1st October 2020
Nothing like starting the month with a full-on day of lectures, presentations and a photo shoot at Ngawi. The day began with my usual weekly lecture series by the Royal Society, two hours of information and interaction. I don’t find the ‘Jamboards’ that easy to use or helpful but the articles they send out to read beforehand have been. I’m hoping that I can continue to the next two sets of eight weeks.
My afternoon was spent with Pam, my last of the eight ladies of Ngawi. I have provided a full and detailed write up in my Work in Progress section of this blog. Her husband did most of the talking as ‘she has been having problems with her memory’. It wasn’t the easiest of sessions as she would suddenly get up and walk away to explain to me something else about the garden or where she had fallen which she seems to do a lot. I tried to capture both the lucid moments and those when she seemed to drift off into her own world. The pair had married when Pam was 17 and she has just turn 82, the balloons were still in the lounge but looked very deflated and out of place. They have lived in Ngawi for over 40 years and seen huge changes. Larry has traced back both sides of his family to when they arrived in New Zealand in 1849. A lovely couple with a difficult road ahead.
My day finished with a Head on Photo Festival replay by Paul Harman. The write up can be found on the Exhibitions section to this blog. Spending the next few days away from this course and work as I attend an ICM workshop up in Auckland with a professional photographer – Judy Stokes [https://www.judystokesphotography.com/]. The day was organised by the PSNZ and it was nice to learn/practice a different genre of photography and talk to others not linked to OCA.
6th October 2020
I logged on to the RPS talk between Heather Agyepong and Helene Love-Allotey via the Instagram link, thinking and hoping that it would be useful for my extended essay. Instead I found it extremely disappointing as they failed to talk about the subject of her project until the last twenty minutes but spent the majority of the time discussion the pandemic, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and the UK education system and how it failed to cater for their individual needs.
8th October 2020
Today saw the fifth lecture in the series by the RPS on ‘Looking to the Present, Looking to the Past’ and I was so pleased as it covered a lot of valuable resources for my Contextual Studies extended essay. In this session we covered photography, documentary and activism, starting with Riis, Hine and Lange, but also the essays and opinions of Rosier and Linfield that had been sent as pre-reading material. The lecture also covered ‘humanising presence’ which was something my tutor mentioned and I need to research so now I have a name and a source to start with. I’m so glad I made the effort to attend this series.
It was also the day for our regular Level 3 Support group call. This has been an amazing, small close-knit group that has offered some incredible advice and knowledge, not sure how I would have coped without them. We were all there today and as usual it was a lively discussion on progress. A large amount of centred around the Literature review. Susan had just received hers back and was surprised by only receiving a few comments and even following a tutor discussion was told to progress to the next stage – I wish I could have said the same. She also expressed her concern around not really doing much for her Body of Work image wise so I suggested some experimenting with different techniques or cameras.
Sarah talked about the website and photography group ‘work show grow’ which I will investigate when things slow down a bit, but we had a great discussion on alternative cameras, including Susan’s new Box Brownie 9I have one but I don’t think it works – must
polaroid images. I came away with a list of books – always an expensive session!
Anna had provided some of her images for her ‘Ground Zero’ project to review before the session which I managed to do. The pdf was large so I needed to download, but it was so worth it. She has done an amazing job using text, images, archive data and her own work. I provided my feedback and we discussed her use of the old camera that she has been using which was loaned to her by the facility she has based her project on. It gives the most amazing results and perspective on the landscape. She is going to experiment more by using different paper and film so I will look forward to seeing the results. Luckily, she has obtained an extension to the loan till next August.
Lynda discussed her progress on her research and document reviews and Helen provided some useful links to producing a bullet journal – maybe this will help with my Contextual Studies which seems to be in a bit of a mess and I need to sort before drafting the essay and submission as the assessors will only see what a mess my brain is. Next meeting planned for November.
11th October 2020
Logged into the Photoville on-line talk: Reflecting on Culture and identity with Deborah Anderson. This was a very powerful and emotional discussion as Anderson moved from her comfort zone of studio work with multiple support people to just natural light (and a small crew of just four! – this made me smile, come and live in my world where it’s just me, my camera and the subject) in her project ‘Women of the White Buffalo’. Her images are powerful and capture the hidden emotions of these women something that I’m trying to do in my Body of Work project. The women are the centre of Ngawi but unlike Anderson who uses a combination of posed and natural captures mine are all natural, in their environment. I have provided a full write up in the Exhibition section of my blog.
Submitted my Assignment 3 for Body of Work. No automatic email from my tutor so not sure when I will get to speak with him.
12th October 2020
Joined the Rest of the World student forum this morning. The usual team turned up, Lynda, Mark, Alan and Elina. Lynda provided an overview of all her reading material for Contextual Studies whilst Mark confirmed he had submitted everything for assessment and has started on his next and final course for Level 1.
Alan explained that due to the pandemic he was finding it hard to find subjects for his course ‘Self and Other’, so we all provided other techniques and ideas including the work by Mandy Burton [ https://www.instagram.com/mandy.burton.photos/] and ttps://www.instagram.com/josef_.josef/. Not sure if Alan will use either but it was great to bat ideas about and help a fellow student.
