Self Directed Assignment @jadecockerillsda-blog - Tumblr Blog

James Morgan

James Morgan born in 1986, is a multi award winning film director and photojournalist. His in depth photographic features have appeared in National Geographic, Sunday Times and many other. His images regularly lead campaigns for the World Wildlife Fun and USAID and are published and exhibited around the world. James is represented by both Panos Pictures and Getty Images in London.

I chose this series of work as I was inspired by the images, their extremely beautiful. I really love the glare of light that shines through each image.

One of my favourite photographs from the series because of the lighting. The sun glare helps to settle the environment, and makes you think about what it would be like to be standing right there. the photograph is perfectly framed, with her being central to the image and surrounded in a field of flowers it helps to keep all the attention on her.

© A farmer displays a crop of tomatoes in Madhuban Model Village where WWF has helped introduce the use of biogas and organic farming practices. Switching from a wood-fuelled cooking fire to a biogas flame saves trees, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, prevents health problems and also saves time.

A beautiful detailed shot of a women picking up some tomatoes. the depth of field is wonderful, allowing the focal point to be central to the image it makes the image more visual interesting. I also really like the caught in the moment feel to it, as the dirtiness of her fingers suggest this. It gives the image a more life like approach.

SDA Final Images

Truro Farmers Market

A Place where local companies get together in a market and sell fresh local produce to the community. A variety of stalls where there - fresh fish, bakery, florists, and handmade jewellery. I wanted to show the variety which was there, and the show the story of each stall and what they do.

Image 1: An Environmental shot of the Farmers Market in Truro. Showing the public taking of interest in the stalls and trying out the fresh produce they have to offer. I wanted to take a distant shot like this to show the range of stalls, and what was going on at the tie.

Image 2: A detailed shot of the produce that was sold on the stall of the Cornish Mill and Bakehouse. They told me that Muddy Cart Wheels where one of their best sellers on their stall, and it was an old classic which is very popular. The reason why I chose this shot was because its nice and light, and has a depth of field which helps to focus on the product showing.

Image 3: Portrait of David Buscombe, owner of The Cornish Mill Bakehouse company. David and his wife Sara Buscombe own the company and sell a selection of bread rolls, pasties, cakes, and savoury pastries. Their company is now one of the most well-established and familiar sights on Lemon Quay, Truro’s Farmers Market. I chose this shot because it shows the owner of the company, and it was a nice shot to have him wearing the logo on his pinny.

Image 4: Detailed shot of The Cornish Mill stall. Showing the produce that they sell in the company was very important in this series as I wanted to show the fresh farming produce that is sold today.

Image 5: Kelnan Plants a local florist in the Truro area. Selling all types of flowers for different needs and occasions. I liked this shot because it shows the market stall and the environment that I was in. I also really like the framing in this shot, the top of the canopy helps to create leading lines around the image that leads the eye back to her.

Image 6: A detailed shot of Barbra Hallman holding fresh fish from her stall Kernowsashimi. A company which supplies good, clean, and fair fish to the people of cornwall. I really love this shot because of the colours, the bright blues from the fish and the gloves compliment the red jacket that she is wearing. I also like the framing of the image, how the fish are central to the image and it has a shallow depth of field which helps to keep the focus of the image on the fish.

Truro Farmers Market

Finding a placement

Finding a placement proved to be extremely hard during this module, especially with farming. Maybe because its a busy season for a lot of the farming companies around? Phoning a few farms around the local area, and with them saying no, or not getting back to me - it was proving to be a more difficult task than I thought. I knew I wanted to do something around farming so I decided to explore into that a bit more.

Farming Markets

Local Producing Foods

Retail Farming Stores

Animal Shelters

Places that sell farming produce

Landscape photography

Paul Glazier - Vatersay

Paul Grew up in London and first went to the island of Vatersay when he was 12. He fell in love with the island and returned to the island once or twice and year for many years. The photographs in this series were digitalised in 2009 and then put online, after the response he realised that the people on the island were really appreciative of the photos, and said that they didn’t have much photos of their childhood because of the lack of cameras on the island.

