1st September 2020
Not sure where time is going, twelve months before I submit but there seems to be still so much to do. Managed to finally get in touch with Bea my final lady from Ngawi and set a date with her for the 16th September – a week day so I will have to take annual leave but at least that eight ladies.
I also started my mind maps for each of my subjects (see Work in Progress section), this will work into a still life that I hope represents them along with a resin block for the exhibition. I would really like to produce a book for them as a thank you for helping me.
2nd September 2020
Joined two on-line presentations/talks. The first was with Poppy Lekner, a very informal discussion which started with her controversial piece of art that she won first prize for in the Parkin Awards for drawing. Her submission was based around the use of a typewriter and the single key of the ‘forward slash’. I have provided a full write up in the Exhibitions section of this blog but I have to admit I can understand the comments of whether it was in fact a drawing and it similarity to the work by Joel Swanson.
The second panel talk I had booked several months ago and was really looking forward to it – ‘The Colour of Absence’. However due to a poor internet connection between the panel the whole session was very disappointing. I have provided a write up in the Exhibition section of this blog.
3rd September 2020
Finally managed to get the time to download the images I had taken of Julie from the previous Saturday photoshoot, but haven’t sorted processed yet, trying to get time on Sunday along with write ups and prepping for work. Working from home due to this pandemic has helped me get on top of this course but I do feel I may be doing too much on-line presentations and not enough of my own work. They have all given me useful ideas and thoughts but its hard sometime to focus and complete the assignments as well as ensure I have broadened by study, shown that I have experimented etc. I don’t want to leave things to the last minute and may have to think about taking some leave to really focus and start showing a direction and not all these multiple themes.
4th September 2020
The 1854 Presents discussion was cancelled and re-arranged due to internet issues for the following day, but the MACK Book Live did take place. Both have been written up in the Exhibition section to this blog. I enjoyed the approach that Jude had for his work and then the book, seemed to throw the normal idea of research, research, research out of the window and still manage to produce the most amazing images.
5th September 2020
A trip to Ngawi to shoot with Donna one of my eight ladies. I have provided more detail in my Work in Progress section to this blog. I’m not as happy with this session as I have been with the others. We chatted for sometime before I raised the subject of the shoot, she probably wasn’t as relaxed as the others due to a lot going on in her private life but hopefully I have tried to capture her well enough.
7th September 2020
Joined the Rest of the World student group which turned out to be a little light on the ground, just Lynda, Mark and myself. I had some useful discussion with Lynda before Mark joined around how to start linking and tagging the Learning Outcomes within my Blog. This is all new to me and so need to do a bit of research and get started on it. When Mark joined, we did a round the table catch up on progress. No work to show this time from any one but Mark did discuss his progress on Identity and Place and his ideas for both the course exercises and he next assignment which sounds really interesting. I plan to process my last two photoshoots and add to the shared drive for feed back both here and at the next Level 3 Support Group which will be on Thursday (NZ time).
8th September 2020
Managed to spend some time up-loading all my posts to my blog site following a WordPress change, so fell a little behind with my updates but all good now following an early start.
I have also completed my down selection of images from the photo shoots with Julie and Donna and processed the images. I think Julie’s are strong but both sets can be found:
- Julie [insert link]
- Donna [insert link]
This means that I just have two more to complete to have a set of eight. I can then start on the still life images.
9th September 2020
Managed to escape for an hour and visit the Friedlander Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery Wellington New Zealand. It was great to be able to visit a real live gallery and not something on line. The period of lock down helped me catch up on study but I don’t think on line viewing of images compares to seeing prints, framed on a wall even if its in a ‘white box’. I have provided a full write up in the Exhibition section to this blog.
10th September 2020
An early start to attend the first of the Royal Photography Society lectures on ‘Looking to the Present, Looking to the Past’. There are eight lectures in total and I’m still not sure if I will include them as part of this blog as its really just for my own interest and a paid extra course. This first two-hour session concentrated on the ‘face’, from the documentary to the medical, from showing the gaze and trying to capture the soul. An interesting talk and will look forward to the rest.
