FERGUSON

BA Photographic Arts student - Westminster University

[fergusonrebecca1]

Pilot interior VS Final interior

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Pilot cover VS Final Cover

[fergusonrebecca1]

FMP - Final Book

When producing the layouts and compiling the images for my final book I made sure to have my pilot project book next to me so I could see physically what I wanted to change. 

I decided that the gloss paper worked well but I almost find the shine too high combined with the aggressive flash used for the images so I changed to a pearl finish of the paper for the final book and much prefer this lower level of gloss to the images. I knew I wanted to keep the white backgrounds to the images because I felt they worked very well in contrasting the deep colours within the photographs themselves. The cover of the book I had previously chosen to be a black linen cover with grey writing, the title to the bottom right. However I felt this was too neutral for the tone I was going for within the book. I changed this cover so the writing was white and the cover remained black and opted for a gloss dust jacket instead of the linen cover and entered/enlarged the title which I think works more coherently with the images themselves. In the pilot project I chose for the for the first and last double page spread to be white, however in my final version I have chosen these pages to be black. Again, I felt this added more power to the images themselves. 

One piece of feedback from the pilot project was to make the images the same size, however I was incredibly sceptical about this due to all of the mouth images being landscape and the other images being a combination of both landscape and portrait. When compiling the final book I tested both out and could not decide between the two but immediately realised I actually was warming to the images being in the same format, however when sending it off to print I was still undecided so thought it best to have two books created, one with the images in the same square format and one with the varying formats. After the books arrived it was clear to me that I much preferred the images all in the same square format. I went with square instead of landscape because it then did not favour either type of image, and instead gave every single image its own opportunity to shine thus creating a more coherent series of images. 

Overall I am incredibly pleased with how this project has progressed from pilot project to its final format. I feel that although the changes are incredibly small, they have made a large impact on the project as a whole. 

[fergusonrebecca1]

FMP - Cuba

For the past two weeks I have been travelling around Cuba. Prior to leaving I was in two minds as to whether to hold off my book production until returning from Cuba, just incase I managed to get any shots over there as I knew there would be open food markets around the less touristy parts of Havana. Although I knew this would not leave much time to produce and bind the book when I returned. I decided it would be smartest to send off one version of the book to be bound before leaving for Cuba and then if I did have imagery from Cuba that I wanted to add I could just reprint these images and create an updated version of the book. Whilst in Cuba I did manage to capture some great shots from the various food markets they have, however upon returning I realised that they simply did not fit in with my other imagery. It was incredibly apparent that these few images were not taken in the UK and they just simply did not sit correctly with the messages I am trying to get across. Western viewers of this book would find it incredibly hard to relate to photographs depicting scenes from meat markets when said meat markets would never provide the food that the viewers would consume. This is why I have decided to leave these images out of this particular project. I may end up using them in the future if I expand this project to not only include scenes from the UK but also a wider variety of images showing the global origins of food from a whole host of countries

[fergusonrebecca1]

FMP - Meat Market Shoot

A few weeks ago I went to finally shoot at a meat market in central London. I had previously spoken with someone who works for the market about if it would be okay and they had said the best way would be to turn up and just individually ask the various sellers. I drove to the market at 3AM (it is only open from midnight-6AM) in the hopes of capturing some great shots, however was met with great hostility from every seller I had approached, despite showing them my previous photographs for this project and although I attempted to photograph for over two hours, it was completely unsuccessful. This was massively disappointing as I had really hoped to diversify my image sources through shooting here but ended up with no new imagery at all. Luckily I knew I had plenty of new imagery to include in the final cut from my recent shoot at the other Butchers

[fergusonrebecca1]

FMP Update

Last Wednesday I went to do another shoot at a different butchers, more local to my house but, again, one that has been there for countless decades. I made sure to collect as much imagery of everything, not just meat, as was suggested in the feedback from my pilot project. This was a successful shoot and I feel that after I go to the meat market one evening this week, my shooting shall be finished for this project and I can add these final shots into the current book prints I already have set up. 

Prior to my meeting with Allan last week, I was hesitant to start creating any pages of the final book because I knew I didn’t have all the images that I would include within the final project. However Allan was clear that I should just start creating the page spreads because time is running out and I do need to have time to mull over my potential spreads as well as putting these all together. After this meeting I started creating the spreads for the final book piece. I decided to stick with the 30x30cm book format that I used for the pilot project as, due to the various layouts of the images I feel this creates the most coherent looking layout and doesn’t favour a certain layout of image (landscape/portrait) and gives each image equal playing field on the page because neither conform to the outside square shape of the book. I’ve also decided to stick with the pages being white and the paper being glossy as I feel both of these worked well in portraying not only the aesthetics that I wanted but also the messages behind the images. 

