Current Status
Following tutor feedback for my 4th
assignment and a further discussion with my tutor in February 2015 I have
completely restructured the format and presentation of my Major Project work.
Instead of attempting to answer the question “Why do we feed wild birds?” the project (and the image portfolio)
has been split into two sections to answer the questions: “What do wild birds do for us……..and what do we do for wild birds?”
The first section (“what wild birds do for us”) still concentrates on the
direct action of feeding wild birds in public places, whilst the second section
(“what we do for wild birds”) concentrates on man’s impact, both deliberate
and accidental, on wild birds. Each section consists of 12 images/prints.
Whereas there is a dominant photographic theme to the first section (the
process of directly feeding wild birds, using a “social documentary” style) the
second section does not contain an obvious photographic theme, incorporating
both landscape and social documentary type images. This set of images tells a
story with an environmental theme, but in order to clarify the theme and
provide a link with the first set of images it was necessary to use other media
to provide narrative and context.
I had always planned to produce
some videos as back up material for my assessment submission. At my tutor’s
suggestion I have now produced a multimedia presentation (using “Windows
Moviemaker”) that links the 24 images with video clips, commentary and a little
bird song in order to help the viewer to understand in greater depth the
themes, visual links and narrative behind my portfolio work. This presentation
will be an integral part of my submission.
Additionally, I fully intend to
produce a photo book to accompany my submission. This work will, with the
addition of further images and a significant amount of text, further clarify
the narrative running through my work. To this end I have produced a document
which, in addition to being a template for the photo book, contains further
brief details relating to each of the portfolio images.
Portfolio Images
Many of the 12 images in the
first section “what wild birds do for us” were obtained during the autumn and winter
of 2014-15 and have previously been submitted to accompany my 4th
assignment (see elsewhere in the blog). There are a few new additions and one
or two from the original set have been omitted. Work on this set is, for better
or worse, essentially complete although I may replace images if the opportunity
to include a “better” photograph presents itself.
Some of the 12 images for the
second section, “what we do for wild birds”, have been used in my 4th
assignment but many are new and I am still working on these, looking for better
and/or more relevant images to replace some of those in the later sections of
the portfolio. This search will continue into the summer and, in addition to
acting on tutor feedback, I may also change the emphasis on certain sections of
the later narrative.
Portfolio Prints
All the portfolio images were submitted
for this assignment as A4 (Permajet/Epson Glossy) prints. I have been
investigating printing a couple of randomly selected images using different
print papers, obtained from Permajet and Hahnemuhle test packs. I quite like
the look (and feel!) of Hahnemuhle fine art prints, in particular William
Turner 310 gsm, Pearl 285gsm, Albrecht Durer 210 gsm and Photo Rag Baryta
315gsm, but I’m currently struggling to make a decision on which paper to use
for my assessment submission of A3 prints. I will probably get a few A3 prints
made before making a final decision about which paper to use, in addition to
seeking further advice from my tutor. Getting the final assessment portfolio prints
produced will have to wait until all my images have been finalised, which may
mean having to wait until July (for September submission). All the images will
be printed for the assessment submission using a single type of paper. All the
images are currently in “landscape” format and it is unlikely that I will “disturb
the symmetry” of the submission by producing any “portrait” images at a later
date.
Multimedia Presentation
A multimedia presentation,
featuring each of the 24 images together with eight video clips, video
commentary, commentary to introduce each section and bird song at the start and
finish has been produced and sent to my tutor with the Assignment 5 material.
At over 10 minutes it is perhaps a little long. Cropping some of the video
clips (which I have yet to do) will shorten it slightly. I have resisted the
temptation to add commentary to any of the images (which are on screen for 10
seconds each) and have added a little text to some additional slides to further
contextualise the presentation and highlight environmental issues that are the
driving force behind the second section of the portfolio. This presentation
links the two sections of the major project and highlights the concerns that I
have, as an environmentalist. These deep-rooted concerns have driven the second
section, but also underlie all of my major project work. Working with video and
combining video with commentary and images has been a new experience for me,
but one that I have embraced and will develop further in the future. However I
am still naïve in this area and I have no doubt that this first ever multimedia presentation
reflects my naivety.
