Exhibition Presentations ... Contextual

It was the second week of our Contextual Presentations. The groups had obviously benefited from being "the audience"  last week. The presentations were well researched and polished. I am now more worried about ours next week. We have not discussed our ideas together regularly and I feel we are lagging behind a little. One of our group was missing today but in spite of this, we made our artist choices and began to compose our text.

I had worked on my Book Making Assignment yesterday and handed in my images to Creations for printing. I am happy with the results although it is going to be a rather simple book. I had intended to add text, but as I am not particularly adept at using Photoshop, choosing my images, sizing them, organising them, took me most of the day. There isn't enough time to create something spectacular. On Thursday during the workshop, I will prepare as much of my book as possible. I can then write my evaluations and the assignment will be complete. The deadline is the 2nd of June. This is a 10 credit Module and it does not affect our end of year results.

The Complementary Studies module has been a worthwhile exercise; its good to learn new skills and try something different. I may not make any further books in the traditional sense, but I do love any kind of books. My intention is that I will create a few books to accompany any exhibitions that I may hold in the future. But I think these would be more inclined to be similar to "Sketch Books" as opposed to the Bound Book.

Yellow

I find yellow is a difficult colour to photograph. I can never seem to match the colour I'm seeing on the physical flower to that which I capture through my lens. One of the mysteries of life .... at least for now until I find out what it is that I'm not doing ....

Book Making

My Little Book of Surrealism

I still have quite a lot to do for this Complementary Studies Module. I haven't started a sketch book. I have attended all except one of the workshops and completed my practice books. Now I'm thinking about my final submission, a book that we have to craft ourselves and choose a subject that relates to our own photography practice.

Sensing Light

I had initially intended to use my Chasing Shadows, Sensing Light project, but on reflection I think my Allotment project would work better. My idea was to make A Little Book of Metaphors, but Marcus advised me that I shouldn't use too many words. I'm thinking of using short, sharp sentences of no more than four words.

I've been searching through my Allotment images; I have so many. I've been photographing the space since October 2010. I need a theme .........the flowers and plants, the re-cycled items, the benches and chairs, my favourite places .. ..... I'm not limited in my choice which probably makes the decision more difficult.

A New Sketch Book 

Book Making had originally been my second Complementary Studies choice, my first choice had been Creative Writing.  I requested a change because I had read about an artist who creates a limited number of books to accompany his Exhibitions. I thought this was a really good idea. I love books, one of the many reasons I enrolled on this Degree Course was to increase my image making confidence, develop my creative skills, and I knew I wanted to make photographic books or journals.

The module has been a welcome release from academic study. I looked forward to Thursday afternoons when I knew that being completely focused on making my books, everything else would leave my head. It was an almost zen like. I was totally engrossed in what I was doing, I was "in the moment" and thoroughly enjoying the processes.

Now, I need to choose my final images, and then consider the text I will add. I want to have completed this by Tuesday so that I can submit the files to Creations for printing. I will have to use Photoshop to size the images and save them as Tiffs which will add time as I am not a Photoshop fan.

  

360 Degrees

Today I walked to The Hoe where I found the Camper Obscura parked on the Promenade. Led by Emma into its small space, I witnessed an amazing tour, 360 degrees of delight. A "Wow" moment. And next .... another 360 degree journey.

I hadn't climbed to the top of Smeaton Tower for many years, but today I felt drawn to it.

I wish I'd brought my film camera with me, my digital is not performing well, probably because I dropped the lens! Time to buy a new camera.

 

I was pretty scared at the top of the tower. I'm not good with heights, and this plateau had other scary aspects .... namely the intimidating wind trying to push me off the top. Well, that's how it felt to me, up there. I held on tight as I tried to frame my shots.

Next time I'll have to be braver, take more time, get some good shots. Next time I want to get the shots that I'll enter into the competitions to photograph the landscape in its many forms. Our course leader, Dave Kinney, informed us about these competitions last week. Its important to enter competitions for many reasons. Winning a local competition is an opportunity to showcase work in the city. Winning a national competition is a great opportunity to be "seen" by those who have influence. Even entering and not winning could be an introduction to someone important in the photographic world. Who knows.

But my problem with competitions is that I lack the belief that my work is good enough. I am having a confidence crisis again. Some of the photographic work by other students in my year group, really show some amazing skills. I am not sure that I have enough talent to make it. I sometimes wonder.

Today was about looking at the whole picture. Seeing life and all its intricacies from every angle. I need to think about this.

Monica Fishbein Lecture Beyond Fashion

It was good to hear one of our own lecturers discussing her background, her experience and her work as an artist. Monica is something of a mystery.  She always dresses in black (almost always), she advocates self discipline, and has a strong work ethic. She is a good lecturer, always willing to guide and facilitate our learning, and I was interested to hear more about her.

This was the first time I had seen any indication of nerves from Monica, she is usually confident and very little seems to phase her.  Her nerves were an endearing trait as they made her seem more vulnerable. When I spoke to her today, she explained that the close proximity of her audience was unnerving and that it was her need for space that caused her to feel uncomfortable.