Joined the Level 3 Support Group, which once again is a great place to learn and understand other students’ projects, struggles and progress. I think it helps that the group is small, means everyone can participate, provide work and give constructive feedback and advice. This session Sarah was unable to attend due to a family bereavement but otherwise, Sue kicked off to discuss her progress on post memory, a move from her original project due to the pandemic situation. She had been reading lots and her reading list keeps growing – I’m worried that mine isn’t board enough but hopefully I’m trying to focus my work more to my themes and assignment three.
Anna provided some of her pin hole images which we all provided feedback on as she had paired them with images she had managed to take in one of the cold war bunkers. The links worked well as she had managed to capture the mood of the place and the feeling of isolation.
Lynda provide a summary of her readings to date and her feedback on assignment 1 for Body of Work. Helen stated that although she had completed assignment two of her course, she felt that she was getting nowhere and needed to start again.
I provided a selection of my images from the ladies I had photographed and gave a brief overview of theme, how I had started with thinking that the rural communities needed all this support from the government to cope but found in fact that the community was helping itself, but the women as the core strength and that’s what I think is the strongest theme so far. I still have a long way to go, with another two sessions to complete and some way of pulling it all together. The group gave me some positive feedback and some pointers for other artists to review and research which I have included in my Work in Progress section to this blog.
11th September 2020
Bit of an on-line mega session today with lectures, talks and presentations from;1854 Presents, MACK Live, and VII Photo Agency, all of which I have written up in my Exhibition section to this blog.
I logged into Documentary Student Forum, with the usual forum of Nicola, Susan, Neil, Lynda, Jack and Bob. Bob is having to start again but doesn’t seem to phased by that. Nicola stated that she seems to have lost momentum and really needs to get on with it, think this may be the sign of the times, frustration with the current world pandemic and a number of home issues around a house move, sometimes life just gets in the way. With three of us already on Level 3 the discussion seemed to focus more on that than work on the Documentary course, so unsure I will attend many more.
16th September 2020
Took the day off work and went to Ngawi to do my next photo shoot with Bea. I have provided more detail in my Work in Progress section to this blog. I started the session over coffee getting to know Bea, how she came to be in Ngawi and what she did to fill her life in the village and outside. The session was relaxed and full of laughter as she taught me about her passion for gardening, recycling and fishing, but not housework as she says she’s very lucky cause its all done for her. At the end I walked away with fresh leeks and fish which she had caught and frozen and the contact details for one of the ladies who hadn’t responded to my email, so fingers crossed I can set up a session with her as she has been in the village for over forty years.
17th September 2020
Spent the first two hours of the day in the second of lectures by the Royal Photographic Society ‘looking to the Present, looking to the Past: Photography as witnessing’. Another interesting and more interactive discussion. They are using the tool called a Jamboard, which is fine if you are in the UK but not when you are in New Zealand as with too many people on at once you can’t gain access, so it’s a little frustrating.
I also attended another Head-on Photo Festival talk (see Exhibition section to the blog) with Julia Coddington and Rebecca Wiltshire who have set up and manage the ‘Unexposed Collective’ to promote women in street photography. A forum that provides a safe environment for female photographers to post their work and gain constructive feedback. They showed a series of images from their exhibition and details on their editing process. It was interesting to hear that resulted to printing off and physically seeing the images in order to match and produce the ‘diptychs’ and the flow of the exhibition. This is how I work. The screen doesn’t give me the feel of the flow or how the images would work together which the print would.
18th September 2020
A busy on-line day with a series of presentations. The first by 1854 was cancelled due to technical issues – rescheduled to the 8th October so hopefully I will be able to log in and see it then. The second by MACK Live was a pre-recorded session highlighting the use of text and images and then my final session was with Photoville, sponsored by Leica with Lynn Johnson and Elizabeth Krist, both who work for National Geographic magazine. I have provided a write up in the Exhibition section to the blog.
22nd September 2020
Completed a few more on-line presentations one with Photoville – ‘Behind the Reporting’, a really powerful discussion around very sensitive situations in Latin America. The work being undertaken by two very passionate and dedicated photographers. A full write up can be found in the Exhibition section to this blog. A second talk by Leica Conversations was interesting and I made notes in my log book decided against adding to my blog as it was more for interest than value to my Contextual Studies or Body of Work, it did however prove that if you are up against the wall you can pull off a project in a very short period of time with the use of social media.
