Finally addressed my tutor feedback from Assignment 1

This post is well overdue, but I have finally identified some replacement images for Assignment 1 and re-worked some of the supporting commentary in line with Simon’s feedback. Final version is available via the page link on the right or here

Assignment 1: Tutor Feedback

Been several weeks now since I got my tutors feedback on Assignment 1, but I wanted to have  a chat with him about a couple of things before writing up my reflections/thoughts/reactions etc. Done that now and as with the previous couple of calls it has been very helpful in sorting out some things running around my head.

Purely practical

A couple of the comments are purely practical and, as I agree with them, can be implemented without further ado. Springboard diving – Image 3: a slightly tighter crop at the top to reduce the amount of background seems very sensible, as does the suggestion to do something about the extraneous blackbird in Image 5 – Rifle Final

Image alignment with concept and assignment

Image 10 – Beach volleyball: Simon felt this was being shoehorned into the concept, and on reflection I think I agree with this. In particular his point that the beach is too dark to be seen seems spot on. I obviously can’t retake it as that defeats the concept so I may have to substitute another image/sport. In the Jari Silomaki set I referenced the link between the image and the news item is sometimes tenuous at best, but in my case I am trying to engage in visual punnery so I feel different ‘rules’ apply.

In a related vein he notes that the opening and closing images suit the concept well but it wasn’t clear what they said about summer. In mind at least the first was intended as a comment about the peacefulness on summer in my part of Cumbria (in contrast to the madness of the opening ceremony), and the second made a point about how rapidly summer fades. I have a couple of choices: the first is to change the shots – but then I lose the top and tail of the set. The second is to explain my thinking more clearly – so I’ll be going for that option.

Tension between the allegory and the assignment and final portfolio

By this I mean that some of the images suit the sports well but maybe illustrate the feeling of season less well. I was aware of this tension as I proceeded, especially as the concept required that I take photos in less than summery conditions. While I acknowledge it as a tension I believe it is something I have to live with. The simple truth is that summer in my bit of Cumbria is frequently damp and grey – I can choose to pretend it isn’t so, or I can represent as it is. In the context of this isolated assignment I saw no issue with this. For me this particular summer was about the Olympics, and if I didn’t capture that idea in some shape or form I would be missing an important facet of the summer.

This lack of summeriness also provides some tensions for the final portfolio. Would I be able to find other major events to hang the other seasons off, and how do I differentiate the summer shots from spring or autumn (as Simon pointed out). Had I carried this concept forward I might well have found that I was forced into a less honest edit with some essentially false seasonal differentiation, and a much weaker concept because I would not have had the headline events to hang the future images on.

In reality however I was already fairly committed to this idea before the penny dropped that I really need to use the course as an opportunity for exploring my interests photographically, rather than as a set of exercises to be completed in a tick box sort of way. My final conversation with Simon was about the potential for submitting this assignment, and substituting three entirely different images in the final portfolio. Happily we have agreed, and I have confirmed with the office, that this is appropriate given that I have now had an opportunity to think about the overall direction of my interests.

For me this was another key piece of learning – a lightbulb moment – a clear concept certainly helps with a brief, but even more important – at least in the context of academic study - is a clear concept that fits into a structure, so that I am not simply leaping from one unrelated idea to the next.  If I want to take my photography beyond simply shooting whatever comes to mind I need to understand what it is that interests me and why, and then work out how I can use photography to investigate it.

I think that my recent posts show a couple of clear threads – one associated with perspective, and one associated with the idea of portraying time in a single image. I haven’t got my thoughts quite clear on these yet, but I’m pretty sure that’s the direction in which my final portfolio lies.

For the meantime this has been an extremely useful assignment. I need to make it as good as I can, make sure I heed the lessons and move on. The next challenge is taking these thoughts forward into Assignment 2.

Olympic Landscapes

Still a little unsure as to whether it will hit the button for Assignment 1 – The Season, but I’m having fun with my Olympic Landscapes – Cumbria 2012 series. I started off a little bit cynical – there was an awful lot of media hype in the run-up, when in reality, where I live it has essentially zero impact. That said, you would have to be made of stone not to get caught up in the success of Team GB and the shots have got a little more light hearted as the days have progressed. The real challenge, especially during the week, is being around for key finals and events – it makes little sense if I take the shots when I’m away on business, but so far I’ve been reasonably lucky.

