T&R August 2020

9^th August 2020

Not a very productive week this week I have to say. I had planned to re-write my Literature Review last weekend and failed – that blank page gets me every time and there were far more interesting things to do outside in the garden.

The 5^th August saw me watch with hope and interest a SheClicks webinar on how to get a project into a book, however the I gained very little insight into the process but gained some interesting advice on always showing my best work and not all the rubbish (well that will reduce my website!), remember to curate, edit and be open to learning (no issue with the latter part of that, don’t think I ever have). The presenter highlighted the need to take risks, be prepared to make mistakes but to learn from them, never fear trying something new and learn from your failures. Full write up on my Exhibitions page.

The 6^th and 7^th included more presentations; a re-play from the Head-On Festival, an 1854 Presents and on from MACK Books, all of which are on the Exhibition page of this blog.

I had planned to walk down to New Zealand Archives on Thursday however due to work meeting that lasted well over its allotted time and was unable to get there before it closed and I needed to get my train home, so I have planned for this week.

Sunday saw me finally locking myself away to rewrite my Literature Review. After a number of failed attempts and trying to rework my suggested plan of the 10^th May I restricted the review into:

Discourse Analysis
Documentary as Social Practice and Engagement
Representation
Community Work and Photo Therapy.

I drafted some bullet points for Assignment Three as per my tutors suggestion and have sent them off for comment. Email confirmation informing me that he was away until the 1^st September – oh well, carry on with the articles I have found that might help the forming of each section.

10^th August 2020

OK going to start the week off on the right foot and make sure I get some stuff sorted this week. Need to chase down another contact within Ngawi, get to the Archives in Wellington and continue with reading papers for Contextual Studies as I have just received email confirmation that my tutor is away until the beginning of September – not good news, but I think I have more of a structure and flow to the essay now and I have found a few more interesting articles to add to my research.

Attended the ‘Rest of the World’ student forum this morning. Two students from the drawing/painting side (Deborah and Roger) and three of us doing photography (Lynda, Mark and myself). Its always interesting to hear about other subjects even if I have never heard of the techniques or theories. Mark gave an up-date on his visit to Christchurch’s Art Gallery and how he managed to get into their archives. Seems like an amazing wealth of hidden information that most people don’t know about. He admitted that he got a little side tracked, went looking for one person but came across a photographer called Tony Vaccaro, a war photographer who was rejected as a photographer for being too young, but was old enough to shoot.

The group had an up-date from Lynda and her first interview, sounded like an amazing character and I think she will have great fun exploring all the avenues her project will through up. I gave a brief up-date and said I was trying to make it to the Archives in Wellington (work permitting!). Stated that if I can’t get any more portraits then I might have to introduce old archive data – Mark offered to send me a link to a NZ website of all the old maps produced over the years.

11^th August 2020

Had booked a place for the 2pm replay by the Head-On Photo Festival of the panel discussion on ‘photography, trauma and healing’. Usually the link to the talk comes through about thirty minutes before the talk (even though it says a hour), but today it didn’t turn up, checked my registration – yep, correct date and time, taking into account the time different to Sydney, but still nothing. Luckily, they also do an 8pm showing so I registered again and so glad I did. I have provided a full write up in the Exhibitions section of this blog.

12^th August 2020

As detailed from my post on the 10^th, Mark sent me the link for the New Zealand map website (http://mapspast.org.nz/ accessed 12/08/2020), this site hosts the ‘latest maps’ as at the last day of each decade from 1899 available as a series. The site is currently working on data available from 1939. All the data has been scanned by the University of Auckland and is based on the information licensed through Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) for re-use under a ‘Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence’. I have added the maps and information to my Work in Progress section of this blog.

14^th August 2020

Usual early Friday start with a log into the 1854 Presents. This week a great presentation by Giya Makondo-Wills a British-South African photographer who’s project ‘They came from the Water while the World Watched’ is based originally on her grandmother but like most things it grew to be so much more. Over a series of visits, she has managed to capture the rich mixture of traditional culture with modern day 21^st Century life and how the return and maintaining the culture is so important. I have provided a full write up in my Exhibitions section to the blog.

