Berlin



Arriving in Berlin for me was like taking a step back in time. The atmosphere is seeped in history, both old and new. I felt the fight for the struggle for freedom everywhere I went.

We took a "Tourist Tour" of the city walking to Brandenburg Gate, The Holocaust Memorial, The Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie .... and many other famous landmarks. It is an incredibly interesting place to visit and made me realise how very lucky I am that I live in the UK.

We stayed in East Berlin where the landscape is filled with derelict buildings and apartments, and graffiti everywhere... it still looks very run down. Construction is taking place, there was scaffolding, cranes and diggers in abundance though this was mostly in the West.

We visited several Galleries, my favourite was the Street Photography in a small gallery in a house. We saw prints by Henri Cartier Bresson, Metzner, Claire Stone, Bill Brandt and many others. These were totally inspirational, the skills of the artists took my breath away.

After arriving home, I looked at my photographs and I am very disappointed. I think the freezing cold conditions were not condusive to my getting a good shot of anything!

It was a long and very tiring trip, we walked what seemed like miles each day in the freezing weather. I've come away with the impression of a city still healing itself and the feeling that the people there are still trying to make up for their past.

Work Base Learning Task

Answering the Question – Why am I here? – Why am I studying Photography?

I had been employed in various posts for the 30 years prior to enrolling on the Photography Degree Course. I had reached a point in my life where I was no longer satisfied being employed in work that gave me no satisfaction or personal reward. I began to think about what I wanted from life. I enrolled on the Extended Degree Course in 2009, a year which for me turned from the worst year into the best year.

My life experience has taught me that we are here for just a short time, this gave me the realisation that it is important to find something to do that you love.

During my working life I had learned many skills; I had been employed at British Telecom, Solicitors Offices, Temp Agencies, Mount Gould Hospital as an Auxillary Nurse, in the Retail and Bakery Private Business Centre, and I had achieved City & Guild Teaching Qualification in Numeracy and Literacy. I was employed as a Tutor/Facilitator at South Devon College teaching students with Learning Difficulties. The skills I acquired from these jobs ranged from communication to organisational skills, interpersonal to time management skills, administration skills of accounting to filing, time sheets to budget predictions, invoice preparation, customer services and teaching on a one to one basis and small groups.

I have always been a creative person, my music had been an outlet for this and I had been interested in crafts and photography. But I wanted to develop my creative expression further. As I have always enjoyed photography but have no formal art background, I felt that this could be my stepping stone.

After completing the Extended Degree last year I achieved one of my goals, and that was to write a Photographic Journal. This resulted from the final work I had completed for our Exhibition and was an extension of it. My first book is called “The Gift of Peace.” It is an account of my journey to Remember a friend and her baby daughter, and the lives taken with them in the disaster at Lockerbie on 21st December 1988.

I now want to continue to develop my photography skills and combine this with writing. I am here to gain knowledge and skills to increase my confidence in my chosen field and to seek opportunities towards my gaols.
I am hoping that by the time the course ends that I will be confident enough to earn an income from photography and to continue to come up with ideas to write more books. At this stage I am not sure what other disciplines of photography I will be drawn to, I am at Art College to find out what opportunities there are. I am keeping an open mind.

Wednesday Lunchtime Lecture

Jamie Beeden

http://www.jamiebeeden.co.uk/

Jamie Beeden now lives in Brighton though he previously lived in London for fifteen years. He spoke of his experience and his work. When he Graduated from College, he Assisted Rankin for three years gaining photographic skills that led to a decision to become a Freelance Photographer.

He showed examples of his work; the first being a relaxed photograph of John Peel using natural light. I have seen this image and felt that it is a very accurate portrayal of the man. I too had listened to John Peel's radio broadcasts and followed his life until he sadly died a few years ago. (The image can be found on Jamie's Website shown above)

Jamie has travelled to many countries photographing Bands and other Famous People. He has quite a contemplative style and effectively captures images of his subjects that are truthful and uncomplicated.

After the first half hour Jamie addressed the issues that are important to succeeding in the industry. He said that being prepared is crucial to getting a good shot. Time restrictions, weather conditions and unwilling subjects can be very limiting and frustrating if you are not flexible. He pointed out that you should always be prepared to change your ideas. What might have seemed a good idea in theory will not always work in practice. He also said that the key to a successful shoot is that you should never panic but stay calm at all times and deal with any problems with professionalism. Keeping the client happy is paramount, using interpersonal skills, being friendly, approachable and collaborative will make the shoot run smoothly. As the Photographic Industry is very competitive, this was sound advice.

Jamie's address was useful and interesting. One of the main points that stood out for me was the importance of "Personal Work." It is very important that a Portfolio should have a variety of themes and styles. If your work is mostly portraiture, including wildlife, landscape, still life, abstract or any 'different' images in your portfolio will keep the Agents or Clients interested in your work. The element of surprise is important as it will make your work stand out from the crowd. Even at College, it is very easy to concentrate completely on our Assignments because sometimes it feels that there is no time for anything else. But I agree with Jamie that a Personal Project will always be beneficial, especially if you challenge yourself. Working on something that is out of your comfort zone is a good way of increasing confidence. I have to remember this!



