It has taken me two years and, I estimate, around 1000 hours
of study to complete the “Your Own Portfolio” course. Why have I taken so long
and has the extra time (600 hours recommended) and effort been worthwhile? To
answer these questions I need to look at how I navigated the course, review my
mistakes and failings and consider what I have learnt.
In contrast to the level 1 and level 2 courses, where
projects are largely imposed, the level 3 courses offer the photography student
far greater freedom to explore their own photography-related ideas and concepts
and to work in genres that particularly hold their interest. My major interest lies in the
field of wildlife (particularly birds) and the environment and, away from my
studies, photographing wildlife has for many years provided a major part of my
photographic output. Having been somewhat frustrated by the very limited
opportunity to incorporate wildlife footage into my earlier course work I was
keen to select a wildlife-related topic for the major project. Encouraged by my
tutor (who also has an interest in wildlife) I chose to look at man’s
interactions with wild birds through the process of feeding them, and this
formed the basis of my major project proposal, which is summarised below:
“My intention for the Major Project is to
produce a portfolio of photographic images that both illustrate some of the
many different ways in which we feed wild birds in Britain and explore the
reasons for our actions. Our roles, both as individuals and within groups such
as charitable organisations and businesses, will be covered. Crucially, the
content of the images will be used to encourage consideration of both the
motivation behind our desire to feed wild birds and the benefits that this
action provides for the birds and, in particular, for us.”
The images produced would cover the genres
of wildlife and (particularly) documentary photography and, after discussing
the plans with my tutor, it was agreed that all my other assignment work (Assignments
1-3) would be used as preparation for the major project work.
During my first year of study, various
factors influenced and changed my thoughts and project plans.
Firstly, I took out a subscription to the
“British Journal of Photography” (BJP), the leading UK magazine that addresses
the subject of contemporary photographic art. I also visited many more exhibitions
of photographic art, both by leading practitioners and by final year
photographic art students, than I had previously done. Through these media
outlets I have developed a much greater understanding of how photographers in
the art world create, develop and complete projects. I cannot pretend that I
was inspired by most of the work that I saw; indeed, the motivation behind a
lot of the work seemed rather obscure, but by the time I entered my second year
of study I had a much clearer view of what was expected of me, as an art student.
Secondly, I started to feel uncomfortable
about limiting my major project to covering what wild birds can do for us, even
though my images of people feeding birds could provide a consistent set, with a
clear visual link. A high percentage of photographic art focuses on people and
I feel that we are becoming so obsessed with ourselves that we have forgotten
that we are supposed to share the world with other life forms. I decided that I
wanted to broaden the project to cover not just what wild birds do for us (and
feeding wild birds is essentially for human gratification, as I hope my images
in the first section of the project will demonstrate) but also what we do, both
directly and indirectly, for wild birds. In this way I would be able to
introduce the environmental issues that I feel so strongly about.
Initially I chose to integrate the images
by alternating the photographs of people feeding birds with the much
wider-ranging set of images (wildlife, landscape and/or documentary genres) relating
to “what we do for wild birds”, which covered habitat loss and creation among other things. Whilst this ordering of images (which I used to produce a
story board for Assignment 4) worked for me my tutor found it confusing and,
after a discussion, we decided that I would split the major project work into
two sections: “what birds do for us” (feeding the birds)- and “what we do for
wild birds” (environmental issues). Furthermore, it was agreed that I should
produce a multimedia (images, video and sound) presentation that would
complement my image portfolio, both by providing a link between the two
sections and by providing an overview of the project rationale. I decided that
the photo book, which I had always planned to produce, would be a more rounded
and balanced view of aspects of our relationship with wild birds than the
multimedia presentation, which would be somewhat more subjective.
The work was completed according to the
revised plan. On the negative side, changing direction and expanding the
subject area cost me a lot of time and resulted in the production of an image
portfolio that cannot readily be interpreted without the aid of the multimedia
presentation. On the positive side, producing the multimedia presentation
allowed me to acquire new skills in the use of video and sound which, in
combination with my images, will be harnessed for future work. Furthermore,
adding the second section has given me the opportunity to present photographic
work on a subject that I feel passionate about: I was highly motivated to do
this, which must be an advantage. The photo book, which is essentially a brief
overview of the relationship between people and wild birds in the UK, is a permanent
record of my course work.
I am happy to have been given the freedom
to combine my keen interest in wildlife and the environment with my photographic output for this course.
However, because of this I have found some difficulty in sticking to the remit of the major
project, and I believe that I’ve taken the somewhat tenuous link between
wildlife photography and photographic art (see my critical essay) as far as I can and as far as I want to go. In the future
I plan to choose projects that develop other areas of photographic interest and
provide more uniform, yet distinctive portfolios of images.
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