. This is not a true representation of my life or how I feel all of the time, it is a photograph, a feeling, a thought in brief in time, it is a an exaggeration of the in betweens.
The juxtaposition of the deadpan and the postcard text the objective and the subjective I believe helps creates a possible narrative not for me I know why I made and what I made. But for the viewer who adds their own experience and interpretation, things that are beyond my control.
The postcards are places I have never been to, places I can only ever dream about, a destination without an address.
The work is self exploratory and indexical in nature not just via photograph but also via the postcard and the text that is scribed on its surface. They both share and connect even though they are presented separately, even in light that they are conflicting. It is the idea of ontology self study of being.
Susan Sontag points out
“A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened, the picture may distort, but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist which is like what’s in the picture”
(Sontag 1977;5) on photography
And yet the work is also symbolic in that the postcard and the text does not openly look like or reflect what’s is within photograph.
“A sign that is symbolic is not caused by a material relationship to its object”
The postcard and text is memento mori without a direct signal of death, a letter to heaven in the form of a postcard if you like - although I don’t believe in any religion or god but for whatever reason the idea of beyond gives me a sense of comfort I guess it is a way to offload. It is a what if, what would I say if. It is an imagined future because my mother's future end with her 13 years ago. It is seated in the past but presented in the present, the somewhere and nowhere. Something from the past and a future that has not happened, viewed in the here and now like a ghost. It is similar to the idea of Derrida’s Hauntology something that I have yet to really understand like most of the critical theory and various philosophies that run within photography at some level.
The text almost reflects some notions of “Spectacle of society” the idea that we represent ourselves and experiences in short text and positive photographs to reinforce the message. We focus on the big events and dodge, skimming over the everyday. The system drives consumerism that alienate us, creating distance via the virtual world of the internet we forget the everyday. We aspire to the trophies of success, we display the perfection of family and relationships we have and share, we display them publicly and we leave everything else behind we do this via the photograph alongside the short posts on social media platforms we all continue to chase happiness, comparing and measure ourselves against these snapshots that have been screened, selected and presented in the best possible way.
The act of writing letters to the dead is not a new thing. The ancient egyptians wrote to there recently deceased relatives, they wrote on pottery, papyrus and linen.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature/religious/lettersdead.html
This type of writing continues today, the act of writing letters to the deceased and attaching them to balloons so they fly to the heavens. The subject of death, mourning, memory, remembrance, belief systems, social attitudes is so culturally and anthropologically vast and complex it something I am not even scratching the surface. It may seem morbid but it is important, something in british culture we avoid until we come into contact with it and even then we try our best to avoid having to talk about it.
The postcards are devoid of a real stamp because there is no real address, the blue dot featured in the suitcase it is part of it, the blue dot is the stamp for the postcard, a symbol of a balloon. We seek comfort in the idea of a continued journey, that it is not the end, we continue to remember and that we try not forget so their journey continues after death in the form of a memory on a physical surface or object. It is not just a remember we will all die, but remember in death we will continue.
Of course these thoughts are afterthoughts. The possible theory and where the work may or may not sit is of no concern because the work is not made for that purpose to is made for me. People will view this work, interpreting and view it via their own experiences of their world. But I hope that the work creates a tension and a disruption between the photograph and the text and at least creates a question, what is happening here? Hopefully further questions of what is the relationship between the people in the photographs and the postcards? Who is the postcard it meant for? Hopefully I have left room for other people to move into even though it is made out of personal intention. It is a construct.
There is the deadpan aesthetic and is there to express the inbetweens of life, how we sometimes feel the mundane. The elements of the everyday we don’t openly share, a snapshot of emptiness, sadness, isolation and nothingness. It is the background within the photographs that is more important than the focus of the people within the frame. I do believe that this adds a trigger but would be fairly weak on its own, but the postcards strengthen this trigger. The photographic series would not work it is own and the postcards series would not work on its own but together it forms a narrative they become entwined in the absence obvious commonality.
However I am unsure whether the text is too leading I cannot gauge this or its impact on the viewer, it could be seen has a lazy route to deflecting the weakness in the narrative within the photographic element of series. It is me and it feels right but intuition is not an excuse to consider that it steadfast.
