Photography in a Connected Age - Study Day

I recently attended Photography in a Connected Age. A workshop consisting of lectures from practitioners of photography relating to photography in the digital age.

This event was attended by a number of OCA students as part of an official study day. We had a presentation from Roger Hargreaves who talked about the controlled use of social media by the Obama campaign using small compact cameras. He argued that it was an awareness of the importance of social media that helped Obama to win the election. The images shown during the talk gave an interesting behind the scenes insight into how much effort goes into American politics.

One of the lectures by Alexandra Moschovi seemed to revolve mostly around the use of the forthcoming Google Glass, a technology that intrigues me a little - but only a little...

Dr Loplop spoke about the spread of cat images across social media sites - illustrating how an image can begin life online quite innocuously as someones pet photo and evolve into more and more bizarrely manipulated combinations. I learnt a new word, 'lolcats' which seems to stand for cat images with funny text written across them. The talk was a strange and surreal experience but as a past frequenter of the website cats in sinks I'll think leave it there.

Jason Evans gave, for me, the standout talk - mostly about his practice. His determined energy for his work really brought his lecture to life. He seemed almost passionate and frustrated with photography in equal measure. I had always wondered what the coloured dots in many of his images were as he explained about the conceptual interpretation of the visual sparkles on water and light in a room at a certain time of day - How he liked to catch the essence of the things he photographs. His style of photography looks very fresh to my eyes and when studying other photographers (and my own) work afterwards, it can look staid by comparison. In my own work I am often drawn to this kind of image making and then frequently pull away in favour of more formal compositions. I've mentioned this before and I need to work through this and come to some sort of conclusion. As my tutor, Keith, once said, 'less is often more.'

Snippets of Evans politics and social conscience came through during the talk - he appears to have no time for the big corporations and money grabbing institutions. The teaching of photography in academia came under fire too. Being a student of photography this was very interesting to listen to obviously.

Evans spoke about the curriculum being far too narrow in its teaching. That all the universities and colleges were teaching from a set of academic ideas and theories arising from the 1970s and 80s. That they are outdated and have not moved on in their thinking. Which appears to be true to some extent. Certainly most of the critical theory for my current PWDP course contains these texts. I would argue though that as he was presumably once a student himself, then Evans has had this same foundation from which to build upon. A place is needed from which to strike out and question the nature of photography in order to move forward. As a mature student I enjoy reading these texts - it's all new to me and I get a lot out of them. Evans also admitted that he finds himself not suited to teaching in academia. That he has no interest in teaching photography using their narrow disciplines but rather prefers to help students find a way of learning a visual language in which to view the world. I think that's what he said, I was so engrossed in his lecture I didn't take any notes.

I feel I am learning a new visual language as I progress with this degree course. So, to be honest I'm not sure what he meant by that. Maybe the teaching is very different at other places. He gave a very interesting talk.

Assignment 4

Today I began my research for Assignment 4. I will be looking at gender representation in photography. Mostly looking at it from the aspect of women as there has been much critical discussion around this subject.

I've looked at some of the relevant texts in the course reader. I decided to use the study method described in the course notes to paraphrase a paragraph at a time after a first read through. This enabled me to get to the gist of the text and has proved to be very useful.

Edit 23rd October:
Feeling a bit down today. Depression is something I have always struggled with. I've been reading essays from the course on the subject of the 'gaze' and making notes. I think I might only do a half day study today and slow down a bit to re-charge my batteries.

I've looked up some primary sources relating to the subject of gender representation and ordered them from the library.

My preparation strategy for my assignment is to do lots of research, make notes and then hope a topic or structure will somehow coalesce in my mind. This works for me visually with photography projects but I have a nagging worry that this isn't going to happen this time. Plan B is to do a bit more researching and reading and then contact my tutor with a plea for help.

That's it for now. I think a cup of coffee and a catch up with the Grayson Perry lecture on iPlayer is probably the best thing to boost my mood.

