Brief

Reflect on the feedback and your thoughts about what came out of the presentation. If you had questions about the work for your peers, reflect on the outcomes and how you are thinking through any responses.

You might also consider:

• The areas that need to be refined and developed further and what do you need to do to achieve this.
• How well did your proposed ideas about the form of the work engage the audience?
• How might you adapt particular elements or details of the form? What further investigations do you need to do to develop the presentation?
• Considering the sequencing of your images, what adjustments, and new images might you include to better communicate your ideas?

I had some great feedback, quite a bit of the feedback was about the text.
Some were not in favour of the title as it didn’t seem to help
“The URN Number works very well. I am not so sure about the title at the bottom if this is really needed. It might look more sublime without those words”
and some in favour because for them it did add something
“The text also causes me to dwell and think about the possibilities of the crime or incident, particularly the one that says “Short Cut”, of course, I can not know what the crime was,  but it piques my interest and so retains my attention”

I was interested to see a couple of comments relating to sequence and I was curious to know if they were seeing the images as belonging to one story (event). They were seeing them as a sequence and all belonging to the same story.

Feedback

• What an interesting subject matter and great responses from everyone.  Like Catherine, I did start to try and put them together as one story in my head, even though I knew they were from different crimes.  I think your idea of presenting them in a book on separate pages would be a good approach as it would help the viewer contemplate them individually. I think there is a very interesting juxtaposition around the camera being used as an instrument of record keeping (truth) and the creation of an image made from your memory.  I don’t think it needs to be a complete reproduction, but a representation of how the original made you feel and why it has had such an impact on you all these years later. looking forward to seeing how this progresses, it’s a great concept

Reply – Hi Debra and thank you for that really helpful feedback. I have been quite blown away by everyone’s responses. Thanks yes I am going to continue with the photobook and see how it pans out. Your comments re the images being a reproduction or representation are so interesting. Initially, I was trying for a “reproduction” but as time has gone on I have realised that the way I have taken the images makes them far more of a representation of the way they made me feel. Thanks again

• This is one of the most original series ideas I’ve seen in a long while, Janet.  The images, while appearing to be simple in composition, are really evocative.  Each has just enough context and signs to cause me to speculate as to what crime had taken place.  The inclusion of case numbers works really well, and makes me wonder if there is a way of incorporating police-like captions that introduce images (kinda like the one you started for Image 8). Favourite picture is probably Secrets, as it has such mystery to it. It’s a great piece of work so far.  Can’t wait to see how it progresses. 

Reply – Hi Richard and thank you for your great feedback. Such helpful and positive comments. I have a quick question. You mentioned that Secrets was probably your favourite. Do you think it would have the same amount of mystery to it if it didn’t have the title anywhere (Secrets) but still had the URN?  Thanks again. J

 

• It would be fascinating to compare your finished images alongside the originals to see how accurate your memory has been – if it thought they were all in colour when in fact some were B&W who knows what other aspects your mind has tweaked! I guess in the early photographs the photographers would almost certainly have less experience or exposure to what we now consider the genre codes so I wonder if your photographer’s eye has changed them in some way to conform more. Have you tried giving your images a white border? I wonder if that would change them in some way – perhaps make them look more like fine art photographs and therefore twist the context a little? It a very interesting project and I’m looking forward to seeing how you develop it over the next couple of months.

Reply – Hi John and thanks for the great feedback – I suspect you are right and there would probably be quite a lot of “contamination” over the years. I hadn’t thought of a border but it is something I am going to try.

• 2. I think your presentation and the sequencing works very well. Placing the colourful image in the middle of the sequence works fine for me. The URN Number works very well. I am not so sure about the title at the bottom, if this is really needed. It might look more sublime without those words. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what this could indicate about the crime. But did not really get there in some cases. You also use twice “cracked”. I would prefer “unique” titles.I hope my feedback is useful for your SDP.

