Peer Review Sessions

I'm now midway through a photography degree at Coventry University. It's a new course and hence my class are the 'oldest' photography students. We're a small group, and so it was exciting when a new, larger cohort arrived to start this October. I was keen to communicate, learn, share, etc across both first and second years, and so set up informal group critique meetings for all photography students. As I am now opening up this blog to include other activities as well as my personal projects, I thought I would put in my writings on the benefits of these sessions (this was originally a short article for the department newsletter).


The purpose of the peer review sessions is to have a place where photography students from both years can share and discuss their latest work, in an informal setting. Each person shows and explains their images to the group, who then give feedback in the form of criticism, suggestions, and appraisal. This process is very beneficial to all present. Through discussion the photographer can better understand the reasons and motives behind their practice, as well as receiving opinions on what looks good/what’s interesting/what can be improved etc. Everyone else has a chance to develop their knowledge and appreciation of different styles of photography. And any learning, insights, ideas are not just between individuals, but shared by the group.

The idea came about because towards the end of each module, we would have a group critique with our tutors and classmates. The purpose of which was to see if we could improve or alter our work before the hand-in. These sessions were always very helpful, and it seemed that if we were to do this more often, we could progress our work throughout the term.

Storytelling

"Photography is a language that I have some ability to use. I want to tell a story, but I've always loved making images, and photography for me seems the best way."

Tom Hunter came to talk at the university the other day. It was very exciting to see many of his less published photos, and hear his motives behind his work.  He mentioned storytelling, and someone asked (being that he stages his photographs with great precision) if he considers himself to be more of a storyteller than a photographer. His response was the quote above, preceded by informing us that he attempted writing and found he was no good at it. I enjoy writing, and I'm not to shabby at it (I hope). And I like the idea of telling a story. Not photo journalism, not a news story, a story story, one which will be appreciated for its tale. Using photography as a language, but why not use writing too - if possible. I'm not sure, but I think that elementt of storytelling to photographs might be what keeps me really drawn in, that might just save photographs from becoming boring, limited, and flat for me, (as they so frequently are). This needs more thought.

The Artists Project

My most recent work has been looking at artists. Drawing on my previous 'look', I wanted to photograph in a similar quiet observatory style, but with those I was not so close to. And I chose artists (as a rough collective group) hoping that they would be sympathetic to my not so efficient working speed. I've been using single and sequence images for this project, to talk about both the person and their environment. I have also written about these people, and the time I spent with them - to give a wider portrait, or narrative even. Here are some sampled images from the finished body of work.

A bit of virtual darkroom

I was never much of an avid photoshop user. And I've never wished to apply it as a tool for expressing a creative idea, only for refining them, i.e. the 'magic' happens with the camera, and then photoshop just touches it up. Here's a couple of photos I took recently where photoshop was applied in such a way - akin to typical dodge/burn practice of darkroom printing (which I am quite familiar with). Satisfied with these results.

Sequence Work 2

Some further experimentation with this work, including a diptych, and a first 'quintych'?

Sequence Work

I had previously enjoyed working with this presentation of a triptych bordered by black. It had then been a triple portrait, using digital pinhole. I wanted to use the same attractive presentation method, but with a normal camera, and returning to my more 'intimate' style. Obviously I want to talk about people, and what I like about this work is the potential to talk about their environment to. To be able to pick up on particular details about their setting, or to observe the communication of the subjects. Influence from David Hilliard.

Camera Obscura

Leading up to some work with pinhole photography, I had a go at making some room-size camera obscuras. I was appealed to the phenomena of photography in its most 'primitive' form. A camera is basically a dark box with a hole in it, put something light sensitive and 'fixable' in it and you're making photographs. Add some complex curved glass, a film winding mechanism or digital sensor, and you've got a modern camera.

The notion of standing inside a camera is quite delightful in itself, but the whole process also helped me to finally grasp the principles behind aperture adjustment and its effect on depth of field and zoom. Hence the exercise was very valuable to my wider understanding of the photographic process. So this is the 'making of' - please excuse the cheesy music, I was just trying to make it more entertaining.