Monica is Hungarian.She said that during her teens she watched MTV and was obsessed with "New Romantic" music. She mentioned that at school she learned sports in preparation for the Olympics indicating where her disciplined attitude stems from. She did some modelling in Italy and Budapest and worked as a Make-Up Artists in London for Lancome and Inglot. Her work experience in the world of fashion is extensive and includes assisting the photographer Peter Richwcisz.

Later moving to Devon, she decided to enrol at Plymouth Art College to study Film and Photography. From here she has continued to develop her own practice alongside her teaching role at the college. She labels herself a Minimalist and Constructivist. She showed her personal and professional work which was in stark contrast to each other. The professional sharp and clean, her personal work shot out of focus, creating a more atmospheric and darker mood.

A quote by Manuel Alvarez has remained with her, it is "There is Time," She explained that this quote made her realise that her fast pace of life was not always necessary and that there is time to slow down.

I have looked at Monica's website and she has some beautiful images, both the portraits and other images are a haunting reflection of her creativity.

www.monicafischbein.com

Deadlines Approaching

I haven't written my blog for a month or so and now I feel a little "out of touch." 

Both the Client Brief and Cover Story Assignments are due for hand in next week. I have more work to include in my sketch books, and also I am really struggling with my second book cover idea. I've been experimenting with different subjects but still no joy yet. I must admit I'm getting a little tired of thinking about both of these assignments and I will be glad when they come to their end.

I made a list this morning of "things I need to do" but my motivation is low and I need some inspiration to awaken me out of this "non-place"

I finally completed my Photo Book yesterday for the Client Creative Brief and ordered a copt, but I'm not happy with it. I am planning to re-visit two or three of the Public Art works to shoot abstract images as an extra piece to add to my final work. I am a little worried that I haven't done enough and hope that this will give an added dimension to the assignment.

As for the Cover Story ...the final leg of my sketch book will be my struggle to find a second idea. I know that there are many passages in the book that I could attempt but I'm just tired of the whole thing. My "other" life has taken precedence these past two weeks and my priorities had to change for a while. Its not easy to get back into the swing ... but I have to put myself into the zone and just get on with it all.
The following images are some of my experimental ideas for the Book Cover.

Each image is a loose representation from a passage in the book in abstract form.

Here is a link to my Public Art Photo Book on Snapfish

http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/flickruk/projectshareewelcome/l=2447511010/p=370261303821913776/g=5211871010/cobrandOid=1293012/COBRAND_NAME=flickruk/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

Easter at Mt Edgecombe

Reflections and Evaluations Week Ending 1st April 2011

Client Brief Presentation
I don'k know what strategies I am going to employ to improve my presentations. I know my work, I prepare, but I don't deliver as I want to or as I should. The other students appear to be so much more confident in their approach to presentations and my skills are sadly lacking.

I feel as a mature student that I should have the skills and confidence I need, but my nerves kick in, my mind goes blank and I always let myself down.

I have no problem with one to one's and I'm ok in Group Tutorials, but Presentations are my achilles heel and I have to find a way of changing this.

I enjoyed listening to the others in the group; as I am the sole voice of the Architecture Company, I was sharing with the South West Coast Path Group. Its amazing how everyone has different ideas about their subject. There was a variety of topics ...from Portraits to Food.... Animation and History. It was a very interesting sesssion and some of the work was pretty impressive.

Cover Story Presentation
To my dismay, I had brought my Memory Stick without having copied my presentation to it. I couldn't believe that I had done this. I had my Sketch Book with me so I was able to make a new powerpoint presentation with what I had. Fortunately my first Book Cover image was on my stick, but my Author Portrait which I had spent all afternoon the previous day printing in the Dark Room, and had scanned at home, was not on my memory stick. I did have the final test strip so I scanned that to show instead.

My presentation was ok but not great. I don't know what to say about it, other than as I said before, I need to find a way to increase my confidence in this area and not be so damned scared. I can do it, I just need to keep my nerves in check.

I had shot some images of my daughter in the park when the sun was low in the sky, as an idea for my second book cover; I hadn't thought that these were very good but I was surprised to get some positive feedback. I will now shoot these again, this time with a male friend somewhere in the City Centre. Marcus advised me to ask my subject to wear black as the silhouette would be improved, and also to have him stand close to the background with the cityscape further in the background. I am hoping to do this on Wednesday when my friend is available.

Meeting with The Architecture Company
After the presentation, Matt had said that he had received an email from Tanya and that I should contact her soon. I did this immediately as I have over 200 images to give her and want to get some impressions from her.

I arranged to meet Tanya and Marie the next day. They are in the midst of moving from the office on The Barbican but assured me that phone numbers, website etc will remain the same.

I took along my Photo Album and Memory Stick. They were very happy with my images.Tanya said that she would look through all the images and let me know her thoughts. I said that if there were any images that they would like me to shoot again, that I would be happy to do so and also if there were any further work they would like me to carry out then I would be available over the summer break.

I am now waiting to hear back from them.

Dark Room
I had spent some time in the Dark Room printing my contact sheets for my Author Portrait and returned again last Wednesday to print my final submission. From the two films I had shot, there was one image which fulfilled the criteria for the brief. It is sharp around the eyes, it has a good Depth of Field and the Lighting is good. I did test strips first at different times and grading and then three full 10 x 8 prints which I liked. I printed the portrait in both landscape and portrait and it is the latter that I prefer and this one that I shall use for my finished work.