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Week 11 - Deadline

Below are the final 9 12x8 prints I chose to hand in:

I chose these images because I feel they capture the different energies and emotions that come with having a new pup in the house. Over the last few weeks I went home to Bristol and took photographs of Stowick from 14 weeks old to 20 weeks, documenting his integration into our family. I tried to get as many different situations as possible so the shoots didn’t start to feel stale. It was a challenge since being so young there wasn’t a lot we could do with him like we can with an older dog, such as taking him somewhere with deep water or other dogs off leash. However I still feel like I got a good amount of images, not enough to make the book like I originally wanted to, but it leaves it open for if I want to carry on the project next semester.

Below is a thing we needed to print, I wanted to upload it on here just in case I loose the printed version:

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Week 10

Had the final tutorial with Simon before the deadline for Negotiations next week, he liked my final images and helped me think my way through how I was going to present them for the hand in. In the end, I decided to go with portfolio prints as there was not enough to make a book.

1) Prints - sizes and what ones

After we talked about portfolio prints Simon very kindly took me down to the printing labs and showed me how to print (as I had no idea where they were, family funeral during fresher’s week meant I missed a lot of information that I didn’t know I was missing until they were mentioned) I started off by choosing one image to print three different sizes. 6x4, 6x9, and 12x8

After looking at them with Simon I chose to print off all nine of my finals in 12x8 as they were a good size to see the image clearly. I got them all printed off and handed in the same day, a week early. One less thing for me to worry about.

2) Blog - get everything up to date

I did admit to Simon that I have been neglecting my blog due to mental health, and after coming up with a plan of how to spend my days I found it easier to get my blog up to speed without it feeling too daunting.

3) Book layouts - if there’s spare time

We briefly talked about trying different book layout ideas, but only if there was time spare before the deadline. It was something not to stress about doing over the priority of the prints and blog. In the end, I didn’t end up having enough time to try different layouts as the blog took longer than I thought it would. But it is something I can explore after hand-in if I do decide to continue this project.

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Week 9

I started to think about what I wanted to do for the next semester, as it is fast approaching and I do not know if I want to carry this current project on or not. Originally I wanted to create a book with this project, but at the moment I only have 9 strong finals which are not enough to make a book. Whilst I shot plenty of photographs and could add more in, I didn’t want to have to settle for a lesser image to make up the quantity.

So for new ideas, I do have all the options from week 1; things that I didn’t end up choosing for this project. But as I explained in that post those ideas wouldn’t work for me for different reasons. So I recently thought of a new idea called ‘Gone and Forgotten’ where I explore different graveyards and take photographs of less cared for/destroyed gravestones and grave markers. I think it delves into contemporary side of things when people die and those remaining say that they’ll never forget the deceased. But X amount of years down the line those who knew them are also gone. Or people who have been buried as John/Jane Doe’s. I want to do this project as it also gets me out of animal photography (something I love, but always do) without putting too much strain on myself to get out of my comfort zone. This also gives me a chance to explore Plymouth outside the city center, travel may be an issue but I will be able to speak to (bribe) my housemate who can drive. I can also do this project back home in Bristol, as I can go to Arnos Vale and Avonview Cemetary since they’re both local and have the required subjects.

Gordon Parks - Harlem 1943-44

Gordon Parks was an American photographer, who specialised in documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s focusing on the issues of civil rights, poverty and African-Americans. Parks met Richard Wright in Harlem (New York) in 1943, bringing with him a copy of 12 Million Black Voices, a book pairing images by such Farm Security Administration photographers as Dorothea Lange. The author inscribed the book for Parks, citing one of the photographer’s favorite passages: “To one who moves with the new tide.”

I chose these two images because because to me they’re just normal street photographs, but when put into context of the time they were taken (especially who they were taken by) it suddenly opens this whole political debate where the lives of black people were still treated like lesser beings, and that white people could still use words like negro whilst addressing them. So to not only celebrate the everyday life of black people, they were taken by a black photographer. I also think that these images would not have worked as well if a white photographer took them, as they most likely would not have had the same relaxed levels as Parks did.

