Feedback on assignment 5
Most of what I
want to say in general is in the annotations/notes that I have added to the
documents you sent in and these are good, they really do help to understand
what you were setting out to do, how you went about it and what you think of
the result.
You have done
some very thorough research which is evidenced by the good reading list you
have included for this assignment. You
seem to have all the key texts and it is good to see a student engaging well
with the theoretical side of the subject.
This practice should stand you in good stead for the rest of your
degree.
I mentioned
that I am not a fan of gloss for books (in fact I am not a great fan of high
gloss at all!); in general I like to see some sheen on images, perhaps semi
gloss, lustre or semi matt, as I think it tends to give the tonal range the
best chance. Gloss has a tendency to
have reflections and I find matt rather lacking in tonal range but sometimes it
is important to give the images a textural feel (and look of course) I also think that glossy books just look cheap!
I'm not surprised here as my own view after getting the photo book back from the printer was that I should have opted for a more matt finish ( see my reflective account posted on 29 April).
I think that
you need to think about a constant ‘look’ for the images in the book. If you are trying to create an old photos
look then you need to think about what old colour photos look like and whether
you want your images to look as though they have been on a frame on the piano
for years (faded some of the colours disappearing and so on) or whether you are
trying to make them look as though they have just been taken but at some time
in the past. The other approach is to
clearly separate the old (and ‘old) images from the new ones that are
portraying a memory.
Fair comment...my initial attempts to try one kind of 'look' for every subject suggested that this would not work across all subjects but hindsight is a marvellous thing..and I need to revisit this again
.
.
For me some of
the treatment you have applied post production, colour rendering, grain and so
on, detract from the quality of the image (both technically and emotionally)
both in the book and the separate image that you have included.
Definitely worth revisiting my approach here ..
Also you
should look at the different ways of cutting out a subject from its
background. In my experience different
subjects work better using different techniques, but which ever you use try to
make the edges as un-obvious as possible by feathering or whatever.
Interesting as I did try some feathering but a new technique for me and I need to go back and try this approach again.
You might want
to think about making a new set of prints or at least preparing a new set of
digital images (depending on how you are planning on submitting you work for
assessment) that address these points.
I have decided to revisit my approach here and produce a new set of digital images. I did not like the glossy photo book and think my concept worth a second attempt using a semi matt finish.
You have Camera Lucida in you reading so you
should think about what Barth says about punctum vs stadium in the image and
how this relates to your images. I think; if only because of the way Barthes
has written about it, his context for the explanation; the sort of subject that
you project is dealing with makes these things particularly pertinent. For example how do these concepts show in the
Nearing Retirement image?
Hmmm...I need to go back to Barthes' 'Camera Lucida' ..
For me, and I
get the feeling for you too, the final book is not a successful as the research
and preparation work might deserve. I
think you could fix this by thinking about the overall ‘look’ of the images as
I discuss above and perhaps by including either a foreword or afterword that
give at least some of the background to the project. I don’t think that a viewer coming cold to
the images would realise what is going on but given a bit of a clue the images
could give rise to all sorts of ideas and emotions in them. You should at least discuss all this in your
log/blog as trying to fix things that don’t quite go as right as you thought
they would is the way we learn and is central to the purpose of these
modules. Credit is given for critical
assessment, proposed remedies, and suggested ways forward.
Learning
Logs/Critical essays
I mentioned
Harvard referencing. It is not vital
that you use it for informal log/blog entries but you must use it for formal
essays and critical reviews. I have
given links to help you in this for the future.
I have now researched this referencing system and from now on will use it in my blog and also for any written work if providing references or a bibliography. As a trial run, I have revised my Reflective Account as best I could given that my approach to recording detail such as the chapter / page number was not as consistent as it should have been. Won't happen again!
I think that
the content of your blog is fine and makes an interesting read. You might want to give it the final once over
to check that it is as easy as possible for the assessors to find what they
will want to see. The index should be
clear and there should be the minimum of clicks to find anything.
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