Assignment 3 - Tutor Report - Reflection

Tutor Report
As previously told I was apprehensive about this assignment. That statement in its self needs to be analysed a bit because really and truly there shouldn't be anything photographic that worries me too much although when having to combine the photography with copy and make an editorial I became concerned over the balance between words and pictures. If the words are too descriptive it would reduce the impact of the photography and visa versa. Add to that I was writing about myself and that was complex and outside my comfort zone.
The outcome however couldn't really be any better. My tutor was complimentary about the words and the pictures and didn't really see any areas that needed improvement. This assignment included page layouts, font selection etc. and that was all satisfactory and in harmony with the work. I had made a six page article and the tutor would have liked more images. I have more images but I don't really have any more words without changing the style of the whole piece and I am not sure how I will overcome this. The simple solution would be to add two pages of a similar style and pad it out or I would have to start again with a different approach, perhaps offering something more in the style of a learning feature rather than a newspaper supplement style.
Generally very pleased especially with one line where after describing how the photography will be styled, the response was "music to my ears"


Reflection
I am now pleased this is over and done as it did become something of a millstone around my neck. However, during the process it has led me along a path of images and imaging that I am becoming increasingly interested in. The Banal, seemingly banal. These images are often seen upon first glance as boring and with little or no substance, no content because they are not pretty or overtly interesting. Closer inspection finds that people leave statements about themselves in almost every trace of life, often through random unplaced objects. I intend to continue with this genre and develop a body of work around a number of everyday scenarios, as well as some constructions in the studio, where I will take the banal into the surreal.

Assignment 3 - Completed

It is just over 2 weeks since this assignment was sent to my tutor and I realise it has not been included in the journal.

In a break with my normal presentation this assignment was presented on a USB stick with no prints. The nature of the assignment is one of working on an assignment following receiving a commission and in this instance the buyer/editor would not need prints as they will make prints of their own for proofing etc to suit the needs of their production press.

The USB stick contained tiff files of the completed pages at A3 as well as all the individual images at 300 dpi. In addition a write up of the final work to place it in the context of the assignment.

For assessment the pages will be printed to aid the assessors viewing of the entire package.

For the journal here are :-

The six pages of the assignment produced as 3 x A3 double page spreads.

The write up.

Review your last assignment - Assignment 3

I finally sent Assignment 3 to my tutor and it is a relief. This exercise is to review the assignment once the tutor comments have come back, but I will do it now from my own perspective and once again after I receive them.

I am nervous whether this assignment is going to work well at all. Normally I would be quietly confident that I have done enough to "get by" and them make some changes before assessment, but in this case I am not so sure. When I normally work on assignments, whether they be OCA or for others I can formulate a strategy and work around that, researching what is needed to know and make some images or write an essay. In this case I am writing about myself and making photographs close to home and this is not in my comfort zone. My concern is its seen too much as "poor me" and as a result not working objectively, but in an autobiographical sort of way that is likely to happen. Only my family and friends know what happens in my life and to tell others about it is unsettling. The content aside I am not sure the images are right. I shot then two or three times, in different ways to try and communicate different feelings and ended up using some of the first batch anyway. I think there is a tendency to try and overthink the task and the first attempt is often the best as it originates from a gut feeling rather than being over planned. In the end they are not too good technically but I don't think that matters in every scenario these days. Where would post modernism be without some dodgy work being shown.

To be continued.

Assignment 3 - First Draft - Part One

The first drafts of this assignment are really the page layout exercise on page 68 and as I have already looked at mock ups I am incorporating these into this posting.

The opening page below has monochrome images and I am not happy that they convey the correct feeling of a caring environment. There is a starkness to my processing that has a coldness and that is not my intention. I am showing it here so that there is a record of it existing and maybe during further discussion it will reveal itself and what that may connote.