Contact Sheets
Final Contact Sheets
Pre Reflection
I need to think more about the equipment that is available to me in and the impact it can have on a photograph. I used a tripod in some photographs but the cat, son and daughter images were taken handheld, the impact was seen more in the son and daughter images with evidence of camera shake in many of photographs this reduced the number of potentially usable images and narrowed my opinions. More thought would have made life a little easier and could have produced a larger potential number of photographs to choose from.
Serendipity…….this is something I am beginning to notice more and more. This is a continuation from EVY, of course serendipity needs to be treated very carefully and not to be used has a reason to cover up mistakes under this label. The self portrait of me and my wife is an example, a 10 second timer getting into the shot, know where my wife is within the frame but not really know where I would be, in fact I am leaning into the frame it was a few images that were taken off the cuff and really without knowing, this was the trigger. The cat also just happened and I happened by lucky to be pressing the shutter something I was not looking for
Personal response to assignments continues to feel intuitive even though I am unsure whether I should be wearing my heart my on sleeve. It is not part of my personality to be so open, I am extremely closed and private.
The research element is balanced and relevant but I still find it difficult and frustrating in terms of theory and potential philosophy has much of it overlaps and confusing in terms of placing my work potentially anywhere, placement and labeling I feel isn’t my place. This makes me reluctant maybe out of fear of my lack of knowledge and the fear of sounding like…...a dick. Maybe this will change and probably will over time.
I am unsure if the the title is to leading and fixed, the postcard cannot be denied but does it need to title. It something that is obvious, should I state the bleeding obvious.
It is well composed, the composition is well balanced and consistent throughout the series.
The first image (me and wife) is slightly underexposed although not detrimental to the overall series. Possibly review the edit.
I have spent too long on this submission of this assignment is not ideal but I can allow myself some leanway. I have made a huge push on completing other work related qualification an NVQ level 3 diploma and a Level 2 BTEC. This complete and will ultimately will help with time management in the new year.
Note taking would help me greatly in research rather than retrospective writing.
The overall outcome is that it I have produced two sides. It is self exploratory and it forms a narrative. The visual element is fairly conservative the postcard and text is quite risky. If the text fails the assignment will fail to work. There is a narrative within the photographs but it is strengthened and reinforced by the postcard and vice versa.
It is a good base to work from moving forward there is still work to do on this assignment but before it is ready for assessment.
Things to do.
I need to add to the research element I have looked at a number of photographers, maybe a little more on general culture of death, postcard history maybe a little more on philosophies and add reflection on where the work may sit within these circles
I need to use correct referencing
I need to retake the photograph of my son
I need to correct the white balance issues on the postcards
I need to rescan the postcard so they all fit within the frame
I need to match the photographs and postcard so that there both the same crop.
Formative feedback
Student name
Alan Fletcher
Student number 515735
Course/Unit - Context and Narrative
Assignment number 1
Type of tutorial - Written
Overall Comments
Well done on completing this first assignment. This is of course an assignment that helps us to get to know each other a little and will not be a formal element at the assessment point.
At the heart of this assignment is an opportunity to interrogate how two sets of images can have opposite meanings and values despite them sharing the same environment. It was suggested that a snapshot or documentary approach might help to make the images more convincing. Even though you decided to generate a set of images and a set of connected texts I believe that the learning has been effective and that you appreciate the ways that images are manipulated to tell a subjective story for the viewer.
You obviously invested a considerable amount of time and emotional energy working your way through the maze of possible ideas and approaches that might map to the brief. The outcomes and the personal reflection that accompanies the work and research are commendable, but I have made a range of observations below that might enrich the work, or at least help you to think about contexts for new work.
Assessment potential
Assignment 1
You may want to get credit for your hard work and achievements with the OCA by formally submitting your work for assessment at the end of the module. More and more people are taking the idea of lifelong learning seriously by submitting their work for assessment but it is entirely up to you. We are just as keen to support you whether you study for pleasure or to gain qualifications. Please consider whether you want to put your work forward for assessment and let me know your decision when you submit Assignment 2. I can then give you feedback on how well your work meets the assessment requirements.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Look again at the exposures to ensure that they share a common tonality. The postcard needs also to be very neutral in terms of colour balance. As the picture of you and your wife was one of the key catalysts for the whole body of work this should be the touchstone for the rest. As well as this image projecting a strong emotional intensity from each of you, and between you, it does seem to be the key that sets up the dialogue and contrast between the image and the text sides of the set of postcards. In the images of your son and daughter I would try to edit these so that they achieve something approaching the aesthetic character of the picture of you both. I do agree with your analysis that you need to be consistent and use a tripod. Look at the skin tones to see what you are aiming for. With the cat picture – although you justified this more animated shot - you might want to stick firmly to your decision to juxtapose the deadpan records of your life with the much more expressive and open writing on the rear of each card.
