HANNAH KENT

Photographic Dossier

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Eddie the Eagle

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Liam

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Photographing Bathfest 2016 on the 28th of May.

Shooting Bathfest for the second year running, this time round having primary photography access, again alongside Ed Low. The professional relationships having grown and gained a lot more responsibility for the day, which however was on a smaller scale from last years festival. 

Again leasing with the acts to ensure they attend the make-shift studio, this year even more make do, by using the side of a supplies tent as a backdrop. Relying on flashguns to blank out the backdrop, and to light the subject along with a reflector, to even out the light, it being a very sunny day, it was casting unpredictable shadows. 

I did ensure I got the acts whilst performing on stage, working with a much more confined and difficult space on and around the main stage. However, I was patient and had the right equipment on me for almost any circumstance. Swapping the lens on the D810 throughout acts to gain photographic variety. 

Although I did notice that all the acts this year were DJ’s or groups of only very small numbers, which meant they remained behind the desks, I was very conscious of each acts photos looking too alike one an others. 

Being in communication with the organisers of the event, we sent over a few images to them to post onto social media throughout the event, as a running update of the acts on stage. 

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Website Workshop with Morag Macdonald on the 10th of May.

The last chance to get advice from Morag on our website designs. I made some major alterations to my font choices, settling on a very common Futura, but with my name capitalised. This made my life easy when it came to making an EPS.

Encapsulated PostScript is a DSC-conforming PostScript document with additional restrictions which is intended to be usable as a graphics file format.

The ‘coming soon’ cover page was altered and made into an ‘entry’ page which displays my signature green turf image which matches my cover image on my Facebook page and my business cards. 

I finalised my website layouts, deciding on the different categories my images would sit within. I had to make choices to opt out of displaying more abstract still life images, as I'm “selling” myself as a documentary sports photographer, and they don't fit under that description, don't add anything if anything take away from my suited and preferred photography genre. I changed the hover colour on the sidebar and the links colour to yellow as I want it to stand out and become my key colour, as it is prominent in a lot of the sports imagery especially my new publications with yellow binding tape. 

Morag spoke a lot about the importance of copyrights. Advising us to use the terms and conditions forms AOP provide, but to opt in our own names where it says “the photographer” to personalise the contract. Remembering to add metadata to the images taken on a job, adding ‘licence to use - copyrights remain with hannah kent’ so that they have printing rights but do not own my work. Useful tip to remember that a verbal contract is legally binding but is always sensible to follow up with a written email to confirm.

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Etching Session on the 12th of May.

After having my induction to the etching workshop at the beginning of the year, whereby I watched Hue make prints to learn the process and technique, I found the time to experiment with making my own. 

On a trip to New York in December, I shot a lot and would like to be able to make prints from these images. Thinking about what style of image lends itself to the old fashion etching effect, the nature shots taken in Central Park and Central Park Zoo I could envision printing out great. As I don't know how many images I would have time to print, I selected the first one on the basis of standing alone, and then having the possibility to add additions to make a small series. 

The process begins by printing the image onto acetate in greyscale at 8bit to the scale of the desired print size. The acetate is then vacuum sealed to the copper plate and exposed (this particular print was for 7 seconds), and then put into a water tray at about 25 degrees for 3 and half minutes, beginning to brush the plate after 1 minute. The ‘picture’ will then appear on the plate, taking it out of the water tray, rinse and leave to dry under a fan or in the sun for about 5 minutes. The plate needs hardening in the UV machine for a couple of minutes then its ready for inking. Dab a thorough layer of ink onto the plate whilst upon the heat surface block, then begin wiping the excess ink away. Once majority of the ink is removed, rub tracing paper over the highlights (white areas) to make them clearer and the whites whiter. Prepare the paper by soaking it in a water tray for a few minutes, then press out the water before placing over plate on the etching press board, laying tracing paper and the protective fabric over the top to absorb any other moisture during the press. Begin turning the wheel away from yourself to move the plate through the etching press, as soon as its on the other side remove the layers and peal the paper away from the plate revealing the final print. Leave the print to dry on a drying rack, or between boards to make sure it dries flat. 

