I started out reporting back on webinars etc week by week wondering whether or not to consolidate the blog entries, which is exactly what I’ve done here now. 

There is a slight twist in structuring of the blog I’ve not been able to avoid. It’s like this. We were advised at the outset yet as we all know from paper filing systems, (we do all remember paper filing systems, yes?), you often get a document to file that should appear on more than one place within the cabinet drawers.

We kind of solved problem with electronic storage with the uptake of relational database management systems where referential integrity is maintained. That is not meant to impress. It is just that having suffered learning about it in the day I now try to find one opportunity each year to mention the terms. Apologies for that.

Anyway, in a blog such as this there is no relational control as it is down to the author and the capabilities or constraints of using a blogging platform. Stop!

Decision. What I’ve decide to do here is transcribe my written notes from my course notebook and rattle off salient point from each webinar listed. I still have the last two of the series to watch or catch-up on this week. I did have a family bereavement at week 1 of the module, but no excuse – I did continue to give the course priority (much to the exasperation of others?) as the “show must go on.”.

Reading

I found time for reading or, as termed in some circles, for standing on the shoulders of giants.

Susan Sontag, On Camera

I had to re-read this especially as there are sections covering: photography defining of beauty, photography as art, the difference between painting and photography and even the beauty in camera makes of even the mundane. Important stuff regards my abstract work. Talking of which, the style of writing by Sontag is made difficult as it consistently showcases the wide vocabulary of the author. In my case I keep having to pick up the dictionary to try and follow the metaphors used. I do find it a bit unnecessary but do understand that photography, as a new art, does need to be written about in such a style to give photography academic provenance. Is that it?

Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, practices of looking.

I’m sure at postgraduate level this work is elementary, but it is still defining of visual culture and one chapter was recommended reading last module of this MA Photography. What I get from this book is a hot dip in the language of visual culture. Every time I’ve read the work I start to sound like I’ve swallowed a dictionary or perhaps sound more informed? At least people do look attentive to the new found knowledge when quizzed about photography. I do appreciate some of the psychological interpretations of gaze in this work too. That is a bonus. Sturken is quite good for stirring a bit of informed argument, as there are many interpretations of the world and some hold these dear. It’s good, the photography should gain some standing. I return to the work time and again.

Recommended Reading

I think this module I did manage to just about read everything put before me. Well all of the must reads.

I’ll take a highlight here on the subject of fashion photography and lifestyle magazines. As photography has been democratised, for where I stand it is good to learn of the growing movement of editors looking farther afield for personal work with a difference. So not exclusively the work of a seasoned pro, but photographer with ideas, fresh ideas. Although I’m not going to spring up next in fashion or magazines it is great to know that a tidy social media presence can fall before an editor.

In this vein of fashion and lifestyle, I discovered a piece of research or more precisely a detailed category comparison of print and web for a new lifestyle magazine versus the established Harpers Gazette. There is scope for new work as long as it targets its audience well. Simplicity in all things lifestyle was the winning major theme. We all have less time. Hipster fashion abounds as does the art of the back story.

Week 12 

I have yet to watch.

Week 11 Talk and Q&A with Tim Clark

I have yet to watch. Was this postponed?

Week 10 Francesca Genovese

Important stuff (advice) if you are categorise your work as fine art.

Week 9 Presentation with Amy Simmons

A lovely insight how to breakthrough the the art editorial world, with a cheeky challenge attached at the end – create a treatment. I did that with sketches and layout design and didn’t post it back to the forum. Note to self.

I did feel rather smug at this presentation as it followed on directly from the pricing estimate of the following week and I’d managed to anticipate some snags and address them in my estimate so was broadly in keeping with Amy’s advice.

My other professional career is wide and varied, and gave full immersion in bid work so maybe a head start there. Win rate is often quoted in such circles and can be quite low. I’ve been lucky winning nearly everything bid for. How do these things happen? One thing I didn’t do last week was underbid and leave myself at potential risk of loss. 

