Final Review of my Objectives and My Progress Through This Course

Final Review of my Objectives and My Progress Through This Course: 17 September 2020

This post also forms the basis of my submission for assessment

“4. A reflective presentation or evaluation reflecting on your work and learning journey as a whole.”

Over the time I have been doing this course I have found I have become more structured in the setting of my personal objectives and my reflections on these. As a result I have found it helpful to incorporate into my learning log a section under “Research and Reflection” titled “My Objectives and Progress”.

In my first post in this section I identified my objectives as being the aims of the course. I also considered my own motivation for taking this course. This I summarised as being “to develop my understanding of contemporary and historical approaches to photography and thereby to produce practical work which uses this understanding” and a secondary aim was “to develop my critical analysis and self-appraisal of ideas, processes and outcomes particularly as related to my own technical and visual skills”.

In the posts of my regular reviews of my objectives I have broken these large scale aims and into more manageable and achievable parts, but will try and return to the larger objectives and review what I have achieved on these.

My Objectives

“to develop my understanding of contemporary and historical approaches to photography and thereby to produce practical work which uses this understanding”

I think the most tangible example of how I have developed a better understanding of my photography comes from my reading about Colour Field artists. I have realised that this style of abstract painting was an influence on the landscape photographer, Franco Fontana. I had been consciously or unconsciously trying to emulate this in images I made before I started the course and show in my log. A more overt understanding of the influence of artists on my photography is illustrated by the comparison I have made between the monochrome landscapes of John Virtue and images I made in response to the landscapes of Don McCullin.

Overall I have found that visiting a gallery to see the work of photographers, tends to make me try to create images in response to those I see. There are many examples of this in my log, where I have shown a reaction to the work of photographers, including Edward Weston, Willy Ronis, Man Ray, Fay Godwin and Don McCullin. While on one level this may seem like merely copying the work of others, I find it has helped me to begin to understand how other photographers see their subject and portray it. My next step is to combine elements of the work of these into my images so as to better express what I want to convey.

“To develop my critical analysis and self-appraisal of ideas, processes and outcomes particularly as related to my own technical and visual skills”

This is an area where I think I still have a lot of work to do. Developing my skills of critical analysis of visual work and subjecting my own work to that critique has been an objective running through all the time I have been doing the course.

I realise that I started out appreciating only a limited range of types of visual art. Gallery visits, particularly to the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice, exposed me to a much wider range. While I might have a better understanding of what the artist was trying to achieve (or at least what commentators and curators think the artist was trying to achieve), I still have difficulty appreciating the work otherwise.

A major step towards this however has been a recognition that there can be considered to be different aesthetic codes. In an on-line tutorial with Robert Bloomfield on the subject of Wabi Sabi, I realised that there are many different frameworks against which a visual art work can be appreciated – this was something I had not really considered before. It remains something I need to study more.

My other original objectives were the remaining objectives of the course:

“to use technical and visual skills appropriately”

I believe I have used a range of technical skills to create my work. Initially this was confined to digital images, but I have extended my skills there to do more studio work for still life in my “Collections” assignment and “Homage” exercise.

Skills that I have not practiced in this course and I think I need more work on include formal portraiture and the skills of working with models and other subjects.

I have also done some work on the use of film and processing and printing this. It is much more time consuming and the constraints of time for the course have prevented me from doing more. However I did find this a major learning experience to go back to film and chose to do this assignment with film “as a learning exercise to better understand how Cartier-Bresson and contemporaries worked and to improve my skills of observation and timing”. I have come across the work of contemporary photographers who use film, but I still need to try and understand what their reason is for this.

Overall the quality of some of the final prints is acceptable to me, but there is still a long way to go to improve these.

“To produce practical work which uses the above understanding and demonstrates skills of personal engagement, enquiry, imagination and experimentation”

I do feel engaged in this course of study and have particularly enjoyed interaction with other students and staff at on-line and in person meetings. These have given me better insight into important concepts in visual art and also the work of students from disciplines other than photography.

I think overall that the skills of imagination and experimentation are probably the weakest part of my progress through the course so far. In part this may be because I tend to ask “Why” do something, rather than do it and see what the outcome is. My tendency is to perhaps take an intellectual approach, and plan the images rather than have any scope for the unexpected.