I did two test prints on smaller pieces of paper that fitted the plate on it, because according to the etching technicians the whites become clearer and the print becomes sharper through making prints with the plate. I then did a final print on a bigger piece of paper with a nice big boarder around the image. I could see the improvement between the prints and believe they do get better. I will attempt to make more plates and prints to perfect the process. 

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Photography trip to Le Quande in France.

Taking a trip to France allowed me to develop my photographic thesis. I tried forming narratives and exploring the different traditions and happenings within the french towns society. 

I ventured round the more residential areas which are divided up by fields and open land. The rawness of the crops growing interested me. Made me think how food is more local and home grown in a location like this. So I chose to look into this topic further by going to where this food would be sold, the market! Everything was so fresh and colourful. The stalls were selling all the essentials as well as a lot of seafood, like prawns and mussels. I found out that some of the mussels came from the near by beach where there is a mussel farm. The next day, I went to see the mussel farm, but unbeknown to me, you have to wait for the right time when the tide is out for the mussel farm to be revealed. I figured my timings out and returned the following day, unfortunately by then the weather had taken a turn for the worse. It did add a certain delicacy and ambiance to the images, removing that holiday snapshot vibe. This then set the mussel farm images away from the rest of the images from my trip, including the ‘car boot’ morning where I was interested to see how theres might differ from ours. I love admiring peoples knick knacks that they have on offer. Probably where my interest for my current project ‘Memento’ came from.

Now I need to figure out what to do with the images. I don't feel they are strong enough collectively to make a publication, so I think will stand as selective prints. I might possibly create a specific section on my website for images from trips like this.

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Personal Project ‘Not so Funfair’ Shoot on the 7th of April.

The Funfair came to Bath, and I took it upon myself to go out with my camera and have a look around the fair during the day, before it was up and running, obviously rather empty and deserted, only the fair workers were present. The colours of the stalls we faded and tired.. I planned on going back during the night time, when everything had come to life to juxtapose the day time. However the night time was just as erie, uninhabited by only the staff working it was rather disjointed and unusual atmosphere. The fun loving colours and rides abandoned. The images out did those taken during the day. 

I plan on using prints from this project to offer up for the fundraiser for our London degree show. We have a stall at the green park market, to flog what us as artists could produce. 

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BWB Trials Work on the 9th of May.

Photographing this massively important time of the year when all the new young hopefuls attend trials to see if they have what it take to be apart of the BWB association. Hundred of talented boys play through the evening whilst being monitored and assessed by not only the coaches but the current elder BWB boys were also on hand to help out. 

Trying hard to capture the sheer determination these boys were putting into their football performance. Selecting a variety of still and action shots, groups and individual as well as establishing shots to gain the full scale of the trials.

Tim who runs the BWB then uploaded the images into their website, to publisice and promote the trials for the upcoming weeks of on going trials.

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Sony World Photography Awards at Somerset House visited on the 3rd of May. 

Because the exhibition and competition is so vast it is broken down into different categories and also divided into professional and open photography. The variety of categories in the open competition allows for an unrestricted scope of subjects, giving way to an array of photography styles and techniques. 

The Awards had 230,103 entries from 186 different countries this year. The work the Sony World Photography Awards does raised the awareness of photography, increasing the visibility of photographers and helping to promote their work and ‘foster’ their talents. It has enabled professional photographers go on to greater things and amateur photographers gaining commissions and even the student photographer winners receive exhibitions and offers of residency programmes. The students were asked to respond with a single image to the initial brief ‘Millennials’, after being shortlisted 10 photographers were asked to submit a powerful photographic essay based on the theme ‘For the Good’, for them to interpret in any which way they please. 

Some of the work that really captivated me was the 1st place conceptual photographer from France, Julien Mauve with ‘Greetings from Mars’ looking into how landscapes trigger the desire to affirm our presence, which featured on the front of the publication. The sports category was extremely inspiring to my practice. ‘Second Best’ project which id seen featured in Sport (magazine) by Nikolai Linares from Denmark who ironically came first place! It features portraits of silver medal winners after losing the final at the Zealand boxing championships held in Copenhagen in March. The blotchy red sweaty faces are all to familiar for me as an ex athlete, a rather delicate moment for those so close to victory but not quite winning. The portraits do vary with scale which I find odd as I like to keep everything consistent, but that make me think Nikolai worked on instinct on how stand off-ish they were with body language, wanting to keep his distance with some and not so much with others.

