Note: (Having just finished part one and then having given part two (Narrative) a quick look I wonder if this assignment fits better with this section!)

My first thoughts after completing this assignment were that I don’t yet have the skills or the knowledge to do the subject justice. But, I do believe I have taken a huge step in my ability to move into a more conceptual way of thinking.

With hindsight I am not sure that my response to this assignment precisely fits the brief, but once I had come up with the idea I wasn’t able to come back from it. The two sides of this story are both true, but the observer could take something completely different from without the context.

Some of the things I learned:

• I was surprised that visualising the images mounted on a wall before I had actually picked up my camera, helped to inform and visualise what I felt the images should contain and look like.
• I hadn’t attempted any type of hanging plan or style pf presentation thus far in the course and this is  a new and welcome addition to my image making.
• Knowing when to stop! I had so many different ideas in the end that trying to apply them all would have really started to disrupt the concept. I wanted it to be “deep” but “simple”
• Focus stacking in Photoshop to get a sharp image whilst using a wide aperture.
• What I had learnt in a previous exercise (Street Photography) when considering the benefits to the series of colour or black and white. In the past, I would have made the decision between black and white and colour, purely on aesthetics
• The value of research in providing inspiration and nudging curiosity.
• To take more organised notes during the planning process and make sure I jot down ideas rather than thinking I will remember them.
• To keep scribbles and sketches to include in my blog.
• Having the diary really helped fire my imagination and I found it so useful to have something to use as inspiration.

This was a challenging project, but one that I feel has shown that I can come out of my comfort zone. I do have concerns that I have strayed too far from the brief and have overlapped into part two, but I will wait for Tutor feedback to answer that one!

Tutor Feedback

Overall Comments

• Despite your worries about fitting the brief, this is an interesting, albeit difficult subject to work with. Personal experiences are what helps to make individual and meaningful work but also can create problems of objectivity.
• Some pertinent research that sets up your visual strategy well 

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

• I am not concerned about how much or little this fits the brief, this is fine.
• Although the act of creating a tableau is, of course, a construct, there is something about these sets of images that feels very cold and detached, is this deliberate?
• Is it sensible to use the same objects in each set? If you don’t have her actual things any more, could you search out similar items to use for her set? This could be interesting in terms of the relationship between documentary photography and truth, in that the viewer would be asked to decide if it is ok to use ‘props’ instead of actual object. Could you also have chosen a different table cloth? Background?
• Without actually seeing the colour versions, I don’t necessarily agree with you about the brutal removal of colour. You said, ‘Objects stood out better in black and white? – really, what does this mean? And this may be true in terms of a formal account of the pictures but what you also do is remove the potentially different characters depicted by the differing sets of images.
• It would be good to see some examples of entries form your mother’s diary – if that is ok with you emotionally. I was interested to read about the way that your life gradually began to feature more heavily as time went on – is this something that you could explore through these images?
• You did some good research around the history of still life, as well as a more contemporary look at the genre but please be careful that you do not try to transplant meaning from one era to another. You said, ‘symbolise feelings and other abstract concepts’ – be careful particularly given the different way that images are read in different times – an extreme example perhaps but the swastika or a more contemporary symbol, the facemask? Different cultural epochs render different meanings to different objects – is this something that you could utilize in your work? Could you choose different objects from your’s and your mum’s own eras that have slightly different meanings in different times? Beware, specifically of using clichés like clocks – unless this is part of your visual thesis. For example, I could look at those objects and they would have very different associations,–
  • Watch – fitness, I use my apple watch to stay fit during lockdown
  • Small bunch of keys – the problems that my son has with anxiety
  • Whiskey glass – American movies

Coursework

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

This looks fine, good to see you persevering with experiments that you don’t particularly enjoy!

Research

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis  

• Some good stuff here and it is clear you understand the use of symbolic object.
• Now you need to think about extending this research to a more analytical phase to bridge the gap between this and your own visual experiments.
• Remember also that your own experimentation is part of your research process.

Learning Log

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis  

• Could you start a completely different word press blog?
• We’ll have a proper look at this when you have new blog in place.

Suggested reading/viewing

Context

Ted Talk – Robert Bloom in relation to the value we ascribe to objects.

https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_bloom_the_origins_of_pleasure?language=en

Pointers for the next assignment / assessment 

• Work on your analysis and reflection, think further about the images you are making as well as those that you are researching.