Status Report 24 August 2015: Major Project Update and Preparation for Assessment

With submission for assessment due in the second half of September and holidays having taken up most of the second half of July and the first half of August I have now entered a frenetic period of activity in order to complete the course work in time.

·         Following on from my tutor’s comments and my own observations I have produced a revised photo book (see below). No further work will be carried out in this area.

·         I have made a final decision on which images/prints to submit for my major project portfolio and am getting some “trial” exhibition prints produced by two companies (see below).

·         Following on from the changes to my portfolio images I have made some minor changes to the multimedia presentation, which is now complete and ready for submission.

Photo Book

My tutor kindly offered to comment on the first draft of my photo book. His very helpful suggestions, which related both to the design of the book and to the image content, combined with my own reflections on having received the book from the printers (“Blurb”), encouraged me to make revisions to the style and content of the book. One or two of the images were not “up to scratch” and this allowed me to make a final choice regarding which images/prints to include in my final portfolio.

Having made modifications to the text and images, a revised photo book was printed by “Blurb”: the front cover is reproduced below.

Front cover of my revised photo book (against a black background)

All the portfolio images are incorporated into the book in (7x5) landscape format and a few additional images use this format too. The result is a rather orthodox and clinical feel to the book’s design. However, I wanted to show consistency in the different sections of the submission (images/prints, multimedia, photo book). One “letterbox” and one square format image are included in the book: neither of these is included in the portfolio. I’m happy now that the photo book represents a fair overview of my project work which, in conjunction with the multimedia presentation, will provide necessary insight into why and how I carried out the project. The photo book will be submitted for assessment without further modification and I will purchase further copies for personal use and possibly to accompany a future exhibition.

Portfolio Images and Prints

I finished practical work in July. All the portfolio images for section 1 had been chosen by then, as had most of the images for section 2. I had hoped to complete the portfolio with a strong image of a bird in natural habitat, (such as a reed bed) on a nature reserve. Unfortunately, for various reasons, a suitable image could not be produced or reproduced. This necessitated a slight re-ordering of the final few images and the inclusion of a photograph of wild swans being fed at Welney Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve. These changes are reflected in the second photo book. One advantage of using the Welney image is that it provides a link between the two sections of the portfolio and reinforces the direct connection between people and birds that was evident in the first section.

I spent a lot of time researching how to go about producing a print portfolio. This involved producing A4 prints of a variety of my images on standard matt and glossy and “fine art” A4 papers, using my own printer. My tutor had a look at some of these prints. It became clear that, for the subject matter involved, using specialised fine art paper would not offer a significant advantage over “standard” archival print paper. Indeed, some of the best results on my (Epson) printer were achieved using “Permajet” inkjet gloss (271gsm) (this is my favoured combination for competition prints). After further research I chose to have the portfolio images printed on C-type gloss archival paper, costing about £10.00 per print. At the time of writing I am getting a small selection of prints produced by two separate companies. Assuming that the results are satisfactory I will choose one company to print the remaining images in early September.

Multimedia Presentation

I have made slight changes to the multimedia presentation, in order to incorporate the final portfolio image set. The videos and accompanying sound remain unaltered. My only remaining challenge here will be to ensure that the 238Mb presentation copies satisfactorily to disc, so that the assessors can watch it! A screen grab of the opening slide from the presentation is shown below.

Multimedia Presentation: Opening Slide

Future Work

I have updated my logbook/blog with details of exhibition reviews, status reports etc. and plan no further work here. In addition to putting my print portfolio together I will write two more blog posts / logbook entries, one describing how the major project has developed and changed since its inception and the second discussing what I have learnt during the two years that I have been working on the course. Finally comes all the indexing and organising that occurs with every assessment submission……

Exhibition Visit: Two Exhibitions in Cornwall

Having a partner who is an art student and exhibition addict, it is hard to get away from art galleries, wherever in the world we may be. A week’s holiday in St Ives inevitably involved a visit to the Tate gallery there and another rainy day later in the week prompted a visit to the Newlyn art gallery. Both held exhibitions of interest, which are briefly commented upon here.

