Tuesday 4 August 2015

Feedback

Number of images
The main gist of the feedback was that I had far too many images.  Ostensibly my reason for this was that I searched and searched for the correct figure to submit in the course document but couldn't find it - despite it plainly being there for all to see.  I have to wonder why that might have been and do think I found it difficult to separate my emotions from the images, and say as much in the accompanying text.  Whatever the underlying reasons may be for not editing it according to the course stipulations, a happy outcome of not doing so before submitting the assignment for feedback is that I now have an opportunity to edit with more space and time between taking the images and discovering what the narrative is really about.  (What that does for any possible assessment mark is anybody's guess but I've always been here for the learning and experience rather than the marks).

Following a Skype chat with Andrew I found editing down to 12 images relatively simple and painless, whereas I don't think that would have been true a month or six weeks ago.  I submitted at the end of June, having taken the images over Easter.  I did a final edit last night at the beginning of August.  I remember Elina Brotherus suggesting a six month hiatus between taking and editing so I'm almost there time-wise.

Having left things this long I am beginning to see the point of a break more clearly than I did before. For one, although I had set out to photograph my family on holiday in Italy in my mother's house, and to do so from within the walls of her house - signifying something to do with seeing through a daughter's eyes - I can now see that the narrative is very much about my mother and my relationship with her, which I wasn't totally convinced by before.  I also think the narrative is far more apparent and resonates more powerfully now that the set of images has been condensed, although 12 does feel rather too ruthless, to be honest.

Colour vs. Black & White
Another suggestion was to consider colour.  I must say right at the beginning of the process I was torn between the two and felt very sad to be letting go of colour as an option.  Andrew pointed out that black and white might be too obvious a route and so colour was certainly worth considering. I have to say it felt a relief to think I might present the images in colour and have so decided that will work better.  I talked about my reasons for choosing black and white in the A5 introduction and say:

"I chose black and white because there is a type of crystalisation in the images, a freezing of time, which feels more frozen without colour.  The colour edit I nearly used seems far more vibrant.  I can almost hear the cicadas and the silent buzzing or humming of the empty spaces as I went about photographing them.  But I don't get that in black and white.  By removing the colour I feel like I have removed the life and left only shadows and impressions.  I know of course this is all in my own perception and interpretation but that is how it felt.  I might actually prefer the colour edit personally... "

Reading this back I can't help wondering why I thought at the time that removing the life would be better.

Text
Finally, Andrew suggested that I include text to give the images some context as they are more subtle than work I've submitted before.  I did have text below each image to begin with then removed it following some peer feedback but I know if I'd been committed to the text I'd written I'd never have let go of it, regardless of what anyone said.  So I must have a good think about how and what I write. I do agree that context will be very useful, although I am thinking I will write something to go at the beginning rather than captions.

The chat Andrew and I had last week was really good and helped a lot.   I have to say learning this way is quite tough and isolating at times and having real live support feels incredibly useful.  I certainly felt a bit lost with this assignment at times, I suppose because I attempt to venture into something pretty difficult for me.  I know the blurry images of A2 or the light in A4 is something solid for anyone looking to grab hold of - and that people will either like it or not depending on taste. But the thing to grab hold of in A5 may be less obvious but perhaps feels more dangerous, for me at any rate.  Andrew and I also chatted about different ways of presenting the work for assessment (the thought of which still gives me horrors, I must admit).  And I will get on with that over the next couple of weeks.

Feedback here:


Overall Comments

As everything from The Waltons to The Kardashians demonstrates, popular culture has represented ‘the family’ in diverse and contradictory ways, yet it is consistently thought of as being at the centre of normative social life. What you’ve submitted here offers a characteristically interesting, well researched and personal take on the idea of ‘the family’, and your ability to spot and use domestic details in a poignant and tender way is really striking. Stylistically, the influence of Jim Mortram is clearly evident, and provides the viewer- or certainly this viewer- with a bittersweet frame of reference and entry point into the set. Your blog entries around this project give an extremely clear indication of the extent to which you’ve thought about the work, and while it’s not without its flaws, this is an assignment that once again shows you to be a thoughtful, observant, determined and highly promising artist-photographer whose work is personal and emotive.

