The feedback given has been amalgamated into the finished projects.
As I reworked each assignment the growth in my engagement with them is apparent.
It is good how I have also reflected on the feedback given to me.
The reworked essay was much improved on the draft.
Though she considers that I began documentary well, my improvement during the course is obvious.
She suggested that:
I ensure that I have explained fully why I have made the decisions during re-working that I have (for instance the choice of my final images in assignment 3).
ACTIONS:
Revisit all that I will submit and check that I have been explicit about the reasons for my decisions.
Complete the assignment 6 feedback template and send to tutor.
2. ASSESSMENT PREPARATION
Appraise and present as if the work is an exhibition of my work that hasn’t been seen before.
Don’t assume my Tutor will be an assessor.
Consider using assignment 1 instead of assignment 2 for creative content and revisit to see if any of it is of use for my Los. Use ass 4 critical review for LO 2.
3.DISCUSSIONS ON PROGRESSING TO LEVEL 3:
My tutor gave me the link to the level2/3 groupwork on theory and practice on OCA learn as well as the level 3 forum link, which I will join when I can.
The progression meeting will either be with Ariadne or Dan Robinson. I should submit my photography for it (new and previous) and they will ask about my interests, currently:
Landscape
History
Culture
Working in a small defined location
Different ways of seeing
Layers – truth- time – context…….
I should consider what interests me photographically, in life, and what questions are there that I’d like to answer with my work, but not worry if I don’t have a defined idea yet for level 3, as its good to start out with a broad idea.
Level 3 is 2 units simultaneously:
Body of work – at different stages of development.
Contextual studies (dissertation part): this follows the body of work but is not the same, it contextualises it.
I asked about choosing a tutor and was told they will be recommended by what your interests are.
This Pre-Assessment Review gave me a valuable opportunity to revisit my reworked assignments, most after a good period of time has elapsed. Here I summarise the process and results of my reworks, each assignment has a link at the end to the reworked submission on my blog.
ASSIGNMENT 1: LOCAL COMMUNITIES – PROVISIONING AND PROTECTING
During the making of this assignment, I learnt to be adaptable. The sudden onset of the pandemic caused me to start the assignment again as circumstances changed dramatically. My second draft was my personal response to surviving both the threat of the pandemic, our withdrawal, and the need to protect my community. The windows represent the physical and emotional barriers that grew. The subject matter was mundane, my plan was to engage viewers in the detail of the ordinary.
My tutor’s feedback didn’t suggest any reworking and was very positive; possibly so because I reworked a lot as I drafted the assignment. I made many changes along the way suggested by peer critiquing. I was keen to move on from this assignment which was already a second draft and I had spent much time on, and believe that it still achieves what I set out to. I did however take my tutors suggestion of considering the presentation of the work, which I outlined in my reflections on my formative feedback: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/submissions/assignment-1-submission/a-reflection-on-formative-assessment/ . I concluded that if representing the work in a gallery I would seek one where I could set up in a rectangular central shape. Here I would place the images around the outside, so the viewers could walk around them – as if they are viewing my house through windows, as in my work. I believe this would give a good opportunity for activating viewers memories and responses through the detail in the ordinary represented, whilst also reinforcing the feeling of barrier that I was keen to convey.
ASSIGNMENT 2: SINGLE IMAGE NARRATIVE – ECONOMIC SCARRING
By the time I shot this assignment I was able to leave my house, most businesses were still closed, which I depended on for my outcome; so I shot with tight time constraints, as businesses they were due to open again shortly. My concept was economic scarring, in the context of Covid 19, and my narrative was that of something not quite right.
My use of stitched scars alongside the location images was central to my concept, but my tutor feedback pointed out that I needed to communicate this more fully. I wrote in my reflections on formative feedback, that the scarring is not only seen on commercial premises but is also felt by the people affected by the interruption to the economy and these businesses:
https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/submissions/assignment-2-submission/a2-reflection-on-formative-feedback/ . For submission I added in the commentary accompanying the images that each image, “is accompanied by a flesh wound as a hashtag, to reinforce the human pain caused by the economic scarring. The stitching represents a holding together and hope of recovery”. I also made reference to the wounds in my submission artist statement.