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Week 8

I started off this week by having a breakdown, not something I recommend. I’ve been depressed for most of my life, and this year, in particular, has been appalling. It has impacted my studies a lot as I do not have the energy to get out of bed most days, let alone the attention span for lectures. As someone who has never skipped lessons growing up, it was stressful for me to just not show up to lectures. But it wasn’t something I felt I could talk about.

Luckily I have a good relationship with Simon, who already knew about one grievance I’ve suffered this year with my Nan passing away. I was able to steal a bit of his free time to explain what was going on, not just my family life where I have two very unwell older family members, but a potential third family member being tested for a rare form of leukemia that, if it turns out he does have, will kill him. He’s only three years older than I am and has a child with my older sister. So that’s fun.

I also spoke about how I don’t feel like there is any point in me being at university, as I have no motivation and I do not feel like my work is good enough for this level. Simon helped me see that my work is exploring the non-human elements of having a new dog in the house, whilst documenting his growth and responses to different things. He did say that I could take some time off and then come back whenever I felt ready, but I knew if I left now then I wouldn’t come back, and that my Dad would be disappointed since I’m one of only three people (including him) in the family to go to university. I also didn’t want to quit because there is nothing I can do for my unwell family members, and that whilst I know I won’t get a high grade (I’ll be lucky to even pass with my writing skills) I can prove to myself that I can actually stick to something I love doing; photography.

Martin Parr - Only Human

After my feedback from the presentations, I decided to look at some social documentary work. And who better to start it off with by none other than Martin Parr? I chose to look at Parr’s work as it is familiar to me, but it also mostly fits in with my style of photography of candid shots. I looked at Parr’s ‘Only Human’ series as it held a mixture of candid and posed shots which is something I am going for in this module. ‘Only Human’ focuses on the theme of national identity both within the United Kingdom, and abroad, the series also covered themes such as dancing.

I chose this image from the series because it is something almost every family in Britain can relate to, no matter the generation. Whilst Britain is not known for having the best beaches in the world, we still have thousands upon thousands of people visiting our coasts all year round. I chose this image because it is a candid shot where you would not be able to recognise those people unless you knew them. It captures something so mundane (where nothing of particular interest is taking place) but yet still manages to invoke feelings of familiarity and longing.

I chose this picture from the series because it celebrates Britain’s multi-cultural society in such a simple way, just a normal Sikh gentleman carrying a Union Jack shopping bag. There is no fanfare about having a POC (Person Of Colour) posing with the British flag as they have been apart of our history for so long now (unfortunately not in a good way until recently) They’ve kept their traditions and customs whilst adapting to our culture.

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Week 7

Reading week - Stowick shoots

For reading week I went home to Bristol, this was so I could get some more shots of our family dog Stowick and by being there for a week meant I’d be able to get new shots of different situations.

Contact sheets:

Few edited finals:

Thoughts:

Overall I think this week long shoot was very successful, whilst I didn’t shoot a whole lot I still managed to get some amazing shots of Stowick and my Mother. Although I probably could have shot more when I was home, we didn’t go out much as the weather was terrible and Stowick isn’t used to the rain yet. So I didn’t want to make my contact sheet feel stale boy having billions of inside the front room shots.

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Week 6

This week we had to do a presentation on what we have done so far for our Negotiation module, it was a good chance to get some feedback on our work and to hear new ideas that will help us further on our projects. Whilst presenting I recorded the audio of what I said as I was taught to put little info on the screen and mostly talk during presentations - except I take it to the extreme and put barely anything on the slides which is boring to look at. Below is a video to my presentation (which took longer to make than I was planning as I haven’t made a video in two years. It’s a bit out of sync but you get the point of what I’m saying:

I started to look at the humanisation of pets that have surged up in recent years. This ties into more people treating their pets as their own child as opposed to domesticated animals. Whilst it isn’t usually dangerous, it can lead to the death of the animal.

https://www.vettimes.co.uk/news/increasing-humanisation-killing-pets-with-kindness/

