Weekly lecture notes
Week 1
This was our first lecture of second term, we went through the brief and was introduced to alumni - Tiana and Sabela.
Brief notes:
-Unit is worth 45 credits and will influence our final degree grade the most
-Third year is 120 credits
-Unit will stretch over two terms
-Research, Practice and Publish
-Research from January 6th to February 2nd
-Practice from February 16th to March 16th
-Publish from April 12th to May 12th
-Update your workbook regularly
-Ask yourself questions
-Start shooting early and shoot whenever we can
-Make a back-up plan incase we cant achieve ideas due to covid (mine
Alumni notes:
Tiana did a project on inspirational women, and also had to finish her project whilst in a lockdown so her situation is very similar to ours. I found her project to be really powerful and showed women in such an influential way. The composition was the same throughout which makes it all link together, also the women look very comfortable because they are in their own environment. Tianas project has greatly inspired me, her shots are stunning and her way of shooting is very similar to mine. The layout of her photobook is the same approach I think I am going to take, having the images on the right with a title or caption of the left hand page.
https://tnlphotos.com/noble
Sabelas work was very interesting, she looked made a photobook but also a poetry book exploring identity. Her images are quite different within the project but she links them all together through the atmosphere and feelings, she creates a sense of emptiness. She showed us all her research and planning that she does before each shoot, which was really helpful as it showed us what we could be doing to improve our skills. It was also amazing to see the body of work that she created from this and how people could interact with this. https://www.sabelapeinado.com/iamnoone
Week 2
We talked through a powerpoint from Geraint about remembrance in photography and the idea of death within photography. He showed us daguerreotypes of people who has passed away or who were close to passing and how the images were used as a remembrance.
We also discussed out ideas we had for our fmp, and received feedback.
I initially had 4 ideas:
- Main focus being on the workers and volunteers
- Explore the food bank chain and where the food goes
- Do a shoot on the people who have had to use food banks
-Do a shoot on the homeless and show how their lives have changed because of Covid
After receiving feedback I felt that most people felt more strongly about the food bank shoots.
Feedback notes
Chris:
-Good idea but should try and get permission to go into their houses and see where the food ends up
-Maybe show them cooking the food
Sabela:
-Good idea as they still run in lockdown
-Need to plan a lot
-Shoot whenever possible as time goes fast
Geraint:
-Incorporate all three food bank shoots
-The homeless shoot would be too hard to do right now but could always do it in the future
-Research the distribution chain and get all the different parts planned out
-Try and get back in touch with Farehshare to make the project easier
WEEK 3
This lecture was run by Tiana, Sabela and Ellie Tsatsou
Ellie Tsatsou workshop
Self- reflection and creativity
-Integrated creativity - looking into your creative process holistically understanding the forces at play within your body, mind heart and spirit.
-Workshop will help us gain: clarity, confidence and sincerity.
what motivates me?
-Clarity: honest reflections bring honest breakthroughs
-Confidence:honest breakthroughs bring honest transitions
-Sincerity: gradually refine your work
-Art work is self expression
Motivations
What motivates you?
-Making people aware of the issues that I am photographing and something being done of it.
-Getting a good response from my audience
-Being accepted
Mentors- someone you know who has inspired you:
-Jessica
Expanders- someone who has helped you expand or inspired you, made you realise whats possible:
-Todd Walker
Limiting beliefs
- fear of not doing good enough
-peoples opinions of me
Work for next week
3 key words that sum up my work:
- story
- awareness
- meaningful
WEEK 4
Ellie Tsatsou - Intuitive editing and sequencing workshop
This week Ellie hosted a workshop to to improve our sequencing skills, we used images from different projects and tried to lay them out together. Below are some of the sequences I created, I tried to either use the lighting similarities or the atmosphere of the images to piece them together. I used images from very different projects and put them together with the feelings I was trying to portray.
WEEK 5
Formative Presentation Week
WEEK 6
Self - directed study week
WEEK 7
This week we listened to each lecturer talk about their experience whilst being in a pandemic and what they have been up to photography wise.