Using a Large Format Camera

I enjoyed Friday's workshop setting up our Still Life. It was unfortunate that we had everything completed and were ready to take our photographs, but both the tripods we had were faulty. It was very frustrating. We did manage to take some shots of our Still Life, but unfortunately only ended up with one successful print. But it is a very satisfying feeling seeing a negative from the Large Format Camera because it takes so long to set up!

I'm not a great fan of Studio Work, I find it quite laborious. But I do understand the need to learn the process to improve my photographic skills and I am assured that when I see an actual film print shot with this  camera that I will see a difference in the quality of the image.

Getting Familiar with the Space

I have been trying to return to the Allotment as often as I can. I enjoy the space more and more and find many aspects of the Allotment interesting.

There are the recycled wares from plastic bottles to baths to tyres; there is the vegatation in its various stages of growth or death , the saplings, the fully formed, the dying and the dead .... every cycle of life, vegetables, plants and flowers; there are the discarded wheel barrows and implements; the benches and chairs and the dedicated leisure spaces, now completely empty, telling of thewinter months that lie ahead.

I am thinking about all these elements and need to focus my concentration on one aspect so that I have a series of images that will tell a story. For the Assignment I need one photograph that will sum up

I have thought that I will continue with this project for a 12 month period because the changing seasons will bring more interest and highlight more aspects of the Allotment Space. I may also see some people in the Spring! I know that there must be people working on their plots because there are winter vegatables growing in several of the plots, and soil has been turned in several areas, but I am yet to meet them!

The following images were taken with my Digital Camera.

Summer is Over

Using 120mm Black & White Film

This was my fourth attempt using the Medium Fomat Camera and at last I had some success. The Allotment has an abundance of photographic opportunities. I am still shooting the landscape in full view, and some of the details to capture texture and tone. I am noticing in particular the benches and chairs that are scattered around the space. People use their plots for leisure as well as for work. Now that the Autumn is here the seating spaces look a little forlorn, in the summer sunshine I can imagine people sitting to enjoy viewing the achievements of their toil. But the Summer is over and it is very seldom that I see anyone working there. The Benches and chairs signify the emptiness of the space as a whole.





Revisiting the Allotment

It is only returning to a place that I can become familiar with it, and I find in the familiarity of that place I am able to take better photographs.

I have taken some film shots but they haven't been of a high enough standard to use for my assignment. I am now going to return to the Allotment every day with Digital Camera in hand until I am ready to take further shots with the Medium Format Camera.

Lecture Series at Plymouth University

MARCO BOHR

This is an image from Marco Bohr's Website http://www.macobo.com/

From the Series Observatories

Marco Bohr is a German born Photographer who studied in Canada. His Lecture at the University was inspiring. Both his work and narrative held my attention, and at the end of his deliberation I felt energised by what I had seen and heard.

He began with work from his No Ball Games series shot in Glasgow. This was an observation on children growing up in an impoverished area of the city. It was the relationship, as Bohr saw it, between the architecture and the subjects. The architecture was brutal and yet the subjects, the children, were as imaginative, curious and playful as any you would find in any city, rich or poor. The imagination does not diminish because of poverty, in fact it shone through even though the children had very little to work with.

It was refreshing to see work that was not pretentious or perfect. Bohr was very humble in his address, he was willing to share work with us that he considered was not his best work, but a process of experimentation and learning of his craft. His later work, shot for his BA, he said, was work that was not from him but from someone else. This work reminded me very much of Gursky.

However as he developed as a photographer his work began to express his individual style. He showed us his most recent work, shot in Japan, this was amazing. It showed a considerable number of layers, it had depth and insight, and from his earlier work I could see the process that had enabled him to reach this more recent work. It became obvious to me that the process is indeed more important than the final outcome and that without the process, there will not be a final outcome.

I am now much more inspired, excited and motivated about my own work. I had lost the meaning of what I am doing, but now feel that Marco Bohr has rekindled my enthusiasm. This is something that I am celebrating. I realise once again that I need to actively interact with my own working processes. I had known this, but I had temporarily forgotten it.

Bohr's work of observing people who are observing, I find fascinating, as I too have spent time observing either other observers, or what is being observed.

It was very satisfying to listen to an Artist talk about thier work with such passion and insight. The interesting narrative that accompanied the images for me, was an important factor in the enjoyment of the work. I am glad I was there.

Practice

Experimenting with black and white film for our Formal Intervention Assignment.




At this juncture I was experimenting with ideas and shooting with film to practice exposure. This is the technical skill that I have the most problems with. On Digital it is so easy to take several shots to get the exposure correct, but with film the decisions about which Aperture and Shutter speed to choose are vital to a well exposed print.

I am also finding that with a Medium Format Camera, getting the right focus isnt easy either especially with Depth of Field. Using film is a process of slowing down. I'm finding it a frustrating and disappointing process.

As with everything, it is only practice that will improve my skills as a photographer.