I looked at this link which made brief comments about how owners were unintentionally harming their pets by feeding them too much human food, and ways to counteract them. It held a link to the 2016 PAW PDSA Animal Wellbeing Report. But overall was a short article about the increase of overindulging your pets.

https://ruffandtumbledogcoats.com/blogs/news/humanising-dogs

This link had a more personal approach to the subject, commenting on how we treat our pets like human babies by dressing them up or feeding them something that they would otherwise never come across. All then posted across social media. This then leads to the animal becoming uncontrollable as there is no clear leader established within the household, which can lead to the humans having to live their life around the pet (many examples are shown on ‘ Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan’) Many owners are too afraid to discipline their pets in fear of upsetting the animal or the animal becomes aggressive. This site goes on to say what you as an owner should avoid, and how to avoid it. It also goes in to list things that should be encouraged more within the household to ensure that the pet is on its best behaviour, whilst giving it the best life it deserves.

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Week 5

Two shoots over the weekend, Beth and Stowick

Beth & Stowick first shoot:

I started off this project by posting on FaceBook and Instagram for people who have pets that wouldn’t mind me taking photographs of the and their animals. I got a relatively good response from people, and started to plan with them when I could do the shoots. Beth was the first shoot I managed to do.

Contact sheets:

Few edited finals:

Thoughts:

This was my first shoot on this project, I wasn’t really sure what I was doing to start off with. Luckily my model was a friend and very patient! I felt it was quite an awkward shoot because we had to separate the dogs as they have a tendency to fight. I also only had around an hour to shoot before my model had to leave to prior engagements. Overall I still think this was a good shoot, I am going to edit some photos from the shoot, mostly the posed ones instead of the candid shots as I feel they do not work very well.

Stowick first shoot:

After the shoot with Beth I went home and started to shoot our new dog Stowick, he wasn’t very impressed about the camera.

Contact sheet:

Few edited finals:

Thoughts:

I thought these shoots went well because I was able to spread it over the whole weekend instead of being limited to only an hour. I got to capture images of him with different energy levels and interacting with different people. I do feel that I have succeeded in showing how Stowick is settling into our family as it’s been a few weeks since my Mother and Father first picked him up from North Wales, so he has had a chance to get into a routine before I arrived.

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Week 4

We had a very long lecture about our Professional Futures module that was very insightful as Angus went over professions that we could go into that isn’t just photography. I quite liked the idea of becoming a photo editor as it is less pressure to instantly produce my own work and live off of it. But at the moment I haven’t thought too deeply into what I want to do once I leave uni this year. At the moment I am just drifting along, which isn’t good for the third year at university. Something for future me to worry about.

We also talked about degree show considerations, apparently, there is a Messenger group chat that the other students are a part of and they voted to have a London show. However, it does not mean that we all have to do it just because the majority voted on it. I personally do not want to display my work anywhere, I do not feel it is up to anyone’s (including my own) standard and would feel it a waste of money to do a show. I also do not enjoy London, and neither does my family, who are the main viewers of my work. I know I need to push myself out into the world more, but I don’t feel like I can without having to strive to become this big famous photographer (no one is saying that I have to be, it’s more from the previous two years of not having to opportunity to explore the different jobs within photography outside the photographer and photo editor) I think it also stems from never having any clients of my own, I’ve done very few photoshoots for clients, and they were all from my tutors who had been contacted from outside sources.

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Week 3

I had one of my first one-on-one tutorials with Simon about how my project was going, I told him about how my ‘Locked Up’ project had hit a dead end with only half of the shelters getting back to me, and all of them saying that they could not help me. So Simon gave me some ideas to go away with and research. These were all things that I had shown interest in in the past but always ended up doing something else. Below are my notes from it:

I had my first dissertation meeting with Colin which I found very useful, I had already finished my first plan as I thought it was something due the day we started. Also because it was something that I thought about doing as it is a different genre from what I have written about in previous essays. Colin liked my idea of exploring portraiture photography and where it came from, starting off with portrait paintings and who they were for. It wasn’t a very solid idea so Colin gave me a few photographers to look at, below are my notes:

https://www.charlottedumas.nl/portfolio/uncategorized/heart-shaped-hole/

I had a look at Charlotte Dumas’ work ‘Heart-shaped Hole’ which focused on the stray dogs in Palermo, I chose to look at her work because I wanted to gain a new perspective of on-location photography that didn’t try to beautify the location as well as the subject within the frame. Dumas did a brilliant job of making sure the dog(s) were the main focus of the image, whilst showing the horrible state they live in, without beautifying it or making it seem worse than it is.