The first talk was by Chris, he told us about the different projects he has produced whilst in lockdown. The lockdown portraits are amazing showing us an insight into how other people have been coping. He also spoke about taking some free time and going for walk to enjoy the air and nature. A few podcasts he suggested:
-The American Cinematographer
-The Candid Frame
-Neutral Exposure
Ellie spoke about what helps her create art and different ways of making an income, such as, selling prints online and that stock photos is also a great way or making money. Another thing that she mentioned is that we could create a mailing list, this can be important with a creative following as it can provide an insight into the behind the scenes and exclusive content.
Next was Sabela who spoke mainly about different websites and online platforms to get our work seen. The first one was Corona Culture which is an exhibition showing how the pandemic has affected all of us in different ways. Also, how E-talks are a great way to get yourself out there but to also meet new people and discover. Another website which she discussed with us was the Internet Moon gallery (as seen below) which works as an exhibition space in which artists can view work in 360 degree environments making it a virtual reality.
Geraint spoke to us about how the first years exhibition is online which was quite interesting to look at. He mainly spoke to us about ways of coping in lockdown, such as, meditating and just taking a break, which i think we all needed to hear as just trying to complete a project in a pandemic can be quite difficult.
WEEK 8
This week was another catch up week where we received feedback about the shoots we had done and what we could do to improve.
WEEK 9
Assist London came to speak to us this week, about how to get into assisting and also how to get work.
Rob Parker- did sport photography for work experience which got him into other photography, assists in London on shoots with John Lewis, kids clothing. He has worked for Annie Leibovitz and Lord Snowdon. Rob started Assist London.
Conor Clarke- worked for Rankin as a studio assistant then joined the photographic team. 2 years as freelance in womens fashion.
Assisting roles: digi-op, runner, lighting assistant, studio assistant, production assistant.
Digi-op:
-Making sure eveyrhting is in focus
-Backing up files, one on mac, 2 on different hard drives
-May have to do some retouching
-Making sure its tethered correctly.
Runner:
-Behind the scenes footage
-General assistant to the photographer
Lighting assistant:
-Lighting diagram
-Lighting set up
Studio assistant:
-Basic jobs such as receiving things for photographer
-Prop and equipment management
-Call sheets
-Ordering refreshments
Production assistant:
-Transporting equipment
-Preparing and packing items
-Handling production paperwork
How to get into assisting:
-Need a CV - short and concise, include education and other experiences, a bit about you and your interests.
-Have a portfolio ready to show just incase
-Have an introductory email
-AOP job shop
-Le Book- production companies and agencies...
-Photographers United (Facebook page)
How to write professional emails:
-Target specific agencies that catch your eye
-Get point across quickly
-Make the email personal as if you are only emailing them
-Proof read
-Have your own opinions
May send 10 emails but only get 1 reply
Rates: day rates to be decided by us - £100-£150 is a good starting point
Renting equipment on shoots can make you extra money
WEEK 10
This week we discussed where we were up to with our projects and the shooting stage. The slides below show the edits I selected of each shoot I had taken so far, I then made a very rough edit of all the images together just to get an idea of what they could look like all together.
Feedback:
Chris- would be nice to maybe have some detail/ close up shots of tins and cans etc
- Have captions and names of the people in the images
- Maybe go into their homes and see them cooking the food they received
-maybe try and get some background info on volunteers what they were doing prior to working at food bank, why they think it important
-the photography is becoming three dimensional so adding the written element will make it fourth dimensional.
-think about where I am standing with the camera and try and get different viewpoints
Sabela- definitely try and capture each stage as it would be very beneficial
- have some really strong shots, the food in the cars are good
-maybe try and have a portrait next to a still life shot
Geraint- journalistic project
-repetition is really important as it reinforces the idea
-keep a broad edit
-keep in mind what shoots I need to get
-take risks, experiment more
I had many 1:1s with Geraint as well to get feedback on new shoots and how I can improve. These were very helpful in getting me ready to shoot my final shoots of the food hubs and food banks.
The feedback consisted of:
-choosing between images
-deciding what works best
-going through the shoots and talking about improvements
