Below is the written report for Assignment Three.
Formative feedback
Student name
|
Amanda
Kingston-Lynch
|
Student number
|
507285
|
Course/Unit
|
3: Advanced
|
Assignment number
|
3
|
Type of tutorial
|
Skype
|
Overall
Comments
Some
good progress built on plentiful photographic research, reading and writing.
The project is starting to take shape and could go in a number of directions,
some areas need refinement, some need to be kept experimental and more needs to
be studied but considering where you were you are now not far from where you
need to be, well done!
Assessment potential
Assignment
2 and 4 Assessment potential
I
understand your aim is to go for the Photography/Creative Arts* Degree and that
you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the
work you have shown in this assignment, providing you commit yourself to the
course, I believe you have the potential to pass at assessment. In order to meet all the assessment criteria,
there are certain areas you will need to focus on, which I will outline in my
feedback.
Feedback
on assignment
Demonstration of technical and
Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
Notes from, and in
addition to, our Skype tutorial -
Much
of our discussion was based around extending the work you have made. We discussed
ideas of temporality – how you can show the length of time people are on their
devices, why this is important, how the engagement is different to that with a
photograph – a really good reference book here would be The Cinematic in
the Whitechapel series.
Its
important to remember you're making stills of something that is continuous,
you're freezing and breaking up the flow of time.
I
mentioned Chris Marker – its well worth looking at La Jetee, ideas of
time, the still and the moving image – it makes a big appearance in the
Cinematic.
Even
though these images are taken with a mobile, they need to refer to contemporary
photography, think very carefully about compositions, try to make reference to
other images. Sometimes they are too overtly 'mobile' – eg. They are taken from
that height we expect to see mobile images taken from, rather than a
contemporary art or documentary shot. There is often an overemphasis on
wideangle. Analyse what you have that works best. Think of them as photographs
and not snaps, get the best out of the technology first, then we can think
later about referencing what they were shot on – if its needed.
The
wide shots in the cafe are interesting but I am also taken by the repeated
shots of your husband, whose character has the potential to 'carry' a series.
They
look a little flat, I asked if this was due to the conversion programme (or the
phone's own filters), you will look again at Lightroom. If you have a convincing
case for black and white then you will have to engage with, for example, Bill
Brandt, Moriyama, Klein, Frank, look at ways of achieving their punch through
use of light initially and then post production. Again, look to make good
photographs, first.
In
terms of the idea of subjects lost in the digital world I mentioned, Lucy
Levene, people lost in their own sonic worlds, Walker Evans's subway shots, the
'dropping of the [social] mask'. Read about and reference these.
Remember
there has to be something more than you just recording these things, I think
that you looking at Sophie Calle could be very influential – keeping a diary, using
text, the fact that your diary has been done on 'note settings' on your device
is interesting, it gives us a temporal link, and references technology. You
intimately documenting through images and text could be the key.
I
raised you making 'extreme' observations, and you replied you were "documenting
it all", I think this is what pushes the project into an interesting area.
There is interest too, in the fact that you're documenting everything as an
observer – read up on scopophilia, Inside Out by Solomon Godeau.
(Speak to Jesse too about where your interests are) – yet...
Does
it matter what's on his screen? Your images highlight the 'outside', we can't
ever know what's on the 'inside'. Is he unusual? Is this typical behaviour?
Your research suggests this a common thing.
This
is personal work, it involves intimacy, impacts on families, reveals strains, could
potentially exacerbate stresses. How you feel is going to influence your work.
Make a decision about how revelatory you want the work to be.
Some
photographers: Anders Petersen in Hamburg, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann (technology,
she used Victorian plate camera), what's a photographers obligations to their
family and friends?
By using
this technology, this is a critique of the technology's influence on us/your
family specifically – very important you find a way to show this.
We
discussed the work of Bruce Gilden, how 'in your face' can you get with a
cameraphone?
To prepare for what
your final output might be try a series of edits based on tones, techniques, subjects,
full days. Vary the lengths. Might be best to print them out and have them as
material objects. Also print out some of your texts, experiment with captioning
and arrangements.
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and
Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
You
are experimenting and doing some reflecting which is good practice, start to
critique your own work using some of the reading you are doing. You will need
to find more references, choose from those who discuss family, new technology
and intimacy as starting points.
Research
Context, reflective
thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Show
all research on your blog, see above for subjects.
Learning
Log
Context, reflective
thinking, critical thinking, analysis
Some
useful reflective writing on practitioners, find some relevant passages in
Bate, Bull and Wells.
Suggested
reading/viewing
Context
Please look at the
practitioners above, and get a copy of the Cinematic.
Pointers for
the next assignment / assessment
For
the next assignment date; think about the final output, do your
research and we'll aim to decide on the form of your final presentation next
time.
There's not much that I would like to comment in regards to this feedback. I am very happy with it, especially considering my last assignment's feedback was so bad and that so much has happened since then. A new tutor and a whole new body of work. I am pleased that the idea has strength and that I still have different directions to take it. I am comfortable with the progression ideas and I think I know which way I want to take the project but as yet I do not know exactly how the final project should look. My tutor and I agreed that the fact that I have produced the project entirely on the technology is a key factor and that if there was a way to present the project the same way then that could be interesting, but I'm not sure how we could do that. I am still keen, at this point, to create a book as I am keeping a diary style text to accompany the images but it's something that I will perhaps have to experiment with, as my tutor suggested, before we can discuss what to do with it. My tutor has given me plenty to research to possibly see other photographers projects and how they have approached different aspects of those projects to inspire my own work. I look forward to continuing on with this work.
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