This assignment features a lot of work. I cover this in my specific feedback, but a more ruthless cut would have been welcome! It’s hard to escape the feeling that we’re not looking at as tightly a focused series as we might have been, and a couple of photographs repeat the point of others without necessarily adding to the meaning of the work overall. But, this aside, you’ve produced a(nother) ambitious and engaging piece of work; one that bodes extremely well for your continued studies (and beyond).

Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

In a recent chat you noted how each of your previous assignments had put you at their centre, and that for your final piece of work on TAoP you were keen to take a different approach. You’ve definitely done this, once again demonstrating the breadth of ideas that you’re having and your stylistic versatility and willingness to always take chances and follow your creative impulses. At the same time, I think this work absolutely does still have you at its centre, albeit in a more tangential way. Your voice is apparent throughout the set, and this submission acts as a subtle complement to the assignments that were much more directly about you. Equally, in spite of the shift in style, what you’ve submitted here is still recongnisably ‘your’ work. The portraits here show a growing range of technical skills and an awareness of how subtle inflections in a subject can communicate an entirely different set of meanings- good.

While the series, at least in the most reductive sense, is ‘about people’, the photographs where people are (in a literal sense) absent not only convey a very poignant atmosphere, but also help the viewer to fill in those all-important ‘gaps’ with their own readings. This said, I think this is one of the areas that would possibly benefit from a little refining/ editing: you’re cramming a lot in here, and I sometimes got the feeling that a smaller set would have made for a slightly greater impact. Indeed, sticking to the letter of the assignment’s law, in submitting 33 photographs you’ve gone way over what’s outlined in the guidance notes:

create between 6 and 12 images- you can choose.

33 is almost treble the recommended upper limit, so this is definitely something you’ll need to look at before submitting for assessment. What you’re trying to do/ communicate with the work is pretty clear, but it’s important to go through the series again and think about how you could hone it down to its core essence without losing any of its qualities/ meanings. As things stand, I’d be extremely surprised if the assessors didn’t pick up on the excessive number of images you’ve included and use it as a reason to question your judgment. It’s one thing to produce extremely interesting and promising work- which you’ve consistently done throughout TAoP- but this does need to be allied to a strong sense of discernment. The work and ideas are certainly ‘in there’, but with a more focused edit these would be much more clearly evident.

A practical example of how you could potentially scale everything down a touch: as the series heads towards its conclusion and the emphasis shifts more towards your mother, I did get the feeling that you could have culled a few images and been a little more direct. Photos number 29, 30, 32, and 33 of your mother are all interesting in their own right, but in terms of what they contribute to the overall ‘narrative’ I did wonder whether there was a little uncertainty on your part as to which ones to include/ exclude. #32 is most striking for me: you’ve captured something incredibly vulnerable and poignant in your mother. #33 is very much in contrast with this, and there’s something quite severe and defensive (and also very striking). While these two are very to the point and have a clear sense of purpose, #29 and #30 feel less essential: #29 is fairly interesting in its own right but, for me, doesn’t add a great deal more to what you’ve already said. #30, while showing your mother in a slightly different light, feels a little more throwaway and less vital. Whether you remove them from the series ahead of submission ahead of assessment is entirely up to you of course, and something I’m happy to discuss further… but I do think that a more ruthless approach to your final edit is what’s needed here. Perhaps because this is the final assignment on the unit- and because it’s featured such obviously personal work- it’s been harder to be restrained than might usually be the case. This is totally understandable, but do keep in mind that the process of creating meaning is not just something that happens when you shoot an image, but when you sequence a series of photos. In some ways, this can be the toughest part, but it’s really important to develop your ability to refine a project down to its core elements: less… is… more…

Having said all this, you’ve still produced a series that is touching and personal and says quite a few things about your family and your relationship with them. You’ve communicated an impressive range of emotions, from everyday joy to something altogether more ambivalent, and as the sequence shifts away from a focus on your children to your mother, we seem to reach the very poignant essence and emotional heart of the work. It’s really likeable stuff, and with some further thought could be even more affecting.

