Notes to Assessors

Welcome to my submission for Photography 2: Landscape. My physical portfolio consists of 2 boxes: box 1 contains six booklets each with my original written assignments, tutor report, my response to tutor feedback and revised assignment.  Box 2 contains accompanying A4 prints and a photobook for Assignment 5.

My online submission is my blog and Assignment 6 as an audio-visual presentation (removed from my blog for copyright reasons and made available in my OCA google drive folder). My blog is divided into pages – one for each assignment – the revised assignment located at the top, with a link to the tutor report, my response to the feedback and the original assignment as you work down the page. There is a research page for any additional information such as work around the gaze, theorists, papers read, research etc. My exhibitions page contains details of visits to exhibitions, artwork and OCA study days during this course. My reading book list is located at the right hand side of the blog, and links to the exercises and additional assignment preparation is also listed on the right. 

Exercises:
I found the change from level 1 to 2 significant, researching around the photographers and using a dictionary and thesaurus to look up various words. This enabled me to develop a style which was helpful for writing the critical review. E.g.
Exercise 1:2 Photography in the museum or in the art gallery
Watching an interview with Ingrid Pollard on landscape, I made a connection between symbolism, the land and the landowners, which encouraged me to revisit Exercise 1: Preconceptions.
Through the exercise Exercise 2:5 Text in art although I didn't find the exercise particularly engaging, it was the photographs by Richard Long that I found more inspiring and encouraged me to watch a programme on "art out of nature", visit a sculpture park and look more closely at artist's statements.
I really enjoyed landscape as political text. A couple of interesting journal articles to read and relate to my own work such as Exercise 3:6 The memory of photography, memory and place which linked in well to my work on Assignment 3, Exercise 3:3 Late photography building on work looked at in preparation for my Assignment 1 and tying in well with my understanding of straight photography for my critical review. I met Julian Calverley at the NEC in March this year and his fascinating talk on advertising photography was helpful in understanding to what lengths the photographer will go to build up a persuasive image (i.e shooting components seperately and working out perspectives etc.)  Exercise 3:4 A persuasive image .
At the time of researching Exercise 4:4 Of Mother Nature and Marlborough Men I was reading I was evaluating Viewfindings: Women Photographers: Landscape and “Environment” by Liz Wells (1995) and Shifting Horizons: Women’s landscape photography now by Liz Wells et al (2001). This essay, together with the two books helped to illustrate the difference between men and women approaches to landscape photography and understand that both came from a different place in history with different values.

In part 5, I noted that online galleries take different formats - Exercise 5:4 Online exhibitions was different from the online exhibition from Joe Hamilton which I found situated inside The Lowry in Manchester. My response to the OCA Online exhibition by Andy Adams of Flakphoto can be found by following the link.

Assignments
Assignment 1 was an interesting, if somewhat morbidly fascinating assignment on roadside memorials. I find myself drawn to them when a passenger in the car, noticing when changes happen to them and older ones re-appearing when the verges have been  cut Assignment 1: Beauty and the sublime.
Assignment 2: A Journey was engaging and having learnt so much about gaze and tourism with my last couple of assignments, I now appreciate that some of my images (in particular where the foreground is foreshortened) works based on Schivelbusch’s mobility of vision where the landscape is framed from the window (or in my case the part of the bike) the viewer is looking out of. The tourist glances interconnected sights. (The tourist gaze)
My chosen subject for Assignment 3: Spaces to Places enabled me to link theory and practice together and really expand my knowledge on photography and memory and the hyper-real, leading to further development work in Assignment 4; Critical review.

In the Self Directed Project, I built on this work further, carrying around a pair of Viking re-enactment shoes to explore the landscape known to the Vikings looking at what Foucault described as a heterotopic space. Assignment 6: Transitions together with Assignment 5 built on the Tourist Gaze, exploring local history and memories, bringing together different elements of the course.

My Additional research page shows a few extra pieces of research relevant to the course  and a book list can be located on the right hand side of my blog's page.

Exhibitions
During the course I visited some interesting exhibitions such as Alec Soth's Gathered Leaves and film Somewhere to Disappear, Martin Parr's Rhubarb Triangle and other stories, Chris Upton's Thorseby Colliery, Emily Allchurch's in the footsteps of a master, and Drawn by Light at the National Media Museum. Right Here Right Now (2016) The Lowry was an exhibition I came across by chance which featured  The fields (2013) Mishka Henner, enabled me to re-examine whether appropriation was appropriate with the scale of Henner's images. 
I also attended 2 OCA symposiums which were beneficial to my learning.

Course Evaluation

I came to this course with traditional ideas on landscape photography, influenced by classical paintings, landscape photography within amateur photography magazines and photography exhibitions.

Through course exercises and additional reading, I developed an understanding in different landscape genres and assignments provided the ideal situations to develop technical skills such as using a stable tripod, a camera suited the task, revisiting the location to reshoot, examining how existing photographers executed the subject and developing my critical writing to introduce context behind my photographs.

I struggled with the concept of the sublime, realizing that it doesn’t mean the same to all people. On finding the sublime subject of Roadside Memorials, the literature suggested that this course was perhaps not all photography, instead mixed with sociology and psychology which made the subject of landscape photography broad, allowing for so much choice within future assignments.

When visiting Alec Soth’s exhibition and film “Gathered leaves” this year, I found my ideas around Assignment 2: The journey had changed. My idea of landscape at the time was still minus people. Research around Ingrid Pollard changed my thinking; from there on I saw landscape as the relationship people had with the land.

By Assignment 3 (Spaces to Places), I developed a photographic interest in memory and the hyper-real which linked in with tourism and local history. Research following this assignment provided a source of reading material and an essay by David Campany inspired my critical review on contemporary re-enactment photography and collective memory. There is a wealth of information, theorists and photographers in this field and a together with a developing interest in women landscape photographers, I found inspiration for Assignment 5’s self-directed project. I began to appreciate how theory relates to practice and ideas are built upon: a significant change from level 1.

There is still plenty of room for development. I last wrote critically before popular use of the internet and with the amount of photographic material and literature available online which needs referencing my knowledge of the Harvard System has been refreshed. I had not investigated staging exhibitions or public liability before; I discovered local available space is challenging and will require creative thinking before I reach level 3. Soft-proofing and printing had mystical properties which is work in progress to be continued into the next course and beyond.

One of the support mechanisms I employed was linking up with a fellow course student with whom I met for coffee to discuss assignments and attended exhibitions which led to a deeper understanding of the photographer’s work as we could discuss it critically. During this course, I attended 2 OCA symposiums which increased my understanding of the possibilities of photography as an art and medium, strengthened my understanding of landscape photography and provided the opportunity to meet fellow students. I participated in an OCA collaborative photo project and interacted a little on the Facebook and OCA forums.

I was proud of the book I produced and it is certainly a medium I would consider in the future. I found that I enjoyed the work around memory and identity and may develop this at a later date.