I love the idea of creating the work that is directed to your mother who passed away some years ago and I appreciate the cultural and social landscape of the family, our lives (as complex experiences) and the place of the photograph. Try to track down the early work of Jo Spence who explored the family album and wrote extensively about this. There are many others.
The size and format of the card is working very well. This gives the final form of the work a touch of nostalgia, it offers something much more suggestive of tactility and human touch/scale and it returns the image back to a being a physical artifact and not something always seen through the screen.
You might consider if these images were being shown publically how they might be displayed. You have created a viewing experience where the spectator is looking in to a private and personal world of the family so I do think that it’s incumbent on you to develop your basic understanding of a few other photographers whose work falls into this area of practice. See the everyday post-it notes of Keith Arnatt to his wife – sadly Keith passed away a few years agao.
In your reflective evaluation you do identify a range of strengths and weaknesses. Some of these are simply bullet points at the end and some are much more detailed and embedded in your thinking and reasoning for the work.
At the heart of your endeavor seems to be a desire to explore personal grief and loss. This is such an important subject and as you say in our culture is often pushed out of social and cultural attention.
Just a note to remind you to proofread your writing before setting it free. There are one or two persistent errors – you use ‘to’ rather than the ‘too’ throughout. Otherwise you write very well and show that you are prepared to explore your thoughts about ongoing and finished work.
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
You evidence full engagement in all of the coursework elements and your blog reveals the learning that is applied between the projects/exercises and the assignment. Your writing and short visual experiments are good and should increasingly feed into and inform your central projects.
Research
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
In your writing you could start to demonstrate that not only have you deployed a ‘deadpan’ approach to each of the portraits, but also that you understand some of the theories that underpin this methodology. See the portraits of Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Ruff as examples of this approach using a large format camera and stripping away any attempt to photograph the individual personality below the surface. If you explore both the work and the writing that sits alongside this type of work you will start to form a more academic understanding. You might even track back to the topographic movement in landscape which was epitomized by the exhibition New Topographics and the lifelong work of the Bechers. They are the pivotal image-makers historically speaking because they then taught that approach to their university students in the Dusseldorf School of Photography in the 1970s. You might also explore the connection between Conceptualism and the deadpan approach. See also the work of Ed Ruscha in the 1970s.
In your practical research I was taken by the plausibility of the image called Skin Tear. I thought that this could be a good starting point for something in the future. I particularly liked the shot taken in the first person which makes it very believable with the hint of the paving slabs in the background.
Learning Log
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Your text oscillates between very personal writing, which touches on an urge on your part (I could have this assumption wrong) to capture and express your feelings which are very complex and deeply felt, and a more formal practical analysis of the methods deployed and the progression and development of your reasoning for the work and how it looks. This is healthy but you might signal to the reader what is what by sub-dividing your writing. You show that you have an excellent appetite to developing a deep understanding of the subject and of the creative problem in hand.
I would liked to have seen how this work could have been extended - or is it limited because of the numbers in your family? Does the work grow outside of you and your loved ones or do you think that your deceased mother would like to ‘see’ more about you and how you live?
Suggested reading/viewing
Paul Wood (Ed), Conceptual Art, Delano Greenridge, 2002
New Topographics, Steidl, (2009)
Various books and articles relating to Dijkstra and Ruff - quite expensive books
Pointers for the next assignment / assessment
Dr. Andy Langford
Date 11 January 2018
Next assignment due
Please remember to include a date here, even for Level 3 students, and even if it is nominal – it is helpful for HQ.
Formative feedback
Student name
Alan Fletcher
Student number 515735
Course/Unit - Context and Narrative
Assignment number 1
Type of tutorial - Written
Overall Comments
Well done on completing this first assignment. This is of course an assignment that helps us to get to know each other a little and will not be a formal element at the assessment point.
At the heart of this assignment is an opportunity to interrogate how two sets of images can have opposite meanings and values despite them sharing the same environment. It was suggested that a snapshot or documentary approach might help to make the images more convincing. Even though you decided to generate a set of images and a set of connected texts I believe that the learning has been effective and that you appreciate the ways that images are manipulated to tell a subjective story for the viewer.