Week 8

Week 7 Live Talk and Q&A with David Chancellor

David has gone a long way on a self funding basis although now he does get commissioned. There could be a lesson here for us starting out.

Something common with his work is an element of blood and gore. Culling of wildlife ( for its own good as the elderly are removed from the population) versus the minor trauma abstracted in my portfolio. It’s not all about really good taste, but about issues of meaning or importance.

Week 6

Week 5 

Week 4 In Conversation with Maximus Barnett

It is brilliant to see success and how it is brought about (focus and specialisation). Good also to learn how to approach with your own work increasing the chances of matching up with a picture editor. At least as far as I’m concerned having studied a bit on journalism (specifically hyperlocal journalism in my case).

Other Speakers

Colin Pantall

The political stage is not one i’ve encountered before. Pantall in photographing China for a Magnum publication has managed to weave around the glare of officialdom as we hear how states like to promote a vision of life that may not often tie up with the realities.

My personal opinion only, but maybe China (as many other countries including Britain) should be open to admission of truths, especially as a means of gaining broader acceptance in the world. 

I recall comparison being made. Other photographers such as Parr have documented the country too, but each photographer brings their own style. There is room for more than one book on a single subject, so we should be encouraged to make our own work even if others have been there before us.

Jane Hilton

Hilton made it to the USA with her work. Having gained a film commission through the BBC it was amazing to hear how she was sent out with a BBC producer and film setup and was required to transfer her skills from stills to video.

If I’m honest, I have to admit to had already watched the resulting tv documentary in the day. I say admit as the subject is legal prostitution in a US state. I always have concerns about exploitation and so too does Hilton. The talk was maybe a glimpse or insight into a type of work that is constrained by or to gender. Knowing what you cant or don’t want to photograph is maybe as important as thinking you know what you do want to photograph.

An adVICE I liked about book publication was captioning. Hilton realises the failings of captions (viewer doesn’t pause on the images) so she put a slightly cryptic piece at the end so the viewer has to do some cross-reference work to match up captions.

I imagine the audience was like myself rather surprised to learn of women going into the trade due to having a sex addiction. Racey stuff indeed this photography business.

Clementine Schneiderman

Who would have thought that a young French national would visit Wales and stay in the Valleys?

The subject of Elvis fans had scope for falling into the category of a plastic version of the real. However, a certain sadness descends upon the subject and the lives of the people showcased? It was fascinating to see the subjects and how they obviously influence each other at the human level: friends dressing alike for Elvis conferences and children adopting the Elvis culture from parents. The thing going for the work is that Elvis is a well known phenomenon in the media so there is both subject and interested audience.

Showing a genuine interest in her adopted land has been acknowledged through those Welsh Art Council grants that were forthcoming. Not a strategy to be copied lightly. 

And inspiration too, for those students intent on PhD research in photography. For me personally, yes there is a definite appeal in doctoral study but I realise too I need to up my game, get out there on a public stage and keep learning theory. Anyone that does go that route I’d be happy to stay in touch with in the future.

Simon Roberts

Being resourceful was demonstrated, as Roberts tapped into his wife’s Russian speaking skills. The post crash Russia work created put Roberts on the photographers political map and led to him being invited by Westminster to photograph a general election.

You have to listen to Roberts live to pick up on his skill. There is all the interest around photographing on the rooftop of a van but behind this are some serious perspectives sic. Yes actual perspective is altered as he looks down upon a scene and captures environmental details. He links several stories within his image into one theme. I tend always to simplify so it is great to see scope for busy photographs (as long as the content is consistent). But listen to Robert guide you through his photographs. He picks up on every detail. And that is the essence of a photograph, a picture of something in all its detail. A far cry from ny abstract work at present. I might get over it one day (next study module?)

Laura Hynd

What is there not to love about Hynd? That play on vulnerability, the beauty of her work. The naivety of the elements of the video work. It is not as all as I make it sound and maybe the whole is part of the branding both personal and work. So a rather clever approach to the market backed by the number of commissions obtained.

Alec Soth

I’ve followed his work so it was great to get a background on Sleeping by the Mississippi and other works. 

