Formative feedback
| Student name | Michele Usher | Student number | 512879 |
| Course/Unit | 3: Body of Work | Assignment number | 5 |
| Type of tutorial | AV |
Overall Comments
You’ve progressed to an edit. There are many photographs that work well. Corral them into a cohesive series and don’t be afraid to leave out the distractions. You are very close!
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Notes from, and in addition to, our video tutorial –
[my extra notes in italics]
The work/images are there but the format and editing needs more work
You have now completed photographing. Editing, contextualisation, presentation and dissemination are now your key concerns.
- Try and figure out what you are trying to say, is it isolation, place, gender, mental health (which should link to CS), voice/representation (also CS)?
You can, of course, have multiple themes. But if you choose one central focus, there will be space to talk about the others. The bigger series, the more complexity you can show. Of course, MH, isn’t just one thing that can be isolated and photographed, it relates to many other factors, and in many ways it can’t be ‘shown’.
As you note, this is a great chance to inform/link to Contextual Studies.
- Look at the books and work of Allan Sekula ‘Fish Story’, Alfredo Jaar ‘Let there be Light: The Rwanda Project 1994-1998, and any of the three books by John Berger.
All the references we have spoken about have multiple themes – and often use multiple devices to speak about them. But each could ultimately be boiled down to one; globalisation, genocide, and in the case of Berger and Mohr,
country life, immigration and peasant life.
- Re- edit as it seems too structured/ordered
We spoke about the labelling. Let the images speak. Group thematically rather than by arbitrary photographic terms.
Do a number of edits. Aim for the smallest possible that speaks of isolation, say, then keep adding till it speaks about isolation and effect on work, home life, etc etc. Edit in the light of each reference; Sekula would be visually sparse, with chunks of contextualising texts, Berger would experiment with pages of Mohr’s images without text – James Agee felt that Walker Evans told the whole story in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, but they probably didn’t then, and now almost a century later their meanings are slipping. Key is to immerse yourself in it, then take a big step back and ask, “what does this say?” You have to forget all your favourites, your photos that have personal connections and look at the project with fresh eyes each time. Which edit does the job?
We noted last time that this is an iterative process. Use peers to help with each edit.
Reminder from last time;
‘This is an iterative process that will get the best out of all the groundwork you have done on site. The output needs to be cohesive, so rigorously keep reassessing images against the criteria you have set for them. Does each one help build the story you want to tell?’
The presentation via Vimeo worked reasonably well. Essentially it is a time based presentation – weigh up its merits versus allowing viewers to control how they view your work.
Obviously the final presentation changes, there’s still time to weigh up book/exhibition/online/filmed outputs. What best achieves your aims for your work?
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
Decent evidence of work on blog.
Research
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Really push on your references to inform this stage of the process.
Learning Log
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Well written and illustrated.
Suggested reading/viewing
Context
See above. Write up reflections or reviews on your blog.
Michele Usher 