Writing about photography - reflection

In this section I have spent time thinking, analysing, and writing about photographs. I have found that these skills are useful tools to help develop my academic standards and also improve my analytical ability when looking at work in galleries and books. The initial exercise to write about a photograph in free flow without any restrictions on content or word count was useful when compared to the later exercises. It was interesting to move on from this and write captions with differing content and a restricted word count. This made me think closely about the necessity of every word and how my sentences needed to be constructed and concise.

The later exercises involved research around a suggested photograph and required searching the Internet to find suitable material and ensure that I only referred to factual information rather than opinion. This task of gathering data and collating it into a readable style of essay was time consuming but I enjoyed it.

The last exercise was to analyse a well known essay by John Berger. I made a lot of notes as I thought about the topics being discussed and tried to pull together my thoughts on it. This exercise was much more difficult as I am not used to discussing some of these topics in any depth but I tried my best. I am aware that I will need to hone these skills further for one of the assignments later in the course.

I'm not entirely sure how these skills will help improve my photographic practise when it comes to making photographs - maybe the knowledge and skills gained will probably bubble up to the surface at some point and I will have a light bulb moment. When the time is right to start promoting my own work then I can see how what I have learned can be put to good use - particularly with the construction of catalogues and artist's statements and the like. I think at this moment in my development the most practical use for these skills is in studying photography and visiting galleries and exhibitions - anything I can do to improve my analytical skills in this area can only be a good thing.