Making it up (reflection)

This is by far the most work I have ever put into a single image and I’m pleased to say that my tutor appreciated this. There is still work to do, such as an illustrated evaluation of the process as well as some theory and evaluation but so far, I am pleased with the resulting image, something I could not have achieved when I started this course two years ago.

The backdrops, outfits and props have all been read as intended and my tutor has given valuable advice to take forward for future projects. She has suggested books by Victor Bergin and John Berger for reading on capitalist systems and visual culture relating to class. I have now ordered books by these authors in order to add more depth to my assignment.

A picture is worth a thousand words (reflection)

On the whole, this was a well received assignment, ‘well planned… easy to follow…’ although ‘there are some places where I think your analysis could go deeper’.

When I shared this assignment with students, one said that most of the points of semiotics were spoken about but without the terminology used in academia on the subject. My feedback suggests that to some extent, my tutor feels the same, for example, I discuss the juxtaposition of happy and sad, yet don’t mention the term ‘binary opposites’.

She suggests that I develop on some of the points I have made in order to make a stronger submission on this assignment, Sontag’s writing on Arbus being a first port of call.   

Two sides of a story - Cousins (reflection)

I was quite disappointed with my first assignment for this course. The idea I initially had did not come off as hoped which left limited time to scrape together another idea. This assignment was more opportunistic than planned and I think this really shows.

Aside from the many technical errors, such as badly focussed images and motion blur, my tutor was pleased with the content of some of my images.

‘The images you have chosen do give an impression of naturalness and a genuine lack of inhibition in front of the camera – this can be quite hard to achieve – well done! When the images are sharp and the point of focus is in the correct place the photographs are very emotive – you have good eye for composition and an ability to press the shutter at the right time.’

I was particularly pleased with this as I always aim for a genuine, honest feeling in my photography; I’m pleased that I have gone some way to achieve this.

My tutor pointed out that I am yet to complete my evaluation and recommended that I aim to decode some of my images using some of the knowledge gained during this chapter. I feel that this would be an interesting project as it would be interesting to see the differences between the images on either side of the story.