A few more changes

Assessment really helps focus the mind on what it is you are trying to achieve.

Assignment 1: As a set of postcards this felt a little - unsupported - the reading perhaps just a bit too vague. I have decided to submit them for assessment in a slip case I prepared from a copy of an old hotel receipt. Matching the form to the message is an important technique for supporting a particular reading. I've also changed the name to "Wish You Were Here" as it seems to capture the idea of separation from my local community more accurately.

Assignment 3: As well as the images I have included a genuine artefact recovered from the beach in a plastic envelope on one of the pages. The additional real object seems to me to add to the authenticity - perhaps its indexicality could be seen as parallel to and supporting the indexicality of the images. It's also worth noting that on the interleaving pieces of tracing paper I have made notes of the dimensions of some of the objects pictured, together with brief location notes...again to add to the sense of authenticity. All the text is handwritten and in pencil.

Preparing for Assessment

• Assignment 1: Is pretty much unchanged and will be presented as a series of postcards.
• Assignment 2: Have revisited my tutors feedback, and looked at the images with a view to printing them as I did not prepare full sized prints for Assignment 1. On this basis I've lost the moon-rise images as being a it of a cliche, and moved the poster to the end as a more suitable finish. I have replaced the dence image with an alternative because it simply wasn't sharp enough and added an additional present day reference to Bessemer. My tutor suggested that I might consider an alternative linking image to lead into the community section, but my perception is that, in spite of the somewhat temporary memorials such as the posters and the passing references to Bessemer, the legacy is rapidly being forgotten so I have moved the fence between the "history" and the "present" sections. As well as the required blog post I will be presenting these as A4 prints as well.
• Assignment 3: The pdf book dummy is presented in the pages above. The final presentation will be as a "working journal" of an archaeological expedition to the area at some unspecified time - full details are provided in other posts accessed from the RH menu
• Assignment 4...still to be revised at the time of posting this
• Assignment 5: Will be presented as a magazine in which I try to capture some of the experience of beach-combing. I've received a copy from Blurb and to be honest I'm quite pleased with the way it's turned out.

It seems to be my curse that things only slot in to place as I prepare for assessment.

Postcards

Postcards, from what little I know of them, could perhaps be seen as a genre of documentary photography in their own right. Early ones seem to feature everything – steam engines, cities, countryside, people – you name it. These days they are more often sent, if they are sent at all, to the family and friends at home when you’re away somewhere. This seems to resonate with the idea’s in one of my previous posts about “in the community, but not of it”. I’m in the resort, but not of it.

There’s an idea to explore here for Assignment 1 – make my photos into postcards and send them home – from the post-box in the village.

Is this documentary? I’m not sure – largely because I’m still not fully sure what documentary is.  I think I can argue that it is for the simple reason that it captures an aspect of my life in a way that hopefully conveys something of how I feel about it.

Framed–working towards Assignment 1

“From a photographers point of view, a window looking on to the street is a way of being of the world, but not in it.” Geoff Dyer; The Ongoing Moment

One of many fascinating insights in Dyer’s book, which I can recommend if you haven’t read it, and a statement which encapsulates my relationship with almost everywhere - “of it but not in it.” I’m not bothered by this, but it is a simple fact of my life that I live in a pretty small village, 300 miles from my birthplace – I spend 2-3 days per week travelling and I’ve lived in 3 different locations since leaving home. The only constant has been my family.

Dyer also visit’s Frank’s America in his wander through the roads of photography – reflecting on the use of photography from cars and the sense of being on the move that photos from car windows gives.

These ideas combined give me an idea for the assignment in which I capture the immediate surroundings of my home through the window – from my office, from my living room, from my car – or perhaps even more distantly through the TV screen, the computer monitor and the smart phone. Looking through a window – though a frame – of the world but not in it. Of my community but not really in, or engaged with it, for very much of the time.

Thinking about the first assignment

OK – so the aim is to produce a 10 shot photo-essay using a prime lens (or at least a single focal length) that “that demonstrates your engagement with the lives, experiences and histories of your local community and its people.”

This is going to need some creative thinking. I have no  - or essentially no – regular engagement with my local community. I know the usual collection of neighbours, but apart from karate once a week and the occasional social event in the village – that’s it. I’ll have plenty of time in the car this week to muse on it, but for now a quick brain dump of thoughts.

• Karate club is shut for the hols so that’s a no-go in the short term – and I know that some of the mothers are less than keen about having their kids photos on the net.
• A few snapshots of the village social event feels like a cop-out – what would I be doing except tick-boxing?
• Work is a no-go as photography is not permitted in our offices.

So what are the alternatives?

• Turn the assignment on its head – photograph my non-engagement – shots from windows or cars, people behind garden walls, distant shots of the village to illustrate separation perhaps. Unconvinced about the quantity of material available, but worth consideration.
• Consider alternative ideas of community – for example, online interaction with other students or treat the M6 as a community and photograph from service stations, junctions or moving vehicles (taking driver safety fully into account).
• Investigate a historical aspect of the community – mining or steel-working would be obvious choices, and still has a local resonance – but is potentially hackneyed. There is also a Roman link – but I’m not sure it really has much traction outside of the community associated with the local museum.
• Continue my beach theme from landscape and capture aspects of beach use – a community of use rather than location.

I’ll leave it there for the moment – perhaps it’s not quite as difficult as I feared.