 

 

Some colour photographs instead of the black and white proved difficult when seen together. The colour content within a series did not have a synergy, they were just a set of individual photographs being shown together. To introduce a feeling of warmth I am thinking of sepia toned images. I am conscious that this is a bit clichéd, but here for a magazine page I think the readership will not be judgemental, instead seeing it as an appropriate "feel" for a story of an old person. The page above has then be redrafted into a single image opening page, allowing more space to contextualise the story. The title has changed and becomes precise with a bracketed subtitle and to fill some of the blank space on the opposite page a quotation from Stephen Hawking on the wheelchair as icon.

 

 

 





On reflection (this posting is being constructed over a number of days) the sepia will not work. I have never liked sepia toning in contemporary photography and although this connotes a warmth in the image this editorial has no warmth, it is a matter of fact, not a work of fantasy. This totally contradicts my early thoughts and the change has come about during the writing of the main body text.

 

The process has become iterative. backwards and forwards with alternative images and texts. The Page One below is cleaner and closer to how I want it to look.

 

 

 

The page within Photoshop, showing the use of Guides for layout. Here in particular to check that the in focus part of the photograph was on the Focal Centre

 

 



 

 

To be continued.

 

 

 

Assignment 3. Second shoot - rejected (maybe)

The need for colour and the exploration of how this will work within the concept of an editorial on the world of a carer led to a second shoot with the Leica M9P and a 35mm lens. Once again the images needed to be complete fact with little manipulation and that is sometimes difficult as the success of my execution will depend on the photography being intimate and without intervention. My worldly confines have become a New (New) Topographics, there is no grand vista only the everyday and the mundane from a rather ordinary  interior landscape. It is therefore a study of how I live within this tiny space (compared to the world which was my previous space) and how I interact with it.

 

Side Window (Where stuff gets put)

 

 

I have at this late stage introduced a new criteria. There will be no pictures of my mother. At the outset I considered this but upon reflection there is no need and as a result her privacy will be retained. There will be images that show her presence in the house by inference and space.

 

 



Chair in kitchen near window

 

 

 

Front door and wheelchair





Chair and paraphernalia

Shoes and boots behind tumble drier

The images being considered (a selection above) are of ordinary subjects but they are not ordinary enough within themselves. This may prove to be difficult to achieve but the next shoot will be with the 6x6 film camera when I intend to make a set of images not too dissimilar to the above. The viewpoint is of concern as I believe I am trying to investigate too much at the moment and I need the camera to be an impartial witness not an advocate for the perfect photograph.

 

Assignment 3. First shoot - rejected.

I mentioned in the last posting that there has been a lengthy evolution in the making of the images for this assignment. My life as a carer has reduced my world into a small place and the images that I want to show are that intimate world of everyday banality using unconstructed photographs. The four below are part of the first shoot. The intention was monochrome (so I used the MM) to enhance the simplicity but I am not sure they worked for me. Monochrome could work but it is in itself semi abstract and I need to be true with the images and make them ordinary at every level. These were too graphic, I had used some tone grading techniques and felt I had over processed them. That's not to say they wont have a role one day, not right for here (assuming I know what right is).

Fridge Door
 

 Chair
 

 Kitchen Door
 

Utility Room



Assignment 3 - An editorial feature.

This is an inward looking story of the banality of my life. Due to circumstances that I dont need to share my lifestyle has changed considerably over the past year. From my own business as a consultant in the construction industry with work all over the UK and parts of Europe I am now a carer for an elderly disabled parent, a task which is mine to complete until times takes it course. My world is now within a third of an acre that is home, with the once a week visit to the supermarket, peppered with occasional visits for car servicing and the doctor. It is repetitious and banal.