I became aware of this in an on-line tutorial with Robert Bloomfield. He asked “How do you notice that thing you have never seen before?” This captures that issue: I think I tend to over plan the image I am hoping to create, and if I can adopt a more spontaneous style it may lead to more unexpected results.

Zoom Meeting 25 August 2020 – Assessment

Zoom Meeting 25 August 2020 – “Assessment”

Led by Robert Bloomfield

This was the first meeting with Robert since a break over the summer period. As the deadline for the November assessment event is approaching, the topic was “Assessment”.

Only two of us were planning to enter for assessment, although following discussion a number of others were encouraged to do so, rather than leave it to the next event.

Robert went through the assessment criteria and described the process for digital assessment as it was used in the last event, and will be done in November.

He listed the material which we are required to submit. The main learning point and his very strong message was that for this course the key work to concentrate on is the images which are to be submitted.

He re-iterated what I had gathered from the discussion with my tutor, that a selection of images is needed, and these can be from assignments or exercises.

I asked a question about the linking of images. For the exercises and particularly the assignments, there is a theme linking the images making them a series. While we have had discussions in the past about what constitutes a series, I remain somewhat unclear about this. However he suggested that images could be combined into composites images, in a similar way which my tutor had suggested pairing them.

We had a more general discussion about Exercise 1.4, which was very helpful. In particular a question Robert asked about images in general..

“How do you notice that thing you have never seen before?”

To me this seems to capture an issue I am having generally about the work and creation of images. I think I tend to over plan the image I am hoping to create, and a more spontaneous style will lead to more unexpected results.

Assignment 5: Revision

Assignment 5: Revision

I have had a discussion with my tutor about Assignment 5 and my approach to it. I have documented this in a post summarising my feedback.

In summary:

In terms of my images chosen for Assignment 5, Andy suggested that a mixture of images in portrait and landscape formats was not so effective. He also thought that the portrait orientated images were less effective in depicting the landscape I was trying to show.

He made some suggestions about re-working this Assignment in terms of selecting landscape orientated images, and I will rework this in the light of these comments.

He also made a general comment about the way images are displayed on the website, arranged vertically. As we tend to read horizontally, he suggested ways in which the images could be shown side by side, as they would be in a gallery. He suggested this should be a consideration for my submissions for assessment.

I have re-examined the images I shot for this assignment and looked particularly at the ones in landscape format. There are a number of other images which I could include, as well as some I showed in my earlier post, but chose not to include.

Other images not shown before include these:

My tutor suggested I could show the images in pairs, side by side, and illustrated this with these two:

The rusty bucket from the machinery to the left of one image, mirrors the stone structure to the right of the other. I have made a selection of ten images which can be arranged in pairs like this.

So my revised selection is the following:

14 August 2020: Video meeting with Andy Hughes Assignment 5

Video meeting with Andy Hughes: 14 August 2020

Feedback on Assignment 5 – Photography is Simple

I had submitted Assignment 5: Photography is Simple to my tutor and this meeting was to provide feedback on that work. In addition Andy offered advice about preparing my submission for assessment, and about my next and future modules.

Feedback on Assignment 5 and Course work for Part 5

Andy commented on some of the images I had included in Exercise 5.1 Viewpoint, in particular Image Woodhead 18 (reworked),which I had included after thinking more about it. He agreed with my final conclusions about this image and drew my attention to the content of the image which he thought was one of its strengths (i.e. the grave stones/ field and wall, and then in the distance the line of trucks and the electricity cables). He also thought the positioning of the bush in the middle of the image was a strength – rather than it being to one side as more conventional composition might suggest. I think it was this aspect of the image which initially led me to reject it.

He made some suggestions about re-working this Assignment in terms of selecting landscape orientated images, and I will rework this in the light of these comments.

More General Developmental Suggestions

Andy made some suggestions about other artists whose work I should study.

These included David Hockney’s video work, The four seasons (NGV Melbourne, 2017).

He also referred me to events organised by CAST, the Cornubian Arts & Science Trust; with particular reference to the presence of mining in the landscape.

In addition the work of artists during the period 1910 – 1940 such as Graham Sutherland, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, exemplify some non-photographers use photography in their work and the scarring of the landscape from mining and other uses.

