A1 Reflections against assessment criteria

Demonstration of technical and visual skills:

Materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design, and compositional skills.

I used Canon 80 D with two different lens, initially a prime lens and then a macro-1:1 lens. The location is extremely dark and consequently I used a tripod for each shot.
Slow and sharp observation was key to finding my subjects. I spent several hours each shoot immersing into the woodlands whilst tapping into the narrative in my mind.
Once I found a subject, I spent a long time composing the image so that it would say what I wanted it to, to me.
Visual language, different ways of seeing and representation are central to this project. But perhaps will become more obvious as my work develops.
I felt it was important to begin by presenting the landscape in colour as I was seeing it. However, going forward, I will represent it in black and white as I think this will provide more space for viewers to interpret as they wish; subjects will become less obvious and more interpretable.

Content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.

The images represent the woodlands as they present in colour, but as I’ve said above, I will present in black and white next time, which means that I will need to look differently when photographing.
I have presented my work here simplistically, showing my progression from different methods as I experimented moving from psychogeography, to landscape, to abstracts, to close-ups as this assignment was presented as an opportunity to experiment with genre and style.
I am aware that these images are reasonably “straight” and obvious, which is not necessarily a problem, but I do intend from now on to use increasingly use perspective to increase ambiguity. This I think will echo my intention well, as this reflection on community, is in a large part affected by perspective.
I have considered other conceptual strategies but am reserving further experimentation for later assignments.
My concept is set out in my A1 learning log: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/body-of-work/bow-assignments/assignment-1/a1-learning-log/, but on reflection maybe I should have set this out in an artist’s statement accompanying the images. This may help viewers to connect with my narrative.

Imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.

My intention to use the ancient woodland community as a visual metaphor for my local community is, I think, inventive.
I have experimented whist shooting these initial images and explored genre. This is shown in the development of my initial psychogeographical shoots and resulting images.
My photography developed as I moved from psychogeography at the beginning, to general landscape representation, then abstract and lastly to the close-up representation of community.
It is early days in this body of work, but I already hope that in my choice of subject for each photograph I am showing imagination and some personal voice.
It is the just the beginning of drawing parallels with the woodland and human community.

Reflection, research, critical thinking (including learning logs, critical reviews, and essays).

As usual I have reflected throughout this process, particularly on how I would represent my narrative. This journey is described in my learning log.
I read widely about woodlands, in particular, before I prepared for photographing, to get a general background on how these community’s work. See my bibliography on Trees and woodlands in my A1 learning log.
I have used and added to previous research on photographers I have studied previously who have stimulated this work such as, Minor White and Alfred Stieglitz.
To this I have added research on contemporary photographers such as those who are part of the inside the outside landscape collective (see my A1 learning log notes: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/body-of-work/bow-assignments/assignment-1/a1-learning-log/ ).