3rd January 2021
Spent the last few days reviewing the prints for my BoW and trying to arrange into some form of follow and order to try and tell the story of Ngawi. The images have been pinned to the wall of my studio for several days and I have swoped and changed them around several times to try and achieve an introduction to the site, a story for each of the women and then an end. The follow consists of a very male dominated start, even though they are not present it shows the strong presence in the use of both black and white images and more of a environmental feel with the images from the sea, cray pots and trackers.
The main sections have been divided, one for each woman I photographed, they are portraits of them and their environment. At the moment they are all in colour, but looking at the follow as they are on the wall, I’m thinking they may change to black and white. The last section returns to the male presence as a way of closing the story.
I documented my process as part of my Assignment Four – First Edit and issued to my tutor for feedback. Due to the time of year and the fact that the UK has returned to lockdown I don’t expect a response for some time so I will up-load the images to the Level 3 Support Group and ask for initial feedback from my fellow students – fingers crossed they are kind.
4th January 2021
Received some initial comments back and have added these to my Work in Progress part of this blog. On the whole they are positive and I can see and understand their comments. It seems that the follow and sections seem to be working and the mix of black and white and colour also works.
6th January 2021
Received a request from my tutor to discuss my first editing and so have arranged a late-night call (for me) on Thursday to get feedback. A little nervous as he usually takes some time, to respond so this might be bad news.
7th January 2021
End of the first week of January and nearly the first full week back at work, luckily most are not back until the 11th so I was able to dial into the first of the Level 3 Support Group meetings for this year. They are also such a great source of information, support and motivation. We had a full turn out. Helen started the ball rolling as she was celebrating the fact that she had just (a hour ago) sent her Literature Review to her tutor. Thinks she should be able to complete the next assignment in a lot shorter time period as she needs to submit for the July Assessment.
Lynda was next who brought us up to speed on her BoW images and the lack of snow which was very frustrating as she wants to use that to affect her images. Her Literature Review is progressing but she feels she is behind and not including enough. Helen reminder her and the group that its important to show progression and for it not to be perfect first time – which is good because mine was way off the mark, and that the real research starts after.
Anna stated that she will not be working to anyone’s timescales but her own, she has taken control and feels a lot happier with progress and is confident that she will be ready for submission. She will concentrate on her BoW and then feed into her Contextual Studies Essay from there. I’m a little worried as I don’t really have a strong link between my two studies.
Sue has been concentrating on her BoW after printing piles of articles for her Literature Review. Continuing to experiment with photo montage as they are in full lockdown and getting to the archives will be difficult so she is having to make do. We reviewed her current image selection and gave feedback. She is using text and a lot of it. I said that I prefer the text to the side and not across the image as I like to be able see the full image without distractions. Suggested that if she wanted the text over the image give the viewer the option to include or not by placing the text on a transparent page that can be removed if she was thinking of a book for the final assessment. She seemed to like that idea and would consider it.
Sarah who has already completed this part of the course and is well into her SYP provided us with her progress. She has been working on the feedback from her tutor on her last assignment to provide more depth and adding additional information from her interviews. She said the journey has been slow with the constant changes due to the COVID situation, from physical exhibition, to on-line to now a good artist book. Her tutor thinks that her set of polaroid’s will work best in a book. She is starting a book course with RPS next week – I tried to get on that one but it was sold out. She did highlight that it was important to ‘tag’ items in your blog against the learning Outcomes ready for assessment as she had spent a lot of time over the holidays to bring hers up to spec. I have planned to get all my work completed by June so that I have a few months to make sure all of this is in place for the November Assessment – well that’s the plan! As the Learning Outcomes are still changing and the assessment requirements are still moving, I think it’s too early for me to try and figure these out. As I have a word copy of everything, I will be able to complete a ‘find and search’ on the word files to then add to my blog.
I gave a brief up-date and the fact that I had finally completed my reword of Assignment Three for Contextual Studies, but this was over the word count, as it wasn’t going to be reviewed by my tutor it was a good piece of evidence to show progress. I also stated that I had completed my first edit for BoW and this was available on the shared drive for comments if anyone had time. I thanked Lynda and Sue who had already given me feedback and explained that I was to have a session with my tutor later that night with him – not looking forward to it really, but need to understand where I was going with it.