This work would have fed into my ‘Locked Up’ series because I wanted to get shots of unwanted animals in shelters. It was a tricky idea because I found it hard to explain in the emails I sent to the shelters that I wanted to take images with a more somber tone to them to capture what it may be like inside the dog's head, knowing that they’re not in their forever home. It was also hard because only half of the shelters got back to me, and all of them said they couldn’t help.

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Week 2

We started off week two by having carousel tutorials in our groups about Personal Development (with Heidi) Critical Journals (with Simon) Contextualisation (with Carol) and Visualisation (with Angus) for each of these we had to think of our projects and how they fit in with each subject. Below are the notes I made for each:

http://www.erblicken.com/portfolio/outdoor-dogs/

I started to look at pet photography as it is something that I want to get in to and found that there were a lot of different styles of pet photography. I wanted to focus more on location pet photography rather than working in a studio as I have never really liked working in a studio. Looking online I found the work of Manuela and Stefan Kulpa, who do a mixture between location and studio work with animals. I really liked their “Outside Dogs” series as it contains a mixture of candid and posed images where the personality of the dog comes through.

This is the style of photography that I want to work towards, as the animals are in locations that are suitable to them, without drawing too much attention away from them. However, I am not keen on the way that the photographs have been edited. Some of the photographs have a sort of misty vignette around them that almost acts like a ‘dream’ filter, whilst the images themselves are still amazing to look at, it is not something I want to work towards editing, as I like to keep my photographs as natural looking as possible.

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Week 1

Started off the year by having a few ideas ready to talk about doing for the first semester, I already knew I was not going to do the extended dissertation as I struggle with academic writing. Below is my list of ideas I presented to my tutor group:

1) Favourite books:

I thought about creating a series of images of people posing with their favourite book, especially those who do not dress the same way you may think someone reading that book would dress. I wanted to create a series where the model isn’t necessarily in focus, as the main focus will be on the book. I could branch off and have group photos if enough people had the same favourite book. I also thought about having electronic books vs paper copies but couldn’t really think of where to lead that part. All in all, I chose not to do this idea.

2) People and their pets: Family isn’t always human

I love animal photography, over the summer I started to think about trying to become a pet photographer. With this idea, I want to explore the bonds between the animals and their owners. I want to meet up with people and their pets at their favourite locations, or at their homes - this is so the animals are as relaxed as possible otherwise their stress shows in the photographs. This is the idea I did after the failure of the shelter animals' idea.

3) Frames and mirrors

For this idea, I wanted to play around and practise my Photoshop skills by having a series of images of models appearing in shot out of a frame (like a painting frame) I wanted each image almost split in two; the top half would be bright and oversaturated whilst the bottom half would be dull and dreary to symbolise the model leaving their miserable real-life and escaping into a fantasy realm. Whilst I really enjoy this idea I find it wouldn’t be very practical for me as I do not know Plymouth and where I can go shoot, I do not know anyone outside of Bristol that would be willing to models for me, and I have no way of traveling around Plymouth and the surrounding areas. So I chose not to do this idea.

4) Story through flowers:

During my second year at Bristol, I did a series of images where my models had flowers in their mouths. I got quite obsessed over the meaning of flowers and wanted to make a short story (triptych or so) telling the story of someone going through the stages of hanahaki (a fictional disease where someone suffering from unrequited love starts to grow flowers in their lungs, the only two ways to cure the disease is confessing your feelings to the person, or have an operation to get the flowers removed. But in doing so you lose all feelings for that person.) However, at the time I found that difficult to do, as I did not plan my time well. So instead I did single images of models with flowers in their mouths and got them to do different facial expressions or body movements that corresponded with the meaning of the flower. Below are two of my favorite images from that series:

In the end, I decided not to carry on with this project, or make a story as it is an expensive idea.

