In the City

In the City ... I always carry my Pentax 35mm camera with me wherever I go. Film has become my favoured medium; I rarely shoot with digital now. The film I used for these shots expired in 2005. This is a collage made up of a few images I shot as I was walking around the city. A Busker playing his guitar and singing was happy for me to take photos of him. I had not seem him before and when I asked him where he generally stood, he said "in anonymous places."

Second Meeting Group 2 on 17th January 2012

All Photographs were shot on a Mobile and only intended as examples of how to exhibit work

 

Portraits  and Text from MA show

17th January 2012

Our Group met this morning to further discuss our plans for our Exhibition.We have decided to meet at least once a week and have set up a new group on FaceBook in order to keep in touch with any new ideas, uploading any photos we have shot to share, show the images that we may use for our exhibition and for any other information we may want to post.

We began by discussing our choices of Venues. We had hoped to contact the proprietor of the Pipe Gallery but unfortunately for us one of the other groups has already secured that space. This was disappointing but made us realise that we meed to push on with securing a space for ourselves.

James has emailed the Art Centre but had not heard back from them yet. Later in the day Steph and I visited the Art Centre and spoke to a woman who advised us to return tomorrow to discuss our needs with either Paula and/or Caroline. We intend to do this.

 

From Art Centre

I had met with one of my friends who is currently studying an MA at the Art College and asked him to forward me the contact details for the Zero One Gallery in the West End of the City. He has now done this.

Plymouth College of Art One Zero Nine 109 Cornwall Street Plymouth PL11PA
Telephone: 01752 257 384
 Flexible space one floor downstairs only, in Cornwall Street. tTe upstairs is a training room and is being currently used.
You will have to confirm precisely what you wish to do there and specify the week numbers/dates and who will be on site. Its a good space and idel for your project hope all this helps.

Jay said that he would speak to Matt about possible exhibition spaces in the City Centre.

Other gallery.exhibition spaces proposed were The Breton Side Bus Station, Whittards in the Mall Shopping Centre (Jess works in the Mall on Saturdays and will approach the Office). We are also continuing to think about other spaces.

We decided to visit the Peninsula Gallery at the University and the Plymouth Museum together after our meeting. We wanted to take note of the layout of the pieces, the framing, installations, and gather any other ideas of how to exhibit our work.

From MA Show

There was a great enthusiasm within our group and we had a very uplifting day together discussing our ideas and thoughts of how we would exhibit our work, and what we might achieve in our exhibition. There were lots of ideas about interactive sources, interviews, contemporary methods of  hanging our pieces. None of us are keen on traditional framing for our pieces. We are all inclined towards a more contemporary feel.

We discussed the possibility of using a projector to show all of our work together and possibly to include other images apart from our single photographic pieces. Nancy said that her mother who is an artist has an excellent projector that we could use.

We also discussed having a "Comments Book" so that the public could express their opinions on our work.

During the visit to the Museum, Steph and Jess both took part in dressing up in Polar Clothing at the Scott of the Antarctic Exhibition. We had fun and found ourselves on the Spotlight BBC1 News later that evening. We discussed the possibility of some interactive source at our exhibition though as yet this was unconfirmed. We need to talk more about this.

As we have to provide a Group Sketch Book, it was decided that this could be left at college so that we can access it at anytime and write our ideas during our meetings.

Mamiya and Lubitel Medium Format 120mm Black & White Film

Mamiya and Lubitel Medium Format 120mm Black & White Film, a set on Flickr.

Visit to the MA Exhibition

On Saturday I visited the Exhibition at the University here in Plymouth. It was both inspirational and enjoyable. I wanted to view the work by the MA Students, not only because I am interested in keeping abreast with the work they do, and because I want to continue my own studies to achieve an MA but also as inspiration for my research for our own Exhibition that will open on March 13th 2012. To state the obvious, visiting Galleries and Exhibitions is part of my personal enjoyment as well.

The work I saw that I was most impressed with was that of Zdenek Boucek and Sarah Adney. Unfortunately I have been unable to find any reference to information for either photographer,

Boucek's submission to the University Gallery appeared highly influenced by the work of the Formalists; it reminded  in particular of the work of Frederick H Evans (1853 – 1943).

Frederick Evans retired from bookselling in 1898 to devote all of his time to photographing the cathedrals of England and France. He was a fastidious man, a purist, often spending weeks studying the light in a cathedral at various times of day. In Evans’s view, light represented spiritual enlightenment. One of my favourite images by Evans is A Sea of Steps, Wells Cathedral (1903). Each time I see it, I am in awe of his work. I have often tried to capture the light in chrurches but as yet have not had any great success.

Boucek's images of a Cathedral reminded me of the strong lines of Evan's work, though they did not have the same spiritual emotion attached to them. Shot in Black and White, they are strong and majestic images showing the contrast in the light and shadows.  But I sensed that the images were about the beauty of shape and form. There was not an Artist Statement or any clues as to why Boucek had shot these images. I would have liked to have read more about his work.

A Sea of Steps by Frederick H Evans courtesy of http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/196923/Frederick-H-Evans

Sarah Adney's work is more contemporary. They are images superimposed or edited to seem dreamlike. The only way I can describe her images are to imagine that there is a picture on the television which is under white noise but colourful white noise.  I liked these very much but again there was no information to follow up on, and no description of the work. I did take an image on my mobile phone but as I don't have permission to upload it, I will suggest that the MA work is well worth a viewing.