I am going to Cuba in a week and know that they will have meat markets around Havana that could be potentially very useful to this project, I am currently unsure whether to wait until I get back from this trip to send the pages off for binding or whether that is leaving it too late and there will only be about two weeks until the deadline when i return. I’ll decide this throughout this week. 

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio box

[fergusonrebecca1]

Critical Evaluation of Portfolio

Prior to receiving the portfolio reviews, I was unsure as to how helpful this would be in regards to refining my personal portfolio. I assumed that I was pretty aware of the stronger images and projects that I have created. However after receiving the reviews, it became apparent that I was clearly quite unaware as to where my strengths lie in regards to my imagery. For the reviews, firstly I saw two designers for Harper Collins Publishing and then I was reviewed by Eisa Bakos who is the owner of Endless Magazine and also has photographed for various companies such as Vans, Monster, Red Bull and Converse. Both of these appointments were shown the same portfolio which consisted of two of my projects then individual photographs split into three sections; People, Places and Wildlife. After trying many variations, I felt this the best way to divide my imagery as it creates the clearest catalogue of my work. Lastly I visited Bertie Gregory, a wildlife photographer and videographer for National Geographic. This is the only review for which I changed my portfolio, I only presented Bertie with a more extensive selection of my wildlife photography. I did this because his profession is an incredibly niche area of photography and it is all he has ever practiced so I thought it would be more beneficial to receive a critique on a larger area that he specialises in rather than show him various areas of photography that he has little interest in and also has no physical experience with. I’m glad I did this as I was able to receive an in depth review on a wildlife specific portfolio but also Bertie was kind enough to select various images and point out the technical flaws/positives within them which will no doubt not only help me refine my portfolio choices but also aid when creating wildlife imagery in the future. After adapting my portfolio to show to Bertie, I decided that this was a good way to approach professionals who have specific areas of speciality and I will continue to do this in the future if meeting with people with refined speciality areas.

Prior to the reviews, if there was one thing I was sure of, it was that out of my two projects (Memoirs of Another and Girl Club) that I chose to include within my physical portfolio, ‘Memoirs of Another’ would be well received and would be deemed a strong and necessary part of the portfolio. This was not the case though, as all of the professionals made a point of noting that this project in fact weakened the portfolio due to some quality issues within the images themselves. They enjoyed the project as a concept but felt at its current stage it was not yet finished and said I should only include this project if I were to re-shoot the imagery being sure to keep the quality high and the editing consistent. ‘Girl Club’, on the other hand, was incredibly well received and was said to add a diversity to my portfolio. I was quite shocked but also pleased about this as personally I am incredibly proud of this project but I understand it can be quite shocking to some people and therefore I was wary about including it. After this feedback I looked back at ‘Memoirs of Another’ and could see exactly where their comments had come from which was interesting because before it being pointed out to me I was blind to these flaws. This made me realise that I need to be more critical on my work and not just include something because I am pleased with the concept or like the idea behind the imagery, the imagery itself has to be up to standards before including it within my portfolio. I have decided to remove this project from my portfolio until I have time to revisit it and give it the required attention to bring it up to the standard of the rest of my portfolio. I shall be keeping ‘Girl Club’ in my portfolio and also once my current project ‘Grin & Bare It’ is completed, I will be including this as well as it is shot in a similar aesthetic to ‘Girl Club’ and I am sure it will continue to add complexity and diversity to my portfolio.

Aside from this main adjustment, overall I was quite happy with the outcome of the portfolio reviews. I feel that the number of images, the print quality and paper quality were not criticised at all and this may be due to the extensive time I personally spent trialling various options for these things. I also think the fact I made certain selections, left some time and then came back to review this aided in my selection process because therefore I was sure I was not making haphazard decision of which images to include within the portfolio. Alongside leaving time I got various opinions from friends and family about which images to include because they do not have the same emotional attachment to the images that I do, so this helped me see I was only including some images because I loved the scenario surrounding the capturing of the image but that the image produced was not up to par to be included within the portfolio. I am pleased with the reaction that the portfolio box itself received and shall continue to use this, when I first created it I was actually skeptical because it is quite grand and different to the usual portfolio boxes and books I had seen before and therefore was wary of how it would be received by industry professionals. However after the reviews, they were all impressed with the time and care taken to produce this box and also that it showed great care for the images it carried.

