Following Assignment Five and the re-edit I asked three professional photographers to review my work, only two kindly responded to my request; Nick Servian and Andy Spain. This section details their responses
Nick Servian
The following details the feed back from Nick Servian a New Zealand Professional Photographer on my website. Following his comments changes to the website were made:
Andy Spain
Here I have included my initial email request as some back ground to his response
Hi Andy
Hope this finds you will. Not sure if you can remember our discussions on Ngawi but I can finally see a small light at the end of the tunnel (not sure if its a train though) and need to submit.
I wanted to send prints but that’s not possible with the wonderful COVID situation so I’m drafting a book (only has to be a mock up as the last part of course covers getting work out to the public) and have produced a short video for assessment due in September. I’m hoping you have five minutes to give take a look and give some feedback, I know you are probably busy with NZIPP and your own projects etc but any feedback would be welcome.
Background:
This series has been created around the coastal community of Ngawi (pronounced ‘naa-wee’). A small fishing village which is located just five kilometres from Cape Palliser, the southernmost point of New Zealand’s North Island. Known for having more bulldozers per capita than permanent residents this project scratches the hard-male surface and discovers what is holding the community together, the very backbone under the shell.
The location is exposed, with intense and prolonged periods of high winds and heat during the summer months. With very few trees, what kind of person is prepared to endure these conditions? Only the strongest it seems. Regardless of the media headlines of declining mental health conditions within rural New Zealand communities the strength lies within the softer gender in this location. They are the ones holding things together, making do and patching up both mentally and physically.
Video can be found here: https://ushermichele69.myportfolio.com/
Thanks so much – happy to provide beer/wine/coffee
Michele
On Mon, Jun 28, 2021 at 4:10 PM Andy <andy@asvisual.nz> wrote:
Hi Michele,
I don’t remember that much about our first chat, something about doing a panorama wasn’t it?
I like what you are doing now, so will splurge out some quick thoughts….
It needs an edit as some photos almost duplicate others. Less is more and all that.
If this is a portrait of Ngawi then I am not sure I would make the separate headings as the collision of a portrait and an artifact (or a landscape) create more impact and add to the flow of the project as a story of the place and people. For example… the person making the fish and chips is a bit boring on her own but add to it the close ups of the actual fish and chips and packaging and it looks great, throw in a landscape and it looks even better. I might even consider it as a series of triptychs; person, thing and place…. Hard to separate the person from place, the person looks like the place etc…
Ask yourself why some are black and white and some are colour, is there a good reason?
Maybe it needs text or sound – did you record the voices at all or the songs of the waves? Did they have interesting stories?
It’s a great little piece and you should be really pleased – just a bit of tightening up – don’t be afraid to edit even if you know that you are losing hours or days of the time you spent on it as it will make the end project hang together better.
I am always too critical so don’t take offence, I hope it’s constructive.
Happy to meet for a coffee sometime if it helps.
Cheers
Andy
0204 078 0222
www.asvisual.nz
Michele Usher 