ZOOM OCA MEETINGS

ZOOM OCA: GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHY HANGOUT

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Photography general STUDENT LED VIRTUAL HANGOUT 3.5.20

This forum is student led but was joined by photography tutor Clive White, which is what interested me. Again it was nice to put some names I’ve seen online to faces.

We began with a discussion on personal voice based on this article which I have subsequently viewed: https://99u.adobe.com/articles/51575/the-4-phases-of-developing-your-creative-voice

Behance, Inc (2015) The 4 Phases Of Developing Your Creative Voice. At: https://99u.adobe.com/articles/51575/the-4-phases-of-developing-your-creative-voice (Accessed 10/05/2020).

My notes from reading this:

  • Your voice is the how you’re recognized by others
  • It speaks to your values and the perspective and skill that you bring to the work
  • It is often forged as you follow the inspiration on your influences as well as commit to your intuition
  • Virginia Woolf “Your voice is the confluence of inspiration, dedicate practice, and strategic risk”.

  Stages to finding your voice might be:

Discovery phase: Its when seeds are planted and you are often disappointed with your work, you might have ideas but clear ways forward, so ask yourself:

What new ideas or skills are obsessing me right now?

Who are the practitioners that I can learn from here?

Emulation phase: Think about other’s work to immerse your self in and how to practice the skills I want to improve/learn

Divergence phase: Once you’ve achieved enough mastery then youll want to move on from emulation:

to do this take intuitive steps and bend or break the rules you’ve learned.

Push yourself out of your compfort zone

Crisis phase: 

be careful that you push yourself out of your comfort zone even if it exposes vulnerabilities

refuse to settle for good enough- hone your skills

We then discussed how to stay motivated in these challenging times, Clive said that its important to do work that’s meaningful for you, finding your bliss and follow it – I think that’s what I’m struggling with at the moment!

We also discussed landscape assignment 6, one said it was a waste of time, I disagreed with that and said that I thought it brought a lot of personal growth.

Some with assessment looming asked for ideas on how to show work in a virtual exhibition, there were some suggestions:

We were reminded by Clive that you can have mastery of techniques and/or mastery of voice.

Though I both gave and got something from this group hangout it was less useful/stimulating that the other hangouts/groups that I attend so I wont attend again for a while but the nuggets that I took away I have highlighted.

NEXT POST: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/documentary-hangout-7-5-20/

ZOOM OCA: DOCUMENTARY HANGOUT

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STUDENT LED Hangout 9.4.20

This was my first documentary hangout. I have been used to joining landscape hangouts once a month but it took me until now to cross over to the documentary group; in fact several of the members like myself were still active on the landscape hangout and so we have shared our early thoughts about documentary there.

There were six of us on the hangout tonight and we began by discussing how were are managing our photography during our lock downs; it was bizarre, but comforting, that with one OCA member in Canada and one in Australia as well as us in the UK we are all experiencing the same situation.

We also discussed looking ahead to level 3 with one student who has just finished documentary.

I shared my initial series “Staying safe at home”. My peers generally gave positive feedback on my images.

I asked them the following questions:

  • Which of the eleven photographs should I drop t make the series of ten as the brief required?
  • Which of the two sink/cleaning fluid images should I chose, the one with the straight window sill or the diagonal perspective?
  • Is it okay to have mixture of closed and open windows?
  • Is the narrative clear with the images posted between the glove on the front door and the empty shopping bag at the front door?

The consensus that I was given was that I should remove the paracetamols at a distance on a coffee table and the laptop which is a distance from the window.

The group thought that it is okay to mix the open and closed windows.

All agreed that my narrative is clear.

I shared that I think that some of the images are rather obvious and lack the ambiguity that I have come to like; however after one false start prior to lock down on this assignment, (because of being confined to my house due to Covid19) and having effectively lost about a month’s work, I am now keen to finish assignment 1 and move on. The group didn’t seem to share my concerns and encouraged me to proceed.

This virtual conversation and work sharing has helped me in my editing process to change my series of images slightly.

Next post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/thames-valley-oca-meetings/18-4-20-virtual/

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/