You obviously invested a considerable amount of time and emotional energy working your way through the maze of possible ideas and approaches that might map to the brief. The outcomes and the personal reflection that accompanies the work and research are commendable, but I have made a range of observations below that might enrich the work, or at least help you to think about contexts for new work.
Assessment potential
Assignment 1
You may want to get credit for your hard work and achievements with the OCA by formally submitting your work for assessment at the end of the module. More and more people are taking the idea of lifelong learning seriously by submitting their work for assessment but it is entirely up to you. We are just as keen to support you whether you study for pleasure or to gain qualifications. Please consider whether you want to put your work forward for assessment and let me know your decision when you submit Assignment 2. I can then give you feedback on how well your work meets the assessment requirements.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Look again at the exposures to ensure that they share a common tonality. The postcard needs also to be very neutral in terms of colour balance. As the picture of you and your wife was one of the key catalysts for the whole body of work this should be the touchstone for the rest. As well as this image projecting a strong emotional intensity from each of you, and between you, it does seem to be the key that sets up the dialogue and contrast between the image and the text sides of the set of postcards. In the images of your son and daughter I would try to edit these so that they achieve something approaching the aesthetic character of the picture of you both. I do agree with your analysis that you need to be consistent and use a tripod. Look at the skin tones to see what you are aiming for. With the cat picture – although you justified this more animated shot - you might want to stick firmly to your decision to juxtapose the deadpan records of your life with the much more expressive and open writing on the rear of each card.
I love the idea of creating the work that is directed to your mother who passed away some years ago and I appreciate the cultural and social landscape of the family, our lives (as complex experiences) and the place of the photograph. Try to track down the early work of Jo Spence who explored the family album and wrote extensively about this. There are many others.
The size and format of the card is working very well. This gives the final form of the work a touch of nostalgia, it offers something much more suggestive of tactility and human touch/scale and it returns the image back to a being a physical artifact and not something always seen through the screen.
You might consider if these images were being shown publically how they might be displayed. You have created a viewing experience where the spectator is looking in to a private and personal world of the family so I do think that it’s incumbent on you to develop your basic understanding of a few other photographers whose work falls into this area of practice. See the everyday post-it notes of Keith Arnatt to his wife – sadly Keith passed away a few years agao.
In your reflective evaluation you do identify a range of strengths and weaknesses. Some of these are simply bullet points at the end and some are much more detailed and embedded in your thinking and reasoning for the work.
At the heart of your endeavor seems to be a desire to explore personal grief and loss. This is such an important subject and as you say in our culture is often pushed out of social and cultural attention.
Just a note to remind you to proofread your writing before setting it free. There are one or two persistent errors – you use ‘to’ rather than the ‘too’ throughout. Otherwise you write very well and show that you are prepared to explore your thoughts about ongoing and finished work.
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
You evidence full engagement in all of the coursework elements and your blog reveals the learning that is applied between the projects/exercises and the assignment. Your writing and short visual experiments are good and should increasingly feed into and inform your central projects.
Research
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
In your writing you could start to demonstrate that not only have you deployed a ‘deadpan’ approach to each of the portraits, but also that you understand some of the theories that underpin this methodology. See the portraits of Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Ruff as examples of this approach using a large format camera and stripping away any attempt to photograph the individual personality below the surface. If you explore both the work and the writing that sits alongside this type of work you will start to form a more academic understanding. You might even track back to the topographic movement in landscape which was epitomized by the exhibition New Topographics and the lifelong work of the Bechers. They are the pivotal image-makers historically speaking because they then taught that approach to their university students in the Dusseldorf School of Photography in the 1970s. You might also explore the connection between Conceptualism and the deadpan approach. See also the work of Ed Ruscha in the 1970s.
In your practical research I was taken by the plausibility of the image called Skin Tear. I thought that this could be a good starting point for something in the future. I particularly liked the shot taken in the first person which makes it very believable with the hint of the paving slabs in the background.
Learning Log
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Your text oscillates between very personal writing, which touches on an urge on your part (I could have this assumption wrong) to capture and express your feelings which are very complex and deeply felt, and a more formal practical analysis of the methods deployed and the progression and development of your reasoning for the work and how it looks. This is healthy but you might signal to the reader what is what by sub-dividing your writing. You show that you have an excellent appetite to developing a deep understanding of the subject and of the creative problem in hand.