I also acted on my tutor’s suggestion to reassess the images, to incorporate some more subtle ones leaving more room for viewer interpretation. In my rework I replaced the shop front and aquadrome images with more subtle ones I’d earlier rejected, see below-which I think do show more subtle signs of abandonment, and neglect.
ASSIGNMENT 3: VISUAL STORYTELLING – BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT
I had a strong idea from the outset for the location of this project but did explore many styles of images and presentation before completing the assignment, influenced by photographers researched in the coursework and others. My focus was a local car park, as a manifestation of the seasonal change in visitors to the area, from presence to absence. This was presented as a book dummy as asked for in the brief. As in my previous assignments I shared my work with various peer groups before I even submitted my draft and so made many changes during the process, which are documented in my learning log. When constructing the narrative I presented the images sequentially increasing in size on the page to emphasis the breathing in and out of the car park.
In my final reworking of the assignment for submission, I rephotographed and replaced the final image, to show an empty car park:
I also re-photographed the 8th image to use as the last empty car park image, but ultimately chose not to end with 3 empty car park images, which would have looked like this:
In my critical review I explored how documentary photography can be effectively used for the benefit of the communities that it is photographed in.
Following my tutor feed-back, I identified these areas to action:
Reduce the breadth of my writing by “control and editing of sources”, this will enable me to:
Give more in depth analysis
Articulate my critical engagement, to describe how my sources support my view and have developed my argument and thesis.
Describe how my research has led me to my end thesis – How I get to my ideas.
Provide more in-depth image analysis. The activists that I describe in my sources are visual activists, so I need to articulate how they provoke a response through the lens, the response they provoke, as the audience is not passive.
In my rewrite of the critical review I narrowed down the material that I’d used and explored what remained in more depth, using the broader material to retain the context, placing these sources in a bibliography. I also reviewed the images and analysed those I used in the submission to show their part in visual activism. I can see now that this has resulted in a more detailed but succinct and cohesive essay which develops more effectively towards my conclusion.
This was a project based upon extending my assignment 3, for which I proposed a working title of Tensions arising from visitors. The concept was different truths. I shared that I intended to photograph local contentious subjects such as, caravan parks, holiday houses, shops, and roads, and present my images with short text/captions from my research, to exemplify the various notions of truth around visitors to the locality.
My draft proposal was rightly challenged by my tutor; though recognising the potential, she questioned the clarity of my proposal and how I would extend my previous work. I could then see that I hadn’t overtly set out my methodology in my proposal. This was useful and enabled me to clarify my approach. During a follow up video chat I shared that:
My intent is to move from the subjective social media comments that I have collected from face book, to collecting data and facts from various sources (e.g. Town council, Government, Press releases, property companies, census, and business owners. Also to include facts on home ownership, house prices, rental opportunities, business demographics, and tourist demographics, to ascertain facts about the impacts of visitors to the community.
This will give me a better intellectual understanding of the situation, and enable me to decide on my stance on the various issues. At the heart of this is a synthesising of the various voices, messages and information- the different truths, so that I can communicate my understanding of the concerns.
I described how this work is a progression from my assignment 3 work and is of a much wider scope; assignment 3 was connotative of the issues, this expanded work allows me to denote more fully the concerns and issues arising from this phenomenon.
Following the submission of my assignment draft, my tutor’s feedback suggested that I could challenge the layers of truth further. She suggested as well as presenting a face book/press statement and an opposing evidential image, I could possibly juxtapose these images with opposing evidential images from the Facebook quotes. I immediately saw that by doing so would extend the representation of various truths, and challenge viewers further. My dilemma was how to achieve this, as the original Facebook posts didn’t contain any supporting images, which was interesting in itself. I decided to photograph opposing images myself, to add to the layers of truths. This also proved challenging, but in most areas, I was able to achieve what I wanted eventually.
This resulted in adding 7 contradictory images, and 2 provoking media images to the slideshow, which I achieved this without lengthening the duration of the slideshow. Where I now have 2 images preceding facebook/media text, I have faded one image into another to simulate the transplanting of truths.
