OCA TV Group meeting 15/3/2014

1. I have only made brief notes for this study visit. As I was between courses, I had no current work to show. those that did show were working on TAoP. Unfortunately I can’t recall any of it as it is over month ago. Clive white was the tutor in attendance and gave his usual to down earth practical advice. I have made a note about photographic voice and using a fixed focal length for all of your work as an example of one element of an individual style. Clive also mentioned that using full frame (35mm) sensors gives a greater depth of field. This is something I had not considered and perhaps my next digital SLR should be full frame. (I’ve got to wear out my D90 first but it doesn’t show any signs of giving up the ghost any time soon).
2. While Eddy was setting up the printers for the afternoon session, Clive gave some valuable explanations and advice about balancing light sources using an electronic light meter and the use of the Inver cone when taking incident light readings.
3. We had two printers set up for the printing workshop, a four colour Canon and an Epson 2400 which I think was an 8 colour printer. Eddy was able to demonstrate the differences between the the resulting test prints and  the discussion revolved around the differences between results obtained on paper compared with what we see on our monitors. Calibration and colour spaces to use were also discussed.
4. The final session involved Clive setting up a large  format monorail camera (5x4), proving us with some optical formulae and challenging us to come up with the height of the image on the plate. I’m afraid with my customary speed of working out even the simplest mathematical formula, I never reached an answer before the session ended!

Another enjoyable day and I am looking forward to the next meeting on the 31st May.

OCA Thames Valley Group Meeting 18th January 2014

We were just a small group this time, me, Eddy, Carol, Alet and Martin. There was no tutor in attendance either so we were self directed although Eddy had told us that the afternoon’s discussion would be about Portraiture.
Eddy showed some work from his Gesture and Meaning course. He explained that his images were illustrating the styles of Constructivism, Conceptualism and Surrealism. I was only really interested in what he had to say about the course as the concepts he was describing are a bit beyond me at the moment. Although I will take advice, I think for level 2, I will stick with my first choices of Landscape and Documentary.
Both Alet and Martin were newcomers to the group and showed work from their Art of Photography course. The discussion that followed helped them with the direction that their work should follow, based on the experience of those of us who had successfully completed the course.

Last year I had tried an exercise photographing actors expressions on stage during a rehearsal for the farce “Trivial Pursuits”. I took 12 prints (3 of 4 different characters) In the hope that it would provoke a discussion about how successful I had been in capturing a range of expressions. (It was one idea for the final project of DPP)

Although the actors were aware of my presence, I was shooting randomly throughout the performance, trying to capture the fleeting moments of emotion. Lighting was difficult and depended the actors position on the set. I suppose it was inevitable that the discussion centred around which set of photographs worked best. Here is the set with the favourite presented at the bottom of the table:

The consensus was that the final set had better depth and worked together better. This is because this character spent a lot of time sitting on a bench at the front of the stage which made him an easier target. Despite the fact that I decided not to pursue this as a project for DPP, It was a useful exercise and I now have some people who are quite relaxed around me and could possibly help with future projects.

Afternoon discussion

I’m not quite sure why we were discussing portraiture again but the discussion took a similar course as last time with the questions of whether or not a portrait needed a person in the frame or was a collection of their possessions all that was needed to identify them. Eddy cited his auntie for whom certain items (I think knitting, a Tesco’s carrier bag and a bag of sweets or a type of biscuit) would all that would be required to identify her amongst family members.

We discussed personas and whether it was possible to find the hidden “person within” in a portrait. I concluded that it takes a fair amount of skill for a photographer to be able to do this and even then, the perception of the viewer may not allow it to come through. We discussed several examples from the recent Taylor Wessing visit but with such a complex and ethereal notion, we reached no firm conclusion.

Extending the idea of the inclusion of a figure in a portrait, the OCA Students Facebook group had posed the question earlier in the week and put up this link to provoke further discussion:

http://www.arno-rafael-minkkinen.com/ I found this artist very interesting indeed. I will write a separate post very soon.

OCA Thames Valley Study Group Meeting 19 Oct 2013

Today was another successful meeting of the group. As usual, students showed work before lunch and there was a discussion about portraiture after lunch.
The first to show work was John. He explained that his was a different idea that he was still working on – he wanted our reactions.
His images were single blocks of colour with a written description of an image (his words) with a caption of the image as it was published. John read his description, and then handed out the prints for us to look at and to read the original caption.
After completing all of the readings, John showed us the book of war images from which he had taken his descriptions.

