I have described this course to many as a year-long workshop to resurrect my passion for photography after a decade of camera club membership. The constraints of club-based photography, competitions, and the rigid requirement of a white 50cms X 40cms mount to present a photograph no longer supported the development of my photography. I already had a basic understanding of how to use my camera, compose and edit photographs. My aim was to explore different image making techniques. The course has introduced me to a variety of photographic forms, and an opportunity to think through and move further along in developing a personal style.
My tutor has helped me along my journey in several ways that I have been grateful for. His acceptance of my rebellious streak that leads me to offer the unexpected and unconventional. He has encouraged my experimental offerings that are often unresolved as finished polished items. By suggesting books and works, my tutor has contributed to broadening my photographic knowledge and extending my understanding of what ‘counts’ as photography.
What have I learnt
- During this unit I have widened my notions of what photography is and can be. I have been encouraged to look at wider visual art movements through the eyes of photographers and photographic history. The use of appropriated images has piqued my interest, while surrealism is still a mystery to me. I prefer not to see some of the images surrealists make as they can be very unsettling.
- Whilst I thought initially that photographs should speak for themselves, I have been encouraged to form an interpretation of what the image might be about beyond its pictorial presentation and to realise that words accompanying images can powerfully evoke complex ideas, responses and alternative viewpoints. The issue for me is that the loudest or most powerful ‘voice’ often decides what the image will ‘say’ which is a good reason for enabling ‘talk’ around photographs. Photographs can be used to portray a variety of different interpretations with the addition of a title or a few words.
- I have understood that the way any photograph is presented (eg. editing and sequencing with other images) influences the way the image is interpreted. For example, analysis of one image from the Kitchen Sink series by Carrie Mai Weems (Assignment 8), can have an entirely different interpretation than when seen within the ‘set’ of images.
- I have realised that images of people and their ‘places’ make them vulnerable to exploitation. Early on in the course I discussed this with my tutor, but it keeps cropping up in my practice. Within the law I need to have my own moral and ethical stand and to be able to justify it. The recent OCA meetup with Les Monaghan (Jan 17th 2025) discussed an approach that respected the human subjects in photographs.
- The course materials seem focused on photographic social messaging which is far from the idealised competition images of the Camera Club fraternity. That has altered my photographic practice as shown in my flip book ‘The Distance Between Us’ in project 9. Whilst individual photographs do not contain a socially and politically relevant message, putting individual photographs and snapshots together in a themed project can evoke powerful interpretations.
- I have realised more firmly what sort of photographer I am…. I’m the photographer who has a camera that works without too much camera fiddling to produce an image. I’d say my photographic style centres around projects, using post production techniques and finding interesting and suitable presentation of images.
- I have found the time constraints of a monthly assignment requiring a polished finished product particularly stressful. Most of my assignments are of experiments which could lead towards their use in an entirely different, more coherent set of images. I have enjoyed the research and creativity involved, however the assignment 10 exhibition exposed the experimental nature of these ‘images’, and perhaps this gave rise to my tutor’s desire that I had curated my images better. I have since reworked my void video and my video demonstrating an idea around physogs & identikit images, also re-edited my ‘distance between us’ project flip book.
- Perhaps I should have engaged more in the forums and the critical discussions there. I should have taken the opportunity to expose my thinking, as well as my photography to critical evaluation. I would have liked to have been introduced to other students who started around the same time as me in a more informal way than the meetings overseen by tutors. However I accept there are plenty of opportunities to connect with like minded people within the OCA/student Discord environment.
My hope was to have an interesting and creative year developing my knowledge of what photography is and can be. I have!