He suggested that my sense of advocacy for the landscape is an aspect which could be further developed in future work, and considered other ways I could use other techniques to explore the landscape.

One suggestion was to look at juxtaposing map extracts with my images to explore the form of the image.

Preparing for Assessment

Andy summarised the submissions I will need to make, and made suggestions about my selection of creative work to submit.

He suggested that the 10-20 items of work would be best selected from Assignments 1 and 5, and made suggestions about selection of these.

To Do

Following this meeting there are a number of tasks I have to do, including preparation for assessment. These include.

Revise final images for Assignment 5

Research other artists

David Hockney’s video work, The four seasons (NGV Melbourne 2017).
The work of CAST, the Cornubian Arts & Science Trust
Graham Sutherland
Paul Nash
Barbara Hepworth
Henry Moore

Use of other techniques to explore the landscape/ juxtaposing map extracts with my images

References

References to the works cited in this post are found in my separate post “References”

Further thoughts on Colour Field Painters: Franco Fontana

Further thoughts on Colour Field Painters: Franco Fontana

In my post regarding the work of Frank Bowling and colour field painters, I referred to this image which I had made in Spain before starting this course.

At the time I made that image I had seen the work of a landscape photographer whose name I have been unable to remember and whose work I have unsuccessfully tried to research. However having recently looked at the learning log of another student, I found reference to the photographer, Franco Fontana, and have realised this is the photographer whose work I had seen and which influenced this image.

Images such as these he made in Italy show strong abstract-like landscapes with large blocks of vivid colour. The result is very similar to the images made by the colour field painters I have referred to previously.

During my trip to Spain I made a number of images in response to this idea.

Interim Review of My Objectives: 5 August 2020

Interim Review of My Objectives: 5 August 2020

“My over-arching objective now is to re-establish an effective, regular pattern of working in order to be able to complete the course with a view to submission for assessment in November 2020.”

For the last few months I have scheduled to post a review of my objectives every two weeks to ensure I was progressing towards my deadline. On that basis I am due to post a review today, however will make this brief as I am awaiting feedback from my tutor for Assignment 5 and will update my objectives in line with that in due course.

I have completed the exercises from Part 5 and Assignment 5 now.

I have also submitted an application for the assessment event in November.

My next objectives are more like tasks in preparation for that assessment, rather than new learning. When I get the feedback from my tutor I will review my overall learning objectives and make a post about my learning from this course and my objectives as I go forward to the next course.

Assignment 5: Assignment Notes

Assignment 5: Assignment Notes

The following is a submission to accompany my images and summarises my approach to the assignment and my reflections on it. Many of the points I discuss here are considered in more depth in my learning log at https://ap231photography.com/.

The Brief

The brief for this assignment included “..Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject exploring the theme ‘Photography is Simple’. Each photograph should be a unique view; in other words, it should contain some new information..” The course notes also suggest that “you should just feel comfortable with your subject… it should say something about you”

In these notes I will explore how I have attempted to answer that brief.

My Subject

The images of the “Peak District Landscape” I found for Exercise 4.4, portray the landscape of the moors as an idealised wilderness with little reference to the influence of man in managing the landscape as I experience it living close by. The images include stereotypical features and make no reference to the mining and quarrying, the collection of drinking water and grouse shooting for which the moors are managed.

What I intended the images to show are features within the landscape which indicate these activities. In this way I hoped to better represent my own experience of the moorland landscape.

“Photography is Simple”

I attempted to address the theme of simplicity by making the images when I went walking on the hills near my home. I went out not with the specific aim of making the images but to experience the environment in a walk. I tried to capture subjects as I came across them and the resulting images are therefore my own reaction to the landscape.

In this way the process of making the images was more spontaneous than the creation of the images for other assignments. I used a variety of equipment, depending on what I could carry for the length of the walk planned. I also had little idea what I would come across and had to react as I saw something.

My Influences

On reflection I had very few overtly conscious influences. However I was trying to depict the landscape as I experience it and not a stylised version. Thus in this respect a main influence is the work of Fay Godwin; particularly her series “Our Forbidden Land” showing man-made structures in the landscape, and a less conventionally attractive side of the British landscape. Similarly the work of photographers such as Robert Adams, and others in the exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” show the landscape as it is, not how we might imagine it.