I think John had printed the block of colour that was brought to mind by his description but apart from the first one he read which matched the predominant colour of the print (orange soil) I didn’t relate the colour to the description. John’s reading in a flat monotonous matter of fact tone and the manner in which he cast the prints onto the table after reading each one, to me reflected compassion fatigue. Having discussed this in relation to documentary photography at the last meeting, I think this may have been his intention. The images he chose were horrific and I thought this was an interesting way of presenting a project and look forward to seeing how it develops.

Eddy is working on Gesture and Meaning and he showed 22 prints that he had taken for an exercise in which he had to go to a place he didn’t know and take a series of linked pictures on a walk through the place. He had chosen Hungerford and we saw images of buildings and streets in the town but not much evidence of links between them. Mention was made of the shootings but Eddy said he was not prepared to do anything that sensitive or controversial. Sharon suggested some edits that he could use, e.g including only those images which contained part of the road or that which did not. There were some with direct references to the Hungerford’s past, the Bear Inn and a courtyard which was part of the stabling for the teams of coach horses that used the London Road in the 18th century (A4). Perhaps he could have made more use of signs and fingerposts to link the various areas of  the town. Again, it will be interesting to see he concludes this exercise.

Steven presented an edited version of his stained glass windows project for the colour assignment of TAoP. He had learned about personal iconography since the last meeting and had produced some printed cards explaining his personal connections with the images. Further suggestions on how to present the images with the supporting text were discussed. Ideas included using a post card format with the image one side and a hand written explanation on the other.

Steven also showed the images for the start of the Light assignment. He had made a wooden cross and a barbed wire crown and was experimenting with the different lighting effects required for the assignment. His compound image of his cross against the background of the Coliseum in Rome was interesting.

I presented my idea for the third assignment of DPP which needs to be in black and white. In August I had a Scot’s Pine tree removed from my garden and thought that as a memorial to the tree (which must have been over 100 years old) I would record and present the photos in black and white for the assignment. I had made seven prints containing nine images (two diptychs were made containing related images) The sequence started the day before the work was carried out and I photographed the tree in situ and showing its location. The following day was wet but I documented the tree surgeons work and made more images of the pieces of the 80 foot tree as they were stacked in the garden.

The idea seemed to go down well and I received some good suggestions about presenting the assignment and which images should be included and /or left out. I will also try to print the assignment myself as the lab prints did not have the required quality to do justice to the photographs.

I have to finish the final three exercises and I will then re-edit the assignment images bearing in mind the comments from the group.

Catherine showed a print on Titanium paper and Sharon updated us on her current Wish Prayers project.

Group discussion: Looking at Portraits from Photography – Key concepts

Sharon started the discussion by asking the question; do we see the real person in the image? The discussion continued with the idea that we are aware of how important it is to us how we look to our friends and family especially at formal social events. Is that really us or do we present a version of ourselves as we would wish to be seen? Also, how do our prejudices, stereotypes and history colour our perceptions of the portraits that we see?

Sharon presented three portraits and told us the one of these three was a philanthropist, another a criminal and the third would become famous. We were asked to write down some key words which came to mind for each of the portraits with a view to deciding which was which.

• Older man; benign, confident, characterful countenance; avuncular
• Young woman; confident air, attractive, unrepentant, disbelief
• Young man; shy, disturbed

Having thought about the portraits, we were told that there was no correct answer and these were random characterisations. The point was that we looked for these particular characteristics, re-enforcing our own prejudices and perceived stereotypes. 

The next exercise was to make three portraits of one of the group, Dave volunteered and was photographed as he was, a lie (something he evidently wasn’t) and as he wanted to be portrayed. The photos were taken with Sharon’s camera and I’m not sure if we will have access to copies but in case we don’t, we took a picture of Dave as he appeared to us, good humoured, genial and smiling, another of him looking aggressive and another of him peering through foliage (he is a keen birdwatcher). This exercise raised the question; can the sitter influence the photographer or even control the photographer? The discussion continued on this theme until the end of the session.

The text for this discussion was the chapter “4 Looking at Portraits” from Photography – Key Concepts.