I love this series of images, showing the childhood of a group of children living on an island. It captures something very rare, the excitement of a child’s childhood like playing out on the beach or on the swings is something that you cannot stage in a photograph. The purity of the images are wonderful, the excitement on the child’s face as she eats a packet of Skips, whilst the others plead for a crisp. Paul documented something very wonderful, the images he took were very well composed from the framing to the exposure. I also really like how they were taken on an old black and white film camera, it gives it that ‘captured in time’ feel to the images.

I really love this image because of its contrasting tones, and lighting. I also really like the curtains, they remind me of my grandmothers curtains that used to hang in her kitchen, making me think of my childhood. I feel that Paul exactly does that with all his images, everyone likes to look back on old images when we were young children, and these photos bring that happiness.

Looking at this series of images has made me consider getting in contact with a farm, and making a long term project on farming and the people that live in the outdoors, embracing nature around them. Its something that could be a long term project, and I would love to experiment with different film cameras to get the best result possible.

Trail Shoot

I spent a few days with Mole Valley Farmers and managed to get in some personal shots along with what I had assigned to do. Although I managed to do this, I would of preferred to spend a little more time with the subjects, as I think it was needed to get the shots I wanted.

I feel that this shoot prepared me for what I should have done with it, and made me think about what I really wanted my outcome to be.

Most of this set are posed pictures between the farmer and the consultant to Mole Valley - this is something which I do not want to include within this module. I prefer photos that aren’t posed, and they are rather natural looking.

Because of the stunning weather on that day, the colours that came through the photos were amazing. Also the sunlight was perfect for creating shadows that made the images look even more interesting - For example IMG_1590 and IMG_1592. I also really like the photos in the barn - the light seeping through the barn is stunning, it has a low light affect and made everything golden in its path.

Overall, this trail shoot helped me understand exactly what I wanted to capture and show in my final set of images. It also gave me some really creative ideas on what i could do on the farm with lighting, and scenery work.

Dean Riggott

Photographer Dean Riggott doesn’t rely on tales to tell the story of rural life in Minnesota. Instead, he painstakingly documents life in America’s Heartland through his camera’s lens.

Selections of Dean’s farming images have been featured in exhibits around the state, including the Rochester Art Center and Bloomington Art Center. His images capture the simple pleasures and the complexities that are all too familiar to today’s farmers. With natures pristine majesty as a backdrop, Dean’s photographs record the mysterious power that lures people to the land.

Riggott documents the every day to day life of being on a farm, something Im definitely interested in doing. I also love how his work has such variety - from documenting work on the fields, to cows in the barn, to photographing the children growing up there. It would be nice to do a project where I stay focused on one particular farm, getting to know the family and their working schedule, and document their lifestyle living and working on a farm.

I particularly love this image due to the depth of field that blur’s out the background, slowly making its way into focus on the man checking the wheat. The lighting really works well with the colours in this image, due to the wheat being quite a light colour, its gives of amazing rich tones through the image, and the depth of field really helps that. The image is nicely framed, with the two tractors behind him - it helps to compose the image, and creates leading lines that draw you back to him. As the camera is at quite a low angle you get to see his perspective, and see exactly what he’s doing.

I really like this image because it stood out from the rest of the series, its different in a way because you can only see the persons wellington boots and the pot of milk for the calf. It shows another side to the job - caring after the animals. As on a farm, its extremely important to keep your animals healthy and on a nutritious diet otherwise the produce they sell would not be to the highest standard. I love how the camera is at such a low angle - I like it when an image has this because you get to see the small detailed things that you don’t normally get to see in life.

Audra Mulkern

Audra Mulkern is a cook, writer and photographer who is putting good food in the spotlight and changing the way we look at farming. She is the author of “Rooted in The Valley: The Art and Colour of The Snoqualmie Valley Farmers Markets” - a photographic essay highlighting farmers and artisans from the Carnation and Duvall farmers markets.

Aura also writes and photographs “The Female Farmer Project” a chronicle of depth stories about the rise of women working in agriculture around the world. The Female Farmer Project has garnered international recognition, and has been featured in Huffington Post, Modern Farmer, and a number of magazines.

Audra has a very good sense of capturing something so natural as a daily task and photographing it beautifully. This image shows exactly that, the lighting is perfect - from its soft tones, to the glaring light seeping through the depth of field behind her. The tractor frames the image very well, it acts as leading lines which takes your eyes around the image.