It was interesting to hear him being pushed to reveal new work and his thoughts on the perils and gains of collaborating. I’ll keep a watch on that work where he gave cameras to children for a limited time to show their world from their perspective. 

Other others

So many other talented and influential speakers to write of. That’s it, I draw a line here and hand in my assignment.  I will return to give more detail. 

Work in Progress Portfolio

In order for my progress to be reviewed in Week 10, I’ve attached below a draft of current work in progress. I am enjoying making new images, even if trial and error is a large part of it. I thought experimentation was coming under control yet as I curtail wider attempts like long exposure, I still have pursued other realms: framing (as a reaction against the conformity of unifying squares and in greying images and technique layering to calm things down as part of my anti-kitsch movement.

Technical layout (with InDesign)

Control has now been gained so instead of those quad layouts published over past weeks and to be honest, in the last module, those pixellated versions of full resolution files that got published (in despair), I’m now happy to more or less have full control over layout. Thank you to the Falmouth Software Teaching Team for advising back in early September.

Simplify, simplify is the mantra (I agree. Let the photographs do the talking). Even when avoiding bells and whistles there was still a key lesson to learn. Yes a tutor could see why I grouped images but still it is better to have one image per page – I’m working on it. Some images come alive on a larger scale.

Although expansion of PDF pages to larger size works well, I presented via Canvas where sadly the expansion does not have a control. I’ll write that off to experience.

Narrative Simplification

As a string of three developed or developing projects there has to be a history and how difficult that is to hold back. I do let the pictures talk nowadays and invariably I get asked to explain, which is good. If interest is expressed then respond is the idea. I usually give the following pitch:

“Bravery and sad events unspoken. Now 100 years on, as tears are wiped away, I remember them (I remember them all), through the glow that is life’s force.” Michael Turner

The challenge is in taking it a step further. I learn and relearn not to mention the 100 years, instead I should focus on the future to enable link-back in time (usually to world events). 

The second challenge is not to mention the mitochondrial DNA. Genetics is complex, highly complex and for some viewers/listeners it has been intimidating. Instead l should link to the viewer through common experience, which of course I get, but to enact this is much more of a challenge. At this point I fall back on the emotional baggage – I cannot directly reference the past as it affects me too deeply. However, I will say it has drawn a family together. Nowadays, abstraction is my “therapy”, my means of remaining connected without the baggage. 

There is strong authenticity at a personal level and yet I cannot ignore the degrading of the work if it were ever deemed to be kitsch.  I understand the work is not kitsch and yet I have reacted to the possibility. The main factor is the toning down I have wanted to see in my highly saturated colour images. Trying to be clever, and not always a good idea, I have met with some success in review in terms of combining monochrome images and colour images. Some of my colour work now only focusses on a specific point of interest (signposting) and the remainder of the image is toned down. I suppose a form of colour popping. This can also be seen as cliched. Getting balance right is a very tricky skill to master but one worth persevering with. Anyway, as I look at the bright images on screen so much, too much colour can make the eyes seek rest. 

Narrative

I was asked by a fellow student to consider this and without reply I quietly took this away for improvement. I have grouped images that go together as already mentioned but I also reverse time order. Again I fell foul of the work outside of term time being discarded by the course rules. I returned to the earlier style and placed those images at the end or out of order in a sense. For me the narrative was always the researched written narrative, that I was illustrating. Now my work has taken on a life of its own it will have to stand on its own. If though, I take a recent inspiration, Ellen Carey, her work is presented as thematic groups and development phases. As abstract work, what is the narrative? 

Colour Grading and Colour matching and Print

I’ve gone back to print, hurrah. Now with a different technical platform and sadly with an attendant loss of control over colour profiles. This has forced the agenda over colour control in my images which I’ve wanted to refine for a while now. It has been great to read up on technique but I invented my own technique. The question is how far to go as there is no branding or product colour consistency required. 