Continue working on your personal project and produce a photo essay of 15 images. Your work should demonstrate good research, a methodical approach and a wider scope than previous assignment work.
Decide on the best submission format for your work. Discuss your ideas with your tutor while you do the projects and exercises in Part Five. (Open College of the Arts, 2014:120)
LAYERS OF TRUTH
Background information:
This personal project spans a year of reflection on the village of Newport (Tredraeth) Pembrokeshire. At the beginning of this time I was a second home owner, “exiled” from the village by the pandemic lockdown, observing the “temperature” of the place from afar. Mid way through the year I relocated there permanently. I have been an insider/outsider observer of the place for many years, known and accepted by many. Now that I have become a local, other’s experience tells me that it will take me years to be recognised as such.
As with everything this year, emotions have magnified, and voices have become louder. To rationalise what I was reading on social media and the press, I researched for facts to seek the cultural, political, social, and economic truths about the impact of visitors and second homeowners to this rural area, during the pandemic lockdown, and more generally as well.
Having discovered my “truth” I considered how to share this visually. My background reading of those such as Sekula, Tagg, Berger, Levi Strauss and Borge, increased my awareness that photographs are only representations of reality, part captured in the moment and the rest supplied by the photographer. Whilst I carry the responsibility and accountability of a documentary photographer to present reality, in this story I present various layers of truth, material, moral, impression and form. Images are never neutral, but having synthesised much information, as well as emotion, I have recorded and presented the truth as I understand it. I have recorded what my eyes saw. The text that accompanies the images is to support the truths I have discovered, rather than appropriate the images, as well as to provoke thoughts.
Photographs are not predictable communicators “they cannot carry meanings in any straightforward way” (Campany, 2020:8), but I have announced my path to this truth, and my position in it, though do hope that viewers will question the truths that I share.
References:
Campany, D. (2020) On Photographs. London: Thames and Hudson.
Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
Artist statement:
This work is a personal reflection on aspects of a village, over a year. Though this has been an unusual time, the feelings and opinions felt and expressed, are simply magnifications of continued underlying tensions between locals and visiting outsiders. I have sought to uncover the truths that lie beneath these emotions, and share them here. These layers of truths are presented with integrity and research, though just as I have formed my own relationship with them, so may you.
It is personal project which began a year ago. I was in lockdown in England and not allowed to travel to my then “second home” in Wales. During this time I observed many discussions on social media about visitors to our “second” town, as well as Welsh national media highlighting lockdown infringements. The coverage was mostly one-sided and uncomfortable to read. As the year progressed and I travelled to my second home, I was able to gauge the real breadth of feeling from local residents to visitors; though not “local” I am well established in the community here and talk to people on both sides of the divide.
The second part of this year I have been resident here in what is now my only home. My research has continued, capturing media articles and comments, knowing I would probably use the material for assignment 5. I have added to this notes on conversations had, overheard and related. Now I need to research the facts behind the issues, widely around the philosophy of truth in photography, adjust if necessary my personal stance and then develop a visual photographic response to this personal, and socio-political study. I intend to explore layers of truth, something that has interested me increasingly as I have progressed through the documentary course. Though my research has been during the coronavirus year 2020-2021, I don’t intend the work to focus on this; the project highlights local/societal/nationalist issues that exist normally, such as the economy, resources, housing, tourism, and hospitality businesses.
Working title: Tensions arising from visitors.
Theme: Different sides of a story.
Methodology and work flow: Collate social media comments → Research facts/data → Read and research on the philosophy of truths in photography → Reflect/synthesise (decide my stance on the issues) → Photograph visual representation of issues → Chose social media comments and facts to use with images → decide on presentation of images and text and my voice.
Audience: Myself. Depending on the outcome I might release to the community later as a healing tool; currently it would inflame the situation locally.
Approach: A slideshow sharing images with overlaying text either supporting or contradictory to each photograph, a second layer of factual text and a third layer communicating my perspective on issues.
The feedback was positive and encouraging and helpfully incisive. My tutor’s feedback suggests that I consider presenting not only a face book/press statement and an opposing evidential image, but possibly juxtapose these images with opposing evidential images from the face book quotes. I can see that by doing so would extend the representation of various truths enabling viewers to face more of a challenge when interpreting the truth.
