1st May 2021
I had booked the week off work to dedicate time to concentrate on addressing the comments and feedback from Assignment 4 of Contextual Studies and to continue to try and resolve the issues around my draft book.
The week started with the usual Rest of World Student Forum. Another great turn out. Linda demonstrated her work for Assignment Two of the Landscape. These were a series of beautiful cyanotype images the size of postcards which she made whilst out on a walk. She them produced a concertina book with pockets – one for each postcard and videoed the result. We provided feedback, suggesting that the reverse hidden pockets could contain messages, words or poems as a form of collaboration.
Amano showed his images of his mother again – this time he had recreated the image but this time with himself and the son of the mother’s friend walking in the same location. He still needs to decide which direction he’s taking this project as there seems to be a number of different themes and he is already half way through his allotted time.
Allan provided a brief summary of his progress but nothing to show. The ‘Self and Other’ is problematic during the Canadian lockdown, but on a positive note there are three others now on the course so he feels less isolated.
The majority of the week was then spent working through my Contextual Studies draft essay and the comments I had received. This at times was a little soul destroying and frustrating as I didn’t feel I had a strong enough argument. Deciding to review each section one at a time allowed me to review, consider and address the points raised by my tutor. I also returned to the notes I had taken during our review and a recent presentation by the Royal Photographic Society which covered the work by Su Braden which seemed relevant to my argument.
Took a break on the 28th to listen in to an Image Maker Webinar Photolive talk with Alec Soth. I’ve listened to him talk several times and love his work. The interviewer was that good but he managed to cover a number of his major works: ‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’, ‘Song Book’ and ‘I know how furiously your heart beats’. He highlighted how he always starts with the book format and strongly recommends making a mock up. The software he says is good but there is nothing like holding and seeing the flow of the draft product. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Looks like I need to keep going with mine then.
Also attended a brief online ‘Masterclass with Paul Sanders on mental health – his own and how photography has helped him through a number of issues. To end the week, I joined the Royal Photography Society Documentary Group Talk with John Walmsley. An interesting trip through his career.
15th May 2021
Not really sure where the time has gone really. Have undertaken several failed attempts at trying to resolve the book production issues – all have been written up in the Work in Progress section to this blog. I have progressed and I think works well the video of the electronic version using Microsoft PowerPoint. Learnt how to incorporate transitions which look like the pages turning of a book. I sent this out for comment and it was suggested that I slow a number of the sections down to allow the viewer long for the word pages with text and the panoramas, which I have done.
The Rest of the World Forum on the 10th May had another good turn out considering it was Mother’s day in most of the world. The major part was consisted of the discussion around the latest email from the College and the increase in over seas student fees. I also showed my presentation and discussed how to end the show, text, and whether to include music. The electronic version doesn’t show the gate folds which is disappointing but Lynda suggested the Flavia produce some illustrations of a cray fish for me. This was a great idea and asked if she had time. She said she would see what she could do. I couldn’t stay till the end as I was at work and we had a major announcement concerning a restructure of the organisation.
On the 13th joined the Level 3 Support Group. Anna managed to join us as her internet was working, still seems funny to me that I get better service in New Zealand that she does in the UK. She gave us an up-date. Great news in the fact that she has sold her house so she will finally have that stress removed. Assignment 4 will be ready in the next two weeks and then she will turn her attention on to Contextual Studies. She seemed in a better place mentally which was great to see. She said she was already gaining contacts for SYP.
Sarah said she thought she had longer to complete SYP but the college confirmed that she would need to submit for the November Assessment. She believes that that would be ok as she was already writing Assignment 5, so had enough time to clean everything up ready for submission.
Sue discussed her Body of Work Assignment 3, said she was feeling very confused over the sequencing as only three images seemed to fit, with multiple themes. In the end she submitted with a fragmented approach hoping to get some direction from her tutor. She has been using a number of different methods to edit and has suggested ‘padlet’ so that her tutor could also help with the editing. She feels that after each assignment she does in a different direction, feels unfocused with different narratives.
Helen showed her draft images in book form called ‘the map is not the territory’. We all provided feedback; the introduction of a blank section to get the viewer to take a breath, form their ideas, understanding the meaning. She is thinking of using archive images. This is something new so might need to give her tutor the new idea.
Lynda didn’t have any real up-date, trying to complete her next assignment which was due at the beginning of the month but due to family issues this has been delayed. The group had already seen my presentation so I just gave a Brief up date on how I would like to submit both Assignment 5’s in the next week or so which would allow me enough time to attack the Learning Outcomes which is a major worry for me, but I have enough time till September to clean up my blog and pull all the Outcomes together.
I also received some illustrations from Flavir – they are amazing and I have added the complete sheet to my draft presentation. It looks great and I’m so please that I could include a collaborative piece in this part of the course – I still plan to do this in SYP.
