In the past the aim has been to get an image that was technically as good as possible and of course this is a given. What I am realising however is that there is so much more to an image than just the technical side and that I need to focus on those; perhaps even more than the technical side. This is a revelation for me and may have hampered my ability to create the images I wanted in the past.

It is becoming more apparent that  there are a great many things to think of when producing an image or a series of images. One of my problems seems to be thinking about them all in time for an assignment deadline. When creating and reviewing my images I seem to be focussing on a couple of things but unable to bring them all together. I am going to create a physical list of things I may need to think about for images going forward. It’s easier when going back and revisiting assignments because I have usually had feedback from my tutor and had time to think about them. It would be good to have  some sort of list that I can look at whilst I’m creating the images to remind myself. Going back through previous feedback is a good place to start. I need this to be a process that I go through until perhaps it starts to be something that happens naturally (if ever!)

Back ground, colour, style, detail – can all be important in order to get across and idea, a feeling, an emotion or make a statement. Realised during and after research task Francesca Woodman, and from feedback on the first 2 assignments. This will help me when I revisit them and in particular the overall look of the images which my Tutor suggested was a bit cold. This is not how I felt about my mum so not what I would like the images to portray.

Whilst planning one of my childhood memory images( C&N part three) I found my self thinking about how to represent a feeling of being safe and secure in a small bedroom with a curtain across. I immediately thought of something my tutor had said whilst we were discussing both my first and second assignments. He talked about my first assignment images feeling a bit cold and didn’t think this was how I felt about my mum. He also mentioned the last image of assignment two could perhaps be a bit more mysterious in that we see some of what is behind the wardrobe door but are left wondering. This made me wonder if a warm glow – strip of light coming in through the side of the curtain might help to get the feeling of comfort, safety and security across for this childhood memory.

15th March 2021 

From Part Four C&N Research Task: Insomnia

The size of the image is discussed (it’s big) suggesting that Wall wanted it to gab peoples attention and also commenting on Walls own words when he stated that the image was made in response to the words “When a prince doesn’t sleep well, a nation doesn’t either” and that

“this work was made as part of the desire to depict unimportant people in his images and in doing so he makes the narrative transcend culture, class and success.  He speaks to us all” (Boothroyd, 2012)

The last phrase “He speaks to us all” made me think of parts of the course where the question around self portraiture has asked about these images being just about self or to highlight issues affecting a wider audience. I had alluded to the fact that I had always thought of self portraiture big about self in previous posts and once again I am seeing that this is far from the truth.

10th March 2021

Whilst completing Part Three C&N Research Task: Nigel Shafran

A self portrait doesn’t have to include a person or the artist. In can include people other than the artist who are representing something about the artist. It can be an image that says something about the artist and or the wider community without having any people in it at all. For example the series Washing up by Nigel Shafran (Fig 1,2). I hadn’t every really questioned this and always assumed that a self portrait would include the artist in the image. I guess just another aspect of image making that I hadn’t consciously thought about!

Part Three: Exercise – 4, Shafran Critique

Bibliography

Figure 1,2
Shafran, N., 2000. [image]
Available at: <http://nigelshafran.com/category/washing-up-2000-2000/
[Accessed 12 February 2021].

Boothroyd, S., 2012. Beneath the surface. [online] The Open College of the Arts.
Available at: <https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/photography/beneath-the-surface/&gt;
[Accessed 15 March 2021].

1. Just read something that added to my understanding of the ways in which photography can be used. This will help me with assignment one where I am trying to use my mums diary.

   Moffatts’ approach to representing the conditions of history gives us an experience of how sociohistorical issues that are normally explored through anthropology and writing can be imaginatively addressed through art” (Cotton, 2014)

Going back to Trish Mossisys’ photography and her series Front (2005 – 2007) where she replaced one of the female members of a family. It struck a cord with me (sometime after) when I found myself thinking how similar her photos were to my own situation when I met my birth family. I have no idea if there are any photos of us together in the first few months that we met, but I was a complete stranger in amongst a close family unit. I felt like a “complete stranger” and I’m sure to them I was a “complete stranger” . I don’t remember verbalising these thoughts at the time, but remember feeling them. Wearings series really brought this home to me. I created some photos made up of old family photos I found on the internet where I copied a child out of one family photo and pasted it into another family photo in such a way that you probably wouldn’t notice. It’s only when you view both photos as once would you realise that there is something strange going on. I did them quite quickly just as an experiment so they could have been better. I also realised that if my birth mother had taken a picture of me on the morning of my adoption and my adoptive parents had taken a picture of me in the afternoon, there would indeed be one baby, two families. My birth mother had taken several photos of me before I was adopted. I had never seen these photos till I met her as an adult. I had only ever seen the photos of me as a baby that my adopted parents had taken. In a strange way these photos are the same as the ones I created. Same child – different “family” I had a very strange experience when I first met my birth mother and walked into her house. There was a large photo of me as a baby of about 6 months old on her wall. This was a photo I had seen before and I found out that my adoptive mum had sent it to her via the social worker dealing with the adoption. My very first feeling was anger and confusion that this photo from our family album was on a strangers wall! It was the first time I was to experience the realisation that my adoptive parents were my “real” parents. I was to experience it again when both my adoptive and birth mothers died within a year of each other.
I feel that by creating my “family photo” montages I have managed to express something that I find quite hard to explain.
I am not sure if this would be suitable for C&N part three assignment 3 as it invlolves using the diary entries. I really would like to persue this but just not sure when?