Saturday, 13 November 2010

Week 5 - Benefit

Week ending 5th November 2010

Tuesday - Contextual Studies with Mike De Vere

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this week's session with Mike due to a family crisis. It is the first time I've not attended a session this year so I ensured that I emailed Mike to explain my absence and provide him with the work I had been doing over Reading Week (just to prove I haven't been slacking off!).

I am currently writing an essay on the history of photojournalism, the changes in the industry and the impact of postmodernism in this area. I feel I am progressing well with the essay and have emailed Mike to read what I have written so far.

Mike's reply was positive and I have taken on board the points he added for me to pick up on. I will hopefully be completing the essay this week... 2 week before the deadline :)

Wednesday - Photographic Theory with Sian Gouldstone.

Lee was unable to attend again this week so we had a full day with Sian. This week's session focused on Urbanisation. The key themes included -

- Rights to the city - whose city?
- History and pastness of the city
- Cultural relevance - globalisation and colonialism
- Mega cities
- Urban regeneration and sustainability
- Urban mobilities

Some of the photographer's work we discussed included -

Bill Owens - Suburbia.





Roberts Adams




Henry Wessel Jr




Stephen Shore - looking at his work has inspired me and given me an idea for my Unit 7 project. I'd like to include wide open spaces as locations for my shoots. This provides me with the feeling of being lost in the big wide world. Perhaps I could look into wastelands, beaches, countryside??? Something to look into further.





In the afternoon I went out with Jo and Susie to Wythenshawe to take photographs of the urban landscape. I decided to focus on capturing images of bins to create a series inspired by Henry Wessel Jr. I'd like to display my mini series as small images in a grid formation... but in the meantime these are some of the shots...





Thursday - P&DI with Max Bamber and Dan Morgan

Max and Dan arranged for Tarnia Kapow to do a presentation of a project she did in her second year at The Manchester College. She travelled to Ghana for 6 weeks to document the lives of the people who lived there. I found her work very inspiring and wish I had the confidence to put myself in a situation like that. After I have finished my degree I am hoping to travel around the world with my camera... if I win the lottery!

In the afternoon Max set us a task to shoot a portrait in the style of The Guardian newspaper. We were put into small groups but nobody felt particularly inspired to push forward with the project. I found this a little frustrating as I thought it would be a challenge to complete this is a short space of time. Luckily, we will be doing the same thing next week and hopefully it will be more productive.



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