LO1: Produce convincing visual products that communicate your intentions, using accomplished techniques in complex and unfamiliar environments, with minimal supervision from your tutor
The full impact of the world pandemic hit New Zealand in early March and this has resulted in the expansion of possible themes for my Body of Work and investigating alternatives and even looking at archive images and experimenting with images that I had already taken, as the duration of the lockdown was not known. I still have over 12 months to complete but exploring other avenues will enrich the final submission. So, while I waited for lockdown to end I progressed four parallel themes:
Theme 1: Ngawi as a place and space. This has revolved around the location and the people who live there, pulling from my initial visit and photo shoot session to the responses I obtained from my letter request. How people live and work in the area and how younger families cope with the isolation and the pandemic. Images for this can be found:
Theme 2: Based around the work I had seen by Andy Spain and others as detailed in my Work in Progress blog, I tried to create a series of panorama images with the idea of producing a concertina book: Images can be seen here:
Theme 3: Following an on-line talk I realised that if lockdown were to continue until the end of course I needed something more than the few images under theme 1, so I started to think about the issues that would affect the people of Ngawi the most and that was the loss of the ability to catch cray and ship to China. I had previously researched the work by Paul Hill and his daily images of the dead badger on his walks in the Dales of the UK, so his badger became my cray. A full explanation and pictures of the set up can be found here, and images of the cray can be found:
Theme 4: This came about during a talk and photo shoot of one of the residents of Ngawi. She runs the local food cabin on the shore front and mentioned that there were only eight women living full time in Ngawi, the rest were ‘weekenders’ or tourists hiring bachs for the weekend. I discussed this within one of the forums I attend, and we brainstormed the idea of trying to photograph just this small group. To discover how they cope, live and deal with the mental health situations associated with the remote location. Images from each session can be found:
LO2: Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of your area of specialisation and be able to situate your own work within a larger context of practice in your field
With a new tutor onboard feedback has been received for Assignments 1 & 2, but there has been some what of a gap until submission of Assignment 3. This time has been spent taking advantage of online resources, talks and student forums. These have all been documented in the following areas of my blog:
Work in Progress: April 2020, May 2020, June 2020, July 2020, August 2020 and September 2020
Thoughts and Reflections: April 2020, May 2020, June 2020, July 2020, August 2020 and September 2020
Exhibitions and Presentations: here
LO3: transform abstract concepts and ideas into rich narratives and integrate them in your images
This period of the course has resulted in a lot of reflection and research as can be seen in the above links. The lockdown in some ways has caused a number of challenges and rework on my initial thoughts around the project but I think there is a strong potential in theme 4 but also continuing to explore and grow the other ideas.
The move by the OCA to only accept electronic/digital submissions is a real disappointment as I think the strongest part of this course is the ability to produce prints and experimenting with alternative methods of printing is something I would like to do in SYP and have booked on a course to learn how to do Platinum and Palladium later in the year – lockdown permitting. With this change in mind I need to explore other possibilities of how to display my final set.
LO4: Critically review your own work and evaluate it against desired outcomes
A full critical review of this part of the course can be found in my Assignment 3 submission here.
LO5: Demonstrate management, leadership and communication skills and have deployed them during the negotiation and production of the final body of work with your tutor and third parties
The inability of being able to return to Ngawi for a large portion of the time has resulting in me managing to maximise my time on line and addressing research through online forums and presentations provided around the world.
I have also planned for and executed a series of communications with residents from Ngawi and once lockdown was over managed to make contact, arrange times and complete a series of photo sessions, all of which has been documented in my Work in Progress and Thoughts and Reflections for the period to date.
Time spent with each of the women has resulted in the next contact. The time to get to know them, their lives and how they came to live in Ngawi has helped me become a better photographer and I hope this shows in the images. The approach is very much the documentary, an observer, getting them to relax has helped me relax and I believe this shows in my work.
I have continued to show my work with the student forums I attend; the Rest of the World Group, Documentary and Level 3 Support Group. I keep a record of attendance and the feedback which is more informal at this stage as the project is still progressing and I haven’t finalised the final set.
Following Assignment 1 and 2 and the feedback received as this was a joint review I have provided thoughts on this here. For Assignment 3 my reflections have been captured in my Work in Progress blog and I have undertaken research as directed on the aspects of male v female environments, work and gender, artists such as Mark Neville, Jo Coates and Sophie Gerrard and Chris Killip. I also looked at the more formal style of portrait work by Grace Lau and my own tutors projects; Aspirations, and The Desire Project
Michele Usher 