“Images Moving Out onto Space” (Tate St Ives)

This exhibition featured art works that relied upon movement to produce their effect. Old and new works by almost 20 artists were featured, with a series of kinetic sculptures from the 1960s by Cornish artist Bryan Wynter (example: Image 1) lending the exhibition its name. Wynter’s sculptures involved placing rotating mobiles in front of a refracting lens to achieve a pleasing, constantly-changing abstract effect. Sadly, Wynter died before he could fully realize his concept.

     Image 1: “Imoos 6” (Bryan Wynter)  

 Elsewhere, the gallery featured abstract, minimalist and kinetic works of art by (mainly) living artists. I was particularly taken with Liliane Lijn’s rotating conical structures, which are wrapped in enamelled copper wire to produce constantly changing lines of reflected light (see Image 2). As far as I could see not every work of art moved, but the exhibition did raise the question of whether it would be possible to produce a kinetic work of art involving moving photographic prints (as opposed to the obvious example of the moving image) and, if so, how? Photographs depicting change were part of the exhibition (along with several typical works by Bridget O’Reilly), but they didn’t move!

Overall, this was a thought-provoking and appealing exhibition.

Image 2: “Red Line Koan” (Liliane Lijn)

Exhibition Review: “In Search of the Miraculous” (Newlyn Art Gallery)

The exhibition was inspired by the life of artist Bas Jan Ader, who set sail alone in July 1975 from Massachusetts to cross the Atlantic to Falmouth in Cornwall. He was lost at sea and never seen again.

The exhibition features grand concepts and designs, mainly involving video work, by an international group of artists. In common with Jan Ader, many of the artists have embarked on journeys in pursuit of new experiences and recorded these journeys for the viewer. For example, at the start of the exhibition we see a looped 10 minute video of artist Guido van der Werve, walking across sea ice in Northern Finland, followed by an icebreaker (Image 3). The video is trance-like in its monotony, but somehow manages to convey a grand picture of cold Arctic scenery.

Image 3: “Everything is going to be Alright”, Guido van der Werve

As I live within a few hundred metres of the Greenwich meridian line I was interested to see Simon Faithfull’s video of his journey along the meridian line from Peacehaven in Sussex (where he walks out of the sea) to Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire (where he returns to the sea). In between we see him using ladders to climb over hedges and walk through peoples’ gardens as he attempts to keep exactly to the meridian line. Did he really follow the meridian line so exactly? I have my doubts, but Faithfull’s work is certainly a classic example of a grand concept put into practice. The depiction of artists’ journeys, using a variety of art forms, is becoming more and more popular. As a keen walker myself, who is also becoming more interested in video art, here is an area that I can consider developing as part of my own practice.

Other videos in the exhibition featured an Icelandic trawler going round and round in circles, creating a circular vortex of water, and a work called “blind date”, in which a blindfolded Mat Collishaw  travels to The Prado in Madrid to view (blindfold removed) Velasquez’ classic painting conundrum, “Las Meninas”.

Final Thoughts

Both exhibitions feature classic, concept-driven works of art. Whilst the exhibits at Tate St Ives are material they are also changing. At Newlyn the art is largely ethereal, representing (artistic and/or real) journeys, often on a grand scale. Here is “art for art’s sake”, a pure representation of artists’ pursuits of new experiences.

Exhibition Visit: "Environmental Photographer of the Year" (Royal Geographical Society, London, 4 July 2015)

This exhibition featured the shortlisted photographs from the 10.000 images submitted for the 2015 Atkins CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year competition. The competition encourages participants from around the world to “share their images of environmental issues to encourage our awareness and understanding of the causes, consequences and solutions to climate change and social inequality”. Whilst largely concentrating on human issues, such as poverty, culture, population growth and human rights, environmental issues such as biodiversity were also covered.

