In summary, the tutor feedback was positive, although there
were a few issues regarding the technical quality of the “Gestalt” images.
Quotes from the feedback are given below in
italics. After carefully reading the feedback I contacted my tutor by email and clarified some of the issues raised. Some additions to my assignment work are included in a later post (link here).
Major Project
Proposal
Essentially, in the Major Project I plan to explore the
varied reasons why we feed wild birds in the UK and, in doing this, look at the
relationships between birds and ourselves. The approach that I will use to
document this relationship will be to produce images that tell a picture story,
whilst a number of themes will also run through the set of images. The proposal
document can be found on this blog under the label "Major Project Proposal" (link here).
My tutor commented that: The major project objectives are well
written within your proposal and span an appropriate range of skills relevant
to the level of study. The proposal is a good piece of work, and relevant to
the level of study required. It has good balance in terms of investigation,
exploration and practice development that should lead to some interesting and
exciting image making.
He
commented that I was still a little unsure of which genres I should be working
in and recommended that I stick to two: natural history and documentary
photography (I had mentioned the possibility of incorporating still life,
portrait and landscape photographs into the set at various points in the
proposal).
My output will
(should!) be in the form of high quality A3 prints. I mentioned in the proposal
that I intended to produce a portfolio suitable for exhibition and that many
exhibitions that I had visited incorporated text boxes adjacent to the prints
which explained their significance. It was made clear that: There should never be a need for
accompanying text in exhibitions even print titles – unless it’s a name or a
species etc. are not the best way forward. In other words, the images in my
portfolio must speak for themselves!
At my tutor’s
suggestion I produced a preliminary story board to accompany the proposal, as a
flow diagram with a list of potential images that could be ordered to tell a
story. We were both happy with the story board, although we also appreciated
that the flow and the images were likely to change as the project developed. Details of the story board, as submitted, can be found elsewhere in this blog (link here).
There were no other
significant issues associated with the major project proposal.
Critical Review Proposal
For the critical review I intend to look at the somewhat
uneasy relationship between natural history photography and other photographic
genres and discuss why natural history photography is overlooked, ignored or
dismissed by practitioners of modern photographic art. I will look at the work
of Daniel Beltrá, a natural history photographer whose
work explores environmental issues whilst documenting the natural world in an
aesthetically appealing way, and use his example to suggest ways in which
natural history photography can be developed and made more generally relevant to
photographers working in other genres, in the future.
My tutor
commented that this was a
well written proposal that will provide you with a great deal of background
information for the image making to come. He warned that it would be difficult for me to define photographic (fine) art or the difference between art and
photographic art (I suspect that it will be near impossible. Many photographers
describe themselves as “fine art photographers” without probably having a clue
what they mean by using this term). Details of the critical review proposal can be found elsewhere in this blog (link here)
No other significant issues were raised.
Projects for Assignment 2
My tutor recommended that I should switch from Project 9 ("Change") to Project 8 ("The Decisive Moment"), as the latter was of greater relevance to my Major Project work. I agreed to do this, so the subjects I would be tackling for this assignment would be Project 3 ("High Key Low Key"), Project 5 ("An Impartial View") and Project 8 ("The Decisive Moment").
Project
1: “Gestalt in Composition”
Essentially, my images were considered to be
good examples of Gestalt in action that were of relevance to my major project.
However, there were some technical issues.
Image
1: Mute Swans
Both the swan at the front and the swan at
the back are not quite in focus. Whilst the print is of reasonably good quality
and the shot is well composed I should be looking to produce sharper images
than this. I should find the optimum aperture for front to back sharpness by
doing some investigatory work with the 70-300mm zoom lens and apply my results.
In my defence I should say that the swans
were moving rapidly so I had to use a fast shutter speed and move quickly to
capture the “decisive moment” when the swans were all in line. In producing and
then selecting the images to submit I concentrated on finding good examples of
Gestalt, in this case at the expense of technical perfection.
Image 2: Arable Fields
My tutor liked this image, commenting that: the vertical stack of similar shapes and the
simple balance/scale given by the fence work well and this is a good example of using technique to create an image from
nothing. He thought that the image may have been over-sharpened: following
post-feedback comment I decided to repeat the processing and avoid sharpening.
The results will be discussed in a later post.
Image 3: Feeding the Birds, Broomfield Park
The image was described as well seen, but my tutor did not like the
composition. In particular, we really
don’t want to see a little bin on that third line. Therefore, your composition
should have cropped it off – may be a little more lake or an edited version of
this image would have improved it. To be honest I’m not too keen on the
image either: it is somewhat cluttered (too many birds!) and messy. However, it
was included to demonstrate a number of the Gestalt principles, rather than as
a strong image in its own right. In retrospect, perhaps I should have concentrated
on producing three high quality images, each demonstrating one of the Gestalt
principles, rather than trying to produce images that each demonstrated more
than one of the principles. I have since had a go at modifying this image: the
result can be seen in my later post.
Summary
In his summary, my tutor commented that the
intentions outlined in this document are consistent with a well-researched and
developed assignment. You provide the information that was necessary to gain
insight and access to the depth of thinking and practice that you intend to
deliver and it was quite easily navigable and accessible.
Whilst I am happy
with the outcome of this assignment it is clear that I still have some way to
go to with improving my technique, to the stage that I can routinely produce
high quality, technically sound, aesthetically pleasing photographs for the
Major Project.
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