Week 7

Week ending 19th November 2010.

Tuesday - Contextual Studies with Mike De Vere.

This week I finally got to do my presentation on Steve McCurry. I'm not really a fan of speaking in public but the presentation itself went quite smoothly. I was pleased with Mike's positive feedback and we discussed many of the points raised in my presentation as a group. The only negative comment was that I didn't really talk to the group and just looked at the screen the whole time... probably because I was nervous!

I also handed in my essay this week. An essay that was supposed to 750 words turned into 1533 words. Despite the length of the essay I managed to complete it 2 weeks before the deadline and I'm pleased with what I have written. I've also started to write the next essay in this unit so I can chip away at it over the coming week rather than leaving it to the last minute. I really want to maintain the high standard I achieve last year in Contextual Studies.

The next section of this unit involves doing a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). We discussed this as a class and began writing down our own strengths and weaknesses. I feel this will be very useful in identifying areas I wish to improve in. It will also help me to continue my current essay writing.

Wednesday - Photographic Theory with Sian Gouldstone.

In this week's session we discussed portraiture and self portraiture. The key points from the lecture -

- Portraits are ambiguous
- What, or who, is being photographed?
- Socially and culturally code and read
- Involve interpretation of sexuality
- Some create discourse around gender theory
- Implicates the artist, sitter and spectator

Rineke Dijkstra is a photographer I have looked at a few times before but never really discussed at any great length. Dijkstra's beach portraits of teenagers depict a period of transition, from coming out of the water and before they put their clothes back on. I think this perfectly captures the awkward phase of life that all teenagers face, that transition from child to adult, that awareness of yourself. These portraits do not reveal a lot about the subject's personalities and they appear to be in a state of nothingness.

The theme of transition is something I want to explore for my Unit 7 project. The Lost Generation are going through a very awkward and uncomfortable stage in life while they are not able to move forward.

Looking at the work of Hellen Van Meene was next on the agenda. In her work none of her subject's ever look at the camera and it appear in some that they are unaware of the camera even being there. This makes you think more about who that person is and what they are thinking. All subject appear disengaged... another element I'd like to include in my Unit 7 project.

Thomas Ruff uses a neutral background in all of his portraits and in terms of identity, how much can you give away with a neutral background? His intention was to capture his subjects in the style of a passport photograph but without any text or other information provided.

Other photographer's work we looked at this week included

- Sarah Jones

- Philip Lorcia Di Corcia

- Sally Mann

- Richard Avedon

- Alec Soth

- Elinor Carucci

- Elina Brotherus

- Robert Maplethorpe

Sian has also set us some homework for this with to take a daily self portrait and to bring the images for next week's session.

Thursday - P&DI with Max Bamber and Dan Morgan

A very productive session with Max this week! Jo and I had some one to one tuition with Max to practice our skills with lighting portraits. Before we went out shooting, Max refreshed with the class how to make adjustments to camera settings to ensure correct exposures. I found this very useful as I sometimes get confused with the maths!

Here are some of the results from the shooting session -

In the afternoon I took time off from the class to go out test shooting for my Unit 7 project. My plan was to go to a patch of wasteland close to Manchester City's ground but when I got there it was being built on! The alternative was to go to the car park next door. It wasn't ideal but at least it was a wide open space.

Before the shoot I made notes about what I wanted to capture including different poses and angles I wanted to shoot my subject in this environment. I experimented with a trip tic... one shot of the subject far away, the next with empty landscape, the last a full portrait... this was to show my idea that the Lost Generation feel like two different people - the who they are and the person they want to be - with a void of unknown empty space in between.

The lines on the car park inspired me to create a barrier by shooting a painted line right down the middle of the shot. This idea has inspired me to research other barriers and divides.

This shot I used the three trip tic images and did a photomerge in Photoshop to create one photograph.