My interest in this competition was threefold: to observe how winning entrants in the portfolio competitions presented their selections of photographs, to understand better how some of the drier subject areas could be given aesthetic photographic appeal and to study how photographers dealt with wildlife-related issues such as biodiversity (a subject of particular interest to me).

The exhibition was visually stunning: beautiful photographs highlighting important environmental issues. Most of the portfolios, in particular, had been taken by professional photo-journalists. I envied them their opportunities to travel to spectacular places in order to highlight important environmental issues. Having said that, having recently returned from Vietnam with around 2500 images I have nothing that remotely compares with Ly Hoang Long’s beautiful night-time image of fishing net checking there (Image 1)!

Image 1 (Ly Hoang Long)

Some familiar themes were highlighted, such as the growing accumulation of (mainly) plastic waste in our oceans and on land and the shortage of (clean) water in many parts of the world. Burtynsky’s epic photographs of the massive ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh have encouraged many other photographers to visit the Chittagong area and some beautiful images have emerged, with Michael Blach’s photograph (Image 2) being my favourite from the exhibition. Work in these yards is fraught with danger and many deaths have resulted: Bangladesh appears to be one of very few countries that are prepared to take on the task of breaking up massive container vessels and dealing (or not) with the resultant environmental legacy.

Image 2 (Michael Blach)

The exhibition was quite small and easy to negotiate in under an hour. It was also very popular: when we visited (admittedly on a Saturday), the crowds were such that it was difficult to get close enough to the photographs to read the accompanying texts or fully appreciate their impacts.

The photographs in this exhibition resemble those one might expect to find in an issue of “National Geographic” magazine. They are beautiful to look at, as well as highlighting the many environmental problems that the planet and its people face. But will they have any impact on dealing with those problems, and does this matter for a visual arts exhibition? These are the issues that I find hard to come to terms with. As a former scientist I have spent much of my life tackling problems and trying (usually unsuccessfully) to come up with solutions in order to make the world a better place. Using photography as a documentary tool to record and highlight social and environmental issues is an area that I am particularly interested in and to see how other photographers have managed this in a creative and aesthetically pleasing manner is inspirational. However, do these images represent photographic art? The photographs of Daniel Beltra, discussed in my critical essay, occupy the same area of documentary / photojournalism. Beltra is a photojournalist (or so I’m told) and his work is commission- rather than concept-driven.  Nevertheless I would argue that he and many of the photographers whose works feature in this exhibition are artists and that their work holds far more relevance for us in our daily lives than does that of photographers whose work is entirely concept-driven.

Exhibition Visit: "Fresh-faced and Wild Eyed" (The Photographers' Gallery, London, 4 July 2015)

This exhibition, now in its 8^th year, presents the work of 25 recent graduates from photographic and visual arts courses across the UK, showcasing the best emerging artistic talent. The works were selected by a panel of judges. As such, it presents an overview of current practices and gives a boost to talented recent graduates at a critical time in their careers.

As a potential graduate from a visual arts course, the concepts and ideas behind emerging graduates’ work was of particular interest to me, as was the way in which these ideas had been exploited.

Looking round the exhibition, a few obvious themes emerged. Most of the works were (loosely) portrait based, with images of (male and female) naked bodies to the fore. Whilst the aesthetics and story lines behind the works were very varied, it seems that many students prefer to stick with the type of photography with which they are most familiar, namely taking photographs of themselves and others.

I was impressed with the globe-trotting capacities of the graduate photographers. Jonathon Simpson (“I am Fine”) spent time travelling between Bangladesh and Singapore delivering video messages of love and support between Bangladeshi workers in Singapore and their families, in order to investigate the exploitation of Singapore’s migrant workers. Betty Laura Zapata ("X-Ray, Inside Venezuelan Public Hospitals”) returned to her home country to work undercover to expose the appalling state of healthcare facilities in Venezuela. James Bell (“Beach Boys”) managed to wangle time in Barbados to portray members of the local community who are dependent on the tourist trade.