Degree of Difficulty

Trying to photograph an elbow is tricky in close-up/macro/magnified. Try and photography one’s own elbow – I think you get the message. This is the photographic challenge and so I set-up a comparative trial: DSLR v flexible bridge camera v Smartphone with lens add-on. There is a convenient method, the latter and the other two methods give results in some circumstances. I mention this as the value of work is aided by overcoming such constraints.

Review images – web version 

“Photographic seeing meant an aptitude for discovering beauty in what everybody sees but neglects as too ordinary.”

Sontag, Susan. On Photography (Penguin Modern Classics) (p. 89). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

I enter this week mindful of the end of module assignments that need to be handed in: the draft oral presentation was reviewed and has taken onboard numerous amendments and I have been sleeping on it (for rather too long); the portfolio of abstract photographs of the new work I have been making is a growing body of work that I’ll need to edit and place within my portfolio; the CRJ which is this blog has extended week on week and as the work this module has been more business orientated I’ve gone back over some research for parts that need further building upon.

Meanwhile in going from Week 8 into Week 9 I have been quite pleased at the continuity that occurred as if by chance in that the Week 8 work estimate I made anticipated ahead many of the points emphasised by Amy Simmons Art Producer in the Week 9 video.

Meanwhile, on the subject of Treatment – the request Amy made at the end of her video, I’ve been active making sketches / illustrations / diagrams and decided to make a method of my planned photographs suiting the requirements of Landscape, Square and Portrait and constraints of upper left Copy and lower right Logo.

I haven’t committed my answer yet as clearly a simpler approach is better. Meanwhile I am driven to risk something more thoughtful and showing enterprising spirit that might differentiate my photography from others work. I probably need to corral some of my existing photographs and cannibalise them into the examples in my Treatment submission. I don’t think there is really enough time for this.

I have taken a bit of time to go back to my photographic interests outside of the course and will be hosting a light painting workshop later in the week.

It has been refreshing to listen to a talk by Ted Paterson and Morag Leeming who have lived and worked on dual signed work in an area of Scotland I have gone back to repeatedly over the past few years and which was the start of my current practice.

https://www.leemingpaterson.com/browse

In complete contrast I listened to a colleague’s live practice presentation on Still Life, Allegory, Vanitas and Momento Mori. I’d had some prior exposure and had looked into still life lighting techniques. It was great to reinforce that growing knowledge and the inspiration of Caravaggio and Pieter Claesz.

Apart from that, on a practical level a change of computing platform has led me to the need to re-calibrate for print. It can be quite a lengthy prospect setting up especially as the software hiccuped. I took advice from another colleague and will be tracking down profiles from the Epson international site in Australia. I really must get back to creating tangible results for my work.

Lastly, I’ve gone back to competition, which I let wither and with a bit more focus managed a third place equal in Advanced competition. I’d let this slip of late due to personal circumstances and in giving the MA Photography priority.

Another area I’ve let slip outside of the course and that I’ve yet to reconnect with are the various groups I shoot with in and around London missing three events in the space of a fortnight. In a sense it is better I learn from the course to concentrate on shooting according to a defined practice with preset objectives and I can go back to the social side of shooting as and when there is time.

After the fact:

That was quite a week. It started with cutting out a studio opportunity to give me some breathing space for drafting the Oral Presentation. Next the task looked identical to the previous Oral – the wording was the same and all that had changed was a shift in my practice. We had that resolved by the Tuesday pm, with a letter of clarification and an update to the task description. So two and a half days left over which we were to create a bright shining new presentation.

I learn that the experience comes around once a module or twice a module if we count draft and final versions

I was on the bounce from the previous experience which was tainted with shooting away in remote areas of Scotland. The transfer to mobile was quite sudden and unplanned (not my fault/nothing I could be but buckle down). The technology went horribly wrong. Nasty, nasty nasty. Do I want to remind myself? No. It is in the past. However, it has stayed with me and affected my approach to these Oral Presentations. In a sense this task had become a first time experience, learning new tools on a new platform. Last time I created the whole piece, the day before hand in – I never planned to do this but being horribly constrained, it happened that way. So this time even the reduction of timeframe to two and a half days was a luxury.