I would liked to have seen how this work could have been extended - or is it limited because of the numbers in your family? Does the work grow outside of you and your loved ones or do you think that your deceased mother would like to ‘see’ more about you and how you live?
Suggested reading/viewing
Paul Wood (Ed), Conceptual Art, Delano Greenridge, 2002
New Topographics, Steidl, (2009)
Various books and articles relating to Dijkstra and Ruff - quite expensive books
Pointers for the next assignment / assessment
- Arrange your writing to help differentiate between formal analysis and other personal or poetic forms
- Pay particular attention to the process of taking the images and in post-production to ensure the images are tonally consistent.
- Identify and develop your knowledge of the keys terms of deadpan, conceptualism and explore other photographers whose work is concerned with the family, loss and memory
Dr. Andy Langford
Date 11 January 2018
Next assignment due
Please remember to include a date here, even for Level 3 students, and even if it is nominal – it is helpful for HQ.
Formative feedback Annotation
Reflective Summary
A positive start to CAN
Continue to take risks but ask the question is the work justifiable in approach, subject - is the learning/ research process applicable
Continue my current approach to work
Focus more on finer technical control (not going to happen over night)
Think about equipment available and the impact it has on final image
Check Exposures
Colour Balance
Post Edit
Proofread
Current photographic experimentation is good and is working
Things to look into for the future - Do not get to bogged down with it, small, short and relevant if it not applicable to the work don't write about it.
Public Vs Private, Family, Death, Grief, Social and Cultural Landscape, Object, Memory, Self
Conceptualism and Deadpan
Photographer to Research/ Look at - Do not get to bogged down with it, small, short and relevant if it not applicable to the work don't write about it.
Jo Spence
Keith Arnatt - Everyday Post it Notes
Rineke Dijkstra
Thomas Ruff
Bechers
Ed Ruscha
Detailed Annotation
Overall Comments
Well done on completing this first assignment. This is a positive start to work from This is of course an assignment that helps us to get to know each other a little and will not be a formal element at the assessment point.
At the heart of this assignment is an opportunity to interrogate how two sets of images can have opposite meanings and values despite them sharing the same environment. It was suggested that a snapshot or documentary approach might help to make the images more convincing. Even though you decided to generate a set of images and a set of connected texts I believe that the learning has been effective and that you appreciate the ways that images are manipulated to tell a subjective story for the viewer. This is potentially good judgment, I decided to explore alternatives to the concept of “Two Sides“ by not performing documentary or snapshot. Slightly risky but my learning and understanding has justified the approach. Continue check learning, understanding and ask myself is it a justifiable approach.
You obviously invested a considerable amount of time and emotional energy working your way through the maze of possible ideas and approaches that might map to the brief. The outcomes and the personal reflection that accompanies the work and research are commendable This need to continue, it is same approach I took in EVY and it feels natural to work this way, but I have made a range of observations below that might enrich the work, or at least help you to think about contexts for new work.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Look again at the exposures to ensure that they share a common tonality. This something I need to consciously think about not just post but during the shoot – look a little more closer. The postcard needs also to be very neutral in terms of colour balance The issues of the colour balance of the postcards is a matching reflection to my own thoughts. As the picture of you and your wife was one of the key catalysts for the whole body of work Matching thought this should be the
touchstone for the rest. I thought it continued throughout just in a slightly different way although the idea and the importance of touchstone is something I need to think a little bit more about and keep in mind As well as this image projecting a strong emotional intensity from each of you, and between you, it does seem to be the key that sets up the dialogue and contrast between the image and the text The fact I identified the strength of this single image out of 200 shows good judgment. sides of the set of postcards. In the images of your son and daughter I would try to edit these so that they achieve something approaching the aesthetic character of the picture of you both. This feeds back to the touchstone I do agree with your analysis that you need to be consistent and use a tripod Matching thought. Look at the skin tones to see what you are aiming for. With the cat picture – although you justified this more animated shot - you might want to stick firmly to your decision to juxtapose the deadpan records of your life with the much more expressive and open writing on the rear of each card. This cat image is of them weird little things that part of you feels it should be removed and the other part feels it should be left in. Good to see that the justification has worked but Andrew point is equally valid. Something was said in a google hangout regarding the elements of humor that is present in the postcards – something else to think about.