Reflections

I was branching out a bit with my portraiture work here. I wanted to maintain the person I was engaging with as the main subject, but then alter/add intrigue/mystery to the viewing of that person; and hence, break away from the 'easy' portrait, make the viewer work a bit more for the photograph, and produce something a little unusual. The self portrait for the profile picture of this blog came from the same body of work.



It was refreshing to approach my personal portraiture in this way, to be looking at different things, considering different images, within the scenes and surroundings that are familiar to my work. Again this is previous work, and I would say that it is now helpful to look back at these pictures, and this approach to working, to prevent my current 'style' from becoming to stagnant and repetitive.

Family Memories

With extracts from BBC's 'Genius of Photography' and snippets of music from

Dave Mathews band. Thank you to both.

This was a short video presentation I made about the thoughts and intentions behind 'family photography'. I investigated the significance that intimate photography has on memories of loved ones, and the potential usage of photographs to 'hold on' to someone. The inspiration for this research came from Larry Sultan's writings on his work Pictures from Home.

“What drives me to continue this work is difficult to name. It has more to do with love than with sociology, with being a subject in the drama rather than a witness. And in the odd and jumbled process of working everything shifts; the boundaries blur, my distance slips, the arrogance and illusion of immunity falters. I wake up in the middle of the night, stunned and anguished. These are my parents. From that simple fact, everything follows. I realize that beyond the rolls of film and the few good pictures, the demands of my project and my confusion about its meaning, is the wish to take photography literally. To stop time. I want my parents to live forever.”

Larry Sultan, excerpt from Pictures from Home, 1992

I never worked with video before, but thoroughly enjoyed the writing, shooting, and editing of this project. It was recorded on a Sony Handicam, and edited on iMovie, simple as that.

Naturally, many of the themes discussed are very relevant to my own style of photography. Although I never considered the reasons behind my work to be a willingness to keep or save somebody - that was never my aim. It was more to do with portraying people in a way which was suggestive of my relationship to them. My presence, and my feelings toward the subject - were a key part of my photographs.



But this means that those images may in time become significant as a means of savouring and remembering that person's character, and crucially my opinion of it. There are a few photographs (which I did not take) amongst the family albums, which succeed in doing this. These pictures delight me. They remind me of a persons best moments and most defining attributes, they evoke my warmest empathy towards that person. And all because of a simple pose and/or facial expression, forever captured, which instantly recollects happy memories.

It is the after effect of a personal photograph, more than the motive behind taking it, which interests me in this discussion. Having engaged with such an intimate subject myself - how will I feel in years to come, looking back at my photographs? What part will they play in influencing my memory of those close to me?

And so to begin... by looking back.

I've been purposefully engaged with photography for just over a year now, but have only just started 'blogging'. And so before I discuss current work it seems appropriate that I should have a quick look at where I've come from.

One of the first divisions that I make when considering and classifying photography, is that there are photos with people in them, and there are those without. I am interested in the former. That's not to say there aren't some cracking images out there of landscapes, still lifes and such. It's just that I've always found myself more intrigued by photographs that feature people. It's a wholly different way to experience another person - constricted into a flat rectangle and frozen there eternally. What can you understand about someone in such a form of presentation? What can you know of them? Feel towards them?



I wanted to photograph people close to me, those I held a connection with. People I felt comfortable with, and people who were relaxed around me. I was interested in conveying the intimacy of our relationship. This developed into an understanding of the communication between photographer and subject, and its importance to the photograph. In my work, this 'discourse through a camera' made itself known by my quiet observation, and my subject's then calm awareness. It wasn't just about the relationship, it was about the relevance of photography on depicting that relationship.

It began with black and white, 35 and 120 film, which I had used a lot before and hence was quite confident with. But I had never used digital seriously. Hence my work in colour yielded fewer results but that has since developed.