Study Day –Thames Valley Group 17th August 2013

Another well attended and interesting study day in Thatcham.
Despite arriving late , we caught the tail end of the presentation of Eddy's project on the Gilbert Court residents portraits with audio commentaries, there was some discussion about the way his interviews were presented and how this enhanced the strength of the portraits. I thought it was an interesting concept and well presented.
John followed on from his last project using texts with photographs and showed us images of paper butterflies inscribed with messages of hope and remembrance from the Eden project. These he had paired with images, taken in the area on the same day. He was attempting to link the images with the words on the butterfly and also show a narrative by arranging 10 pairs in a sequence or two rows of five. Perhaps I missed something but there was only one pair that I could make a connection between and I failed to see the narrative in either arrangement. An interesting idea which needs developing further I think.
We congratulated Keith on his achievement in passing the Advanced Photography course at Level 3. He is continuing with MOP. He updated us on his Women Landscape Photographers project . As Catherine was present this time we learned more about his interaction with her as one of his subjects and he showed us the very high quality result of using a 5x4 view camera for Catherine's portrait. He then talked about the other project he is doing on the East End of London covering such diverse themes as emigration, gentrification, industrialisation, urban landscape, chronoscopes (landscapes with vestiges of times past), social reform, organised crime and education and how these have influenced life in the area. He asked the question (rhetorically, I think) how can I use photographs to convey these ideas of the diversity of the East End? Looking forward to seeing his progress on this.
Carol (new to the group) showed five monochrome abstracts that she had produced for TAoP Elements of Design. These were very strong and high contrast illustrating the ideas in the brief perfectly.
I showed the latest edit of my "Oosterschelde " creating narrative assignment for DFP It is far from finished but I needed to let go of it and get some impartial feedback. I have been 'living' with it for a couple of weeks and was getting very set in what I should include. Feed back on the whole was positive. John noticed that I seem to have run out of steam about half way through, the length of the clips had increased toward the end. I'll look into that . There are several things that I have done in response, taken the titles off the footage and displayed them on a black screen. I may just fade them in and out. It will be quicker. The whole thing needs tightening up, Keith said the subtitles weren't required, he understood Simon. Siegfried pointed out the titles and gaps between sequences and mentioned that Alice's interview footage seemed very close up. I explained the lack of tripod and how I had to rest my elbows on the table to keep the camera steady. Sharon liked the sea/sky sequences and the sense of actual movement from the camera which reflected the reality of the situation. There was also a feeling that perhaps there should be less talking and more action. I've made a few minor changes and posted it to Vimeo so that Robert can comment and answer my questions about the final cut length, music and title cards.
Siegfried presented 3 sets of 4 images to which she had applied varying levels of processing in PS. Her question was, how much processing was acceptable? The answer 'it depends' gave her no comfort. As I don't use Photoshop and only apply a limited amount of post processing to my images, to me the answer is 'as little as necessary'. If I find myself having to do more that just basic adjustments, I'll go and reshoot if possible.
Catherine is working on assignment 5 for People and Place. She has chosen a 1960's housing development as her place and a resident who has lived there since it was new. The estate blends into the landscape and looks as if it belongs there. She is completing the project for a fictional publication 'Architects Review'. An interesting project beautifully photographed.
Steve is continuing his work on TAoP, with a series of pictures of stained glass windows in local churches. He has taken a lot and is starting to edit the collection into groups of colour combinations for his next assignment. The colour and texture in the glass panels is very rich, an ideal subject.
Brian had recently photographed a family wedding. He showed some informal shots of the wedding party and was asking how he could improve the prints. He said he is not planning on making wedding photography part of his practice but just needed advice for this project.
Discussion Text
In, around and afterthoughts (on documentary photography)
I concluded that this must have been written in the late seventies or early eighties. I found the language very difficult and the ideas in this essay almost impossible to follow. References within it were varied, to photographers I had heard of but was not sufficiently familiar with their work. I ran out of time before the meeting so I couldn't do any research. Hopefully in the coming months, I can at least look up these photographers (Rijs, Hine, Evans et al) and find out why they are mentioned. Also, the copy of the essay I got from the internet had no clear pictures.
Rather than attempt to re-read the essay and again fail to follow its thread, I will use what I remember of the group discussion to put down my thoughts on what I think of as documentary photography and photographs as documents.
When I think 'documentary', films come to mind first. i.e. non fictional accounts of things that are happening or have happened in the past. So, a documentary film maker would be recording an actual event, e.g. how something is made, the community of those involved in its manufacture and /or the possible social benefits or problems associated with that process. A documentary photographer would do the same thing using still images and possibly team up with a writer (or add text themselves) This becomes photojournalism - is this something else, another genre? Does this make all documentary photographers photojournalists and all photojournalists documentary photographers? Perhaps photojournalism is just a job title.
Where and when does the photograph as a document become art? (and what is art anyway?) Rosler was writing about Migrant Mother the FSA photograph by Dorothea Lange taken in the 1930's. I suspect this photograph (despite the controversy surrounding Florence Thompson and Lange's apparent misunderstanding over the purpose of the photograph) has become famous because it is a good example of its type - reproduced in photographic textbooks. Whether the image became famous in its own right or because it was taken my Lange is a chicken and egg question.
The wider question of labelling genres will never go away. I've started reading Geoff Dyer's "The Ongoing Moment", The point is illustrated on page one showing the futility of trying to catalogue something so diverse with the example of a Chinese encyclopedia's attempt to classify the animal kingdom.
Following on from Saturday's discussion and staying with documentary
John sent us a link to an article by a female journalist working in Syria. I'm not sure I understand why anybody would put themselves through such privation and it the way of such danger. She certainly exposed the way journalism had changed in these times of rapid universal communication. She wants us to be able to say that we know what is going on in Syria. I'm not sue that I do. I never got to grips with the Balkans war. Afghanistan leaves me perplexed. All I see is the waste of life and resources. It's fine to have ideals and I admire those who do but fail to understand no matter how many reports they get through to us.
The second link that John sent posed these questions:
Can we understand war without looking at blood? And without seeing blood, would we know what war looks like?