Later that day I attended a catch up with my tutor to discuss progress and feedback on my first edit. After what seemed a long discussion on the current COVID situation in the UK and the different approaches the two countries (NZ v UK) had taken we finally got round to discussing my BoW. I think overall he is happy with progress and we discussed how I would like to present the work for Assessment. I said that I was originally planning on prints and an exhibition for SYP, but also wanted to produce a book, really as a thank you to the ladies that let me photograph them.
As it was still likely that prints could not be sent and OCA are moving more and more to on-line digital assessment prints would not be an option for this November, however I could do an on-line exhibition but my tutor advised that I needed to control how my images would look and that a draft book might be the way this could be presented. He suggested that I keep editing and looking at my images and show any evidence of feedback and changes. That I should also look at a number of photo books as the style, print I like and what would work for my project. He suggested that I look at the books by Tessa Bunney who I had research on style and to his twitter article for the OCA in September 2020.
8th January 2021
Some weeks it feels like I have one-group meeting after another, however they are all good fun and really help get you through the highs and lows of distance learning. I never really took advantage of these when I was completing Levels 1 and 2, so wish I had. Todays was the Documentary – Fact or Fiction group which due to so many now finishing or moving into Level 3 seems to have changed to the ‘Level 3 and Documentary’ hangout.
Bob had previously provided a link to his blog and asked us to review ready for his final assessment. This was rework. The images are great and I provided feedback. We discussed the challenges of stitching panoramas and the difficulty when the light changes, so he needs to do some blending of the images in Photoshop.
Jonathan was next to show his ‘pink/Blue’ jobs images. There was lots of discussion around an image with a shotgun and its meaning. He is using image and text, and we discussed if they fit together or play off one another – I think it’s a fine line, how much do you want to leave up to the viewer verses how much do you want the story already to be told.
Nicola had finally submitted her assignment 3and was moving on to her essay. She has a new tutor so a little nervous as to how they would react to her work and ideas for the essay.
Sue provided an up-date on her Portsmouth Hill project and her research to find a 1940s milk bottle. She is progressing with work indoors and photo montage, but lockdown is coursing issues which she needs to get over. She has been experimenting with ICM within her mobile phone, getting some great results.
Jack relayed some of his lasted findings around the combination of image and sound which he wants to progress to Assessment and his latest trips out at 2am in the morning to capture his location/subject. His is also experimenting with light painting, so it will be interesting to see the results.
Neil has completed his last images for Assessment which will now be for July as he just missed the January submission date.
9th January 2021
Joined a workshop on the use of mint tea to develop film with a number of other OCA students by Melanie King. I have provided a more detailed write up in my Work in Progress section of this blog.
11th January 2021
The first of this year’s ‘Rest of World’ forum took place this morning New Zealand time. Due to the time different with the UK I was only able to attend for the first hour as this encroaches onto my work day. We had a new member join from japan – Juni who is on the textiles course. Other’s included Lynda and Alan from Canada, Linda and Mark from New Zealand, Amano and Angela from UK and Flavia from the Canary Islands. As always a great interactive group providing support and feedback on work and an up-date on individual progress. For me the group is getting too big and once again I wasn’t able to provide input so I may start to rely just on the Level 3 groups.
12th January 2021
Decided to take a look at the website Lynda had sent through – an on-line photobook review and discussion group: https://www.jsybyllasmith.com/photobookgroup (accessed 12/01/21). I selected the book conversation with Ben Brody ‘Attention Servicemember’: https://www.jsybyllasmith.com/currently-1/2020/11/20/attention-servicemember-photobook-book-group-12 which originally took place in November 2020.
This was a self published book which is now on its second edition. This second edition has meant that his has just broken even financially on this book. He explained that it was probably one of the hardest things he has ever done. The book is about his life and the differences he noticed following his life in the forces as a combat photographer.
The book consists of over 160 images and text which is situated towards the rear of the book. The text was the last part of the book to be produced. What I found interesting was the use of black and white and colour images. He didn’t mix but used the black and white to open and close the book. These images are a traditional documentary style, framed with a white boarder and printed on gloss paper. One image to a page.
