Feedback & Reflections on Assignment 2

I had my review and feedback session on video with my tutor and mentor, Andrea Norrington, for Assignment Two on 25th June, 2020. The link to my assignment can be found here.

Feedback on assignment: Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration ofCreativity

Andrea was happy with my work and she appreciated my enthusiasm and energy for the course and pointed out that it reflected in my work. She like the way I had annotated the contact sheets and asked me to keep that up. She also recommended looking at Magnum book on contact sheets and you tube discussions on this. She also suggested to look at Chase Jarvis video that explores a photographer exploring framing/viewpoints – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKK9-HEDa8I

This was great as I looked at many videos and creative ways that artists use to choose frames etc. and definitely helped me to get some more ideas to annotate my contact sheets even more creatively in the future. I have also ordered the magnum contact sheets book to look at. Editing being almost as crucial as photographing itself, this will be a great tool for exploring different methods of choosing and eliminating images.

The next point that we discussed was usage of stories as text and she asked me to explore that as she was drawn towards my images with the narrative I provided. She pointed out exploring methods to make it more effective with juxtaposing the text next to the images and making it more concise. She said its explored in detail in Context and Narrative. She said I didn’t need to do it again but to keep in mind for future. I had purposely put the stories separately so as to keep it uncluttered but what she says makes sense and works better most definitely.

I had asked for what she preferred and I am glad she related to the coloured images more as it made it more personal and not sterile and clinical as the B&W images did. Context once again becomes important in this case band am happy that I was on track for this.

We briefly discussed my ideas on the next assignment and she was encouraging to have me take a go at it interpreting it my way as she pointed out that there were many differing views on it.

Coursework: Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

She particularly liked my Exercise 2.4 – Woodpecker and thought that it was a a great example of my engaging with the course. She encouraged me to continue working in this manner. She also appreciated the fact that am reading ahead in the course due to my thinking and working on Assignment three already. She also noted my engagement with the reference sources.

Research: Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis

She was appreciative of my research and felt that it was developing into a great reference for me and asked me to keep adding onto it. She also suggested and included some great references for me to look at and add on to my list – she suggested a book – The Creative Habit by Tywla Tharp that she had been reading. I have ordered this book and am eager to read it. She referred to a chapter on skill where the author discussed how Leonardo da Vinci would study things in detail. In the book she gives water as an example, information on which can be found here: https://theconversation.com/how-leonardo-da-vinci-master-of-water-explored-the-power-and-beauty-of-its-flow-112401

For my third assignment am studying common pigeon behaviour and we discussed this in detail. She asked me to keep that up and also to include images from any notebooks that I may keep, but since all of my work is documented digitally, unfortunately I don’t keep notebooks – a habit that I let go in foundation. I find documenting my thoughts and ideas digitally more effective and she said that it was perfectly fine.

Learning Log: Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis

She was pleased by my learning log and wants me to continue keeping up the work, research and thinking and using the learning log to make connections and follow diverse trains of thoughts.

Suggested reading/viewing: Context

Andrea recommended to keep a running bibliography of the sources/books/resources used on the blog to avoid being recommended any resources that I might have already used and the fact that it will be will be invaluable to have as a resource to copy and paste from when working on later. Although I have been adding all references along with all the blog posts and the whole list is on my computer, I will add that source list on the blog itself too.

In my continued working from home she suggested W H Fox Talbot’s works, one of the first photographers where he photographed objects from his house, whom I have already researched about while studying the origins of photography. The artist Cornelia Parker then reinterpreted this work in One Day This Glass Will Break – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OLRLzfTRy0.

I have since then seen the recommended links and sources provided by her and her pointers have been invaluable as always.

Strengths

• Good pace of work, energy and enthusiasm for course evident – along with detailed work for the coursework/assignments
• Completed assignment as a project
• Research section expanding

Areas for development

• Use the learning log to consider where you want to develop your skills next.
• Consider how the stories could be fed into the images – books, slideshow with voiceover?
• Do keep a bibliography as list – with the referencing – easy to refer back to one summary source