Final Thoughts

During the two years that I have been working on the “Your Own Portfolio” course my thoughts and views on the theory and practice of photographic art have changed considerably.

In particular, I have spent the entire course trying to merge my strong interest in the genre of wildlife / natural history photography with the demands of a practice in photographic fine art. This has proved to be very difficult. I have come to the conclusion that overlap occurs only in the field of documentary photography and photojournalism, where the impact of our society on wildlife (and vice versa) is portrayed. The works of Beltrá and Stirton (see my critical essay) are good examples of this.

Research, in the form of reading and multiple exhibition visits, has given me a much better understanding of how projects in the field of photographic fine art are conceived, developed and completed. Taking out a subscription for the “British Journal of Photography” has helped enormously in this regard, even if the content of much of the work described therein is of little general or photographic interest to me.

Working on a portfolio of images has caused me to finally move away from the idea that the purpose of a “good” photograph is to have aesthetic appeal, even if this is still an important requirement. Instead I am starting to look at themes and links between photographs as part of my work.

Instead of going out to take individual photographs I am now looking at creating photographic projects, with themes and subjects that are of interest to me.

I have invested in better equipment and will continue to upgrade, in order to be able to handle difficult photographic conditions better and to produce better results.

I have been helped by having a patient and understanding tutor, who has also provided much constructive criticism!

I feel more confident now than I did at the start of the course that I can make further progress as an active photographer, particularly in the documentary field.

I am still fighting, eight years on and into my sixties, to get that photography degree. One more course (hopefully) to go!