I love the idea of creating the work that is directed to your mother who passed away some years ago and I appreciate the cultural and social landscape of the family, our lives (as complex experiences) and the place of the photograph This is an area of understanding I need to slowly build this subject and theory . Try to track down the early work of Jo Spence who explored the family album and wrote extensively about this Research Jo Spence. There are many others.
The size and format of the card is working very well. This gives the final form of the work a touch of nostalgia I do need to re scan the postcards if I am to present has such to ensure that the image is the same size of the postcard. There slight nostalgia is there but I never talk about it during thoughts and research consider nostalgia , it offers something much more suggestive of tactility and human touch/scale and it returns the image back to a being a physical artifact and not something always seen through the screen. This is something that I explored in EVY.
You might consider if these images were being shown publically how they might be displayed. You have created a viewing experience where the spectator is looking in to a private and personal world of the family Again something that touched on in EVY the public and the private, in terms of the display/ presentation of the postcards in public I am unsure how I would do this so I do think that it’s incumbent on you to develop your basic understanding of a few other photographers whose work falls into this area of practice. See the everyday post-it notes of Keith Arnatt to his wife – sadly Keith passed away a few years agao. Research Keith Arnatt – Everyday post it notes
In your reflective evaluation you do identify a range of strengths and weaknesses. Some of these are simply bullet points at the end and some are much more detailed and embedded in your thinking and reasoning for the work. Continue
At the heart of your endeavor seems to be a desire to explore personal grief and loss. This is such an important subject and as you say in our culture is often pushed out of social and cultural attention. Slowly build understanding of subject matter and theory
Just a note to remind you to proofread your writing before setting it free. There are one or two persistent errors this is a difficult area for me, I often drop words, spelling and gramma is weak, I will try to proof read to improve things – you use ‘to’ rather than the ‘too’ throughout. Otherwise you write very well and show that you are prepared to explore your thoughts about ongoing and finished work. Continue
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
You evidence full engagement in all of the coursework elements and your blog reveals the learning that is applied between the projects/exercises and the assignment. Your writing and short visual experiments are good and should increasingly feed into and inform your central projects. I hope to shoot more in terms of experiments - will, won't it work and the occasional surprise result is something I enjoy playing with, continue with short work building them up into the assignments
Research
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
In your writing you could start to demonstrate that not only have you deployed a ‘deadpan’ approach to each of the portraits, but also that you understand some of the theories that underpin this methodology. See the portraits of Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Ruff. Research Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Ruff, start small in terms of writing on theory and it may beginning to slowly feed in work. as examples of this approach using a large format camera and stripping away any attempt to photograph the individual personality below the surface. If you explore both the work and the writing that sits alongside this type of work you will start to form a more academic understanding. You might even track back to the topographic movement in landscape which was epitomized by the exhibition New Topographics and the lifelong work of the Bechers. Research Bechers They are the pivotal image-makers historically speaking because they then taught that approach to their university students in the Dusseldorf School of Photography in the 1970s. You might also explore the connection between Conceptualism and the deadpan approach. See also the work of Ed Ruscha in the 1970s. Research Ed Ruscha, conceptualism and the connection between Deadpan.
In your practical research I was taken by the plausibility of the image called Skin Tear. I thought that this could be a good starting point for something in the future. I particularly liked the shot taken in the first person which makes it very believable with the hint of the paving slabs in the background. This type of approach is a consideration for Assignment 5 but we will see how the unit develops
Learning Log
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Your text oscillates between very personal writing, which touches on an urge on your part (I could have this assumption wrong) to capture and express your feelings which are very complex and deeply felt, and a more formal practical analysis of the methods deployed and the progression and development of your reasoning for the work and how it looks. This way of writing is a natural approach almost similar to the way I thinking and approach things, it stops me from becoming bored. But I can see how it could confuse the reader by switching between informal and formal, but I feel for the time being that this current way of writing has the potential to form a more engaging approach. Of course I will have to bare in mind that this format/ style of writing is not suitable for Academic Essays. This is healthy but you might signal to the reader what is what by sub-dividing your writing. You show that you have an excellent appetite to developing a deep understanding of the subject and of the creative problem in hand. Continue
I would liked to have seen how this work could have been extended - or is it limited because of the numbers in your family? Does the work grow outside of you and your loved ones or do you think that your deceased mother would like to ‘see’ more about you and how you live? This I guess that is an ongoing exploration of self, family, death, grief, memory, object. I am current unsure where this is going if I was to be honest
Suggested reading/viewing
Paul Wood (Ed), Conceptual Art, Delano Greenridge, 2002
New Topographics, Steidl, (2009)
Various books and articles relating to Dijkstra and Ruff - quite expensive books
Pointers for the next assignment / assessment
Tutor name
Dr. Andy Langford
Date
11 January 2018
Reflective Summary
A positive start to CAN
Continue to take risks but ask the question is the work justifiable in approach, subject - is the learning/ research process applicable
Continue my current approach to work
Focus more on finer technical control (not going to happen over night)
Think about equipment available and the impact it has on final image
Check Exposures
Colour Balance
Post Edit
Proofread
Current photographic experimentation is good and is working
Things to look into for the future - Do not get to bogged down with it, small, short and relevant if it not applicable to the work don't write about it.
