+ research report
mpho601.1 - photography major project 1 - enquiry and development
BA (Hons) Photographic Arts Major Project 1 - Research Report
This should be a summary of and a critical reflection on your research process so far. You should try to give the reader a sense of the process you have been through - your journey, your thoughts and decisions along the way and what has informed the choices you’ve made. Try to be as honest and as critically reflective as you can. Please extend boxes as required (length 1000-2000 w.)
Major Project Title (working title) Take a look at this place Intended as a working title and subject to change, I have titled the project to suggest the action of looking, and an exchange or an invitation taking place which is directing the viewer to notice the project is about place. I intend the title to sound informal and conversational and echoed within the immediacy of the visuals
Research Methods So far I have looked at a selection of photobooks in order to try to observe the syntax of photographic projects unfolding in the sequential book format. This has helped me to try to realise the specific order of tasks and timing required in a project like this, which would likely rely just as much in the editing and assembling as the actual taking of photographs. Though I have looked at projects which visually appeal to me, I haven’t been able to make the most sensible selections in relation to projects which relate more realistically to the constraints that I might encounter in my project - one of these namely being the timescale. Although, looking more specifically at photographic techniques applied and sustained throughout Intimate Distance by Todd Hido for example, was useful for observing the treatment of spaces like scenes; with a sense of a charged and electric atmosphere, despite the stillness and absence also conveyed throughout.
Pilot Project
Audience and Context
(Has a consideration of Context and Audience made you think about your project in a particular way? Have you been aware of the histories, conventions and audience expectations of particular contexts? Have you considered different contexts and how have you responded to them?)
A great deal of the visual material I have looked at recently both as part of this project, and outside of the project just in the context of browsing; have undoubtedly shaped my attitudes towards context and audience. The online platforms where I most often encounter extracts of this inspiration carry little or no evidence of the work’s progression, and the waste and expenditure remains behind the scenes, beyond visibility. In a way, the potential of such an apparently astute and succinct encounter of a body of work I have held up as an aspiration for my own work, thinking that this is a sign of what is logical, successful and appetising to a viewer. However, trying to deliberately vary my workflow with the intention of satisfying this aspiration for a change, and not actually spending enough time independently and consciously developing a single concept, I lost track of any genuine intent or sense I had in making this project.
I think my previous projects have demonstrated to me that the context for my work I consider most relevant is always in a suspense between personal and social space. The work itself aspires to be a site or event which imitates a familiar setting but is simultaneously a deliberately organised space to invite curiosity and interaction.
These aspects allow me to extend an investigation into the event or performance of making of a photograph to my audience, and also hopefully beyond the production of a single, definitive set of images authored by myself.
Up until this point I have completely avoided thinking about audience or context in my pilot, which has delayed my progress at this stage
Production and Presentation
(Discuss the production methods you have been exploring through your pilot project. What effects do these different approaches/ visual strategies have on the work? What choices have you made in the refinement of your visual approach and why? Is the approach you have chosen effective in communicating your ideas to the identified audience?)
Visual References / Bibliography
Hido, T. (2016). Todd Hido: Intimate Distance: Twenty-five Years of Photographs, A Chronological Album. New York: Aperture.
Gachot, S., B., Campany, D. (2016). Robert Cumming: The Difficulties of Nonsense. New York: Aperture.
Eisenreich, B. (2010). A NOT B. Amsterdam: Stichting Roma Publications.
Longo, R., Sherman, C. (2009). Men in the Cities. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel Verlag.
Gastman, R. (2016). Wall Writers Graffiti in its Innocence. Berkeley, CA: Gingko Press.
Pujade-Lauraine, G. (2014). A Perpetual Season. London: Mack.
Banash, D., C. (2013). Gleaning: Everyday life in collage culture. In Collage culture: readymades, meaning, and the age of consumption. Amsterdam: Rodopi. p217-242.