I really like this on going project that Audra is taking on, it shows a different side to farming - not just the normal average story. Showing how women work on farms, and what kind of roles that they do.

I personally think that this is a wonderful portrait that Audra has taken. You can see exactly what this women is trying to do, as she reaches down to grab her bucket. I also love the colours to the image, the soft beige/brown colours coming from the soil compliment the greens from the trees behind her, as it slowly fades out to a deep sky blue. The layers behind her of the soil, trees and sky help keep the attention on her. Naturally we look whatever is central to an image, so the trees act as a guide line which flows straight to her.

Looking at Audra has helped me create a few ideas which will help me in my project. It has also given me some thought in how I would capture my images - from the lenses i would use, to the framing of the images.

Yasuo U

Yasuo is a photographer who lives in Gainesville FL, but originally born and raised in Japan. He came to the United states in 2000, and moved to Gainesville in 2005. He loves to work with a wide range of people and genres. His current project took an interest to me - he’s currently working on a project to support and promote local food growers and related locally small businesses through photography.

What I love about this project, Is it looks exactly like what I would want to do for this module. Looking into farming industry has always sparked something in my photography, especially in person at work. Looking into the farming industry could be something I look into deeply within the next few years here at University.

A wide angle shot of the farm that Yasuo visited. A local farmer was showing round a group of people that were interested in what the farmer does there. The thing that I like most about farming photography abroad is the exceptional colours that you get. The beautiful greens from the grass and trees clash so beautifully with the clear blue sky’s.

A stunning portrait here of a working farmer. I love portraits like this, when you can tell typical cultures or sceneries. For example, the straw round hat is a complete give away that the farm is in America.I love the lighting in this image, the harsh shadow that covers his face from the sunlight works lovely alongside the bright light that shines onto his arm. A strong depth of field is used here to make him stand out and be the main focal point to the image.

Documenting people on farms? This could be something that I look into for this module. Photographing on farms on a sunny day always has a very satisfied end to the shoot, as the lighting is always stunning.

Looking at Yasuo’s work has helped me create wider thoughts about what I want to achieve in this project. Contacting local farms and documenting what they do Is definitely something i’m interested in pursuing.

Initial ideas

By reflecting my time here at University with this project, I wanted to look back right to the beginning. What was the first thing I done? Then I realised that my first ever shoot was photographing my local town (the project to get into university)

Possible ideas could include:

Photographing local businesses

What is Falmouth?

Photographing in local areas - Falmouth & Truro

Farming

Farmers markets

Unique shops

Find an interesting local town story

Local businesses

BA (Hons) PRESS & EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY - SDA BRIEF

Unit Code: PEP140 Unit Title: Photographic Practice – Introductory Skills (The Building Blocks of Press & Editorial Photography)

Assignment Title: Things As They Are – Photography Within Context.

The Brief:

The S.D.A (Self Directed Assignment) is your opportunity to piece together all the elements that you have undertaken throughout the year to produce ONE single body of work on ONE specific subject. The S.D.A is a substantial body of work, and you must find a story or subject that will sustain you throughout the term. The work MUST reflect the time period that you have had assigned to it. The importance of the photographic essay is vitally important to current practice. It enables viewers, art buyers, art directors, picture and commissioning editors to understand and evaluate a photographer more than a portfolio of un-connected single images ever could. Your pictures as part of an S.D.A will inevitably be your signature as a photographer and image maker.

All projects cannot be undertaken until a typed story proposal has been signed off from one of the members of the Press and Editorial staff.

Constraints:

Edit of six photographs to 10”x8”. You will also need to attend all edits and tutorial feedbacks. These will take place on a weekly basis – see your weekly timetable for groups/rooms etc.

Materials and Presentation:

This project should be shot on the 35mm digital or analogue format, B/W or colour. The final photographs should be printed to 10”x8” and captioned accordingly. Captions MUST be TYPED!

Work Required for Assessment:

You should provide a finished edit of six prints to 10”x8” and presented in your print box. You should also submit your blog with all relevant photographer research, annotation, contact and work prints in order to show your journey with this in depth project.

Final Deadline:

Assessment Monday 11th May – DEADLINE 9.30am – NO LATER!

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