As Samuel Beckett wrote ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’
Traces of Time was the ‘theme’ for this assignment. The aim seemed to be to look at how the camera and photography, in capturing a moment in time, reveals and conceals aspects of our world.
We were asked to engage with Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the ‘the decisive moment’, continue with our technical knowledge of camera usage, and ‘test and experiment with new knowledge and techniques’ in our portfolio of work.
In the event I had begun to investigate what a ‘lenticular’ image was, and how it was produced. I’d seen a photograph of Chris Levine’s lenticular image of the Queen Elizabeth II but could not see how it might be different from something like a Pep Ventosa image. (many images of the same subject taken from different angles and superimposed one upon another).
The resultant lenticular image requires a plastic or glass sheet overlay with thousands of lenses lined up across the sheet. The lenticular device is laid over an interlaced set of images so that depending on your angle of view, you will only see one image. As you change your angle of view you will see a different image. I was unable to produce a workable image that used the lenticular film I had bought, that I had hoped would demonstrate a passage of time, and fulfil the assignment requirement.
Thankfully my tutor acknowledged in a more positive comment that although my finally presented images were only a ‘handful of workable images’ rather than a ‘fully-fledged project’, it had been based on ‘planning and preparation’ and a ‘series of highly intriguing experiments’.
Looking forward I know that he is thinking towards assignment 10 (where I am now!) and suggesting I use my ‘visual style’ for a more ‘joined up’ project.
I have struggled a bit with the one-month time frame for these assignment based ‘projects’. My previous assignments are probably evidence of this as they are what I would call ‘crumply’ – finished but spoiled by being rushed.
He suggested I look at the work of Rachel Smith (OCA tutor) and Tom Wood’s projects ‘Men’ and ‘Women’. Possibly, I think, in the hope that I will pursue my initial idea of new work for Assignment 10 around the idea of the lives of older (elder) women. I’m still working on an angle for that and a possible way of presenting the resultant photographs.
Instead I got caught up in an Assignment 9 project (Photography is Simple) that I probably spent too much time on.
Rachel Smith
https://www.rachelartsmith.com
An interesting selection of projects and a creative style that brings to life her images. I particularly like the variety of her books… a photobook production technique that I favour, but one I have barely explored.
Tom Wood
Whilst looking at these images I did feel inspired to consolidate some of my ideas as photographs… I had thought that the images I had in mind might be too mundane. But perhaps not!
