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Reflective Report.

For this project our group collaborated with the creative writing students. We initially split our group into smaller sub-groups each working with an individual creative writing student, this was so as a group we could come up with more work and also more variety of work which as a group we could come together and look through. This helped see each others ideas and techniques but also let us as a group see who was good at what and this helped us to use each others skill sets wisely to help boost productivity within the group.

My contributions towards this project included: helping with idea generation, taking images which i put forward to the group (including the creative writing students), organised photoshoots and external models, helped assist with studio shoots, helped with photo editing, corresponding with the creative writing students to share information between groups, helped present ideas and helped the other groups with refining their ideas.

While carrying out my research for this project it allowed me to further develop my understanding of what creative writing is and when and where it can be used. I initially in my sub group researched the theme of homelesness after being inspired by John’s writing. I began to draw conclusions and running themes from John’s text and came across the running theme of criminalisation. From this, I began experimenting wth ways in which i could portray this in my work by using different techniques both photographically and physically. The researched led me to look into the way police files are displayed. This research showed me different ways a photography project could be displayed in such a way to maximise audience participation and engagement. Going to art galleries in my spare time also helped me to understand what it is like to be an audience member for an exhibition. You can see evidence of my research and process in my tumblr blog which is used to document my work flow.

As a group we looked at framing and mounting styles and sizes all ranging in prices. we decided to use a box frame as we liked the effect it gave, we put the prices into an excel document to deduct the costs from our £1000 budget and it came under our budget which means these frames were a viable option - we looked into having a dibond mount around the images however the budget would not stretch to cover this so we moved away from the idea. Evidence of the spreadsheet is not on my blog however because even though I did request it in writing, the person who had the document didnt share it with me, this was hopefully just a communication error and nothing vindictive. I am happy with the quality of the final images, shooting on the 5Ds meant due to its high resolution full frame ability that the images were able to be blown up and not lose image quality.

Overall, during the course of this project I have gained a lot of knowledge. I had researched artists I would not have normally looked at. I had learnt new techniques in which work can be displayed and also altered such as jpeg glitching, framing and some new lighting techniques. The skills i have gained via this project include: timekeeping, dedication, idea generation and also communication. I feel like these are very important to consider especially during group work. Timekeeping is important because you must stay on top of deadlines and also attend meetings on time. Dedication helps you percivere when work becomes challenging and you are struggling. Communication is extremely important in group work because you are all meant to be working towards a common goal and communication between your group should help achieve this I believe that the group should communicate as a whole and there shouldn’t be one dictator. This project has given me experience of working as part of a group towards a common goal. it has also gave an experience of what it would be like to work on a photographic commission. If i were to do this differently next time I would like to work with a different group this is because I think the division of power and responsibility was not shared fairly. If i were to do this project again I would also like a theme less subjective than creative writing as we were the only group with this type of theme of something you couldn’t see and this was hard because there was nothing you could photograph directly at the start and we also had to rely heavily on the creative writing students to provide extracts which we could work from.

This is the second part of a series of images looking at the themes of: identity, emotions & culture. For this half of the series I have used colour. I wanted to use a method which would help these images to pop. I graded these photos with orange and teal colour lookups. I think that this really help the subject stand out and also makes the image more interesting. My personal favourite from this half of the series is the portrait at the top, I think the lighting is effective and that the colour is nicely balanced too.

These are a few images I had taken shooting the catwalk for UCA 3rd year fashion show at Chelsea Old Town Hall. I was using the Canon 5D MKIII and a Canon EF 100mm 2.8 lens. I had an issue with the lighting in the venue as the sun kept appearing which caused inconsistencies in lighting. However overall I thought the shoot was successful and i am satisfied with the images that I had come out with.

we have looked into different types of mounting for our work. The overall favourite finish was the dibond mount. Dibond is a more lightweight alternative to aluminium. The prints can be stuck onto the material or some companies offer the option for direct-to-dibond option. That being said this option is significantly out of our budget so we will have to review our costs.

our group have decided to use box frames for our images. the box frame works well as it has more depth than a regular frame. I like to think of this frame as more of a window. something to consider about a box frame is the light in the area it will be displayed. Due to the depth of the frame certain lighting may cause shadows on the actual work.

As a group we have to work out the costs of printing and framing our final pieces. we will do this via a spreadsheet and we will find different quotes and styles for the products we would like.

this is my jpeg glitch of the previous image I will submit towards the finals production. I think that this effect works well because it adds mystery and also more colours which makes it more interesting.

This is an image I have taken to put forward as an idea for one of the final pieces, I used a blue material for the background as i think it adds more interest to the image and i like the way the blue diffuses within the image. For this image I used 1 profoto light at a a 45 degree angle slightly above the models eye level. I added in a white reflector to lighten the shadows slightly. I used a 1.2 aperture for a shallow depth of field. I think the way the light falls on the face of this image is effective. To fit in with the current theme of our group project I will make a glitched version of this image.

The group decided to stick to one main theme within the project. This is the group which had worked on the diary style project. They had been looking at the use of Jpeg glitching within their images. This is where you change the coding of image files to affect the exported photo. They had also been experimenting with physically altering the prints. They had printed a portrait and then cut it up and weaved it in and out of eachother. the results of this led to an interesting image.

We came together as a big group and showed each other the work we had created with our creative writing students. Our story was about homelessness, one groups project was fantasy style writing and the other was a diary style of writing. It was interesting to see what the other people in the group had made with the writing provided by the creative writing students.

We talked about what went well, what could be improved and how to carry the project forward as a whole.

Guest Lecture - Kate Barret

Kate Barrett is the director of photography for Wallpaper * magazine. she let us see the process used to create these editorial images and adverts in Wallpaper* magazine. Kate was perviously a photography agent which gives her a better understanding of the photographers she hires. Kate if she see’s potential in them will often used upcoming photographers. I respect that although she could use big name photographers, she still gives rising talent a chance. The images in wallpaper magazine are stunning and the print quality matches this. Her speech made me consider the way in which magazines are presented.

These are the images I had created for the ‘police file’ styled images. on the photos I had taken I had used a custom font tool to write some notes in Hungarian underneath like you would find in police reports. The images of the police report and the maps are images where the usage rights are free. I used these to help give more background and make it clearer this is in Hungary.

these are some images I have used for inspiration and also to get some ideas of how these images can be displayed. I think that this is a really interactive piece and i think it will help to engage the audience.

I thought I should show a theme of criminalisation in these images. I had moved away from the idea of having the text actually on the images and wanted to use the text for inspiration rather than actually putting it on the image. I had thought about how I could show the criminalisation and I had come up with the idea to take and collate images of which you could find in a police evidence file or police investigation board.

A running theme I extracted from John’s text was the theme of criminalisation. In John’s writing he describes a Hungarian homeless man who currently lives in England. In Hungary homelessness has been criminalised, this shocked me as I personally believe that homelessness is a social issue rather than a police issue.

To incorporate text within these images. We had taken extracts from johns text. I wanted the words to feel like they were actually part of the image to try and achieve this I experimented with blend modes and opacities. I used layer masks to make the text seemingly weave in and out of the image. I think that my favourite one of these three images is the one with the door as the door can represent being let into to someones personality and lifestyle.

These are some of the images from the first shoot I had done with Beth. this is just a starting point as the images are pretty basic. We have decided to begin incorperating text within the images.

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