Most of all I am pleased that my tutor acknowledges that my voice and gaze are evident here, and also that my research is well integrated into my work, as I guess that this will help me when I start level 3 shortly.
Actions:
My dilemma is how to achieve this as the original face book posts don’t contain any supporting images, this I find interesting in itself. So I will photograph opposing images myself, to add to the layers of truths represented in the work. The challenge will be firstly in collecting the material, and secondly integrating it into the slideshow effectively and without increasing it’s duration too much.
I have confirmed that I will be ready to submit assignment 6 by 1.6.21
I have also confirmed my intent to submit for November 2021.
Write a 2,000-word critical essay on one of the many debates that you’ve explored so far in this course. You may use any of the research materials you’ve collated so far or do further research. (Open College of the Arts, 2014:95)
For assignment 4 I decided to explore how documentary photography can be effectively disseminated for the benefit of communities that it is photographed in. This was initially sparked when I first encountered the work of Mark Neville in: The Port Glasgow project, Deeds not words, Parade, and battle against stigma, when I was at a virtual artist’s talk at the Photographers Gallery in April 2020. Since then I have taken a particular interest in other photographers and photography projects that work with communities that try to ensure that the work benefits the people photographed.
In her feedback my tutor queried several points about my draft critical review. She was positive about my choice of topic, my understanding and my research which has allowed me to contextualise and make perceptive theses; however she points out that the breadth of my research and writing has prevented me from closely analysing my sources. She also pointed out that though my photographs are relevant I haven’t evaluated their potential to make change. I can see now as she says that my “critical engagement and analysis are hinted at rather than exemplified”.
My action plan for a reworking of the critical review
1. Reduce the breadth of my writing by “control and editing of sources”, this will enable me to:
Give more in depth analysis
Articulate my critical engagement, to describe how my sources support my view and have developed my argument and thesis.
Describe how my research has led me to my end thesis – How I get to my ideas.
2. Provide more in-depth image analysis. The activists that I describe in my sources are visual activists so I need to articulate how they provoke a response through the lens, the response they provoke, as the audience is not passive.
My rework
I narrowed down the material that I used so that I could explore what remained in more depth. I have concentrated my review on fewer practitioners, but was able to use the other material that I’d previously used and read to retain my broader understanding of the issues. I have placed these references in my bibliography. I was then able to express how I developed my argument.
I also revisited the images that I’d included and included more background details on the images that I’d used and how they exemplified my thesis.
I can see that I have now formed a more detailed but also succent and cohesive essay which develops more effectively towards my conclusion.
Produce a photo story of 10 images that, as a set, tells a story and conveys a narrative.
Engage at local level.
Do this assignment in colour.
This is not a visual chronology unless your theme naturally has one. Structure your visual story as you would a written story. Present your viewer with the theme, further developments and complications and, finally, a resolution – or non-resolution that poses further questions. Edit and sequence your work accordingly.
Go for visual variety – use a variety of lenses, viewpoints and compositions – but ensure visual and conceptual consistency across the images. (Open College of the Arts, 2014:83)
Nicola South Student number: 514516
BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT
COMMENTARY
To engage at a local level, I focused in on a small car park, near the water and a boat club in my village in Pembrokeshire. My choice was influenced by the current national and local circumstances. The UK had just come out of a national lockdown and tourists were beginning to move around again. The village, the beach and waterside in particular, changes from sleepy in the winter to comparatively busy over the summer months. This car park is the springboard for many activities local and tourist and as such is a barometer of this transition.
I am currently both and insider and an outsider here, having just made this my main home when it has been my second home for many years. This gives me a unique perspective. I have enough inside information to have a photographer’s gaze rather than a tourist gaze; I understand both the frustrations and joys that the bustle brings to the area, but also share the excitement visitors experience on arrival and their sadness when they leave.
