Assignment 1: Reponse to Tutor Feedback

Feedback on my first assignment was good and positive, which is always a relief at the start of this final course in the degree programme.  The focus of this assignment was about explaining the work you want to take forward for your Body of Work.  I received a positive confirmation on this, along with pointers towards things that I might want to consider in order to pull the projects together to create a more cohesive set.

I had asked a specific question about whether or not to progress with all 3 projects that I had proposed, which was affirmed at this stage and until any part significantly pulls ahead.  With that in mind, the following is a review of points raised against each project.

Lost

Clive agreed that at the moment this is ‘probably the most complex and fertile’ project but suggested that I might want to think some more about the style of images I was proposing for it.  He remarked that ‘there’s more poignancy in revisiting childhood feelings with adult knowledge’.  While I liked the un-composed nature of these exploratory photos I also had this niggling doubt myself about how could a middle aged man ever pull off the perception of taking photos through a child’s eyes?  I suppose that this would always be false, hence, I am probably conceding on that one and now need to do a little more research before adapting my style on this.  The comment about these images being too dark etc was a natural occurrence from the approach I was taking therefore this will be resolved as I approach it from a different perspective.  I do know, however, that I want these photos to come across as detached, non-sentimental and void of any overly aesthetic style.

Found

I received some really useful comments on this project which are helping me to contextualise this project and bridge the link with Lost.  I now need to think some more about how to do this before my next assignment.

I have come to realise that in Lost I now have three layers running through it, which are:

• My lost relationship with Land.
• My displacement from the society I grew up in.
• My lost relationship with my father – related to a journey around my old estate.

In order to put the project Found on a similar footing I think that I need to develop similar layers, and my developing thoughts at the moment are:

• My re-engagement with Land through photography.
• My developed appreciation for Land’s concerns and its intrinsic beauty.
• My found friendships over the years – related to a journey around Derwent Water, Keswick in the Lake District.

Hopefully as I develop this project Found alongside Lost, with these layers in mind, it will bring about a kind of autobiographical reflection on who I am and where I came from.

Modern Society

Feedback on this was really helpful in clarifying my thoughts on how to progress with this project.  It reminded me of my key intention for this which is ‘to remove from images what is keeping us from relating to Land’.  I had begun to mix this up with ‘revealing a hidden truth about modern society’.  This latter aspect was moving me towards an element of street photography which I know is not where my strengths lie as a photographer, therefore, I agree with Clive to concentrate on the former aspect described here and move away from the images such as Free Money and Surveillance which don’t particularly relate to that.

 

Overall, nothing specific to respond to other than to use the feedback received to develop the projects towards assignment 2.

 

Land Values – Assignment 1

Within my blog so far I have explained my thoughts on my initial intentions to investigate the different ways in which we value and engage in Land; how I want to concentrate on a central theme potentially delivered in a variety of ways rather than sticking to a singular genre of style; the type of ideas I have been playing with to investigate their potential; and how I have changed the emphasis of my planned approach towards a more personal reflection on my own relationship with Land and society.

My use of the term ‘Land’ is intended to describe all natural things; such as earth, water, the natural environment and all living things.  It does, however, separate out humans from this definition.

These blog posts set out the background, (which I don’t expect a need to repeat here), towards the early development of my ‘Body of Work’.

My central theme still relates to an investigation of how Land is valued by society, but is initially directed towards my own personal relationship with Land (past and present), and then towards making comparisons with how society as a whole seems to have developed a self-imposed imbalance between their own importance and that of Land.

I have currently settled on three strands to this Body of Work with the first two looking at my past and present relationship with Land, and then the third strand looking at modern society and its attempt to distance us from this relationship.  I am hoping that I may receive some feedback from my tutor on whether I should retain my focus on all three of these strands or to concentrate my efforts on the first one for now.  These three strands to my Body of Work are described against the following three Projects:

 Project 1: Lost

As a child I was free to ‘play out’, which generally meant engaging with Land in some way – a free and fascinating resource.  The intention of this project is therefore to reflect on how I have lost this relationship, whilst also considering a similarly lost relationship with the society from which I grew up in.  I want to do this by taking a journey around my old estate, one that I have not re-visited for over 20 years, and return to the places where I used to play.  I intend to base this around a specific journey I took with my father when I was seven years old and thus will also be reflective of the lost relationship I have with my father.