Public Vs Private, Family, Death, Grief, Social and Cultural Landscape, Object, Memory, Self
Conceptualism and Deadpan
Photographer to Research/ Look at - Do not get to bogged down with it, small, short and relevant if it not applicable to the work don't write about it.
Jo Spence
Keith Arnatt - Everyday Post it Notes
Rineke Dijkstra
Thomas Ruff
Bechers
Ed Ruscha
Detailed Annotation
Overall Comments
Well done on completing this first assignment. This is a positive start to work from This is of course an assignment that helps us to get to know each other a little and will not be a formal element at the assessment point.
At the heart of this assignment is an opportunity to interrogate how two sets of images can have opposite meanings and values despite them sharing the same environment. It was suggested that a snapshot or documentary approach might help to make the images more convincing. Even though you decided to generate a set of images and a set of connected texts I believe that the learning has been effective and that you appreciate the ways that images are manipulated to tell a subjective story for the viewer. This is potentially good judgment, I decided to explore alternatives to the concept of “Two Sides“ by not performing documentary or snapshot. Slightly risky but my learning and understanding has justified the approach. Continue check learning, understanding and ask myself is it a justifiable approach.
You obviously invested a considerable amount of time and emotional energy working your way through the maze of possible ideas and approaches that might map to the brief. The outcomes and the personal reflection that accompanies the work and research are commendable This need to continue, it is same approach I took in EVY and it feels natural to work this way, but I have made a range of observations below that might enrich the work, or at least help you to think about contexts for new work.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Look again at the exposures to ensure that they share a common tonality. This something I need to consciously think about not just post but during the shoot – look a little more closer. The postcard needs also to be very neutral in terms of colour balance The issues of the colour balance of the postcards is a matching reflection to my own thoughts. As the picture of you and your wife was one of the key catalysts for the whole body of work Matching thought this should be the
touchstone for the rest. I thought it continued throughout just in a slightly different way although the idea and the importance of touchstone is something I need to think a little bit more about and keep in mind As well as this image projecting a strong emotional intensity from each of you, and between you, it does seem to be the key that sets up the dialogue and contrast between the image and the text The fact I identified the strength of this single image out of 200 shows good judgment. sides of the set of postcards. In the images of your son and daughter I would try to edit these so that they achieve something approaching the aesthetic character of the picture of you both. This feeds back to the touchstone I do agree with your analysis that you need to be consistent and use a tripod Matching thought. Look at the skin tones to see what you are aiming for. With the cat picture – although you justified this more animated shot - you might want to stick firmly to your decision to juxtapose the deadpan records of your life with the much more expressive and open writing on the rear of each card. This cat image is of them weird little things that part of you feels it should be removed and the other part feels it should be left in. Good to see that the justification has worked but Andrew point is equally valid. Something was said in a google hangout regarding the elements of humor that is present in the postcards – something else to think about.
I love the idea of creating the work that is directed to your mother who passed away some years ago and I appreciate the cultural and social landscape of the family, our lives (as complex experiences) and the place of the photograph This is an area of understanding I need to slowly build this subject and theory . Try to track down the early work of Jo Spence who explored the family album and wrote extensively about this Research Jo Spence. There are many others.
The size and format of the card is working very well. This gives the final form of the work a touch of nostalgia I do need to re scan the postcards if I am to present has such to ensure that the image is the same size of the postcard. There slight nostalgia is there but I never talk about it during thoughts and research consider nostalgia , it offers something much more suggestive of tactility and human touch/scale and it returns the image back to a being a physical artifact and not something always seen through the screen. This is something that I explored in EVY.