Being the visual type I was now really pleased to be able to collate photographs with ease. Before, every click had been painful. Next was the changeover of platform and software tools. Even what tools should I use? This I would have answered last module and this is why I reckon it felt like starting over, instead of building on past experience.

I had favourite methods, but was not able to use them last time (mobility issue)  or even this time (change of platform). A wilderness or a stage for experimentation? Rather than dawdle, it was a case of make a decision. I went native with supplied software, the wrong software. It was a great way of working that at last I seemed to be enjoying. A quick test demonstrated the file should translate.

So yes I overdid the bells and whistles through unwittingly selecting a theme with too many visual elements available and that I also used. Too much for normal Photographic taste. Post review that was easily rectified. I should have known better by now and yes I keep seeing others sites with the most minimalistic appearance designed to make the photographs sing, or something like that.

A great part of the exercise was presenting in the presence of time pressure. Now the Oral creation involves a narrative and photo narrative but it also involves a production task. With time for just one run through, how was this going to succeed? How do you aim and achieve a certain file size limit and speaking duration? These metrics are very important in the context of the task set.

In came a quick piece of creative thinking. Put the main punch of the presentation, the bit/content that had to be there, put it at the beginning. Then follow with the supporting development of photographic practice. I was only a few minutes over and an edit sorted that. A massive PDF saved to smaller size, a fraction of that allowed. At once relief but also there was some scepticism over resolution. I accepted the relief and whether turning a blind eye or not, was happy at the cursory level that individual pixels didn’t show. This is part I deem to be the production task. Given to an expert to work on they’d size and check and do the technical posting. As an all in one task, that experience has to be gained.

When it came to the actual timed review the disconnect in the timeline was noticeable – my ruse had been discovered. Post review I’ve got time to swap back into time order. It’s easy enough to change the time order – simply swipe up or down a  list of slides. However, it’s a bigger task to do than that. With alterations resulting from the review, the timings and file sizes alter and the job has to be resized to take onboard all of the changes.

In reality, and I kind of knew this from general experience, it’s a case of allowing time to do the draft Oral task twice with multiple practice runs being necessary to meet timing and size constraints. I must go back to completely finish that off. I’ve been rather distracted by my photographic reading – I went back to Susan Sontag On Camera and dived into Fashion Photography and Kinship lifestyle magazine from past and current research recommendations.

I was pleased to have gotten together a consistent look to my images and will ditch those horrible default frames that add nothing. I faltered in delivery on basically checking whether there was time left to fit in the full slide deck which marginally there was. Practice is necessary. Having time to practice is also necessary.

I thoroughly enjoyed the task, even if left to last in order (the creeping pressure that lasted the whole session) and heightened time pressure due to starting late. Others presentations and reviews  gnawed into the available time. It was a great relief getting through it and then as a bonus there was clear and purposeful advice I’m able to work with.

I’ll crack on with that.

On the subject of potentially compromised image resolution there is something to add – I certainly worried about it and was picked up on it last time. PDF file size reduction works but can be visible. For this course a piece of work was done by the University by the software training department. I tried it out during the late summer. What it means is InDesign if available, can be set up to use full resolution images and the reduction can be done there. I was shown the method called save to an interactive PDF. Small file size with un-compromised image resolution.

As I have not used any visuals here so far, I will post the updated draft when I’ve got it in order, I’ll include one photograph from my non DSLR digital  processing era. From this a lot of my later abstract image references developed. It is a really dirty image, designed to grab attentions and was photographed on a cold December night in London’s Oxford Street and taken through the misted upper deck window of a London bus.

This week, the work is predicated on the assumption that  as students we intend to start-up in business.   If we go with the assumption,  it is necessary to  realise of course that there are those who already operate professionally, and others who do not intend to go this route.  In my case, I considered this in-depth back in 2010 to 2011 and made a firm decision not to start up in the end. Mostly this was based on the fact that my efforts would be largely philanthropic and as borne out by an income and expense graph, that showed the venture operating at an ongoing loss. Meanwhile I’d be putting myself at risk in a  litigatious sphere extending from the USA.  It was also a time when technology was moving apace and the major players were in hard competition, changing offerings by the month whilst mopping up business in the area of the market I’d spotted in advance.  Okay so that was a bit of history and includes a firm decision and in some respects viability findings carry forward into photography practice.

