Nick Blackburn OCA #518937 Expressing Your Vision Final
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Nick Blackburn - OCA #518937 - Expressing Your Vision - Final Assessment Submission Nick Blackburn OCA #518937 Expressing your vision Final Assessment Submission Full online text Nick Blackburn - OCA #518937 - Expressing Your Vision - Final Assessment Submission Contents Item Description Date of original 1 Introduction 18Dec19 2 Assignment 1 submission 01Sep18 3 Assignment 1 tutor feedback 15Sep18 4 Assignment 2 submission 01Dec18 5 Assignment 2 tutor feedback 10Dec18 6 Assignment 3 submission 01Mar19 7 Assignment 3 tutor feedback 11Mar19 8 Assignment 3 rework 14Mar19 9 Assignment 4 submission 01Jul19 10 Assignment 4 tutor feedback 08Jul19 11 Assignment 4 rework 13Jul18 12 Assignment 5 submission 01Oct19 13 Assignment 5 tutor feedback 10Oct19 14 Assignment 5 rework 26Oct19 15 Exercise 4.5 29Mar19 16 Exercise 5.2 19Jul19 17 Learning log, Part 1 08Aug18 18 Learning log, Part 2 24Sep18 19 Learning log, Part 3 10Dec18 20 Learning log, Part 4 29Mar19 21 Learning log, Part 5 19Aug19 22 Course Blog, Part 1, 2018 27Dec18 23 Course Blog, Part 2, 2019 18Dec19 Nick Blackburn - OCA #518937 - Expressing Your Vision - Final Assessment Submission 1. Introduction I am a person of age and mostly retired. Having taken photographs for the last 50 years, and finding my images and choices of subjects moribund, I started the degree course in order to expand my subject range and to gain some formal (that is, academic) understanding of what I am doing and why. I have enjoyed Expressing your vision immensely and intend to continue studying. I have found it difficult to determine what this final submission should actually comprise: the Context and Narrative course, in contrast, states the requirements quite explicitly. The physical submission includes: 1. A printed subset of this document, containing contact sheets of the original and reworked images from the five assignments plus the original submission text and the tutor feedback. 2. The submission text for Exercises 4.5 and 5.2. 3. A4 prints of the images for assignments 3, 4 and 5 plus the two exercises. 4. 6x4 prints of a selection of the images produced throughout the course. This more comprehensive document, including the Learning Logs and the Blog is available online and is included on a USB stick with the package. It was not printed because of its length. The web site built to display all the coursework is available online at http://baphot.co.uk. This includes additional material, such as contact sheets and details of exhibition visits. The individual text-based items have been created directly from the web site using Adobe Acrobat and the image-based items as Adobe Bridge ‘contact sheets’ of the submitted images. Contiguous page numbering has therefore not been possible. Nick Blackburn, 18th December 2019 Nick Blackburn - OCA #518937 - Expressing Your Vision - Final Assessment Submission Expressing your vision Assignment 1 Nick Blackburn - OCA #518937 - Expressing Your Vision - Final Assessment Submission Assignment 1 – Square Mile First Thoughts Although Welsh by birth, I did not regard myself as susceptible to Square Mile Syndrome, particularly as regards Wales, though I may have changed my mind while working on the assignment. I have lived in Eltham, south east London commuter town, for most of the last thirty years. Apart from the clichéd contrast between the medieval splendour of Eltham Palace and the dour housing estate a mile away where Stephen Lawrence was murdered, there is little of interest to photograph, celebrate or become attached to in Eltham. Its key quality is its proximity to central London and that is what I have explored in this Assignment: landmarks visible on a commuter's jouney from Eltham to London Charing Cross. Inspiration & Development I was not particularly enthused by the examples given in the course material. They, quite appropriately, embrace the Square Mile ethos and I had rather set my mind againt that. The "commuter town" concept was already in place when I recalled an article in the RPS Journal [1] on a Distinction panel by Robert Friel, a daily commuter. Technical approach Starting this course has forced me to reassess and begin to change my working practices. As noted in the blog [2] I normally post-process images significantly and that goes against the assignment instructions [3]. The requirement to submit contact sheets has also had an effect. I am taking fewer pictures and deleting in-camera in order to reduce the size of the contact sheets. The general technical approach for the various outings undertaken and applied to particular images are explored in some detail on the web site [4]. Strengths and weaknesses As noted in the blog [5], I mostly photograph sculpture and street art in a gallery or town: these projects are self-limiting and impose their own structure. I am not used