Month: March 2020

ZOOM OCA MEETING

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Photography Zoom Talk 18.3.20 Tutor Andrea Norrington

This is zoom meeting for level 1 and 2 students that I’d not joined before but I was particularly interested as I’d heard good things about the meeting, also as Andrea was my Tutor for the landscape course I’ve just completed. This was the first Zoom meeting that I’d taken part in.

The title of this zoom meeting was Approaching an Assignment

Andrea shared the evolving project in John Blakemore’s Black and White Photography Workshop book, particularly Chapter 2: The Tulip Journey, Tulipomania. Here his work came out of an extended visual enquiry, underlining the suggestion that a photographer shouldn’t make judgements before they start.

Tulipa Kitchen Series – 12

Tips:

  • Don’t get too wrapped up in the end product, get started and see where it goes.
  • Take photos as sketches, see “new ways of seeing” Scott, G. (2020) New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography, London: Bloomsbury.
  • Don’t worry about what’s good or what might be thought to be good, at the early stages.
  • Research at a start point but don’t worry if you go off on a tangent
  • An assignment should be a development not a one off shot; best work is likely to be when you really explore and push the boundaries of the work outwards
  • Use your reflective writing – Plan – review – Revise –replan

Beau lotto book on seeing differently exploring an idea Lotto, B., Cardilli, L. and Socci, L., 2018. Deviate. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

“Learning to deviate innovatively…much of the engagement grows out of the obstacles of your surroundings”

“One cannot photograph experience, but to have lived it can change and develop habitual ways of seeing and of knowing…They became possible only through the extended visual enquiry that I allowed myself” (Lotto, Cardilli and Socci, 2018)

Photographer Chase Jarvis. He shows every photograph he took in each series, the video lingers on the shots that were selected. It is fast paced but you can see how ideas develop within each shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKK9-HEDa8I

We also spent some time discussing how we might approach assignments in light of the restrictions of the Covid19 virus. Suggestions of work to look at on isolated spaces:

Other suggested work to look at:

  • OCA student: Anna Dranitzke – OCA Documentary Course – photographs within family home: https://annasphotoblog.wordpress.com/ Assignment 1, 5 and 6 are relevant
  • OCA Student: Nicola South , OCA Landscape Course, photographs from local environment: https://nkssite4.wordpress.com/category/learning-log/assignment-6-transitions/ Assignment 6 – based around two trees
  • Nick Waplington ‘Living Room’
  • J A Mortram ‘Small Town Inertia’
  • Nan Goldin ‘The Ballard of Sexual Dependency’
  • Matthew Finn ‘Mother’
  • Richard Billingham ‘Ray’s A Laugh’ – there is also a film ‘Ray and Liz’ available to watch online
  • Anna Fox – good starting points – “My Mother’s Cupboards and My
  • Father’s Words’ and ‘Notes from Home’
  • Keith Arnatt – most of his work but ‘Notes from Jo’ and ’German Toys’ are starting points
  • Robert Adams
  • Joel Sternfeld

Tips:

Embrace the constraints

Create another world:

Link to PDF: Approaching An Assignment.pdf (397.1 KB)

Link to padlet: https://oca.padlet.org/andreanorrington/laq2kvhc5mpg

OCA Discuss: https://discuss.oca-student.com/t/tutor-led-zoom-for-level-1-2-photography-march-session-approaching-an-assignment/11502/55

Next post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/coursework/defining-documentary/what-is-documentary/

THAMES VALLEY OCA MEETING

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Thames Valley meeting 21.3.20

This meeting scheduled was held remotely via Zoom due to Covid19 Virus. I wondered how we would manage via zoom for at least 4 hours but it was productive time and passed quickly.

The session was facilitated by OCA Tutor Jayne Taylor. There were 13 of us, including some who can’t normally attend because of geography or Children.

This was the padlet that we posted to before the meeting and then added to afterwards (https://oca.padlet.org/jonathan515050/4wmpbd8z5v9p)

Archived padlet: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/padlet-archived-1.pdf

In terms of my work

I shared that I had been working on a community project for assignment 1 which halted a couple of weeks ago because of Covid 19 and no longer having access to the people. I have dithered whether to stop, move on and return to the work later or start afresh. Generally my peers suggested moving on, and we talked about new ways in the current circumstances that I could capture community engagement (Traces of people, disruption in the community, changes in the community, barriers to engaging with the community).

My takeaways:

As usual I learnt a lot by peer sharing both their work and ideas as well as my own.

  • When editing consider whether weaker images dilute the strongest images
  • Check the narrative is clear
  • I learnt a lot about book making:
  • When placing images consider the white space around them, have more space at the bottom of the page than the top.
  • Consider making the space around images irregular throughout the book
  • Don’t use more than 80% black font
  • Leave most of the text until the end so that the viewers can engage with the images first.
  • Use some full page “full bleed” images
  • Explore the Cartesian perspective and photography: A separation between what’s inside and outside (see John Hall level 3 OCA)
  • Don’t necessarily conform to a linear narrative
  • That “Zine” is a type of magazine

We also discussed how we can continue to access artwork remotely during social distancing and lock down

Next post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/18-3-20/