Tuesday 10 January 2012

Assignment 4 : further thoughts

As mentioned elsewhere the assignment 4, critical review, was not well received, largely due to my inability to follow the brief. I had written a biographical review and this needed a substantial re write prior to sending for assessment. My tutor had been kind enough to suggest that I send a new version with the assignment 5 and he would write some off the record comments by way of extra help. The second version is "better" which is a relief although still edging towards biographical and could do with more contextual analysis in the socioeconomic climate of the time. If I have time before I need to email the OCA the word doc for plagiarism checking I may change a few paragraphs to incorporate these issues. 

There is a wider lesson here. If I have some skill in photography this is not enough on its own to progress at level 2 (5) and beyond without some problems and I need to quite literally "learn" more with regard to essay writing.  Much of the chatter on the forums is about photographic technique and very little about the academic writing that must sit alongside it. Maybe I am alone on this and it is my technical writing from my day job that conditions me towards linear thought.

However, it its current guise it can be seen here.

Assignment 5 : feedback and comment.

Very happy to get these remarks. "A set of photographs which are technically outstanding and beautifully presented". There was no mention as to whether I had achieved the primary goal of images in the style of Edward Weston, but on the assumption that no news is good news I assume they were.
This assignment required far more research and time than any of the others and I think that the final set of prints show this. Previous assignments were conceived by content rather than concept, largely due to my inability to think conceptually. Here the brief was to look at a style, not a season or place and after a few days of aimlessly wandering about I regrouped, read more Weston and started again. You can literally photograph anything in his style, indeed he did, toilets, cats, nudes, peppers etc. Keeping within the "Landscape" was the only restriction which seems reasonable. Assignments that required seasonal shooting were often rushed and even now I would like another whole year to drill down into the seasons rather than the superficial work that I will have to show for assessment. The Modernists, Weston , Stieglitz and others had a vision of final output quality that left no room for error or compromise and it is my belief that modern photographers can do the same.