You might consider if these images were being shown publically how they might be displayed. You have created a viewing experience where the spectator is looking in to a private and personal world of the family Again something that touched on in EVY the public and the private, in terms of the display/ presentation of the postcards in public I am unsure how I would do this so I do think that it’s incumbent on you to develop your basic understanding of a few other photographers whose work falls into this area of practice. See the everyday post-it notes of Keith Arnatt to his wife – sadly Keith passed away a few years agao. Research Keith Arnatt – Everyday post it notes
In your reflective evaluation you do identify a range of strengths and weaknesses. Some of these are simply bullet points at the end and some are much more detailed and embedded in your thinking and reasoning for the work. Continue
At the heart of your endeavor seems to be a desire to explore personal grief and loss. This is such an important subject and as you say in our culture is often pushed out of social and cultural attention. Slowly build understanding of subject matter and theory
Just a note to remind you to proofread your writing before setting it free. There are one or two persistent errors this is a difficult area for me, I often drop words, spelling and gramma is weak, I will try to proof read to improve things – you use ‘to’ rather than the ‘too’ throughout. Otherwise you write very well and show that you are prepared to explore your thoughts about ongoing and finished work. Continue
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
You evidence full engagement in all of the coursework elements and your blog reveals the learning that is applied between the projects/exercises and the assignment. Your writing and short visual experiments are good and should increasingly feed into and inform your central projects. I hope to shoot more in terms of experiments - will, won't it work and the occasional surprise result is something I enjoy playing with, continue with short work building them up into the assignments
Research
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
In your writing you could start to demonstrate that not only have you deployed a ‘deadpan’ approach to each of the portraits, but also that you understand some of the theories that underpin this methodology. See the portraits of Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Ruff. Research Rineke Dijkstra and Thomas Ruff, start small in terms of writing on theory and it may beginning to slowly feed in work. as examples of this approach using a large format camera and stripping away any attempt to photograph the individual personality below the surface. If you explore both the work and the writing that sits alongside this type of work you will start to form a more academic understanding. You might even track back to the topographic movement in landscape which was epitomized by the exhibition New Topographics and the lifelong work of the Bechers. Research Bechers They are the pivotal image-makers historically speaking because they then taught that approach to their university students in the Dusseldorf School of Photography in the 1970s. You might also explore the connection between Conceptualism and the deadpan approach. See also the work of Ed Ruscha in the 1970s. Research Ed Ruscha, conceptualism and the connection between Deadpan.
In your practical research I was taken by the plausibility of the image called Skin Tear. I thought that this could be a good starting point for something in the future. I particularly liked the shot taken in the first person which makes it very believable with the hint of the paving slabs in the background. This type of approach is a consideration for Assignment 5 but we will see how the unit develops
Learning Log
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Your text oscillates between very personal writing, which touches on an urge on your part (I could have this assumption wrong) to capture and express your feelings which are very complex and deeply felt, and a more formal practical analysis of the methods deployed and the progression and development of your reasoning for the work and how it looks. This way of writing is a natural approach almost similar to the way I thinking and approach things, it stops me from becoming bored. But I can see how it could confuse the reader by switching between informal and formal, but I feel for the time being that this current way of writing has the potential to form a more engaging approach. Of course I will have to bare in mind that this format/ style of writing is not suitable for Academic Essays. This is healthy but you might signal to the reader what is what by sub-dividing your writing. You show that you have an excellent appetite to developing a deep understanding of the subject and of the creative problem in hand. Continue
I would liked to have seen how this work could have been extended - or is it limited because of the numbers in your family? Does the work grow outside of you and your loved ones or do you think that your deceased mother would like to ‘see’ more about you and how you live? This I guess that is an ongoing exploration of self, family, death, grief, memory, object. I am current unsure where this is going if I was to be honest
Suggested reading/viewing
Paul Wood (Ed), Conceptual Art, Delano Greenridge, 2002
New Topographics, Steidl, (2009)
Various books and articles relating to Dijkstra and Ruff - quite expensive books
Pointers for the next assignment / assessment
- Arrange your writing to help differentiate between formal analysis and other personal or poetic forms
- Pay particular attention to the process of taking the images and in post-production to ensure the images are tonally consistent.
- Identify and develop your knowledge of the keys terms of deadpan, conceptualism and explore other photographers whose work is concerned with the family, loss and memory
Tutor name
Dr. Andy Langford
Date
11 January 2018