3rd December 2020
Seems to be taking me a while to get back into the swing of study even though I took a few books away with me, must be the time of year, too nice to be inside when there’s too much to do outside. Anyway, the next in the series for the RPS lectures was held this morning (NZ time), covering Japanese Photography, its development and influence on Western photographers. I have to admit its not something I have really researched and I may return to it later as this has given me a good introduction as to where to start.
10th December 2020
Work has just got in the way this week, that usual manic time when everyone is trying to get everything done for the holidays. I did manage to do some research on the photographers my Tutor suggested I research for my Body of Work; Tessa Bunney and Grace Lau. The work by Bunney I really like and I think reflects my thoughts about Ngawi. I have tried to place each of my subjects in their environment, trying to bland in and be an observer. Capturing a little of their life, just like she has in her project ‘FarmerFlorist’. Looking at the processing the muted colours add to the mood, a feeling of calm and contemplation as the farmers go about their work which is very much the way of the ladies in Ngawi.
The work by Lau was interesting and I think worked well for her location – an area of London. Ngawi is small and the residents have taken sometime to open up and accept me. There isn’t the same type of numbers involved as a London High Street. If I did do this during the Summer than I would have a large number of tourists – even more now that COVID means we can’t travel aboard, but that isn’t the aim of my project, getting the local residents was/is.
The last RPS lecture before the holiday break covered New Topographics and Beyond. I have been thinking about how to add these to my blog and have decided to also include images of my notes from each session, rather than writing each one up.
Also attended the Level 3 Support Group this morning – another great session and once again came away energised to keep going. Always fun to catch up with the ladies in the group, no Anna today as her husband had just had an operation and was needing some TLC so hopefully, she will be back for the one after the holidays (Sue, Lynda, Helen and Sarah).
Sarah started and explained that she had been working with two other students on the creative writing course as a collaborative aspect to her SYP. One has agreed to write a poem and the other an essay to sit along side her images. This really interested me and something that maybe I could explore more with my images as I know a local author that has spoken about his experiences in the area (moved here from the US). Sarah also gave us an insight into Assignment two of SYP – work experience or interviewing other photographers, now my panic starts! May have to keep this in the back of my mind and start networking. She has also been moving towards publishing he Body of Work – virtually as this seems to be the only way to work at the moments both with the College and the pandemic situation. Her tutor has also suggested a book which she is exploring and has signed up for a course with RPS on producing a book.
Lynda was up next giving an overview of the issues she was having with her Lit Review, which she has not deferred to January 2021. Her Body of Work experiments have come to halt – well the ones in the snow – as there is no snow, only person I know that wants snow. She has however started to look at weaving archive images into her own landscapes, which I think are looking good.
Helen is working hard to try and get her Lit Review done by end of December as she has a deadline of June 2021 to submit for Assessment. The images she is posting on Instagram are amazing and I think really reflect her theme. Fingers crossed she completes on time.
Sue now has a new tutor for Body of Work and I think is a little frustrated as they don’t seem to have read anything she has said or looked at her blog. She has been busy using Photoshop to produce image montages’ and creating images from memories using old magazines, artifacts. She has also purchased a polaroid camera.
11th December 2020
Logged into the RPS Engagement Talk with Jim Mortram (full wite up can be found in my Exhibitions section to this blog). Mortram is a social documentary photographer who from an early age became a full-time care giver to his sick mother. This became his life for fifteen years until a visit from a friend seemed to pull him out of his own mental health issues. His projects are all based within his local community, giving voice to those that don’t have one, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to the talk. Throughout the project his involvement with his local people has grown, actively using social media as a way to get situations heard. His images are close, raw and passionate, truly showing the situation that people living on the poverty line are in. He is clearly trying to correct the imbalance between the haves and the have nots.
The usual fortnightly Documentary Forum was held today (attendees: Lynda, Sue, Jonathan, Jack, Bob and Helen Barrett). Lynda or it may have been Jack had asked Helen from the OCA Library to attend so that she could understand some of the issue’s students were having.
Lynda explained the difficulties that as an overseas student she had experienced throughout the course, such as; books on the shelf but not available to overseas students, only old pdf versions were available or not available at all. Helen explained that the OCA and UCA are still very separate organisations on a number of subjects and areas. She explained the annual process around reading lists and the responsibility of the tutors to notify her of the list and for her to check and make these available, if not as a full book then maybe just the necessary section. She acknowledged that the level 3 list is very out of date and provide links to sites she uses to try and find them. She also explained that trying to send out books to overseas students would be difficult to organise, police and the cost was not available in the budget. Helen explained the on-line facilities and offered to anyone that was on the call a one-to-one tutorial to get the most out of the on-line material. Overall, I think a very useful meeting which highlighted our frustrations as overseas students that at times feel very isolated.
14th December 2020
The Rest of the World forum today saw the largest turn out and another new attendee (Roger, Lynda, Linda, Alan, Roger, Mark, Elina, Flavia and Angela). For me the group is interesting as we see a mix of subjects, painting, drawing, creative design and photography so it introduces different aspects to the creative arts, but from a logistics perspective it’s a little too big to ensure everyone can show and discuss work and due to the time difference the meeting runs well into the start of my working day, so I usually end up leaving before the end.
20th December 2020
Catch up day for me. The 17th December I attended what I hoped would be a very interesting discussion with Nan Goldin, one of my favourite photographers. I had booked weeks ago, but in the end it was a very disappointing pre-recording with no opportunity to ask questions – full write up on my Exhibition page.
The 18th saw me attend a very interesting and information VII Interactive discussion with Maggie Steber and the role of the photo editor. This has laid a good foundation for me to start thinking about the next part of this course and what to do post degree (assuming I pass!). Full write up on my findings and relevance to my course can be found on my Exhibition section to this blog.
23rd December 2020
Over the last ten days or so I have been trying to get a printer that I borrowed from a friend to work. A small Sony post card printer which came with a limited number of postcards and tapes for printing (25 postcards to one tape reel). These I thought would be ideal for giving me an idea of how to edit and select the images to form the theme of my project. For me its easier to have the physical image than a digital one on screen.
All seemed to be going well, until I tried to get the drivers and discovered I needed a machine with XP. Tried using the USB port and discovered that it didn’t like the long file names that Lightroom applies or the size of the files, so I redeveloped to a lower resolution and tried again. Managed to print about five images before it stopped. Next, I tried the compact flash card, printer didn’t seem to accept the larger 64Gb size cards so had to hunt around to find an old 128mb one. Obtained a few more prints before it stopped again. Things were getting a little frustrating. Returned to the idea of finding an old laptop and putting the printer drivers on that. Mine couldn’t be found, however the friend you gave me the printer had one so managed to borrow that (as a back up I also printed off using a laser printer at work) and printed off as many of the images as the paper and ink would allow.
Michele Usher 