Reply – Hi Andrea and thanks for taking the time to feedback. I think I will definitely test this without the titles. I had been wondering about this so it’s great to get a bit of outside input. The “Cracked” images are from the same crime and I wasn’t sure how I should handle this. I think this is about the images I remember rather than the crime so I think you are right that they should be all unique titles. Perhaps unique titles bit the same URN!

• As others have said I think you have a very interesting topic and the way you mentioned yesterday that your memories of the photographs are all in colour even thought some of the original images were black and white was thought-provoking. I think your images are very good, I particularly like the garage doors, perhaps it is the colour here that attracts me to them. I tried to drag and drop to the right as your instructions to see the images as a book, but each time it came up as though I was going to add a post to your Padlet, so I deleted them, not wanting to mess about with your Padlet at all. Perhaps you could advise how I should be going about it and I will have another look.

Reply – Thanks for the feedback Andrew and yes, wasn’t sure how the posts would react to being moved by someone other than the author so will see what I can do to rectify it or find another way and let you know. Thanks again

• I agree with the others, this is such an interesting project! Regarding the photographs, the text, even the one with only the URN number, adds so much to the images for me.  It makes them something specific, giving them a definite meaning, rather them being simply a picture of some woods etc. The text also causes me to dwell and think about the possibilities of the crime or incident, particularly the one that says “Short Cut”, of course, I can not know what the crime was,  but it piques my interest and so retains my attention.  I think the images that are taken at a wider angle of view work well,  as they give me more context regarding the scene, by that I mean I can see where the path might be going or that the garages are part of a row of several which tells me a little more about rest of the environment. I really like them  Janet and as John has said, it will be interesting to see how this develops (no pun in

Reply – Hi Jonathan and thanks for taking the time to have a look. Something that occurred to me when reading your feedback was that I am definitely using techniques to pique interest, which is the exact opposite of what the original photographers should have been doing. I am still undecided whether or not to put text against each one giving more information relating to the crime, I wonder how this would change the experience.

• Having heard the theme of your project on our Student call and reading ‘Memories of crime scene entry”  immediately braced myself for the horror that I might realise from looking at your images. My imagination instantly started working overtime to decipher these crime scenes,  to piece together the horror that may have happened here. Or not, because there is no concrete evidence anything has happened, just a sequence of events suggesting there is. Had I not known the concept behind these images I may have looked at them differently from the start. Only considering their horrors once the information was given to me, after viewing them that is. This might be something to consider when presenting. Playing with the viewer in this way.

Reply – Hi Catherine and thank you for taking the time to have a look at the images and post feedback. Your reactions were certainly along the lines that I was looking for. You used the phrase “sequence of events” and I was wondering if you were viewing the images belonging to a single event and therefore telling the story of a single event in sequence, or if you thought they were all from individual unconnected events? This is something I’m keen to try and control, so just curious to ask.

• I have just made the assumption they were connected, part of the same story as they were all lined up together on your Padlett. It didn’t occur to me to consider as individual crime scenes. Although now you’ve questioned my interpretation – I can see that might  have been premature on my part. I think if they had been individually dated or a location given as caption etc., then it would be absolutely clear they would be separate. This way it’s possibly ambiguous.. What were you trying to aim for and control ? 

Reply – Hi Catherine

Yes, it was only when I lined them up together in the Padlet did I realise that they were very likely going to present as several images telling one story. Even more so because they contain objects that we would naturally put together. I am currently looking at presenting in book style,  to try and keep a degree of separation. As you suggested I am also continuing my research into text with images to see if that is the answer. Too much, or the wrong type of information may take the project off track but as you have proved, too little and that could happen anyway.

I would echo much of the feedback you already have .. interesting and intriguing are the immediate thoughts. I think we mentioned the Joel Sternfeld ‘On This Site’ project that whilst more analytical than memories might be helpful

Reply – Hi Mark and thanks for taking the time to have a look. Your suggestion that I looked at Joel Sternfeld was indeed a great one and really helped me to get an idea of where I wanted to pitch my project.