Again, I couldn’t resist but purchase the publication which features all the photographers that we lucky enough to participate within the exhibition. 

I even bought a print, Snowy Central Park at 10,000 ft by Polish photographer Filip Wolak who won the Architecture category. Capturing the image by flying his Cessna above the New York restricted airspace, which gave him full freedom to roam. He said with a bit of luck he was able to capture the prefect shadow alignment along the avenue. I was pleased to hear the 90% of the cost of the print went straight to the photography and only the other ten to Sony and the printing company. 

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Imperial War Museum permanently hosts ‘The Lord Ashcroft Gallery’, visited on the 18th of April.

As photography was not allowed in this section on the Museum they were very inventive in creating an interactive way of learning. Holding a slip of paper with blank plates on it that need to be stamped or ‘embossed’ by the matching press machine which featured their own medal designs of those who have fought in the war.  Completing the task, producing a piece that those viewing can take away with them and a piece of memorabilia, which then they will hopefully recall and remember what they learnt whilst viewing the exhibition as it is a very informative and educational gallery.

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Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist exhibition at the Imperial War Museum on the 18th of April. 

A London born and based photomontage artist and Senior Research Reader in Photography, Art and the Public Domain at the Royal College of Art. Peter seeks to reflect his involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement, he turned from painting to photomontage to better address his political views. He is best known for the images he created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 1970s–80s. 

I thoroughly enjoyed viewing his exhibition ‘Visions of War Above and Below’, it was so well curated as the rooms flowed from one to the other. I love the broadness of the mediums Peter works with, his work appears very experimental but it executed so beautifully. The havoc and mayhem of war is definitely reflected throughout his work, in particular the end room, acting as the dramatic burst bomb end of the climatic walk through, whereby the walls were smothered in work, protruding from the walls on camps, very industrial to be in keeping with the times of the war. The use of newspapers within his exhibition was particularly thought provoking, as what would have been in the news would have been the war, and yet he is making work about it on them. A rather daunting cycle of what happens through ‘media’ even at such an early stage. I see the people relying on these papers to be informed on the happenings, and there pending fait. Peter did have some cleverly manipulated photos which became more like comic art. Although very few of his pieces were purely photographic is seems most works had stemmed from a photograph initially. The quality of imagery was not what was going to captivate me, it was the intensity of the  atmosphere that did. 

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Guest Lecture from street photographer Tom Wood on the 29th of April. 

His photographs fit comfortably within the finest tradition of candid photography, capturing incisive, decisive visual moments extracted from the chaos of life and transformed, by the medium, into compelling images.

He alliterated how shooting everyday over so many years, he has built up a huge archive of photographs that are yet to be made into exhibitions or publications. Recording a version of the world, not in its entirety or necessarily, but in its essence. Tom was happy to show selected page of his work and point out what he was pleased with for reasons that lie within the hands of the photo editor Padraig Timoney who curated the books Men and Women.

Padraig groups the images in a non-chronological order under the headings Men and Women, the sequencing of the books mixes different formats, styles and processes. This arrangements highlight the formal correspondences and relationships between pictures as well as Wood’s prolonged involvement with his subject matter. His photographs include both candid and posed portraits of people alone or in groups. Images of strangers are interspersed with those of friends and family and are often made from repeated engagements with particular locales. 

Having hung back after his talk to introduce myself, seeing as I was meant to be having a individual tutorial with him to following day but was unable to attend. Admiring the publications, Tom was giving explanations as to who the people are in a variety of the images, and why he enjoyed some of the compositions created by Padraig. With things as lighthearted as similar hair do’s in extremely different styled images. Finding connections, similarities and ties between images to create a order. He seemed to have a great appreciation of what Padraig has contributed towards the projects curation, as though he needed him to mould the huge archive of photos into fully formed pieces of art.