Reflections

One of the main learning points I have drawn from this assignment, is not so much about photography itself, but about how I look at the world around me. I think I started this process with the first assignment in this course, which made me look at where I live and how that is a product of its history and changes of use over years.

It is this process of looking at how the parts of the environment create the whole which has begun to influence me, and, I hope, my work. Those parts of the environment which build up into the whole may be due to changes in use over time, as was the case in my “Square Mile” assignment; or its use simultaneously for different functions, as is the case with these present images.

Another point on which I have reflected is that my assignment notes for this assignment are much shorter and less wordy than for any of the other assignments. My initial reaction to this is that I have not written enough or considered enough research and background reading. While this may well be the case, I am very conscious that I was trying to make this “Simple” and by so doing make my images more spontaneous and automatic, drawing on the influences and experience I have gained over this course in a more subconscious way. I think this relates to my concern which I raised with my tutor that my work is not so visually strong and does not always fully express what I intend as well as I can express it in words. My previous assignments I have had a lot of ideas which I have expressed in writing, and this is not reflected in the quality of the final images – I think best exemplified by “The Decisive Moment”.

In the end I am very pleased with these final images, I think they do indeed show what I intended and I would hope that I am moving towards better representing my ideas visually rather than verbally.

Assignment 5: Some Reflections

Assignment 5: Some Reflections

I have presented my images in a previous post, and will consider here how I have met the brief “Photography is Simple”.

I set out with the aim of presenting images which depict the use of the landscape of the Peak District moors and show that as I experience it, not an idealised version such as those I found in my google search. I tried to show images in the same way as Fay Godwin or Robert Adams and others might. I made the images intending to present them in colour rather than monochrome as these photographers did. Thus superficially the images look very different.

For example this image, Crowden 14, to me, depends on the colour of the rusting metal contrasting with the surroundings, and in monochrome does not make that point as well.

Crowden 14

However overall when the images are shown in monochrome, there is a resonance with the work of the photographers which influenced me.

The simplicity of this assignment is however probably not immediately visible to the observer. The images were made in response to my own reaction to the environment with little specific planning as I did not know what would catch my attention as I walked. On two occasions I was accompanied and did not have long to capture the image so it was a more automatic process during which I used accumulated experience both technical and artistic for the composition.

Each of the images shows a different aspect of man’s influence and use of the environment – in that respect I think each image is a unique view and contains new information.

Personal Reflection

I think this is illustrated with this image from that assignment which shows a moorland stream, against which a cotton mill was built and then on the foundations of that, modern flats.

2018-08-21 Glossop EYV-4 — Glossop Brook near Calico Court and the base of old mills

It is this process of looking at how the parts of the environment create the whole which has begun to influence me, and, I hope, my work.

Those parts of the environment which build up into the whole may be due to changes in use over time, as was the case in my “Square Mile”assignment; or its use simultaneously for different functions, as is the case with these present images.

In the end I am very pleased with these final images, I think they do indeed show what I intended and I would hope that I am moving towards better representing my ideas visually rather than verbally.

Assignment 5: My Images

Assignment 5: My Images

Methods

I made my images on three occasions when I went walking on the hills near my home. The walks were not with the specific aim of making these images but were walks I would be making anyway. As I indicated in my previous post, I was trying to capture subjects which I came across which indicated the extensive management of this landscape.

Two walks were with other people, and I did not spend long selecting the viewpoint and taking several shots of the same object. On these walks I used a compact camera, a Canon Powershot G7x Mkii, which is lightweight and easily carried. The last walk I was alone and able to devote more time to photography. As I was not walking fast or far, I used heavier equipment, my Canon EOS 5D Mk4 with a 24mm prime lens and a 24-105mm zoom. All shots were hand held.

I shot the images in RAW and have cropped all to a consistent 5×7 aspect ratio.

I have made contacts of all the images prepared for this assignment at

Contacts Ass5 all

Selection of Images

I have made a selection based on a number of factors.

Overall I wanted to produce a set of images which include reference to the uses of the moorland such as mining and quarrying in the area, grouse shooting, and the collection of water. As I indicated in my previous post “My aim is to include reference to some of these aspects of the landscape; to show that the moors are not a wild wilderness, but managed and not all the features to be found are conventionally attractive.”