Intermingled with more hedonistic pursuits, one or two projects were of a distinctly personal nature. Sian Davey’s project, “Looking for Alice”, features her own young daughter, who was born with Down’s syndrome, and reflects on how Alice’s disability influences family relationships, whilst also examining prevailing attitudes in society towards “difference”. However, the work that had the greatest effect on me featured very little photography. Aida Silvestri’s work, “Even This Will Pass”, features a small number of portraits of Eritrean sitters, blurred to protect their identities, together with passages of text describing their dreadful and traumatic experiences on journeys to this country, as victims of human trafficking. At a time when many thousands of migrants are attempting to enter our country illegally, this project is a timely reminder of the other side of the story. We should also appreciate how lucky we are to live here, when we compare our lifestyles to those of others around the world. Silvestri was born in Eritrea. Her work reminds me that when a project revolves around a concept as powerful as this, photography becomes just a simple tool to assist the narrative.

Some of the projects were video-based. I was particularly impressed by the short film from Alexandra Vacaroiu’s project: “I Want to Remember Everyth”, in which she attempts to recreate memories that were never photographed. Her work concentrates on objects that trigger specific memories and its potential benefit for patients living with Alzheimer’s disease is explored. Here is a creative and imaginative project, with an aesthetically pleasing output and a worthy goal: what more could one ask for?

The creative energy and output of these graduates is to be admired. As expected, many of the works were of little interest to me in my perpetual search for ideas and inspiration. However, some of the works (in particular that by Aida Silvestri) were quite moving and demonstrate that sometimes the photographs themselves can play a relatively minor role as part of a bigger concept (a reminder of the work of Sophie Calle).

In looking to the future Sian Davey’s work reinforces my wish to develop a very personal photographic project relating to the relationship with my mother between 1995 (when my father died) and 2007, when my mother passed away.

The increasing use of video by the students encourages me to incorporate more video work into future projects, following its introductory use in my major project for this course.

A Photo Book.......at Last!

At long last I've produced a Photo Book, which is intended to compliment the images and prints for my major project portfolio, using explanatory text to place the images in context. Without the multimedia presentation and this photo book, I have to accept that the assessors might struggle to find a link between the images in the first section (people feeding birds) and the second section, where a mixture of wildlife and documentary genres are used to discuss environmental issues. The photo book will, of course, also be a lasting record of the year that I spent working on the project and who knows? I may even sell a few copies in due course.

A page from my first photo book

I found the production of the book relatively easy. The time-consuming step was preparing the text and images in a Word document, ready for transfer. Using the Blurb interface it took me a morning to download and work out how to use the "Bookwright" software, upload my text and images and then send the resultant file off for printing. I made a few mistakes along the way, most obviously not filling all the space on the front cover with my chosen image, but I was reasonably satisfied with the outcome.

The book arrived after about 10 days. Some of the images had printed rather dark and I noticed one or two defects in the images that had been missed when I looked at the corresponding prints. One image, which was additional to the portfolio images (all of which were included in the book) hadn't printed at all well and was clearly unsuitable for publication. However, overall I was satisfied with the outcome.

My tutor had kindly agreed to look at the book and came up with several suggestions for improvements, mostly to do with the design of the book. He also recommended changing the front cover image. After 35 years of writing science reports my writing style lacks a certain flair and my lack of subjectivity and anecdote in the text was also noted. The visual impact of the text was described as "rather childlike".

My tutor's comments were very helpful. I have spent the last couple of days revising the photo book, replacing some images, removing others and adding a couple of new ones. I have cut down significantly on the amount of text, but I'm afraid that my objective, scientific style of writing will not change overnight - however, I hope that my passion for wildlife and the environment shines through in the text. I will upload the text and images shortly, make many of the recommended changes to the design of the book and send the resultant file off for the printing of my second (and last, for this project) photo book.

