Reflection and Assessment Criteria – Assignment 1

Reflection and Assessment Criteria

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skill

I ensured consistency across the series through focal length, aperture, framing and composition. Limited by my knowledge of flash, I took a more simple technical approach to ensure my focus remained on the subject. I mainly relied on natural and ambient light, and I did use fill flash when necessary. Better understanding of lighting could add greater consistency in terms of white balance and ambient light management. Overall, I feel the five image sit well together.

My decision not to take more photographs while varying the depth of field with each subject, reduced my options later when editing. This is down to lack of experience when dealing with strangers. All thing considered, I believe that my method of editing, produced the best result from what I had captured.

I had intended to present my subject as if they were only just interrupted, and I feel that I managed this with a degree of success.

Quality of Outcome

I lost some time during this section of the course as I was moving house. This loss of time did however, light a fire under me, and I really had to push myself to make the deadline, as agreed with my tutor. After a year long break from study, I began a little slowly, but once I got into the course, I really began to enjoy it. My final submission wasn’t my first idea, but I feel that the time I spent probing other ideas was by no means a waste of time.

Overall I’m happy with my submission for this assignment. I feel that my series is cohesive and meets the brief. Before signing up for this course I had viewed the blogs of other Identity and Place student, and was apprehensive about approaching stranger and taking there photograph. This course has forced me to do something I might never have done by myself. Stepping outside my comfort zone as been a challenge and given my confidence a boost, despite having to canvas a large amount of people before I achieved my goal.

I had previously read that Bruce Davidson used to carry a small album containing some of his work. He used it to help convince those who didn’t want to be photographed. In preparation for this assignment I put together a small album of photographs and showed it to each of the shopkeeper. I felt that it helped break the ice and in some ways legitimise my intentions. I will continue to carry such an album when I know that will be photographing people unfamiliar to me.

Demonstration of Creativity

I took a simple straight forward approach to the assignment which I feel is a solid submission of contextual portraits at a respectful distance. However, my current knowledge and experience with strobes and colour gels is limited. Research and practice with flash could have allowed me to be more creative. Essentially, my approach to the assignment was probably restricted by my own limitations, something that can easily changed, given the desire to do so.

Context

I posed and framed my subject behind the counter so as to convey a strong sense context, especially when viewed as a series. Captioning the image with reference to there occupation, in my opinion would not strength the series. I chose to simply caption them by the subjects’ first name, place and date of capture, as I feel my intention for the assignment was relatively straight forward.

While carrying out the shoot, I was trying to direct the lady in the hat shop into a more casual and relaxed posture, sitting behind her desk on a lovely wooden chair. However, she had other ideas, and it proved to be a very interesting and enlightening experience. She took control and told me where to stand, then positioned herself. I wanted her to appear a certain way, and she disagreed. In that brief exchange, I realised that my portraits may tell more of my own intentions, rather than who the subject really is or how they want to be perceived. August Sander used props, background as well as posing his subjects to convey a level of identity, but ultimately we know little about them. My own series does the same, although, perhaps using a person name instead of a occupation renders their identity more accessible.

Overall, I feel that I approached the assignment intelligently, drawing on the research that I had conducted. I referenced past practitioners and used my study of them to inform my work as well as aid my decision making. I explored our understanding of stereotype and the use or exploitation of commonly accepted stereotypes by various photographer in order to open a dialogue on issues of race, sexuality and other social issues.