Western media have largely chosen not to show extremely graphic images from conflict zones. If this trend continues and the stories we read are illustrated only by pictures of soldiers firing guns or tanks on the streets, are we eventually going to believe that wars are becoming less bloody and less violent?

Pasted from <http://www.trust.org/item/20130731160526-6x84g/?source=shtw>

The first question; war is a difficult thing to understand unless you have been involved in one. I haven't. My understanding of the concept of war comes from fiction, news reports and documentaries. Until the early seventies the majority of war images were black and white. The blood was there but it didn't jump out at you. We probably relied on the caption to reinforce our understanding and filled in the rest with our imagination.

The second question; yes. See my answer to the first question.

The third question; if you equate a bloodless real life battle shown on a media screen with other images (i.e. from computer games or movies) shown on the same screen then the danger becomes how do you tell reality from fantasy? This question was one posed last year at the Brighton Biennial by the video Five Thousand Feet is the Best by Omer Fast do the operators of remote strike drones, cocooned in their safe bunkers a continent away from the action, actually feel anything?

Pasted from <http://rjdown-dpp-log.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Brighton%20Photo%20Biennial%202012>

I think we do become de-sensitised to blood and gore. Many years ago one on my favourite TV programmes was “Your Life in Their Hands” a pioneering attempt to show the work of surgeons by taking TV cameras into the operating theatre. It was ok as long as it was in black and white. As soon as the TV started showing operations in colour, I got queasy. For a while, anyway. Now it’s seems commonplace and easy to watch. That said, I’m sure the emotional interpretation to a war report counts for more than our visual interpretation.

This theme will continue this weekend with the study visit to “Current Conflicts”.

OCA Photography Thames Valley Group - Study day

Introduction: This event was held in Thatcham and attended by seven OCE Photography students at various stages in their degree course and tutor Sharon Boothroyd. The agenda  was simple, a morning looking at each other’s work, critique, advice and discussion. After lunch we discussed the book by John Berger “Ways of Seeing”
I will restrict my write up of  the morning’s sessions to brief reminders of the work seen and summaries of the discussions.
John is working on a project with friends who help with an orphanage charity in Thailand. He is looking for ways to use composite images to show the plight of the orphans, their likeness, what they produce (toys, soap) and what is sent to them to help them raise funds (knitted garments made in UK). He had produced several images using photographs aand text using the different elements described. We discussed his ideas and added our own.

Steven showed his images for the “Elements of Design” module for TAoP. He had used the interiors of his local church and Guildford Cathedral which gave his submission a strong link comparing the simplicity of his local church with the grandeur of the cathedral. Steven had produced some strong images of crosses and the alter with candles. We discussed his use of the starburst pinpoint light filter in his images. Some for and some against with no clear outcome.