Revising the photo book and looking at potential replacement images allowed me to make a final decision regarding which images and prints to include in my final "assessment" portfolio. I had hoped to get the opportunity to photograph Cornwall's very aggressive herring gulls on a recent holiday in St Ives, but on the only day that I would have had any free time (it was a family holiday!) I was ill. Now I am out of time for practical photography and I will use the remaining weeks (when not on holiday) to prepare for assessment submission in September. 

Story Board for Assignment 5

I have produced story boards for the two sets of images (12 each) that I submitted for Assignment 5. The first story board, for section 1 ("what wild birds do for us: feeding the birds") of the Major Project, is shown below.

Following my tutor's suggestion I will remove Image 7 (too similar to Image 6) from the final portfolio. I will not actively seek replacements for any of the other images, which I am reasonably happy with, but will replace one or more if, by chance, I am able to photograph something "better" or more relevant. It should be noted that the ages of the participants in this story board increase steadily in going from Image 1 to Image 10, which is why the images have been placed in this order.

The images for the second story board, for section 2 ("what we do for wild birds") of the Major Project, is shown below.

The images in this section are more varied and highlight the direct and indirect effects of man's actions on our wild birds. There is an environmental message behind these images and it will be necessary to view the multimedia presentation and/or read the accompanying photo book to appreciate fully the story and message that the the images in this section convey. I am committed to replacing Images 22 and 24, which lack the quality necessary for the portfolio (see my last update) and will remove Image 18, following my tutor's advice. It is possible that I will replace one or two of the other, later images before finalising the portfolio by the middle of July 2015.

Assignment 5: Tutor Feedback on Major Project Work and Future Plans

My tutor’s response to my submission for Assignment 5 was largely positive and I feel that I am finally on the right track, with not too much work left to do before submission for assessment in September 2015.

Image / print portfolio.

By splitting the portfolio images into two sections, relating to “what wild birds do for us” and “what we do for wild birds” I have produced a portfolio that “now has a more editorial feel to it. You are observing, categorising and capturing the responses of individuals or the content and atmosphere of various scenes with a view to explaining how it fits in the grand scheme of our relationship with birds”.

He commented on the new images that I had produced since my submission for Assignment 4, noting that (new) image 6 was very similar in content to (old) image 7 (robins and starlings feeding from the hand, respectively): do I need both? This is a fair point: I will remove image 7 from the portfolio, whilst retaining it in both the book and multimedia presentations for the assessment submission (see below).

He noted that image 18 (bird food, feeders etc. in a shop) had “not got anything of the editorial about it”. I half expected this response: the image is very different from the others in the portfolio, although the point of including it is that it provides a clear link between the building of new housing estates and the use of bird food, nesting boxes etc. in the gardens of our (new) houses. Nevertheless I will remove this image from the portfolio (making two sets of 11 images/prints), whilst retaining it in the book and multimedia presentations.

There were quality problems with images 22 (peregrine falcon on cathedral spire: bird too small in the frame) and 24 (bittern: lacks sharpness as an A4 print and unsuitable for A3). I had only chosen these subjects a few weeks earlier and had hoped to have produced better images in time for submission of the assignment work: I was aware of their shortcomings. Both will be replaced, along (potentially) with one or two of the other, later images, with “better” photographs showing similar content, for the portfolio, multimedia and book presentations.

Multimedia

My tutor commented that “this is a strong part of your final submission” and that although “the presentation isn’t slick and quick” it “has got insight and substance”. Also, “it does show the depth of your feeling regarding the environment and the subject which you have treated with respect and a good level of subject knowledge and technical expertise shows through”. He noted that “one or two of the images need a little sharpening”. This may be because I reduced the sizes of the images somewhat in order to reduce the overall size of the multimedia presentation (which was still a hefty 312Mb). In future I will use full size JPEG images for the multimedia.