As part of this approach, I decided to embark on a trial run visiting some of my past areas of play within this urban housing estate.  It was interesting to note my surprise at the seemingly lack of respect currently given to these areas and of how society had encroached onto many of them.

In relation to the following image taken on this day, I described it on my blog as ‘probably the most significant photo I have ever taken‘, based on its personal connection with an important memory which created its significance for me. I was surprised to realise how powerful this connection was when I compared it to my opinion of all the other photos I have taken as a photographer, and thus my declaration.  As I had decided not to explain this significance, a conversation developed (with Clive and Pete) about the impact of ambiguity compared with that of a clear explanation, which was very interesting and insightful on the photographer’s relationship with their audience and how much you need to explain.

The images below add to the one above to illustrate the type and style of photography I am intending to use as a response to this Project.  They are intended to be purposely amateurish in style to respond to the impreciseness of memory and the childlike lack of control in which they might respond to memory with a camera.

The Pond

Swings

Pitch & Putt

Playing Fields

Suicide

Confused

Project 2: Found

I am now in my mid-forties and some way distant from the childhood freedoms I had.  I now acknowledge my own general disengagement with Land, which seems to relate to the aging distance from my childhood and the normal societal pressures of life.  I have, however, been encouraged to see how, through photography, I am able to re-kindle my relationship with it.  I can use it as an excuse to visit the ‘countryside’ to carry out my investigations of its hidden beauty, away from the control of society’s footpaths and, for a moment, seemingly away from much of its other influence.

I have found that this new found relationship is different to that of my childhood – I am more respectful of it and appreciative of its value.

As I mention on my blog, I have become less inclined to seek out and find  the more obvious instrumental values of aesthetic appeal and, as I move towards a belief of Land’s intrinsic value and intrinsic beauty, then I am free to apply my own judgement as what I regard as intrinsically beautiful.

This is what photography has helped me to discover and, with this philosophy in mind, my thoughts for this Project are to investigate this further by reflecting on Land’s struggle to survive against a backdrop of (increasingly) challenging weather conditions, as well as society’s ever-influencing impact on Land.

This Project will be purposely distinct from Project 1, with the photographs reflecting my new found appreciation and value for Land’s intrinsic beauty.  The photographs will be more controlled, considerate and respectful of the subject matter (reflecting my current middle age / middle class situation), and they will probably also lack the spontaneity I hope to achieve in Project 1.

The distinctions between Project 1 and Project 2 will be crucial for the set to work with and against each other but my worry at this stage is that they will seem too opposite from each other and thus lose any linkages altogether – another question to ask my tutor.

The following images highlight the style of images that I am thinking of developing for this project:

Project 3: Modern Society

The intention of this project is to move away from the self-reflective perspective and begin to consider the impact of modern society on the way that we might under-value Land.  The project is a direct response to my Initial Idea 5, as described on my blog.

The concept is to see how by taking something out a photography we begin to reveal something of the truth about modern society and how it has become a constituent part of our disengagement with Land.

I haven’t progressed this much since playing around with it as part of Idea 5, therefore, the following  images are a repeat of those photographs to outline my current thinking on this project.

The blackening out process within each photograph, which is fairly crude at this stage, is intended to reveal a new truth in a slightly more threatening way than say whitening out the object(s).

The following are early examples of this approach:

Free money?

Is someone always watching?

Is artificial best?

Wind turbines – saving our planet or just blocking our view of the Land?

Summary

These three projects represent my current thinking on how I intend to develop my ‘Body of Work’.  They are linked around a central theme of Land values and our diminishing engagement and lack of appreciation of Land’s value or its intrinsic beauty.

If I successfully achieve my aims for each of these projects then I would expect them to form the basis from which I can develop further projects in the future.  There is, however, a ‘but’ in this aspiration which relates to my concern that Projects 2 & 3 become too remote from Project 1 and thus diluting the impact of this first project.

Project 1 is much clearer in my mind at the moment and I wonder whether I should concentrate just on this for my Body of Work – Clive, I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Also, whilst I have been mindful of the different genres and context within which these projects might sit, I have purposely left these thoughts in the background to leave me free to develop the ideas more through my photographic voice for the moment.  I do intend to do much more on this later and expect that this consideration, along with my feedback from this assignment, will form the basis from which I develop my next assignment (no.2).  For now, the importance to me is being able to express my ideas for these projects to the extent that my tutor is clear of my intentions and can advise me accordingly.