To portray this through photography was it seemed an easy task. For the first week of shooting I used the Leica MM, a dedicated monochrome range finder, assuming that monochrome was the medium and that with its ability to make high quality images at 2500 ISO I would hand hold the camera. Images were OK but there was an element of artistry, especially when in dark rooms I used wide apertures and a resulting shallow depth of field. It simply didnt look banal, it looked interesting. Moving on I used the MM again with a tripod and shot at f16 with long shutter speeds. Less arty (in the defined sense) but for once for me monochrome was not working and I needed colour, albeit the subdued colours of and ordinary home. Another set (maybe 50 or so) were then shot on the Leica M9P using a 50mm lens at f16. The choice all along to use ragefinder type cameras I felt gave me the necessary feel of shooting something private, indoors. The Nikon DSLR equipment seems too commercial and not right, but thats difficult to explain. Once again though I was being overly creative, perhaps too virtuoso in my need to make work that is different. At one stage I was using a table top tripod on the floor and shooting from a height of 6 inches. This produced images that were interesting but for the wrong reasons. They may well be suitable for something later on and offer a different viewpoint if nothing else. Again I had to consider what it was I am trying to say. It should be banal, thats my life, so it needed to be simpler. The final shoot happened yesterday and it was simple, maybe being completed in 12 frames. I loaded the 6x6 with Portra 400 (rated at 320) fitted the 75mm standard lens, put the tripod at full height so the camera was at normal viewing height and took the photographs of my world. No special lighting so simple incident readings were taken, f16/22 as we see naturally a large depth of field and moved around the house on a journey visiting all the places of interest. The kitchen sink, the bathroom, the comode etc, thinking how different it would be to perhaps going the the Lake District and doing a feature on sheep farming or the North Norfolk Coast to photograph the crab fishermen. Those cliched routes are of course valuable as an editorial feature, as many people will never have seen those subjects and together with the overt scenery, interesting characters and possibilities to manipulate the images with increased contrast etc, their appeal is commercial if nothing else.Those opportunities will come back to me one day but not right now. My images will require the viewer to engage with the subject matter on a different level, to see metaphors and become engaged in my world via the photographs. The objects within the images will be familiar to an extent that they are passed by every day, but I am offering a chance to stop and look deeper, to consider the cups, the plates, knives forks, etc as objects of design. In a few days the negs will come back and I will scan and PP them, hopefully retaining the simplistic approach adopted so far.

I have been influenced to some extent by the work of Nigel Shafran (b.1964) although it was quite a surprise when I researched his work how similar it was to my own. This due in some extent to looking for others after I had made my own images, which is probably not the normal routine of research, plan, shoot. It is now clearer that the banal and the mundane do need to be photographed in an understated style with ambient light and long exposures. He resists the urge to construct scenes and I have also found it more real to not tinker with props, condemning the image with untidy composition which is after all how we are most of the time.

On reflection it may be asking too much that one roll of 12 frames will fill the brief (having made more than 100 or so digitally) but I will have to see.

Something and Nothing

I find it difficult these days to come to terms with how banality has taken over my life. Personal circumstances can change so quickly and we have to follow a path through life sometimes not of our own making. I wont go into the detail of what happened a year ago but family matters took over and now as a carer the days are different as my world condenses into a semi medical/domestic routine. A trip to the supermarket for an hour being taken as a rest and the chance to see the world. This lifestyle has had an impact on my photography. No longer can I come and go as I please to places I view as interesting or inspirational. Initially I saw these restrictions as the end of my photography and for a while there was a low point with no activity and when I did force myself to make some images (Assignment One) they were not perhaps my best and I reverted to type and made work reminiscent of the past and inside my comfort zone.

Life has now settled down, I dont find the daily chores so daunting and unattainable anymore and photography is once again making its way back into my life. Assignment Two has been sent off to my tutor and between us we have agreed upon a way forward for Three which is very encouraging.

Something or Nothing is the title of chapter 4 in Charlotte Cotton's book "the photograph as contemporary art" and is one of my favourite long term reads. In this chapter she looks at and explains how non human things that are often seen as being ordinary can be made extraordinary when being photographed. There is nothing extraordinary about our house or the garden so by definition everything is ordinary and is my world photographically for the foreseeable future. As Cotton reminds us we pass by the ordinary or keep them at the periphery of our vision and automatically give them no credence within visual art.

For Assignment Three I intend to make a set of images of the generally non photographed items from my close everyday life captured simply with little post production. The brief will be to capture the banal and foster a curiosity in the item by leaving out some of the visual clues and inducing contemplation with the simple.

Maybe on these lines

Or this.