5) Locked up:

I thought about doing a series of animals that live in shelters until they get adopted, I want to do a mixture of shots where the animal is out and having fun, and then do some shots of them in their cage/sleeping area to contrast that they aren’t in their forever home yet. This was the idea I first wanted to do as it may help those shelters by publishing the images and attract potential adopters. However, I sent around six emails to different shelters (three in Plymouth, three in Bristol) and only half got back to me to say that they could not help me out for whatever reason. So I had to pick another idea quickly as it was getting on to the third week.

Introduction to Negotiation:

I had a lecture that introduced us briefly into what we would be doing for the next couple of weeks up until Christmas. We were told that our projects needed to reflect on what our personal ambitions are towards photography. It was a blanket lecture as all 40ish of us were present and all doing different ideas. So it focused more on the practical theory and understanding of photography. Below are my notes from the lecture:

I did a technical workshop involving the digital medium format cameras, as they were something that I haven’t had the chance to explore with yet as we had very limiting resources in Bristol. Below are my notes from it:

We then had a dissertation meeting, this introduced us to what a dissertation is and things to think on whilst writing one. I found it very useful as no one has ever actually explained what a dissertation is to me, so all I knew of it was that it is incredibly stressful. I may try and see what the uni has to offer about help regarding academic writing, as it is definitely not my strong suit. Below are the notes I took from the lecture:

Later on in the same day we went to the library and had a mini-lesson from Amanda about Primo and Artbibliographies Modern that help us find academic writings and journals for our dissertation. I found it really useful as I haven't had the time to explore the library as of yet. Below are the notes I took:

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Final Major Project - Final images

Below are all of my final images for this module, they will feature in my exhibition:

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Final Major Project Bibliography

123 Inspiration. (2012). Layered Photographs by Scott Hazard | 123 Inspiration. [online] Available at: http://www.123inspiration.com/layered-photographs-by-scott-hazard/ [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].

Antonini, M., Minniti, S., Gómez, F., Lungarella, G. and Bendandi, L. (n.d.). Experimental photography.

Apogee Photo Magazine. (2017). Blur The Background In Lightroom - An Easier Method | Apogee Photo Magazine. [online] Available at: https://www.apogeephoto.com/mastering-the-craft-lightroom/ [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].

Arhns.uns.ac.rs. (2016). Layered Image – Skup ravanskih preseka 3D scene – I faza | Geometrija i vizuelizacija slobodnih formi. [online] Available at: http://www.arhns.uns.ac.rs/givsf/layered-image-skup-ravanskih-preseka-3d-scene-i-faza/ [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].

BananaRoad. (2015). Video Game Posters. [online] Available at: https://bananaroad.com/collections/video-games-posters/man-cave [Accessed 1 May 2019].

Campbell, C. (2015). Remember 'Lord of the Rings' Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie With Five of His Best Shots | Movie News | Movies.com. [online] Movies.com. Available at: http://www.movies.com/movie-news/andrew-lesnie-obit/18383 [Accessed 7 Mar. 2019].

Clayton, Z. and Clayton, Z. (2019). Stereographs • V&A Blog. [online] V&A Blog. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-for-our-collections/stereographs [Accessed 8 Feb. 2019].

Colossal. (2017). Three-Dimensional Landscapes Formed with Layered Acrylic Photographs by Nobuhiro Nakanishi. [online] Available at: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/06/layer-drawings/ [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].

Coolors.co. (2018). Coolors. [online] Available at: https://coolors.co [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].

Dunham, E. (2009). Quicksand Font Free by Andrew Paglinawan » Font Squirrel. [online] Fontsquirrel.com. Available at: https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/quicksand [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

Fantasynamegenerators.com. (2017). Video game name generator. [online] Available at: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/video-game-names.php [Accessed 24 May 2019].

