Professional Photographic Practice - Final Post

The Professional Photographic Practice module has now come to an end. The work has not necessarily finished, but provided on this blog, is a summary of the project to date.

All content relating to this module can be found under the Photographic Practice label. If you wish, you can view just the posts relating to research, or you can view those which show and explain work that I produced.

The Gorgeous Georgeo video blog can be seen here.

Below is my personal reflective evaluation.

A significant aspect of this module that I was very pleased with, was the fact that the project was self-defined: I felt I had the freedom to work on and embrace ideas which had come naturally to me.

I feel I have produced something quite original, both in the techniques and processes that I have employed (shooting through a two-way mirror and digitally painting a self-portrait), but also in the content and themes that I have addressed.

I am encouraged by the fact that the project has the potential for a strong after-life: in the progression of the pixel portrait; the continued production of Gorgeous Georgeo videos; and perhaps also a follow up to the two-way mirror work. And because of this, the audience may become engaged in the future evolution of this work, rather than simply witnessing a finalised piece.

Ideally, I would have wished for further time to advance the pixel portrait to a more realistic image, and similarly I would have liked to commit more attention to marketing the video blog. I do feel however, that the two-way mirror work was a solid success and fulfilled my original intentions. The decision to go with these three projects of the original six, was a good one I think: time was limited, these were feasible to produce, and with their variety they encompass the wider issues that I wanted to investigate.

Looking back, I can see that for the first half of my course I was interested in intimate portraiture. This then changed to self-portraiture – a topic I felt really connected to! It came naturally. The significant prompt was the ‘Picturing The Body’ module and discovering the theme of wanting to challenge my vanity, which then under-pinned the initial inspiration for this project.

 Looking to the future, I recognise that I am still open-minded in considering professional possibilities. What I do know is that I very much enjoyed conceiving the idea for this project and following it through to produce some strong artistic photographic work.  With this behind me, an importance is now placed on how I broadcast and manage its presence during and after the forthcoming exhibitions.