I also joined the fortnightly Documentary Student forum where Assignment work was shown and a general catch up was completed. These are always light hearted but we each get some great and honest feedback. The group is a mix of Documentary students and Level 3 with Lynda, Sue and myself offering support and advice as others come to the end of their course. There is some concern around assessment and I have to admit I’m not looking forward to next year and trying to produce a full digital submission as I really want to do an exhibition.

18^th August 2020

So following on from my resubmission of my Literature Review and the general bullet points for Assignment 3 I have continued to review a series of additional articles which I think will be useful for my final submission – might be too early to say but I have made notes and added my thoughts to them and these can be found in the Research section under Contextual Studies on this blog.

I plan to try and draft Assignment 3 with a rough delivery time for the follow sections ready for a discussion with my Tutor on his return.

20^th August 2020

Attended the SheClicks Webinar to gain some insight and improvement in my portrait work but it turned out to be a big disappointment and just a rehash of a previous talk she did so I have to admit I did leave it early to attend our new Level 3 Support Group which is turning out to be a small but supportive and informative session. This was the second and we don’t plan to make the group any bigger so that each time we meet each person can give an overview and show work and receive feedback.

In this session Sarah who is already through the Body of Work and Contextual Studies part gave us her advice on the many pit falls she experienced through the course and in assessment. I took notes and the following points I plan to ensure I cover and use going forward:

Body of Work

Show path to final theme – think I’m doing this with my Work in Progress blog but will make sure I add more of my ideas that I often think of but don’t always document;
Produce test prints and gain peer review – this might have to be virtual now due to pandemic but as we are not in lock down in New Zealand, I might be able to do this;
Show evidence of Research – this is also on my Work in Progress blog so will keep this up and keep adding ideas and thoughts there;
Be active in Student Forums – currently part of the Documentary Group, Rest of World, Level 3 Tutor Led Forum and now the Level 3 Support group – I make notes and write up here – think I might have to pull all these out and add a new page, but as I don’t always have extensive notes from the sessions I might just form a page of links to posts.

Contextual Studies

Log book – make lots of notes, I currently have two (and growing), but how do we show this if we can’t send in physical material? Sarah suggested photographing and adding as a pdf or even videoing.
Allocate more time than you think to clean up and address any issues prior to submission. I need to submit in November 2021 so planning on trying to get most of the work completed by August to give me time for any rework, especially on the extended essay;
Debate and show evidence. Provide critical analysis, evaluate and ask lots of questions;
Demonstrate a strong summary;
Include notes in blog;
Select a topic that is broad and not too narrow so you can find lots of research and don’t just rely on the internet – use books;
Pull in quotes from presentations and talks;
Show evidence and Experiment

A lot to do and think about before I submit. Whilst I was listening, I made a number of additional notes of ideas to think about which I have added to my Work in Progress blog.

Bit of a full-on day which ended with logging on to the Head-on Festival re-play session and a talk by AoP. The Head on replay has a full write up on my Exhibitions section although the AoP I only made notes in my off line note book.

21^st August 2020

Another early start (on my day off!), I love living in New Zealand but sometimes the time difference is a killer especially if you don’t know if the talk is going to be recorded and available later. So, the day started with an interactive talk by VII Photo Agency and then an hour later with the usual weekly 1854 Presents – both write ups can be found on my Exhibition section of this blog.

After completing a few hours Contextual Studies, I logged on to the MOCA Two Voices, One Vision talk, also fully written up on my Exhibitions section, hoping to attend an exhibition soon as Wellington and Masterton are finally coming back to life with live shows.

Getting a little stressed over my Body of Work, although I have a number of ideas on the go, no one single idea is enough for a full Body of Work. I email ladies I previously photographed for additional names but no response, apart from Alison who said that she had been in the South Island as her mother had passed away, so will leave her to get in touch when she is ready.

23^rd August 2020

Good news, Kelly gave me contact details of her gran who is happy to be part of my project and will also look old any old photographs of the area. She also said she might have a DVD of a programe that was made of Ngawi for the TV, so feeling a lot better that I might have more of a set, plus my other ideas following the Level 3 Support group meeting.

In addition Alison emailed with contact details of five other ladies in the area so I have emailed them, explained my project and asked for help and three have already responded so I will find time on Monday to contact and set up dates and times.