to conceptualising a display. On an individual basis I consider the images to be adequate and some (perhaps Tower Bridge and St Martin) of merit, but they are not cohesive. Nick Blackburn - OCA #518937 - Expressing Your Vision - Final Assessment Submission Assignment 1 – Square Mile Continuation Daidõ Moriyama has stated, "As I get older with the camera in my hand, I realize that all the different things that I depict in my photographs are ultimately rooted in my childhood memories, the various things I have seen and experienced in the postwar years of the early 1950s." [6] When next in Wales, I will photograph my Filltir Sgwar and it is likely to comprise: (i and ii) my family home (recently sold) and my grandmother's house ; (iii) my infants and junior school (demolished several years ago and a vacant building plot last time I saw it); (iv and v) the junor and senior high schools (grammar schools were abolished the year I first attended); (vi) the church where I was taken more often than I liked until a youthful rebellion. I have an idea for a local project: Eltham churches and congregations - photographed when leaving at the end of Sunday morning services. (This could be undertaken equally well in any suburban environment.) References [1] The article is reproduced on the RPS web site, http://rps.org/member/gallery/distinctions-distinctions- album/Associate-Fine-Art-Portfolio---Robert-Friel- ARPS [accessed 16th July 2018]. [2] Blog entry 22nd June, http://baphot.co.uk/main/blog.php#jun22 [accessed 16th July 2018]. [3] Expressing your Vision (2017), Course Material, p.13, OCA, Barnsley. [4] Assignment 1, Square Mile - images, http://baphot.co.uk/pages/square_mile_images.php [acc essed 16th July 2018]. [5] Blog entry 14th July, http://baphot.co.uk/main/blog.php#jul14 [accessed 16th July 2018]. [6] RPS Journal July 2018 pp. 479, 482. [7] Record No. 38 (2018), Daido Moriyama, Akio Nagasawa Publishing, Tokyo, Japan. Nick Blackburn OCA #518937 EyV Assignment 1 Submission ! Formative feedback Student name Nick Blackburn Student number 518937 Course/Unit Photography 1: Assignment number 1 EYV Type of tutorial Written / Audio- written Visual Overall Comments Thanks Nick for submitting your first assignment, and well done on completing this. You have produced a clear post on your process of working through the assignment and technical information to support your decisions. You have a good understanding of your camera and now need to take more risks with your work. This will help you to develop and by pushing yourself into new areas you will be able to make good progress through the course. When you receive this report, I suggest that you go through it carefully and make reflective notes about it, these can then go into a learning log, reflective commentary section on your blog. You may want to get credit for your hard work and achievements with the OCA by formally submitting your work for assessment at the end of the module. More and more people are taking the idea of lifelong learning seriously by submitting their work for assessment but it is entirely up to you. We are just as keen to support you whether you study for pleasure or to gain qualifications. Please consider whether you want to put your work forward for assessment and let me know your decision when you submit Assignment 2. I can then give you feedback on how well your work meets the assessment requirements. Feedback on assignment It is great to see your process pages, with a range of images in different locations. Thanks for sending your contact sheets via email. You could include some full contact sheets on the blog well as the selected images from the wider set. You are reflecting on the differences between your choices and reflection on the decisions you are making which is good to see. You acknowledge that you do use a lot of post processing, and I would encourage you to try using as little as you can through this course to enable you to push your photographic creativity and location work. This isn’t to say that the processing can’t be useful as you progress, but think and reflect carefully on why is being used, what does it add to the image and way the audience perceive your work? Some of the images on your process page are very saturated, and the HDR technique gives a very particular effect, which you might want to reflect on. Your contact sheets show the original images and I would like to see an unedited version of your final images as a comparison. Some of your images include borders while others do not, can you reflect on your choices here? You write about the difficulty of working with a set of images to create a cohesive whole, and you have worked to capture the commuter town. I wonder about how well you think these images do hang together to capture this? You have produced several images, but can you reflect on how they work together as a set? As you move forward this is an area you can develop.