Edit 7th November:
I thought that I would be further on with my essay than I am. I had a huge amount of reading and research to do on my topic of gender representation in photography. There are so many side issues with psychoanalytic theory being one of the biggest topics to cover. I've read a number of essays including their primary sources. My tutor has also recommended a good book that really expands on a lot of the theories. It is hard going though and I'm having to stop at virtually every sentence to look up words that I've never come across before. I think I'm getting the gist of it though.

My research is mostly done and with half an eye on my end of November deadline I've begun to draw up an outline of my essay. I went back to the course notes and began by writing down a checklist of items that must be covered. Here's the list:

CHECK LIST:

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES

QUOTE PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS/PHOTOGRAPHERS

EVALUATE ALL SOURCES

ASK THESE QUESTIONS:

• WHAT IS WRITERS RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORK?
• WHEN WAS THE ACCOUNT WRITTEN?
• FACT OR OPINION?
• OBJECTIVE OR BIASED?
• IN A POSITION TO WRITE AUTHORITATIVELY?
• WHAT RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE?
• WHAT IS THE AUDIENCE AND HOW MIGHT THIS INFLUENCE THE ARGUMENT?
• DON'T RELY ON WRITTEN SOURCES ONLY – EXHIBITIONS
• MUST BE REFERENCED

THREE TYPES OF WRITING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY:

• DESCRIPTION
• INTERPRETATION
• JUDGEMENT

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Once I had this down I turned back to my course notes and re-read the notes on how to construct the critical essay and transferred the information to my document:

TITLE

STATEMENT? – DEFEND

QUESTION? – ANSWER

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH - 150 WORDS

INTRODUCE THE QUESTION, STATEMENT

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND – 500 WORDS

DESCRIBE THE SITUATION/CONTEXT/HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

OUTLINE YOUR ARGUMENT – 200 WORDS

INTRODUCE THE ARGUMENT/ANSWER QUESTION

SUMMARISE AND INDICATION OF CONCLUSION

BODY OF ARGUMENT – 1000 WORDS

DEVELOP YOUR ARGUMENT PARAGRAPH BY PARAGRAPH

MENTION COUNTER ARGUMENTS, STATE POSITION

ANALOGIES TO PHOTOGRAPHY

CONCLUSION – 150 WORDS

RECAPITULATE AND SUMMARISE

DRAW CONCLUSION AND STATE HOW THIS AFFECTS OR IS RELEVANT TO YOUR OWN PHOTOGRAPHY

I found that by beginning my document in this manner I tricked myself into making a start - gets me past that blank page scenario!

There is always more research that can be done and there is a danger that it becomes a displacement activity for actually getting on and writing the essay. By creating a structure I put myself into writing mode.

Edit 14th November:

I'm really struggling with this essay. I've written about 1100 of the 2000 words so far and it is really hard going. I'm still on a first draft too so there is no end in sight for the next few weeks. I don't know why it it is but I feel like my thought processes are mired in treacle. I did loads of research on a topic that I find interesting and made copious notes so it should be such an easy matter to start pulling them together. I thought it would take me a couple of days to produce this essay but the actual writing is tortuous. I've only managed a couple of hundred words a day which is pitiful. I'm trying not to beat myself up over it though. I've put in place a couple of strategies to keep me going such as rewards for making a start each day - no matter how long it takes me to get some words out I allow myself a coffee and treat break or a trip into town when the sun is shining. I think I may have to pop out and get some fresh air today as well as I can feel my depression trying to get a grip and I'm determined to keep on top of it and not let my studies slip.

Edit 27th November:

It's finished! I did a re-read of my final draft last night. I was happy with it so I printed it out and asked my partner to have a read too. My tutor, Keith, advised at the start of this assignment that I get another person to have a look. Glad that I did as I had to make a couple of amendments just for clarity.  I spent today editing to lose a few hundred words - not easy! I'm still a little bit over the word limit. Then I checked the formatting instructions in the course notes and critical essay guide. I chose a font size, wide margins and double line spacing for my images and text so that the last few lines of paragraphs and image captions are not split across pages - I hate that. I still have until Friday to meet my end of month deadline so I think I will hang on to it and do another quick check tomorrow before sending it off.

