Development.

How do you feel you are progressing with technical aspects of this course? Is there a technical gremlin that might have imped your progress? What might you do to improve this?

Throughout the first year of this course, I felt extremely unconfident with the technical aspects of cameras and as time has progressed, I felt myself getting a lot better with it all due to the practice.

There are still parts of the technical that I have problems with and still feel unconfident, such as working in the studio with sync and the lighting, I plan to combat this with using the studio more in this second year. The best way to conquer the situation would be to try my best and do it and work through the parts that I don’t understand. Experience.

Confidence is something that I struggle a lot with in terms of everything on this course but due to a lot of situations that I worked on this first year, I feel so much more confidence and I am determined to work through this and battle through it to learn more.

 

How do you feel you are progressing with the academic aspects of the course? Do you believe that you would benefit from university’s academic support?

I found the support that we got throughout the first year extremely helpful, from the universities help and advice with essay’s but also the way everything was explained to us, making it all very clear in terms of equipment, projects etc. I do believe that I have benefited and would continue to do so.

 

What was your most rewarding assignment this year & why?

I do believe that confidence in a lot of my life is a big stopper in all aspects of life and so, I find myself worrying and panicking over the presentation side of the assessment’s and the practical exam, however, I do believe that they have been the most rewarding part this last year as I found that I was able to do them, and I think tackling things like this a lot more will be hard for me but I am determined this year to do so as I know it will get a lot easier for me.

I did well in my final presentation for the first year and it felt so good to be able to do it and find a voice, and I also did do well in my practical exam as well so ive found that despite the thoughts that hold me back, experience is good, no matter how frightening it is, and that I can do it. Luckily, this is something I have been realizing and despite still having more to work on, I am thankful for the course helping me with this.

 

 

 

What has been the most important skills/knowledge gain that has allowed you to improve your practical work?

Personally, the workshops had helped me gain knowledge with both simple things and harder things in the studios.

I have also been able to learn a lot more on the computer in editing, such as Photoshop and Lightroom etc.

 

 

 

What improvements in your studying & work will have to be made to enable you to improve next year? Is the balance of paid work & university where it should be?

In this second year, I am determined to work more with other resources, the studios, the on location lighting, the different lenses and cameras. It is placed there for helping students and giving them more of learning bases and so I shall use this resource.

 

 

You have covered a variety of different approaches to image making over the first year, how do you want to develop your work & why?

 I am going to look more into the different types of lenses I can use and the lighting as this is an extremely important part to photography and learning about it through experience in the best way.

 

 

What type of work experience, client-based practice or competitions would assist you in achieving this goal?

I believe that any type of work experience in the photography field would help me at this point due to not entirely knowing the direction i want to take my image making yet.  I have always been interested in works such as Gregory Crewdson and Brooke Shaden. Surrealism is something I love to work through or film stills or working on movies and the visuals, but I want to take my university opportunity and do as much as I can no matter what. Over this last summer, I worked through settings, determined to continue as I wanted to remember what I had learned prior in terms of technical and Photoshop. I have also been working on Landscape photography and going out of my comfort zone with it due to my usual landscape images being part of the romanticism part, so I decided to take documentary sided images that aren’t conventionally considered “beautiful.”

Furthermore, I also worked in wedding photography by taking photographs of a wedding, it wasn’t an official paid job but I wanted experience in it and I think this was a good and important thing for me to of done, to gain more confidence slowly but surely with working with clients.

I have also entered my work in the British Landscape competition in the past but i am going to start entering my work more often from now on.

 

 

Have you seen or plan to see any exhibitions/installations?

 

I plan to look more into exhibitions and installations as my course progresses, I haven’t been very active in seeing them recently but I am going to do so at every opportunity.

 

How can you improve your conceptual thinking?

In order to improve my conceptual thinking, I want to read more books and magazines and look to other photographers work for inspiration. Something I have done over the summer is purchase more books that have helped me throughout, to truly make me think. Some of these books include: National Geographic The Photographs, Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs by Henry Carroll, and other books by Henry Carroll such as his books about places and people.

 

 

Which key texts do you engage with?

 

In terms of reading, I have engaged with those I stated in my previous question, especially with works by Henry Carroll. I also purchased a long time ago “The Photographers Eye” to help me with my first projects and this is where I really began to learn more in photography.

This last year, we have had a lot of photographers come in for a guest speak and they have all inspired me quite a bit, taking aspects of their vision and thoroughly looking into it. I have also been interested in photographers I find over the Internet, looking at how other photographers work on YouTube.

 

Which image makers/ has or will influence you the most in the development of your work?

A photographer that has been a great inspiration for me over the years is Brooke Shaden in terms of vision and experience, causing me to love the editing process of photograph development and see it all come together. Other photographer’s I’m interested in are Tim Walker, Ansel Adams, Willie Doherty, Gregory Crewdson, Alma Haser, Annie Leibovitzand and Rut Blees Luxemburg.

Over this last year of exam research and research in general with my lectures, I already knew of these people but due to these lessons, I have come to know much more about these other photographers which have helped me see the world differently and inspires me with my work, such as, Henri Cartier Bresson, Irving Penn, Man Ray and Vivian Maier.