Have been reading (still) Land Matters by Liz Wells and it seems my series may have some common ground with ‘My Weather Diary’ by Jari Silomaki. Will be looking him up ASAP. (EDIT: Have done this – other than his shots and mine relating everyday events to something more newsworthy, I would struggle to find a link.)

In the meantime I have the chance today to do a couple of shots for the sailing final, the badminton finals equestrian events and the 3000m steeplechase – I have some ideas in hand for each. I’m also tempted to pop down to the shoreline and try something for the beach volleyball while I have the chance.

Two Assignment Ideas: Olympic Landscapes and Objectivity

Have a project to keep myself amused for the next couple of weeks, which spins out of the growing realisation that a lot of landscape can be about conveying a message of some kind rather than simply portraying beauty, or any of the other states of land.. Need to thank Liz Wells for that, as I’ve been reading Landscape Matters for the last couple of weeks.

Not sure what sparked the idea, but I was wondering how I could convey the idea that the Olympics – for all that I’m pleased (proud even) we’re hosting them – have essentially zero impact here in NW Cumbria and at the same time fulfil the requirements of Assignment 1 of Landscape course. So my aim for the next two weeks is to shoot the landscape of the area as it usually is in the summer – green, quiet and with absolutely nothing happening – at the times of headline events during the Olympics.

The LOCOG website is a handy resource with the anticipated timings of all the big finals and events – opening ceremony, sprints, cycle racing, rowing, sailing, beach volleyball and so on. Should give me plenty to work with, and I’m thinking that I might even be able to provide some visual clues to the events with a bit of imagination – reeds for the javelin, country lane for the road races, rabbits for the long–jump etc. Not going to push this too far as the aim is not really to be too humorous but hopefully there’s some merit in the idea.

The second idea also pans out of reading Liz Wells and Charlotte Cotton and reflecting on objectivity, deadpan and New Topographics. As far as I can tell at this stage objectivity was about a reaction to pictorialism, and dead pan is its more recent offspring, while New Topographics was a reaction to the photographic myth of the Amercian West or American sublime. Either way the implication in both themes is that they represent a somehow more accurate – more objective – view of the world than previous movements, even if the photographers themselves did not always make that claim.

But is this true – New Topographics concentrated on the edge of urban sprawl – it chimed with the growing environmental awareness of the American chattering classes and seems to have served as a launch pad for a strand of photography that details mans incursion into the environment. And yet, this view is no more accurate or objective than the myth of the American West it replaced. Even now less than 6% of the land area of America is built on.

Objectivity/deadpan is equally open to question – who says that the most objective way of photographing blast furnaces is from the front in flat lighting. Well the Becher’s did, and they are clearly entitled to that view, but it was still their choice – one they made to ensure that their typographies were consistent and comparable. By the same token the photographers represented in the New Topographics exhibition made a choice about their subject and the manner in which they chose to portray it, as did the exhibitions curator. I’m not seeking to criticise them for this – clearly they were questioning the zeitgeist, and helping establish a new way of looking – but I think some of the subsequent ideas of objectivity associated with the style are stretching a point.

It seems to me that photos cannot be truly objective while there is a human behind the camera. Which brings me to my project thought. Is it possible to take random, or near random photographs, of an area and if you do how does the impression provided compare with the stereotype or the human ‘objective’ view?

I’ve got some thoughts on a methodology, and with the Lake District reasonably to hand I have a potential subject, but I think I’ll be trying it locally first.

UK Agriculture - Four Seasons

UK Agriculture - Four Seasons:

'via Blog this'

I was thinking about Assignment 1 and in view of the dire weather conditions I concluded that I probably needed some additional guidance to determine what season we're actually in. (I know it's summer really, but you get my point.)
Anyway, i came across this rather fun site which breaks up the year by farming activity. I had thought about weaving this into whatever photos I come up with to represent the season, and this seems a handy resource to make sure I don't accidentally pick the wrong activity.
This sort of thinking also feeds in to Exercise 15, which will require a location that shows distinct seasonal variation - unless, of course, it feels sensible to subvert the whole thing and find a location that does not vary appreciably all year.