Demonstration of technical and visual skills

• Focusing on traces of an isolating community from the outside, my visual strategy was to shoot through windows exposing details in the mundane, keeping things simple and uncluttered and with good depth of field.
• Technically my concept proved challenging to execute, working with glass is never easy. I experimented both by using reflections and eliminating them. I decided to give the simple detail I wanted, I would eliminate reflections as they would be distracting; this took patience and experimentation.
• Composition and framing were led by the need to include some window frame as context and I learnt a lot as I tried different perspectives (angles, heights, distances) to achieve this.
• I decided that I could vary the perspective between images if I maintained continuity of subject strongly enough.
• I tried various techniques to achieve the clarity that I wanted, working always with a tripod: Good depth of field, clean windows, various times of day and weather conditions (unfortunately it was predominantly sunny for the period), polarising filter (though ultimately I didn’t use this), black fabric as a blocker to eliminate reflections, live view so I could check for shadows, colour casts and distracting details.
• I used my prime lens efs 24mm to keep the focal distance constant.
• I shot and revised the images over a couple of weeks until I achieved what was looking for.
• Achieving consistency of colour across the series of window frames was challenging, as they do vary and of colours shooting conditions changed – I tried my best to make these uniform, but maybe more could have been achieved? Would this have been realistic though?

Quality of outcome

• The outcome looks simple, but I believe it communicates on other levels as well and that viewers will empathise with the representation.
• When shooting and editing I constantly returned to my intention and I think has helped to give a clear story.
• I considered at one stage adding text (perhaps govt messages) to the images, but realised that discontinuity is likely to be minimal and that for a long time to come viewers should quickly connect and give meaning to the images.
• Importantly I believe that the series does say something to my audience about my personal response and allows them to reflect and respond also.
• My regret is a lack of punctum, I feel, except in the first image; I considered ways to go beyond the signifiers and signified to achieve this but I wanted to share the ordinary in a simple way so decided against constructing something that wasn’t there.

Demonstration of creativity

• I was forced to be flexible as the Covid19 situation unfolded, as I had to restart this assignment in a different location from my first draft and under restricted conditions.
• My loss of equilibrium stalled me for a while, however eventually certain advice helped to get me going again: embrace the constraints, don’t get too wrapped up in the end product, develop the project over time.
• Though the series may appear simple the windows represent my feelings of isolation and barriers to my freedom, and the hiraeth I felt* whilst the subjects show my reaction to perceived threats to my community and my coping mechanisms – I have expressed my emotions.
• Some of my creativity in this project was technical as I struggled to get clear shots without reflections of the subjects through glass – I tried a lot of new things.

Context

• There was an awful lot of reflection over the period I worked on this project. My increased interactions with my peer groups aided this and I have recorded these, as well as my actions after such reflections. I also created a “Covid 19 thoughts” document to capture pertinent reflections and advice.
• Whilst I was preparing to share the work, I reflected that the work is also a response to me withdrawing from the world not only for my safety but also as I felt isolated from my second home.  
• My research outside of the coursework was led by concept for my assignment but also by opportunities to attend virtual artist talks and virtual photography events.
• In fact, the increased opportunities for learning online slowed my ability to submit this assignment but I believe it will be a worthwhile time investment long term. I have set out in learning log and mind maps my learning points from the research that I’ve done and advice that I’ve gathered.
• I have more general research that I’ve done during this period but will post later as I don’t want to delay this assignment submission further; I suppose it is a regret that I don’t seem to have enough hours to do all the research that I would like to!

*Hiraeth (Welsh pronunciation: [hɪraɨ̯θ, hiːrai̯θ]) is a Welsh word for homesickness or nostalgia, an earnest longing or desire, or a sense of regret (Wikipedia 2020)

Reference:

Wikipedia contributors (2020) Hiraeth. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hiraeth&oldid=950185684 (Accessed 06/05/2020).

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