In the future, when adjusting my portfolio I will be sure to look upon my imagery with a more critical eye and also shall be less heavy handed with my editing for images I am going to print as I feel that some of my editing looks okay for images viewed on a screen yet when printed out can look over-edited as pointed out by Eisa Bakos. Although I didn’t see this at first when printing out, I can now see this and those images I have re-edited and re-printed for the purpose of this portfolio. I suppose this has reminded me that, if I wish to sell prints or create exhibitions of my imagery, I should always test print my images. I may even start test printing all of my imagery and, where necessary, keep two edits of certain images so that I always have one ready for printing and one ready where being used solely on screen.

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio Review - Bertie Gregory

Bertie Gregory is a photographer and videographer for National Geographic. I forgot to bring the portfolio review form with me when I met him and he singled out some images with certain comments so instead of me attempting to write down all of the comments relating to specific images, after we met I sent him a dropbox containing all of the images I had shown him so he could directly link his feedback to the specific images. 

‘This is my favourite shot... *Image of gorillas in Rwanda*

Because it's different. Photographing African wildlife is so tough because it's mean done so much before. This is really intimate and a lovely moment. Plus it's slightly abstract so you don't immediately know what you're looking at. I think in general with the rest, you need to try to get lower (really difficult from a vehicle!), lots of your shots are looking down on the subject. Like this one...

*image of Hyena in Botswana*

You need to try and get at eye level, this means the background is future away so your subject will really pop- like you've done here- really nice...

*image of lion brothers in Botswana*

This will also give a much more intimate feel (like with the gorilla shot I like) With birds, often you want to do the opposite- get high and above them so the background isn't the sky. That's for the tight portraits. Try also going a bit wider and setting your subject in to context. Like you've done here- this is great, love the backlit dust...

*image of wildebeest migration in Tanzania*

All of my pointers are quite difficult to achieve from a vehicle and with potentially dangerous animals like in African safari. I'd recommend trying your hand at wildlife closer to home. That way you can spend much more time getting to know your subject. You'll also be much more flexible with your position. You can even try building hides, towers to change you angle even more and to get closer.’

When I met Bertie, I decided to only show him my wildlife and travel imagery due to the very specific area of his expertise, I realise this is not exactly what was intended within the portfolio reviews however I do not regret doing this as I think it was beneficial for the personal feedback to tailor what I showed for this specific meeting

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio Review - Kate Oakley

“Kate Oakley - Designer at Harlequin, division of Harper Collins Publishing

After paging through all the prints, People, Places and Wildlife stood out so much to me that I really think the overall portfolio would be much stronger with just these prints included. Girl Club booklet was very interesting and adds a controversial, provocative dimension to the portfolio which is great for variety. I think the conceptual project Memoirs of Another is very interesting, however the photography is not strong enough and thus brings the quality of the portfolio down.

Judging the portfolio on People, Places and Wildlife alone, I think there are enough prints and the quality is absolutely incredible. The detail and lighting in all of these photographs are amazing. Each image is so diverse and intriguing that this package alone is very powerful, which would result in me commisioning the photographer if I had a project that was suitable.”

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio Review - Louise McGrory

“Louise McGrory - Head of Design at Harper Collins Publishing

Overall, your photography portfolio is striking, has good structure and is organised well. The composition’s of the photographs are mature, well put-together and solid. Although the images are really good, some do have camera shake and i would consider removing these from your portfolio as they show up technical issues.

The post production of ‘Girl Club’ i well presented and gives an extra wow factor to the photography. The photos have good lighting and strong colours which really stand out. ‘Memoirs of Another’ photographic series is the weakest part of the portfolio as the lighting and depth-of-field are not as striking as other photographs within the portfolio.

The strong part is the wildlife and places section, each element in the frame is carefully placed and no distracting elements have slipped in your way into the frame. Each item in the photo plays a specific role in the overall composition. The colours and use of depth-of-field truly tell a wonderful story.”

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio Review - Eisa Bakos

This is the portfolio review I received last week from photographer Eisa Bakos. I did not show him an edited version of my portfolio, instead I took the portfolio as a whole piece as after thinking more about the critical analysis I shall be performing after the reviews, I decided it would be most beneficial to get the entire portfolio reviewed. 