The colour images are a full page image, no boarder – known as a ‘full bleed image’. The matt is matt. He uses a total of five different paper types which must have been a printing nightmare and a costly process. The book is small and can be handled in one hand. The book fully opens so there is no loss of image at the binding.
At the end of the text he provides his essay and a glossary of terms. He strongly recommended working with a designer and to produce a few draft versions of the book or other work yourself through on-line publishers so that you can understand the process and how you want the book to look and feel – ‘on-screen will never give you the feel of the end result’. The physical item can help you make a number of design decisions prior to making any expensive publishing mistakes – good advice, I think.
15th January 2021
Have spent several days looking at and rearranging my images on the way. Taking into account the comments I have received and making the images up with post it notes. More details can be found in my Work in Progress page of this blog.
The 14th saw me attending the sixth part of the RPS series which I have added as part of a separate section to my blog. There will be a third series and we will be told more details in the coming weeks as its not posted on the RPS website yet.
I logged on to the RPS talk with Paul Hill which I realised was a repeat from one I watch in September, but this time it was recorded [https://youtu.be/SSinHjcP0Eo]. I also watch a virtual book launch with Rick Schatzberg and David Campany, which I have provided a more detailed review of in my Exhibitions section to this blog. It was really interesting to see the book, the design and here about whole process of its creation. This will be useful for my SYP.
21st January 2021
Still reviewing the layout for my Body of Work. Think I need to now start to re-process to obtain a more standardised format and try and produce a draft book. Not sure how or if any of the book modules allow for the gate fold style or if I need to print and re-image to show the effect. This needs further investigation. I also need to chase for feedback from my tutor on my last assignment.
It was also the seventh in the series by the Royal Photographic Society lectures ‘looking to the Present, Looking to the Past’. They are talking about a third series but this will be a lot different in style and work covered so it will be interesting to see how this is structured and presented. The series so far has given me a number of different angles and ideas for both aspects of my course and other ideas for work post degree (if I ever get there!). I’m keeping a separate log of these ideas so I can return to them and not forget as life often gets in the way.
22nd January 2021
Decided to watch the RPS talk by Dr Tom Allbeson on ‘Photography & Reconstruction: European Cities in popular Culture after 1945’. A full write up can be found under my Exhibitions section to this blog. This has no really link to either my Body of Work or Contextual Studies but purely a subject I’m interested in. Growing up I spent a large amount of my time with my grandparents and this part of history was never really spoken about and my grandfather would never talk about his time during the war or the following period.
There was also a student ‘Level 3 and Documentary’ hangout. As usual a well-attended session, becoming more and more level 3 as the students finish the documentary module and start level 3. Bob still has another level 2 module to complete and asked if he could still join in and we of course agreed that he should.
Both Faith and Barry should work for their current Assignments and feedback was given. Jonathan has submitting his but received some mixed comments about his image that included a shot gun – one student completely misunderstanding the intent, but as Jonathan explained he wanted people to talk about the image and also get them to think. As always a great group, both supportive and informative.
25th January 2021
The ‘Rest of the World’ forum was also attended by Robert Bloomfield one of the OCA tutors and started with an interactive session with Helen who heads up the OCA library. Attendees had issued questions prior to the session on issues and problems they were having with gaining access to the resource material. It was reassuring to see others having issues but Helen managed to explain and demonstrate alternatives and was willing to help on a one-two-one basis as well. The session was well attended by twelve students. Due to the time of day this is I had to leave following the session with Helen due to it being my workday.
26th January 2021
The day started with a London Art Fair panel discussion on ‘Exploring Identity through Photography’ – full details in my Exhibitions section to the blog and them tutor led discussion with Adiadne for level 3 students discussing the ‘theoretical framework’. Have to admit that I seem to come away from these sessions depressed and wanting to start the whole course again. I decided to write my questions down and ask my fellow students in our support group that will be held on the 10th February or via email. I don’t feel so silly then.
28th January 2021
The final part of the RPS series was held today. Learnt so much and there was a great interactive element so everyone could play a part in the sessions. The next part will be available soon and will consist of a series of different talks with other photographers which should be interesting, one of which will be the book making process.
Michele Usher 