Brian  is just starting the Level 2 Landscape module. He presented many different exterior scenes and posed the question; what is a landscape? After looking at his examples (naturalistic, elemental, city and town, water and sea) we concluded that landscape could mean whatever you want. Personally, I would add the caveat that part of it it needs to be outside, under the sky although not necessarily including  the sky.

Keith is working at level 3 on portraiture. He showed us the start of his idea that he would make a portrait of a landscape photographer in the landscape and include alongside a picture they had just taken in that landscape, linking the two images with a common theme.

Sharon showed us the initial image of her latest project in which she plans to construct scenarios illustrating lines from prayers she has read from an on-line forum. She told us she planned to remove the spiritual wording (God, Lord etc.) from the lines. The example she showed was captioned something like “give me the strength to get through the day” and it showed a young woman sitting inside a cafe at dawn or dusk(?), texting on a mobile phone. The picture was taken from the street. I think we are all looking forward to seeing the completed project.

Vicki is working on TAoP as well and wanted help in selecting images for the “Elements of Design” module. She showed some very good images and with the help of Sharon and the group I think she was able to make a good selection for her submission.

I took along my selection of street photography images that I wrote about earlier in my blog here.

This is a personal project which is on-going. I wanted to share the idea with the group to get their reaction to it. It was pretty well received but as I only had images to show on my laptop, the impact of some of the more interesting compositions may have been lost. Keith made a suggestion which I will take up and print off a series of 6x4 prints so that next time I can add some more images (I have plenty to include) and we can sort them into interesting or themed groups. I think there was some confusion about my images. Sharon thought that a cropped landscape image had been taken by using the camera sideways but I pointed out that I shoot more or less blind using the 18mm setting on my zoom and compose the images by cropping later if required.

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Ways of Seeing

Sharon led the discussion on this book (and TV Series) from the 1970s. After reading it I wondered if it was too far out of date. Luckily John had the same thought and wrote an updated version of the final essay in the book which is about publicity photography, which is here.

The discussion centred mainly on the representation of women. Since the discussion I have reread the section in the book and watched the TV programme. At the end of the session, Sharon handed round a question sheet so I have attempted to answer the questions in the light of the discussion as far as I can remember. (I still have difficulty with the language used and the ideas expressed in some Art texts so I may have misread or misunderstood some of it.)

Representation of Women
What does this picture essay convey to you about representations of women?
In terms of the oil painting tradition, I think women are shown as available, to be owned by the spectator. Similarly in publicity/advertising it seems that women’s sexuality is used to titillate and flatter the male viewer  
What is Berger's argument?
Men act and women appear, men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at. In so doing they objectify themselves.
Would it be helpful if he offered an alternative?
At the time the book was written, this may have been true. I didn’t really understand this argument so I don’t know if there is an alternative. 
How would you craft a picture essay on representations of women? What images would you include?
I think I would include images of all of the things that women do in contemporary society. Beyond this would need care consideration to redress the imbalance of Berger’s argument.
How would you define the difference between naked and nude?
The dictionary definition for both words is broadly similar. In the contexts of painting, publicity and photography my understanding is that the terms are linked to the purpose of the image. Going back to Salgado’s controversial images of naked indigenous women, they live without clothes so they are naked. The argument that illustrates the point is the suggestion that they have been framed and lit in such a way as to make them into nudes, i.e. that their bodies have been reduced to objects solely for the viewing pleasure of the spectator. (In this particular instance I happen to disagree with the argument – see my previous post).
In the narrower context of photography I have always thought of the nude as artistic as long as the model does not engage with the viewer by looking directly into the lens. If they do, then it becomes a different genre – glamour. After that there is a whole new argument about the erotic and the pornographic which will go on for as long naked people are the subject of photographs or paintings.
Is there such a thing as an ideal spectator? (Is it generally a man?)
I didn’t understand the question.
What might a real woman look like?
I asked a woman friend this question, she laughed.
A helpful picture of a woman?
I think I’ve spent enough time on this.

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Conclusions: A difficult book to get to grips with although the TV series made it easier get through. I’m still struggling with this type of reading because I find it difficult to retain ‘non facts’. I’m a visual kinaesthetic learner, unless I can apply what I have read immediately, I lose it.
Study Day: A very worthwhile day in which I was able to share some ideas, receive ideas and advice but most important, I felt part of something which is so valuable when you study alone at a distance.

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