My research gave me much to consider; I have been deliberate in my framing, mindful that what is outside the frame is as important as what I am showing; what Paul Reas calls a conscious ordering of information. My narrative is linear in time though I have also used criteria such as colour to underline the transformation I am sharing. I have not used any text believing that in my framing, composing, choice of images and sequencing I have said what I want to, leaving some room for viewers to interpret the work.
It is a mundane place and my story documents mundane events, yet the feelings evoked and experienced there are rarely insignificant.
Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
ARTIST STATEMENT
On a physical level the this is story of a car park, however the car park is also a manifestation of the seasonal increase in tourists which alters both the environment of the car park and the nature of the locality. This was a story I particularly wanted to tell this year, when combined with the impact of Coronavirus, lock downs, travel bans and social distancing, the arrival of visitors was felt more keenly by locals. It is a tale of two halves: absence and presence, hushed and busy, lively and dull, and peace and pressure.
I was pleased with the feedback from my new tutor, most especially as I seem to be living with this assignment for months; this has given me some distance which helps with reflection, but I was worried that it may have distorted my vision so to speak.
She suggested that I think about a variation to the story theoretically (as it probably wouldn’t fulfil the assignment criteria), such as documenting small specific areas of the car park and documenting their change – I will experiment with this as a side project, which I may well do using my I phone initially to access its usefulness.
For my submission I have rephotographed my final image and replaced it as my Tutor agreed with my reflection that it would be better as an empty car park. I have also rephotographed the 8th image which is the one I think my tutor suggested to try as an empty car park, without the van; however, having tried this in the sequence below I am choosing to stay with my original image. For my narrative I prefer to show the car park transitioning from full/busy to empty/quiet and I think that 3 empty car parks at the end is too much.
The sequence with empty 8th and 10th images as well as the 9th:
With the side-project mentioned above I will continue to experiment with the subject matter to explore further visual narratives.
Single image narratives: Produce eight images that, individually, have a narrative and convey a specific idea. Rather than focusing on a theme or activity, work on a concept. The more abstract the concept the better.Delivery: For this assignment you need to publish a blog page. Thumbnails should link to high resolution images.Aims: This assignment aims to help you develop your ability to conceptualise your thoughts and communicate your ideas visually. The emphasis is on effectively translating concepts into visual products.Provide a short commentary explaining your ethos and rationale along with your images.(Open College of the Arts, 2014: 53)
Nicola South Student number: 514516
ECONOMIC SCARRING
COMMENTARY
This work is about scarring, the damage that is left behind after trauma; not wounds on body tissue but the long-lasting damage caused by the current recession on our economy.
Economic scarring though not a new phenomenon, is a new term. This recession has led to “scarring”, long term damage to individuals’ economic situations and the economy. Covid 19 is the cause of this recession, but this work is not about Covid 19. My images are a response to my current fear for our futures, particularly livelihoods, and the damage that is already apparent.
In this work I have run with a concept that is meaningful to me now. In my own hibernation I have had much time to learn and reflect. I have; been offered, mainly by zoom, considerable photographic advice and stimulus, this has seeped into me. My initial thought was to photograph in a surrealist style, there are some of those elements in my images, but from that beginning I worked in an intuitive way and found my own style.
My intention was to go out and look with heightened awareness. Photographers such as Brassai have inspired me to train my eye so that I can reveal my world. I was struck by Stephen Shore’s comment that there should be no difference between shooting and seeing; this is what I aim to present to my viewers. Integrity is also important in this work, there is no construction here; though I have used my eyes and framing, to show you what I want you to see – a sense of something not quite right.
Every image has its own narrative, but together visually they anchor my concept. Each is accompanied by a flesh wound as a hashtag, to reinforce the human pain caused by the economic scarring. The stitching represents a holding together and hope of recovery. There are other signs and symbols within the work that are meaningful to me, however viewers will make their own meaning from what they see here.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The world has stood still, my world has stood still. I am concerned for our futures, our economic futures. When I emerged from my hibernation, I went looking to see how businesses were faring. Here is the damage I observed, scarring…economic scarring which will wound all of us.
ECONOMIC SCARRING
REFERENCES:
Short, M. (2011) Creative Photography: Context and Narrative. Lausanne: AVA Publishing
Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
Photography 2: Documentary 