I'm so relieved to get this essay off my hands to be honest. I spent far too much time on it. The writing just didn't come together as easily as I'd hoped. I never have a problem writing about my other assignments. I think my mood had a lot to do with. I've had a few mental health problems just lately and I've struggled.

Still, at least I don't have to think about the essay for a while now and can concentrate on catching up on pulling everything else together that I will need to get this course ready for assessment. I'm yet to start my final assignment so I don't think I will be any way near ready for March assessment - so it is looking like a summer assessment for the first time. I will start my next level 2 course in January, regardless. I still want to stay on track and try to complete a module a year.

Edit 6th January:

I'm a bit late in documenting my tutor feedback here as I received it before Christmas. On the whole the response was positive with some further research to be done (I have a book on order from the library and will post my thoughts here later) and there are a few minor grammatical errors to sort out.

I've also finished some background reading on women artists that I'd started well before my essay and took me a while to finish. My thoughts on it are here.

Edit 6th March: 

Today I began the edit of my critical essay. After a good few months break and with fresh eyes I was quite pleased with what I'd initially written. With that said I took into consideration my tutor's feedback and read his book recommendations. I've removed a couple of paragraphs from my essay to make way for some new thoughts. There were also a couple of reference typos to be amended. I think the changes have definitely tightened up the essay and improved it.

Edit 12th March:

I've undertaken some further research for my essay and written about the photographer E J Bellocq and his Storyville portraits. My thoughts can be found here.

My thoughts on the photographer Berenice Abbott can be found here.

Edit 17th March:

I've finally written the last draft of my essay. I've taken into account the points mentioned on my tutor feedback and incorporated them into my argument. This took me well over the word limit so a couple of superfluous (in the light of the new draft) paragraphs have been removed - I'm still over the word limit. I had a final look today and tweaked and removed some extra words - still over the word count though. I really don't think I can tighten up the essay any more so it is done and I can move on to other outstanding exercises for this blog in preparation for assessment. 

A Workflow & Printing Workshop

I attended a one day workshop at the printspace on Saturday. The course aimed to instill a methodical workflow when working on digital image files to ensure a consistent and high quality output for printing. We began by learning about the importance of having our camera and monitor setup correctly (must get a monitor hood!) before moving on to configuring the Photoshop workspace.

Once all the basics were in place we then looked at our image files and workflow. My own workflow is not too bad - with the exception that I don't tend to mess around too much with colour correction or saturation. I am wary of these two settings because my colour blindness tends to skew any changes I make. The difficulty is that any subtle changes are not that noticeable to me so I can't see the point - and changes that I can see tend to look overdone. Luckily the camera's auto white balance does a pretty good job in most daylight situations and I rarely work with mixed lighting. I have picked up a couple of tips regarding how the colour balance and saturation sliders should be set for daylight images when printing. I will incorporate this info into my workflow and will review the results.

The course mostly seemed to firm up what I had learnt in the Digital Photographic Practice module which was good in the respect that I hadn't forgotten this knowledge and it was useful to run over it again and not let my standards slip.

I only use an outside lab as I cannot justify the cost of my own printer, paper and ink for my images. It is good to know I'm doing most of the right things like soft proofing and using paper profiles. I think I just need to practice, practice, practice, when it comes to printing. Because I'm conscious of cost (delivery charges being the downside of online labs) I probably don't print nearly enough to get my standards to a consistent level and to compare and contrast with different versions of the same image.

This is why I'd also find being part of a study group useful. To get advice and have a standard to compare with. On the whole I'd say it was a good day at the workshop and now I just need to do a lot more printing.