Tom was very keen to give us students the opportunity to purchase the publications as hugely discounted rates, with original prints to give away with the personally signed books. I couldn't resist, and I'm a sucker for anything that comes in pairs, so was easily swayed to purchase the Men and Women books.

I got to choose which one of print id like to take away, there was so many golden moments to choose from with such quality printings. When I saw it I knew it was the one to walk away with. A street view with a crossing and lollipop lady present, but what caught my eye was the post box (having done a 12 week project in year two on the postal system).

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Work Experience with James Arthur Allen in Huck Magazine on the 1st of May. 

The shoot I assisted James with on Stanley Donwood for Huck Magazine, was published in the May addition. Its interesting to see which images the editor favoured to then publish, to the ones James shot on impulse and the ones he purposely composed to fit expectations. 

Having spoken to James he has said that because Stanley was happy with the shoot, he spoke to the Glastonbury organisers about the images as he was photographed working on the Lino print for Glastonbury art work. They have since contacted James interested in the photographs. However as James is professional he has postponed making any agreements with them until Huck had published and content to let the images go elsewhere. 

It’s interesting to see a great example of how keeping busy and making work can always lead to further arrangements and you never know where your work will end up. But it’s important to stay professional so to keep the working respect of these companies so that they’ll be keen to work with you again. 

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BWB Football Trip to Stuttgart, Germany on the 29th of April.

Having been to training where Bristol City player Zack paid a visit and to the Tournament with all the coaches and young hopefuls that could be soon joining the BWB I feel I was well orientated into the group to then join them on the trip to Germany with my preparation.

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Visions of War Above and Below exhibition at the Imperial War Museum on the 18th of April.

This exhibition had a variety of artistic mediums, mainly paintings where they have depicted expressions of war through visuals. Many came in the form of metaphors, interpretations of their war experiences. 

There was a very strange erie voice playing whilst making your way through the exhibition, until you get the the very back room where the recording it playing from do you understand what the noise is. Artist Bashar Alhroub exhibited ‘Heavenly’ a single screen projection onto the ceiling which lasted 4.47 minutes. The video places the viewer in the position of the artist as he films the clip with the lens facing skywards. Bashar called this location the Souk, where he would go as a child and watch the market, above always full of people despite the Israeli soldiers hoovering close by. The mesh layer that I being filmed acting as a literal and metaphorical barrier of protection for him and his father to hide under. The camera remains fixed on the sky, leading up to the moment of relief at the end of the film as they emerge from there confines of the market.

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CV made to apply for Work Experience and Internship at the MOD.

Ed Low a graduate student who studied photography at Bath Spa, landed a job at the Military of Defence in Bristol. Having visited the University to view an exhibition, Ed recommended I apply for work experience at the MOD. Explaining that as I want to gain experience not just taking photographs but more so being a photo editor that it would be good to explore doing some time in his office, as they are keen for the photographer to shoot and then publish the images themselves, whether it be online or designing a layout for print. 

It sounded like a perfect opportunity, and Ed said he’d even give me a few pointers as to how to put together a specific CV for it. Mine was initially in the form of a plain black and white document which simply listed the necessary information and nothing extra. This was apparently completely the opposite of what they would be expecting. So I spent the time making it look graphically aesthetic with colours and fonts, with the addition of a profile shoot image. I also added a graph to state my skill level on different applications. Fingers crossed ill be there cup of tea and take me on board. It would be great to go on some of there highly classified jobs that other news reporters like the BBC aren't cleared to work on.

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Morag MacDonald Buisness Plan Lecture on the 18th of April.

As we are working towards publishing our websites as online portfolios of our work, Morag has some methods of making sure our websites are easily accessible and can be found by those we want to be able to find us. She went into further depth of SEO (search engine optimisation) then she did on her previous talk on websites. Making it clear what not to do, and what is key to do!

I have had a few complications with my square-space website design. Having designed a website with many clicks and follow through links on the page meant it involved using a lot more ‘pages’ to include informative text which exceeded the number of pages you are allocated on a ‘personal’ contract which is dramatically more affordable than the ‘professional company’ labelled contract. Showing Morag she liked my click through design which would also counted for more on the viewing accountability, and expressed it would be worth while paying more to keep with that rather than alter the design layout.