24^th August 2020

Managed to set up two volunteers for Saturday 29^th August. One at 10am and one at 2pm, giving myself lots of time to sit and discuss my project and find out about each of them and then do the photo shoot. Feeling a little bit happier that I have some additional subjects. One lady still hasn’t replied and I don’t want to force her. My fourth opportunity works away for a number of days a week and has asked that I call her back on Tuesday 1^st September to arrange a time, may have to be a week day session. So with the four I have already completed and the four to complete I hopefully will have a nice set for one of the themes for my next Assignment.

Also joined the Rest of the World Student hangout. Great turn out of the usual group of Lynda, Mark, Alan and Roger but also a new drawing student Elina from Zambia. She is just starting her foundation course and had a few internet issues due to power availability but she kept on joining back in so I hope she sticks with us and joins again as its great understanding different aspects of other courses – they bring a different view and introduce new ideas – just not enough time in the day!

Mark showed a new software application (and its free! – well to start with) that allows you to set up a virtual exhibition. He’s thinking of doing this for his submission but paying on a monthly basis for the duration of his assessment and then taking the site down. The software is called ‘Kunstmatrix’ [https://www.kunstmatrix.com/en] and on quick investigation I will add it to my list of items for further investigation closer to submission, but at this stage I’m too busy trying to get enough people to volunteer.

Alan has been so busy with work due to the COVID situation in Canada and a government investigation that he had managed to complete much of his course but did show his first image for a course work exercise in the ‘self and other’.

Lynda gave an over view of her work and first assignment, which she is flying through, think I might be left behind. Great images and a solid start for the first shoot. I think that these will develop as she finds her final theme. Using a mixture of found, archive and her own images to show the live and development of her local area.

Roger showed his lasted paintings and work around traveling with your space – how we take things with us when we travel or move around the country/world. Using memories of his father and a watch he combined the two on a circular disc. Have to admit some of his work and the ideas he covers are a little lost on me.

27^th August 2020

Spent as few days completing write ups and reading for my Contextual Studies and finding more articles. Really need to plan and complete Assignment 3, so I have planned to once again block out Sunday 6^th September to work on it.

Dialled in to an excellent talk from the Head-on Photo Festival by Sarah Ducker. A full write up can be found in my Exhibitions section to this blog, but it always amazes me how nature can recover after such devastation. Fire destroyed thousands of acres of natural bush, homes and farmland, but then within a matter of weeks, new growth started to appear. Her images and the talk had such a powerful impact – humans are destroying this planet and we need to take control and to think what we are doing now.

28^th August 2020

Bit of a mixed day today – dialled into the Documentary Fact or Fiction student forum, just a small group this time, and mainly level 3 students (Lynda, Sue and myself) and then Jack, Neil and Bob. Jack showed us is layout of a new website that will form his final assessment – linking his work to the learning outcomes, have to admit this whole process of digital is becoming very stressful and I still have a year to go! Jack also raised his ideas for Level 3 – the work by Sirkka-Lisa Konttinen, a photographer I have reviewed for my Body of Work.

Bob discussed his idea of an outdoor exhibition – both legal and illegal which was great fun. Neil is moving on to his assignment 4, the essay while he waits for feedback from his tutor on assignment 3.

I received and a text from one of my ladies to cancel her photoshoot due to fishing but was happy to rearrange for next Saturday, so all is not lost. My 2pm session kindly moved up to 10am so all good.

29^th August 2020

Had a great morning photoshoot with Julie, who had kindly responded to my email for ladies of Ngawi. She texted a few times before I set off with her address (which she had already given me when we spoke earlier in the week) and then to wrap up warm as it wasn’t that nice a day. She explained later that it was probably due to nerves. Think I was more nervous than she was, still not sure why I’m doing portraits as they are so far outside my comfort zone, anyway after a coffee and a chat we got started and time just raced away. I have provided a full write up and images as part of my Work in Progress section to the blog.

At the end of the session I explained that I would provide a link to a drop box which would have copies of her images and that following submission I aim to hold an exhibition which I would confirm and hopefully she would eb able to attend. As a thank you to all those that helped I would like to produce a book as a gift which she seemed please about.