Elina shared her screen to show her latest drawings which are really interesting, covering still life and nature using different mediums. These are always informative and fun sessions, a great way to catch up and learn new ideas and just support each other, especially as we are the other side of the world from the rest of the student community and you often feel very isolated.
15th October 2020
Today I should have been logging into the sixth in the series of lectures by the Royal Photographic Society ‘Looking to the Present, Looking to the Past’, however I had double booked with another lecture through the RPS with press photographer John Bulmer. The weekly series is recorded and the link sent to those that have registered for the whole series so I knew I could catch up later, but the talk with Bulmer would not. Bulmer has had an amazing career, not really wanting to be a photographer but interested in the mechanics of the technology. Starting with a Box Brownie and the book ‘Family of Man’ he was soon hooked and started to work with his university press group and the press group. A very interesting and at times funny talk. A full write up can be found in the exhibitions section of my blog.
16th October 2020
An early start to catch the last in the Aftermath series. I have provided a full write up in the Exhibition section of my blog. The name of which has changed because its more on-line stuff than exhibitions due to the current world situation, so added presentations, talks and panels.
Second item today was a catch up with my Body of Work tutor following my submission of Assignment 3. I wasn’t expecting a very good discussion or a fast response as one of the other students said that he was extremely busy, even more so as his work is very much focused on the current world events, so it was great to catch up and discuss progress. I have provided a more detailed review and reflection in my Work in Progress section of this blog.
18th October 2020
The sixth in the series of lectures by RPS ‘Looking to the Present, looking to the Past’. In this one we covered Humanist Photography – who’s in a portrait. A few ideas for my Contextual Studies extended essay which I will research and develop my ideas and understanding. One common name that keeps coming up is Jo Spence – I have research her before and provided notes for my Contextual Studies Research blog, so will make sure I include this area of work in my essay.
A few new names raised and I think will be worth looking into are Frances Hatherley and her work on Spence Billingham and Carolyn Cooper who suggests that the perspective is based on middle class colonial-religious moralising.
19th October 2020
Spent an interesting hour listening to Michelle Borge and Bayete Ross Smith through the Social Documentary network. I have listened to Borge before and enjoy her argument and position on Documentary photography. Having read most of her book and drafted notes from her ideas this was not new but a reaffirming my position in response. Ross Smith was new to me and I enjoyed listening to his ideas and projects. I liked his combination of new technology and the 360 degree view he has used in his projects. I have provided a more detailed view of the talk and links to their work in my Exhibition section to this blog.
23rd October 2020
Yesterday I attended the penultimate lecture by RPS ‘Looking to the present, looking to the Past’: Documentary Matters. Lots of useful information again that I will utilise in my extended essay. I have decided to add the notes/screen shots I took to my blog but will password protect. I have also registered for the next series as they have been really interesting and helpful to my essay.
I also attended a replay from the Head Festival – with Belinda Mason and Dixie Link Gordon – notes have been added to my Exhibition session to this blog. Mason produced some amazing and powerful portraits just using natural light. I’m really thinking that maybe I re-edit my images to black and white. Will review when I start the editing process as per the advice from my tutor.
The Documentary Forum didn’t see a very good turn out with just four of us dialing in but then you get that sometimes. I discussed my rather poor attempt at stitching a pano image Lightroom and my limited grasp of Photoshop. Bob gave me some advice and pointers which I must email him for.
Neil discussed his idea and progress on his essay – ethics in nature photography, he had placed some amazing images on the shared drive which we looked at, and explained how one of his images had caused a visit from the police.
Jack has already started level three, without even getting the go-ahead or interview with the college yet- hope he’s not putting the cart before the horse and getting to carried away.
Finally Bob explained that he is also writing his essay on truth within the photography gaze.
24th October 2020
Completed a full days work and then settled in to attend the Oxford Photo Festival series of lectures on ‘Let us now praise famous women: Discovering the work of female photographers’. A number of interesting and challenging lectures and talks, some pre-recorded others in person on how women over the years have been lost/forgotten or linked to male photographers but really seen in their own right. I have added my notes and screen shots here, but as I don’t have permission this will be password protected. I have also proved a brief outline in my Exhibition section to this blog.
27th October 2020
I watched a very emotional talk by Ken Holland given by the RPS on the documentation of an old war hospital that was given to the Polish immigrates. The images document the decay and final demolish of the site. The use of black and white large format images resulted in a very powerful narrative. The book looks beautiful on screen, definitely something to work towards for my SYP.
31st October 2020
The run up to the end of the month saw me attend the RPS ‘First women in Photography 1839-1860’ lecture by Rose Teanby (28th October 2020). Teanby gave fifty-minute lecture – which by no means was long enough, to highlight in many cases the invisible women of photography. I attended for interest really and so didn’t add a write up.
Thursday (29th October) saw the last in the first series of lectures by the RPS on ‘Looking to the Present, looking to the Past’. This week it was about Propaganda and I didn’t think as relevant to my Contextual Studies as previous weeks but still very interesting to see how images have been used throughout the years in political, advertising and now social media to control and manipulate the population.
Michele Usher 