Assignment 1 Feedback

Overall Comments

This is the first assignment that you have undertaken to cover the requirements of the course. In doing so you have demonstrated a development of technical skill. You have started to work your way through the recommended exercises and this will help develop your visual awareness and an understanding of the course requirements.

In this first assignment you have managed to produce an interesting piece of work demonstrating a willingness to explore beyond the surface. There is clear evidence of an emerging narrative within the set of images. However a question that arises is where is the narrative originating? Is it from the viewer’s perception or is it the intent of the photographer? The results you have produced are a starting point in developing your ideas but you might wish to think of ways of expanding and generating ideas that can move beyond the immediate. The images need to be considered in greater depth in relation to the concepts that you wish to communicate.

This assignment has laid down a foundation of possibilities for new ideas and approaches and if you are willing to take on board these ideas there is no reason why your work cannot grow in technique, content and personal expression.

I was pleased to see through your contact sheets that you had a variety of alternative images under consideration for your presentation. I would like in future to see in your learning log some analysis of your thinking as you go through the process of final selection.

You have started to consider and reflect upon the work that you have produced. You obviously felt comfortable working within the framework of your own environment and experience but alongside this there is a need to engage with deeper analysis and reflection upon where the work lies in relation to critical theory. At present the learning log is descriptive in nature and indicates an uncertainty as to what exactly are your intentions for the themes that you are exploring.

Overall you have made a good start to your course and have demonstrated a willingness to be challenged, to question and to reflect upon the medium.

Assessment potential

 Assignment 1

You may want to get credit for your hard work and achievements with the OCA by formally submitting your work for assessment at the end of the module. More and more people are taking the idea of lifelong learning seriously by submitting their work for assessment but it is entirely up to you. We are just as keen to support you whether you study for pleasure or to gain qualifications. Please consider whether you want to put your work forward for assessment and let me know your decision when you submit Assignment 2. I can then give you feedback on how well your work meets the assessment requirements.

Feedback on assignment

You have taken an approach in this assignment that poses a challenge in making the everyday if not somewhat overlooked subject matter of the culverts and water drainage features on the River Yeo interesting to the viewer. This has resulted in images of varying degrees of success in fulfilling the brief. There is an inherent narrative within the work but it is not always clear that you are certain about what is your theme. You state “In this assignments case the culverts and drainage pipes don’t register, or are never seen by residents because they never get close enough to the stream to notice them.” Your work now draws attention to these objects but what does it say about them? Is it a metaphor for the environment, for politics, for anxiety of the unknown lurking beneath our feet or simply a record of what exists?

 You are exploring exploring the familiar that we often become blind too and there are times when you capture a sense of menace in the images that these places often emit. Yet the final set of images do not quite work together in a coherent manner. There are some good images. I particularly like the reflection image as well as the split pipes one. There is in the work   a sense that these might be miniature landscapes or even architectural studies but there is a need to consider a clear concept for the work and further editing prior to a definitive selection. You might reflect upon the whole sequence work. How do you try to connect the images to the ideas that you engaged with – is this through technique, composition or conceptual ideas. How do you communicate to the viewer? Do you want to guide them to a definitive meaning or to allow them to arrive at their own interpretation? Should the use of text be considered?

Overall a good attempt at producing a piece of work on an out of the ordinary subject.

Coursework

You have engaged with all of the prescribed exercises and reading. You have commented upon the work of other photographers and ideas that open up wide areas of debate. Do consider this work in depth through the application of a critical analysis rather than describing the content.

Research

You have read a book of essays on photography. In doing this you have discovered that information overload is not the best way to carry out research. As you have found it is better to read what is pertinent to the work in hand however this should not exclude books that do need to be read in their entirety. At this stage it is better to focus on research that is relevant to your work and that informs its development and understanding of the medium.

Learning Log

I was delighted to see that you had started to keep a sketchbook. This is a great way of developing work and ideas for projects. From this there is a natural progression to using the learning log as a means of expanding these ideas into concrete projects. The learning log should indicate any influences or ideas that may have originated from research. Ask questions about your work and draw links to that of others.

 I was impressed with your enthusiasm about the exhibition that you visited and this clearly will have an impact upon your future work and thinking. Again to evolve this I would like to have seen you take the opportunity to engage in more in depth analysis of individual images that you mentioned and a critique of this work and perhaps also the overall show. The same analysis, critique and reflection should also be applied to your own work.

As a start to analyzing work I would like you to start researching and engage in depth critique into the work of others. I would like to see an engagement with critical reading and also perhaps carry out some research into semiotics as a means of interpretation of images.

Suggested reading/viewing

Semiotics

isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic94144.files/Barthes.pdf

visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

General critical reading

Wells, L. (ed.) (2009) Photography: A Critical Introduction (4th edition). Abingdon: Routledge

Summary

Strengths	Areas for development
Willing to tackle challenging subject matter. Engagement and commentary on prescribed exercises. Potential ideas for new projects.	Research and reflect in greater depth on own work. Analysis of images needs to be carried out with reference to critical theory. Take care in assessing technical quality of images