Book

My tutor noted that “the addition of a book will form a strong circle of presentation for you with this set of work”, but warned that its aesthetic presentation (use of facing pages, white space, text etc.) should add to the images in an accountable way. Also, “…we can look at a page for as long as we wish to so stronger images are better”. The images in the multimedia “may form more of a narrative when used in bursts, as opposed to dwelling [on them] so the formats are not the same”.

Learning Log

My tutor commented that “the learning log [my blog] is well kept and supportive of the development of the project”. However, I should continue to maintain it noting the additions / recommended inclusions that he had mentioned, relating to the major project.

Future Plans

Portfolio Images

My work on the first section of the portfolio (images 1-12, or 1-11 as they will become) is essentially complete, as is my work on the first half of the second section (images 13-19, or 12-17 as they will become after I remove current images 7 and 18 from the Assignment 5 portfolio). I am still looking for stronger images to complete the portfolio – in particular, I must replace images 22 and 24 and the main focus of my work in the next few weeks will be to finalise the image portfolio by getting out and about on the streets. If I have the good fortune to produce “better” examples to replace earlier images so much the better, but I will not be actively seeking these. I am keen to retain a “peregrine” image in the portfolio set and have decided to wait until urban peregrines have fledged (late June –early July) before looking for a replacement for image 22. The final image portfolio may differ slightly in content from what I currently have: allowances for potential changes have been predicted in the text for my book.

Portfolio Prints

In addition to providing the portfolio as A4 prints on Permajet “glossy” paper, using Epson inks, I sent some A4 examples of images 4 and 20, printed on a variety of Hahnemuhle test papers, to my tutor, asking for comments. Commenting on the print quality, he noted that “the images are printed to a very good quality [on the Permajet paper]. Using standard (Permajet) paper with Epson inks is in no way unacceptable for the finished portfolio should you wish to use it….the images produced on it are “half way house” – they don’t make the bad things worse but, perhaps, they don’t make the good things better”. Commenting on the test images he noted that in general images were better resolved on the Permajet paper, probably because my Epson printer is not set up to get the best out of the Hahnemuhle paper. The bottom line was that the choice of papers is a very personal choice and “…the decision has to be yours at this level”. Given this feedback, I will look at getting one or two images commercially printed at A3 size, using a small selection of “standard” and Hahnemuhle papers, before I make a final choice. I will also check whether Permajet print commercially at A3 size using their own papers (which I like) or whether they supply paper to other commercial printers. This has now become a key element of my work, which I will concentrate on. I will write up progress in my logbook / blog.

Multimedia Presentation

I am reasonably happy with the multimedia presentation as it stands. I will need to replace certain images as the portfolio changes (see above) and I will look to make the overall presentation more crisp and “snappy”, perhaps by replacing, leaving out and/or shortening some of the video clips. I will continue to look to produce instructive video clips for potential use in this presentation. I will put the final presentation together a few weeks before submission.

Book

Whilst noting my tutor’s comments I feel that I am close to getting the desired format and presentation style together for the book. As soon as the image portfolio has been finalised I will get a small “prototype” book produced commercially: my tutor has kindly volunteered to comment on this book. Following acting on his and other peoples’ comments I will produce a final version, for submission for assessment.

Story Board

I will shortly produce a simple story board of Assignment 5 images 1 – 24 for incorporation in my logbook and blog.

Final Comments

The way ahead is now clear. The most urgent need is to finalise the image portfolio, because until I have done this I cannot produce a portfolio book, complete my multimedia presentation or get my portfolio printed to A3 size. I have allowed myself 4 weeks from today (10 June) to do this, following which I will get a prototype photo book produced. Concurrently I will continue to get some A3 test prints produced on various papers and make a decision on which papers to use by the middle of July. Holidays (one week in July, two weeks in August, one week in September) will intervene later, so I will need to get as much work as I can (and all the practical work) completed by the middle of July. Progress updates will be provided in my logbook / blog.