The brief says that “each photograph should be a unique view; in other words, it should contain some new information, rather than repeat the information of the previous image.” I have interpreted this to select each image to show a different aspect of the landscape’s use rather than multiple images of similar subjects.

Where I have multiple images of the same subject from different positions, I have made my selection based on exposure and other technical qualities of the image, as well as the viewpoint offering a satisfactory composition which places the subject into the landscape.

According to these criteria I had a final selection of 15 images out of 75 in total. I eliminated 5 of these. For example these two are of similar subjects, so I only include one way marker stone in my final selection.

Bleaklow 19

Bleaklow 24

I excluded this of the sheep, as although sheep farming is a major activity and influence on the landscape, we are familiar with the sheep in the landscape and they do not appear so incongruous.

These images I excluded as I do not think the composition is as strong as others which I have included.

My final selection therefore includes subjects which relate to mining and quarrying, leisure activity, water collection, farming, grouse shooting. I believe they all show objects which appear initially incongruous in their setting, but that is only because we expect a landscape as represented by the idealised images in my google search, rather than those based in reality.

Photography is Simple: My 10 Images:

Assignment 5: Photography is Simple

Assignment 5: Photography is Simple. My Approach

Brief

“The final assignment is an open brief. Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject exploring the theme ‘Photography is Simple’. Each photograph should be a unique view; in other words, it should contain some new information, rather than repeat the information of the previous image.

In your assignment notes explore how you think you’ve answered the brief.”

The notes for this also include the statement

“For now, though, you should just feel comfortable with your subject. It should say something about you and, in the end, you like it!”

My Subject

I had started thinking about this for some time, before I started this course, however over the last few months I have developed my ideas a little more.

Searching for images of the “Peak District Landscape” for Exercise 4.4, made me aware that many of the images appearing in a Google search portray the landscape of the moors as an idealised wilderness with little reference to the influence of man in managing the landscape as we experience it. The first two pages of images appearing in the search are these:

Sample images from Google search for “Peak District Landscapes”

Google search for “Peak District Landscapes” – more images

I note that the lighting is uniformly bright and colours appear to be enhanced. The scene includes what might be considered stereotypical features of the Peak District such as colourful heather, outcrops of rock, millstones (the characteristic rock is Millstone Grit). Inclusion of farming references are confined to a few sheep, well tended fences and gates.

There is no reference to the extensive mining and quarrying in the area; to the grouse shooting for which the moors are managed – the grouse fed, and the heather burned to provide food for the young birds; to the collection of water for a supply to the large conurbations nearby.

My aim is therefore to produce a set of images which include reference to some of these aspects of the landscape; to show that the moors are not a wild wilderness, but managed and not all the features to be found are conventionally attractive.

My Influences

My main influence in these images is the work of Fay Godwin. In particular images such as these show man-made structures in the landscape.

Abel Cross. Fay Godwin (NSMM 1994/5015/2)

Markerstone on the old London to Harlech Road. Fay Godwin (NSMM 1994/5015/52)

However her series “Our Forbidden Land” also show man-made structures in the landscape, they are less conventionally attractive and show a particular aspect of the British Landscape, such as:

Similarly the work of photographers such as Robert Adams, and others in the exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” show the landscape as it is, not how we might imagine it. For example

While the subject matter is different I am trying to achieve an appearance of the image more like those images, than the highly processed landscape images I found in my Google search. The other element I tried to incorporate was a suggestion from my tutor to achieve a “flat” appearance of the images, with uniform lighting across the image.

Photography is Simple

The brief for this Assignment is to explore “the theme ‘Photography is Simple’.. each photograph… should contain some new information

It should say something about you and, in the end, you like it!”

The subject matter I have chosen is important to me – I enjoy the landscape in all its forms and appreciate that what we experience is a result of how it has been used for hundreds of years. It is this theme I tried to explore in my first assignment, The Square Mile. So I think the assignment does say something about me.

It will be simple because I will be making the images on walks, not all of which have been with the express purpose of getting the images for this, instead I will react to the landscape as I see it. I will therefore be using simple, compact and light photographic kit that I can carry easily.

References

References to the works cited in this post are found in my separate post “References”