For me in photographic practice, I  continue to seek to fulfil the philanthropic ideal and as such I registered with a society as a volunteer worker, alongside providing support to a commercial organisation that supports education towards the societies charitable objectives.

My actual photographic practice is basically an adventure into personal work as a means of self expression. I attempt to finesse and create images of artistic merit, that in contemporary terms  are imaginative images that carry layered meaning. I resist stifling this creativity by distracting myself through a business start-up.

For the purpose of this week of the course then, I’ve gone ahead  and engaged knowing that I’ve written  my piece for practice only. If work does take off then I will be well prepared being reminded about forms of business and how to manage them, and I’ll have gained a bit of current practice and be confident of how to get going if circumstances arose.

Nevertheless, and unspoken, it is probably true that as photographers we do personally represent ourselves. We represent ourselves and endeavours whether that be as an actual inaugurated business or not.

Okay, let’s see how this works structurally and content-wise. Structurally, and I need to get this out of system at the start, I’m doing a week by week blog entry on this headline topic. When I see other examples of other students work say, I might reform and change, if it can be done more efficiently.

Content-wise I’ll match up with the topics and Talis and revisit at each relevant step.

Here we go then.

Will Hartley taught me (probably most of us) something.

Guest Lecture with Will Hartley

This guest for me resonated immediately because as a pre university student Will studied nearby. I liked the advice offered and I’ll tighten up my act when supporting studio work. Another point that resonated was his having studied in Wales.  A short but intense Community Journo course I did was with Prifysgol Caerdydd – ah, Newport not Cardiff.

I kind of figured before this course that I might fall nicely into a Picture Editor role (dream on) with John G Morris being a personal hero if I may be allowed such. There again I would enjoy digital editing too if time allowed and I have other unformed plans to go freelance. How good would it be to give up some time  studio hosting for more practice at assisting or even grow practice at filming.  For what it’s worth, I tend to think that human vision is more akin to video and ultimately an attractive prospect. Mind you there is a good deal of talent out there already.  I diverge, but please forgive as this is inspired by the lecture.

Advice to focus on personal practice was given and is truly inspirational really. I’m acutely aware the practice breathes life back into the photographers job. I had for a short  while taken to creating boards planning out this area of practice and keep it in reserve. One time the method failed me in trying to do 3D photography in a London graveyard, the subject in the main was nearly always too flat. But at least I tried and can eliminate this idea. I might spot the specific subject that I know now that it can be effective with. Trail and error but on my own time. Another diversion I know but I’d love to build in 3D work to a project as it really draws in a viewer who can linger within the image examining detail – with the right subjects it can be rather entertaining and maybe qualifies academically under the banner of semiotics.

I liked the way editorial work was described as a shared workload when giving over editorial Instagram or web resources of contributing authors (including photographers. Given trust can be established it is a smart idea to share workload. I liked the balance between writing and photography mentioned in the talk. I liked how thought was given to the concepts that run alongside photographs.

Post this MA I could envisage making a studio and training centre print magazine. It’s the sort of thing delegates would likely pick up and peruse over lunch or after a visit.

I have a suggestion in reply to Max’s what can we do question. Whilst I like novelty and am certain multimedia could be somehow incorporated into the editorial scene, one perhaps more realistic thing would be to feature poetry. Can you imagine opening up to a whole raft of new contributors and like Viveca Koh on this in her fellowship book submission, there could be everything from her work through to budding poets in school. Serious contributions with strong cultural work in line with culture identification and development. This is really important to society. I might just pinch my own idea there.

___ ends for now with more to follow on other things from this week ___

Coming to a blog near you soon. Nothing to write. I’m not going to mince my words. Sadly, my brother passed away.