Filmdp.com. (2016). Aymeric Montouchet – Director of Photography. [online] Available at: https://www.filmdp.com/ [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].

IMDb. (2018). Detroit: Become Human (Video Game 2018) - IMDb. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5158314/fullcredits [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].

IMDb. (2017). Romain Jouandeau - IMDb. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9340350/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr20 [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].

Imgur. (2017). Video Game Posters. [online] Available at: https://imgur.com/gallery/ALFGTFW [Accessed 1 May 2019].

Kaneko, R., Vartanian, I., Martin, L. and Wada, K. (2009). Japanese photobooks of the 1960s and '70s. New York: Aperture.

Knight, N. and Cotton, C. (2009). Nick Knight. München: Schirmer Mosel.

Moo.com. (2015). Custom Online Business Printing & Design | MOO UK. [online] Available at: https://www.moo.com/uk/ [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

Pinterest. (2019). Concept Art. [online] Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/shannongearing/concept-art/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].

Pinterest. (2016). Minimalist Video Game Posters. [online] Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/548031848376812471/?lp=true [Accessed 1 May 2019].

The Last of Us Gaming Posters for Video game lovers, v. (2014). The Last of Us Gaming Posters for Video game lovers ,video games for tv play station poster at GlowRoad - KJTJ8Z. [online] https://glowroad.com. Available at: https://glowroad.com/the-last-of-us-gaming-posters-for-video-game-lovers-video-games-for-tv-play-station-poster/az/B071S9S4YD [Accessed 1 May 2019].

Vecteezy. (2017). Seamless Polygonal Pattern Free Vector Art - (30424 Free Downloads). [online] Available at: https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/seamless-polygonal-pattern [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Vistaprint.co.uk. (2015). [online] Available at: https://www.vistaprint.co.uk/ [Accessed 2 May 2019].

Wix.com. (2019). Log In | Wix. [online] Available at: https://www.wix.com/dashboard/7d0428d1-207f-408a-a0d9-2a04cec31325/home [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

YouTube (2019). 1 Minute Dispersion Effect In Photoshop. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI34NwcibHo [Accessed 3 May 2019].

YouTube (2019). Amazing Game Look Photo Manipulation In Photoshop. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-lYpTN7mnY [Accessed 3 May 2019].

YouTube (2019). Blend multiple images in Photoshop. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr2jx62_k-g [Accessed 3 May 2019].

YouTube (2019). Its Easy SMOKE DISPERSION Effect | Photoshop Tutorial. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQTi3bBwI6c [Accessed 3 May 2019].

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Evaluation

I feel like I have pushed myself this module, I forced myself to do portraiture so I could try and make fake screenshots and a poster for a fake video game. I tried to mix something I am uncomfortable with (portraiture and people) and something I do every day (play video games) to see what kind of outcomes I could get.

Overall I enjoyed this module, I liked the creative freedom I had with it especially with post editing; which is something I haven’t had much opportunity with previous modules.

Something I struggled with is relying on people and models, whilst I did use my friends they weren’t very good at being on time (which annoyed me to no end, as if I was a real client they would show up on time) however once everyone showed up doing the shoots were really fun because they listened to my directions and got their own ideas across as well.

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Evaluation

Overall I really enjoyed this module; it gave me the opportunity to learn what it takes to set up an exhibition. It also helped me gain more confidence in promoting my work and how to get it out there more.

The one thing I didn’t like about this module is the stress and emphasis to get a mentor, I personally didn’t want to get one because I still don’t have a clear direction of where my work is going. So, for example, my work on Instagram has a mixture between genres and most photographer’s on Instagram specialise. Therefore I didn’t really want to pester anyone with my work when they may be able to comment on one or two images.

I am not sure if I will stick to the genre I chose for this module; I struggle with portraiture and dealing with people in general. Though it doesn’t mean to say that I will completely abandon portraits, but maybe leave it to my betters.

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Project proposal

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Portfolio book (2)

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