I have also been drafting up the evaluation questions for Assignment five of my Body of Work and producing an introduction – very hard to do in just one hundred works! Decided to convert the PowerPoint presentation into a video as this seemed less problematic for people to play than a slide show. I’m still not sure if I should produce a sound track or leave it blank. May review this after I have submitted for review. However, I have realised that I need to up-date my blog with three months of work. I had been putting it off as I needed to take some images off to reduce their size and then up load and relink so although I had been writing everything in my word files, I hadn’t been up-loading to my blog site. Need to up-load before I submit my Body of Work Assignment 5 so that my tutor can read my Work In Progress.
The fortnightly Level 3 and Documentary Student forum was on the 14th May. We were joined by two new member Shaun and Matt. Shaun gave a brief overview of his thoughts and the stage he was at. Matt told us he had taken a break between levels and currently has too many ideas but is thinking about basing his work on a poem by Alan Poe, planning on using a mixture of self-portraits, landscapes and drawings – will look forward to seeing those.
Rob has finally finished Documentary and will be submitting for assessment – seems really please and has moved onto a new course – Digital and Culture, here he will get to use his Photoshop skills and he showed us his work for the first Assignment, a series of 12 images using photomontage, very surreal and strongly linked to his last piece of work with masks during lockdown.
Niki had received feedback from her tutor who was very please and made a few suggestions which she had been applying. Aims to submit for the November Assessment. Working on A6 to complete the course.
Jack has been working hard on his Lit Review and the feedback. Tutor seems really pleased that he is not solely working on an academic essay but bring in the personal aspect which will work well with his Body of Work. He has been making progress on that even though they are in lockdown and has made a number of contacts for when they come out. Think it will be an amazing project, using interviews, images and video.
23rd May 2021
On Sunday the 16th May I submitted Assignment Five of my Body of Work; the video and the written evaluation. Had to admit I was a little nervous but I had got to a point where I really needed a different pair of eyes to take a look and give me an honest view. Someone that wasn’t close to the project. The peer review feedback was useful but I sometime think fellow students don’t want to give negative comments, which isn’t always helpful. Friends I think are also the same.
I was surprised to receive a request to talk from my tutor the next day and so arranged for a Zoom chat on the 18th May. It made for a long day as I joined a RPS talk at 5am that day with Donna Bridgewater. The session with my tutor seemed to go ok. He was happy with the images and the written text however he wasn’t happy with the edit. He said it was unclear what I was trying to say. He recommended that I review the work by Allan Sekula ‘Fish Story’, ‘Let there be light: The Rwanda project 1994-1998’ by Alfredo Jaar and any of the books by John Berger and Jean Mohr.
I ordered the book by Allan Sekula but luckily, I had copies of ‘The Seventh Man’ and ‘A Fortunate Man’ by Berger and Mohr, so I spent the next few days reviewing the layout, format and narrative. Both contain extensive amounts of text and I had read the ‘Fortunate Man’ earlier in the course. The images were formed into blocks of narrative, the first very much the scene setting, locational images of where the doctor lived and worked. The next addressed his work and interaction with his patients on a professional level. This was followed by portraits of the main subject and then more portraits but of the social interaction the doctor had outside his practice and work. To close there was a landscape of the doctor climbing the steps to his home.
Returning to the start was not easy and I spent a large number of hours getting very frustrated and disheartened about the whole processes as I thought I had given the viewer a clear insight into the women of Ngawi. Shown the life, hardship and their strength. This has made me realise that I was maybe too close to the whole thing. Taking a step back and re-ordering, removing and changing ideas, has I think, produced a tighter story, one that links the place, the female side and the lack of the male presence. The process to this point has been documented in my Work in progress section. I have issued a link out to various student groups for feedback.
28th May 2021
Had a great session with the Level 3 / Documentary student group. A number of new faces this morning. Neil, Faith and Niki are about to move into Level 3 studies having either just submitted for Assessment or waiting for their interviews. Judith is progressing with her SYP and provided some valuable advice following my showing of my latest Body of Work. She recommended that as I want to undertake an exhibition for my SYP I should use a number of different ways to show my images for final assessment rather than an on-line exhibition. She suggested a separate website as this would make showing the images easier as WordPress is very limiting on both quality and size. She also recommended continuing to produce a mock book and also include a video. All great ideas and areas to work on.
Stephan who was new to the group shared his images for his first Level 3 Assignment. These were a combination of portraits that had then been computer generated into what looked like illustrations – might be on the wrong course, as this caused a very heated discussion on whether this was photography or illustration. I left at this point as it’s the start of my work day. But eight hours to generate an image for me is not photography.
I have received lots of feedback from the group on my latest Body of Work and have added this to the Work in Progress section of this blog. All positive but think I need to step away from it for a few days to digest the feedback and re-look at it with a fresh pair of eyes. I’m off to the Auckland Photo Festival next month so a great time to park it and review on my return as I’m still waiting for feedback from my tutor following our catch up.
Michele Usher 