Tuesday 17th Jan 2012

I returned to the Peninsula Gallery today ... I shot some images on my mobile just to show the work of Sarah Adney and  Zdenek Boucek

 

  

Feedback and Grades for FD201 and FD202

Yesterday I had looked forward to receiving my results for the two projects we had handed in before the Christmas Holiday. I was quite confident that I would pass because I knew that I had worked hard and put my heart and soul into both. I also knew that my images were not as strong as some of the work I had seen by my fellow students, but I was not unduly worried about this.

My feedback was very good. My strengths lie in contextualising my work; Louise (my lecturer) said that the content of my sketch book work was exactly what was expected of me and that I should continue in this vain. We discussed my images and she said that there were stronger images in my sketch book that perhaps I should have used for my final two.

I find it very difficult to choose final images because having looked at them for so long I tend to dismiss images without realising their strengths. Louise also commented that I seem a little hesitant in taking risks with my photographic work and that I should apply the same strategy with my images as I do with my written work. I know that she is right here. I am a little afraid to take risks with my photographs and often worry that the more creative images I shoot are not as good or as appropriate to my subject when in fact they are more so.

I am very hard on myself and as all, or definitely most artists, I am my own worst critic. I dismiss work that could in fact be received well. In future I need to remember this.  I was disappointed with my grades at first, I really want to do well and felt that I did not achieve the standard that I wanted to achieve. However having slept on it, I think that I have done very well to achieve 66% for both assignments and I refuse to beat myself up any longer about not having achieved the 70% or more that I would have liked. I have something to work towards. I will give considerable thought to Louise's comments and I will try in future to take more risks in my photographic work.

I would dearly love to achieve a first in my degree and I am determined to try my utmost best to do this. It is very important to me and I am not afraid of hard work.

This first image is one that Louise pointed out as stronger and more creative. The second image is now one that I think may have been a stronger submission.

Faith

 "A Happy Accident"

Shot on a Lubitel Medium Format Camera (120mm transparency film)

Intended as a double exposure but accidentally has three exposures.

Memories are Made of This

Two separate images shot on Mamiya Prof 67 Medium Format Camera (village shot on transparency; self portait shot on Kodak Porta Negative Film) exposures then layered together.

Guy Martin Exhibition Falmouth

A Guy Martin image from the Exhibition

With thanks to http://www.peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk/2011/12/24/images-from-the-frontline-guy-martins-shifting-sands-in-falmouth/ 



"During the spring of 2011, Guy Martin travelled to Egypt and Libya to record the unfolding Arab Spring. On Wednesday 20 April, he was severely injured during a rocket attack by Gaddafi's loyalists in the centre of Mistrata.

University College Falmouth's School of Media & Performance presents Shifting Sands, an exhibition of the work produced by Guy alongside a series of events highlighting the heavy price that can be paid by front line photojournalists in the cause of documenting a country and its people's struggle for freedom."

Above Text copied from the Exhibition Leaflet

My Response
I found this quite a difficult exhibition to view because of its content. I do not have any wish myself to do photojournalism. I would find it much too difficult to be in war torn countries, seeing and documenting such tragic sights of dead bodies and carnage.

This exhibition is excellent. The photographs, vivid pictures shot by Guy Martin, captured the grief, the pain and the destruction of the countries he recorded. I can not imagine the dangers photographers like Guy Martin expose themselves too when they embark on these hazardous missions. I admire their courage.

This exhibition is in remembrance of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, two of Guy's friends who were killed in the rocket attack that injured Guy.

A few images I shot while visiting Falmouth, shot with a Pentax K1000 on 35mm colour film. The film was dated 2005.

Lunch

Two Ladies

A Couple

Cafe Bunting

Falmouth Alley

Can you Spot the Bicycle?

Sea Creatures

First Day at College of 2012

Our first day back at collage after the Christmas Break was quite lively. We were given the outline for the coming term. 

FD203 The Final Major Project an open assignment of our own choice. The lecturers have decided that as this Module incurs 40 credits, that it would be wise to start thinking about it and working it as soon as we can.  I think this is a good idea. We will find out more about it soon.

FD204 An exhibition of our work organised and set up in groups of six.  A promotional project to enhance and develop our experience for the Work Based Learning Module.

Our FD204 Group
Jay, James, Nancy, Jess, Eli, Steph, Lucy and me.

After the session finished we all got into our groups to begin our discussions. We are fortunate that we have Jay and James in our group. For the Complementary Studies module last year, they both enrolled on the Curator course held at the Plymouth Art Centre. They have contacts there which may help with our choice of venue. However we decided that we should not rely completely on this as it may not be available on March 13th, the date of the exhibition opening. We will look at alternative venues throughout the city.

I thought it might be a good idea to shoot photographs of some exhibition spaces around Plymouth. This would give us a start to our Group Sketch Book. We also have to complete individual Sketch Books.

The images we will use for the exhibition will be the images from the FD201 Assignment. I think most of our group was a little disappointed because the majority of us had preferred our Narrative images from FD202. But it was pointed out to us that two images each for our first exhibition was a good place to start. We haven't yet Curated an exhibition and don't know the pitfalls or problems ahead of us.

All members of our group were enthusiastic and excited about the project. We will meet each week on Tuesday after the morning session to discuss and develop our ideas, and sort out any practical issues we may come up against.