Today also saw me logging in to the tutor led level 3 discussion for Contextual Studies. Usually I really enjoy these sessions but today I felt completely out of my depth. I seem to have been reading mountains of documents, research papers and books and got nowhere with this part of my studies. My work doesn’t seem to have an argument or discussion point and telling me to read more is not going to help as I get more and more confused as to the direction of this work. We discussed what we should have on the blog, self plagiarism which means I now need to remove everything from my blog but still be able to show the assessors my process of research (they’ll be lucky as its all over the place) and link to the Learning Outcomes which have just been added following COVID and are still being up-dated and changed.
So following the feeling of being rock bottom and in order to get some help from my tutor who seems to only allow me a percentage of his time and no more! I have decided to either throw in the towel or submit Assignment three and demonstrate that I need some help with this.
24th September 2020
Attended the third lecture by the Royal Photographic Society on ‘Looking to the present, looking to the past’. This week we looked at the area of landscape photography, mapping, aesthetics, power, the environment and the psychological. So far these have been really interesting with a number of interesting reading points to follow up on. There will be another two sets of eight lectures, but these are for personal use unless they introduce an aspect for this course.
Also logged into the third part of the MOCA discussion ‘Havana, Haiti: Two Cultures, One Community’. A very moving project looking at how two cultures can be treated so differently by one country. That country giving the impression of the promised land when in fact its one of the most racist countries in the world. Not only to its own people but also to immigrants. A full write up can be found on my Exhibitions section to this blog.
The Head-on Photo Festival also gave me the opportunity to watch one of the lectures I missed first time around – Bob Newman. His work looks at marginalised communities but his access to these people shows a very different story to the ones depicted in the media. This misrepresentation will form the major part of my contextual studies extended essay so watching this and reviewing his images and his approach was really helpful. A full write up can be found in the Exhibition section of this blog.
26th September 2020
Yesterday I logged in to the VII agency talk on peace with Nicole Tung. It always amazes me how photographers cope with documenting war and conflict. Tung highlighted the importance of not just parachuting into a situation, getting your images and then going onto the next situation. In times when we are bombarded with images, we need to ensure that we capture the story but also what lies beneath (see full write up in the Exhibition section). I also submitted my Assignment 3 for Contextual Studies and I think this will be the only way to get some advice on the way forward. I know its not right but I’m going around in circles and not really settling on an argument to discuss.
I travelled to Wellington to join a fellow OCA student Mark, from Christchurch for a full day workshop on studio lighting. An area of photography I soon realised was 30% set up and then 70% engagement with the subject and direction. We worked through a number of different lighting arrangement and I came away with some great ideas for my own studio and a shopping list of equipment requirements.
28th September 2020
I received a very fast response from my tutor for Assignment 3 and we will be talking via a meet up on Tuesday night my time. Not really looking forward to it but I need some help to move forward.
I discussed the situation with my peer group at the ‘Rest of the World’ OCA forum. They were very supportive and understanding. I really wish I’d started using these groups in my level 1 and 2.
29th September 2020
Attended a one-2-one session with my tutor following my Assignment 3. A long two hours that I think (due to late hour in New Zealand) will help me progress to the next stage. I am finding this part of the course (Contextual Studies) really hard. It is difficult to balance full time work and two modules, I envy those that are retired and able to do this course without the added pressures of work and family issues. I have provided a full write up on my Contextual Studies section.
30th September 2020
Can’t believe we are through yet another month, bit of a panic as I think about all the things I need to do before I submit. My aim is to get 90% complete by June/July 2021 so that I have time to clean up and cross reference everything as I haven’t experienced the Learning Outcomes for assessment yet.
I have written up a number of presentations and talks and had a very long and help discussion with my tutor, who has recommended I re-work my plan and to focus more. He has provided a list of material and captured the ideas we discussed and sent me a follow up review which I will add to my blog. Part of me feels a little bit happier but that may change when I come to write it up.
Michele Usher 