Photo Book
I had always planned to produce a
photo book to accompany my submission for assessment. This has now become a
more important objective, because I believe that the draft that I have produced
(as a “Word” document, submitted to my tutor with the other Assignment 5
material) provides a more in depth background and narrative to my major project
than can be provided, even by the multimedia presentation. Whether it is fair
to call this work a “photo book” is a moot point: there is a significant amount
of accompanying text. However, whilst the book is a self-contained record of my
project work, the text provides additional explanations behind my choice of
images for the portfolio. Some extra images are included in this work and
overall the message is less hard-hitting than in the multimedia presentation. The
document incorporates proposed images for the front and back covers of the
book. These are separate from the images in the portfolio. The “Word” document has
been set out with two landscape pages abreast: these are intended to be left
hand and right hand (or top and bottom: see below) pages of the book. Changes
will need to be made to reflect changes to the final image portfolio and tutor
recommendations. However, I intend to keep these changes to a minimum. Because
all my portfolio images are “landscape” sized the book is intended to be
produced either with the spine on the left and (10x8 or A4) “landscape” pages
or as a “portrait” shaped book (far more normal!), with images placed “sideways”
and designed to be read with the spine at the top and pairs of pages placed
vertically above/below each other.
Story Board
No story board was produced for
the assignment submission, since the story board was essentially contained
within both the multimedia presentation and the draft photo book and labelled
A4 prints of all the (24) portfolio images were also submitted to my tutor.
Style and Influences
During the 20 months that I have
been working on this course my photographic style has changed to reflect a more
journalistic approach. I have switched from taking photographs of wildlife for
purely aesthetic reasons to producing multiple photographs that (hopefully!)
fit together to tell a story. Influential in my work have been the
photojournalists Daniel Beltra (whose work I discussed in the Assignment 3
essay) and, in particular, Brent Stirton, a South African photojournalist who
has won many awards for hard-hitting stories on (for example) the illegal trade
in ivory. I will discuss influences and inspiration shortly, in further blog
posts. I chose to use a straightforward presentation style for all the images
in the Assignment 5 portfolio and, indeed, for the images in the other projects.
I feel that the subject matter is inappropriate for using monochrome, vignetting,
deliberate blurring or other, more unusual or creative styles and I ran out of
time for trying out ideas such as surrounding each image with a border
consisting of (feeding) birds (but see the multimedia presentation). Maybe this
is for the future!
Future Work
In addition to any changes
resulting from feedback from my tutor I intend to continue to search for
better, more relevant images to replace some of the images in the second
section of my major project portfolio and likewise videos for the multimedia
presentation (although in the latter case I am prepared to go with what I’ve
produced to date). I still have to produce A3 prints of my portfolio images. My
intention is to finish all practical work and have the portfolio and multimedia
presentation ready for submission (in September 2015) by July and to get the photo
book and A3 prints produced shortly afterwards. I will continue to review this
blog and add articles until shortly before the submission date. It is my
intention to at least read the notes for my second level 3 course (“Advanced”)
during the summer and before submission of the current course work for
assessment, so that I can get a feel for what is required in this final Level 3
course and how I can prepare future project work to satisfy the demands of the
course (see also below).
Final Thoughts
By the time I submit for
assessment I will have been working on this course for two years – far longer
than I intended. There are several reasons why the course work has taken so
long, but I think that the main one is that I chose a very difficult subject,
in terms of being able to satisfy the remit for the major project. I then
changed course several times, back-tracked and ended up in a rather different
place from where I started. These changes in direction are, I believe, not
uncommon in artistic concept-driven project work. However, before embarking on
another project of this scale I would like to have a much clearer picture of
what I want to achieve and how I am going to achieve it. The concept, the
subject matter and the motivation have to be very clear and I should try to
visualise beforehand what the end product will look like and that the project
is, of course, feasible. There have been many “spin-offs” from the current
project, which could have uses in the future. This may be true for my next
project, but from an academic point of view I need to stick to the “straight
and narrow” and I would like to complete the course, without rushing, in 15-18
months rather than two years.
For all that the course work has
thrown up numerous problems I have learnt more along the way than on any of the
previous OCA courses. In particular I am starting to come to terms with
understanding what conceptual art is, even if I am still failing to appreciate
the value of much that I see!
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