Just a couple of quick bulletpoints/ questions to end on:

- Are you sure that colour doesn’t work? I’ve only seen the people-less photographs in colour, but I think it would at least be worth giving some further thought to using them. I get why you’ve gone with b/w, but it does seem like it frames the work in a particular way- I won’t say ‘obvious’, but it does seem like a fairly standard device to have employed. Maybe when you’ve brought the number of images in the sequence down to something closer to the recommended limit, it’ll be easier to ‘see’ the project working in colour- the meanings you’re reaching for could even cause it to resonate in ways that you hadn’t anticipated.

- I appreciate that you’ve not wanted to include much in the way of text, but the assignment guidelines note that ‘…you are about to illustrate a story for a magazine. You have a cover to illustrate, and several pages inside […]. Even though there may be no text, you should write captions (of any length) to explain and link each picture’. In terms of what you’re doing, I can see how this could be problematic- but a short overview of the work that sums up your rationale for the work would certainly be useful. Let’s catch up on Skype and discuss this further.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays
Context

As usual, your accompanying texts are highly engaging, dedicated, and clear indicators of how much you’re launching yourself into your photography and studies. Could you perhaps manage everything just a touch more efficiently though? There’s a lot on your blog- certainly not to any unmanageable degree, but would it be worth condensing a few of the sections?

Suggested reading/viewing
Context

This is another area where you’ve pushed on with real determination, and you’re always eager to look beyond the obvious in search of useful material- excellent stuff.

If you’re not familiar with them anyway, you might want to have a look at the following films, all of which offer reflections on the idea of ‘family’:

Buffalo 66 (Vincent Gallo)
Les Quatre Cents Coups (Francois Truffaut)
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)

(You might also find something useful in Julian Roman Polser’s The Wall)

Pointers for the next assignment steps

Your work on this unit has been consistently engaging, thought-provoking, personal, eye-catching, daring, and ambitious, and you’ve made the most of the opportunities that it has presented. This in itself is extremely commendable, as at this comparatively early stage it would have been entirely understandable if you’d taken a safer and more conservative approach to your work. I’m very glad that you didn’t: it’s been a pleasure to see how you’ve developed over the course of TAoP, and even from a very early stage it was clear that you were always striving to produce evocative and meaningful work. I don’t doubt that this will continue, so please do continue to challenge yourself and take the more difficult (but ultimately more rewarding) paths. The more you do, the more you’ll improve on both a technical and creative level and be better placed to successfully visualise your ideas. Keep pushing!!!!!



8 comments:

  1. You must be very pleased with this report - I certainly would be - congratulations. Paris Texas is a great film - the colour is so vivid btw. One of your statements about the work's underlying narrative revealing itself, I found really interesting as my own project did something similar (this is one of the reasons I had so many issues trying to decide about direction!) - it's what makes making art so rewarding - and dangerous!
    Text is an issue though, I saw some work on Walker Evans in Arles that focussed on his magazine work, so therefore text was a significant part, we could have a chat about that in Oxford?

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    1. Thanks, John. I don't think I have seen it. Looking forward to Oxford x

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  2. I've been looking at this work for a couple of weeks, wonderful and daring use of image/text and pertinent I think: http://www.dianamarkosian.com/inventing-my-father

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    1. Well, that bought plenty of fresh tears to my eyes before breakfast! Thank you - I"m very pleased to find her work. And the honest, straight text is really useful to see. SJx

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  3. That's such complimentary, supportive and forward-looking feedback which is great. Thinking about colour v black and white. Your edited selection might depend on the path you choose now that you've had time, as you say, to look back and reflect. I'll be interested to follow your thoughts on this. Catherine.

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    1. Yes, thanks, Catherine - it is very supportive. Is there any chance you could make to John's show in Oxford when Holly and I go along? I am reading a book you might find useful by the way - I'll send you a link x

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    2. Sorry, I missed your comment because I use Bloglovin to access your blog and they don't send updates. I won't be able to get to Oxford on the 5th because that's just before I go away which is a shame because it would be good to catch-up with how everything is going for you.

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    3. Well perhaps when you get back we can fix a time with a couple of the others to catch up. I won't be able to make the TV meeting as I'm doing a wedding on the next one. Do you know when the one after that is? I'm happy to head out your way btw if we do an interim catch up somewhere.

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