‘Eisa Bakos - Founder at ENDLESS MAG LIMITED

Prior to opening the portfolio I was given a great impression from the box that the images were held in. This wooden box was unlike any photographic presentation box I have seen before and it not only looked the part but also showed care for the images it held. My first impression of the images was very neutral. Once a quarter of the way in I started to notice a higher quality in the photos when Rebecca is photographing wildlife. Key skills to underline here would be timing and framing. The black and white tattoo selection worked perfectly. Based on the portfolio, singling out particular sections (wildlife and culture) I would commission the photographer. Improvements I would highlight would have to be editing skills. Some images I would have either left out completely or re-edited them to fit amongst the better photos.’

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio Review

I have received confirmation from National Geographic photographer/videographer Bertie Gregory for a portfolio review when he is back from his current shoot in a week. I had already planned on tailoring my portfolio to only include my travel and wildlife imagery as this is his speciality however this plans as further confirmed after my review with the designers at Harper Collins Publishing. Overall the review there was incredibly positive and the feedback was very helpful in regards to how much imagery these type of people want/need to see. The portfolio I showed them consisted of three parts, ‘PEOPLE’, ‘PLACES’ and ‘WILDLIFE’ and also included two of my personal projects ‘Memoirs of Another’ and ‘GIRL CLUB’. They said that although the personal projects were good, they felt they didn't quite have a place within my portfolio and to only include these types of project if I was approaching places such as galleries or curators for grants or proposals for a show. I did find this surprising as I had assumed including entire projects that I have put together myself as opposed to a collection of single images would provide a more rounded portfolio but instead it seems it disrupted the flow of the portfolio as a whole. 

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio Review Update

Unfortunately I have not heard back from the people I contacted in regards to reviewing my portfolio so over the last week I have contacted other professionals in regards to receiving a portfolio review. Alongside contacting people that are closely associated with the photographic fields I hold interest in, i also tried to contact people that are less associated with photography itself but could still be useful with the distribution of my images. These included various people within publishing companies that produce books using photographic imagery. I thought this would be useful as I have previously worked in the design department of a publishing company that uses photography for both the cover designs and occasionally within the pages of their books. These professionals would be useful to receive a portfolio review from as they could provide insight into what type of imagery are bought and used within books and where they most often buy these images from. This proved successful and tomorrow I am meeting with two designers at Harper Collins Publishing for my first portfolio review. As well as this I have contacted a photographer for National Geographic, a photographer who owns his own street and lifestyle photography magazine as well as photographing for Redbull/Converse/Rockstar Events. 

[fergusonrebecca1]

Portfolio Review

Due to being ill, I have left it rather late to approach professionals for a portfolio review as I have been unable to meet anyone and unfortunately was told that the reviews must be done in person and seeing as I have not been able to leave the house, this has not been possible. However today I decided to start the process and emailed the WWF centre which is based quite close to the area I live in and also a wildlife photographer called Richard Peters. I thought the WWF centre would be appropriate and beneficial for a portfolio review as they obviously use wildlife photographers for their campaigns so it would be useful to receive a review from an organisation that uses photographers with similar portfolios to myself. Receiving a review from Richard Peters would be useful as he is a photographer himself and has worked for the WWF and is a Nikon Ambassador so he is more likely to be aware of what clients and organisations look for within a wildlife portfolio

[fergusonrebecca1]

Professional Futures Update

Unfortunately i’ve been sick for the past 3 weeks so have been unable to continue physically on my portfolio. However I have been thinking a lot about who to approach in regards to receiving portfolio reviews from professionals. I’ve found myself struggling massively when trying to determine what level of professional to approach and what sector(s) of photography these professionals should be in. This conflict comes down to the fact my work consists of both documentary and wildlife photography as well as some photographic art based projects so there is no clear sector that my work falls into. I also do not want to limit my portfolio to only include one or two genres as that does not represent who I am as a photographer. After much thought I think I will try and approach a professional that is related to each sector. I am going to try and receive a portfolio review from a wildlife photographer, a member of a newspapers editorial team or a member of their photographic department, a gallery manager and also a photojournalist/documentary style photographer

[fergusonrebecca1]

FMP - Research

The Chosen Ones - Hendrik Zeitler

I found this project whilst shopping for photobooks and found it quite interesting. This project is a series of portraits of cows, however there is little information in English about this project so I am unsure as to whether these cows are about to be slaughtered or are being used for other farming purposes. I would assume from the title that they are being farmed for their meat. 

This project has got me thinking about other ways i could vary the non-teeth images within my project and, if possible, potentially include live animals? I am not too sure yet though as when i mocked this idea up for FMP1 I didn’t feel like it fit at all, however I only tried mocking it up for a series of images that would be placed on the wall, maybe i would feel differently about including images of live animals if it were within the book?

I will most likely test this out with found images before attempting to photograph anything myself and see