This document details how I intend to disseminate my work and engage with a wider audience.
Assignment 2
BODY OF WORK ASSIGNMENT TWO SUBMISSION: GENRE DEVELOPMENT
Nicola South Student number: 514516
GENRE DEVELOPMENT SHOOT
Brief: Spend some time reviewing your personal reflection and your tutor feedback. Develop a series of carefully considered images that moves your idea forward. Hand in this series to your tutor together with a new reflective commentary setting out where you plan to go from here.
These images follow on from my first genre shoot developing my exploration of my concept, the ancient woodlands, as a visual metaphor for my theme of community. I was encouraged after my last assignment, to get to the knub of my idea and form a working title; I have decided on “A harmonious community”. The how and why of sharing my concept is still developing.
I reread and found new material on woodland species I photographed, trees, lichen, moss, ferns, and fungi. This increased my respect for them as individual subjects and enhanced my understanding of how they work together to create this harmonious woodland community. Sheldrake’s quote about lichens being undividable “They flicker between “wholes and “collections of parts”” (Wildlife Trusts, 2021), could equally apply to all these woodland species. This time as I photographed, I shuttled between the perspectives of the whole and the parts, but increasingly focused on individual woodland species. When I reflected on my images it became obvious that it is almost impossible to separate these parts from the whole, as the woodlands are all about the collective working together.
Photographing these species was a process I needed to go through to understand the parts that make the whole harmonious community. I tried different ways of looking and using unusual perspectives but returned to simply showing the close relationships the species have with each other. I considered various text to signpost my intention, settling on simply adding a border combined with a dictionary definition to add definition to the images. Interestingly these definitions of words that relating to a harmonious community, mostly refer to people or persons. My concept is inspired by humans, they are not evident in my images, although they are the stimulus to my intention and observations, they do not need to be visually evident, I am sure of that.
Next steps
These images were not inspired by the photographers I researched, however returning to this research, when reflecting on my outcomes, helped me to consider on ways forward now. Of those, I identify with the work of Ellie Davies, particularly her practice where she “walks, thinks, sits, listens then creates” (Davies, 2018). Although her outcomes are created by intervention and construction in the woodlands which I don’t lean towards, I share her desire to photograph to explain the landscape’s effect on the photographer; this is something I will focus on going forwards- an intention to communicate the woodland’s exceptional quality of harmony and mutual relationships. Can I put something of myself in the space as Davies does without intervening in the landscape?
After this close focus on interrelationships in the ancient woodlands, I now want to return to a wider view of the moss-covered landscape to express my feelings about this community. I may try like Thomas Struth’s work in forests and jungles to present so much information that viewers will surrender to just looking. I have a thought to try mixing into each image, both the “whole” and the “parts”.
References:
Wildlife Trusts (2021) Look at a lichen At: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/guest/look-lichen (Accessed 07/03/2022).
Davies, E. (2016) Ellie Davies. At: https://elliedavies.co.uk/statement/ (Accessed 07/02/2022).
ASSIGNMENT TWO IMAGES
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BODY OF WORK ASSIGNMENT 2:
REFLECTIONS ON FORMATIVE FEEDBACK
This was video Feedback
The narrative we shared:
I outlined my BOW ass 2, in particular my intention to use my thoughts and experiences of the local community as a stimulus only, not featuring humans in it, in my work on the woodland community.
Since assignment 1, I have honed the knub of my idea for my BOW to “a harmonious community”. I have stayed with my original intention of using the woodland as a visual metaphor for community, and a way of expressing my inner thoughts and emotions as well as my response to place.
I explained that I am inspired by the photographers of the Inside the Outside, landscape photography collective, as well as the work of Minor White and John Blakemore. Also that I want to put myself in the landscape without intervening in it like conceptual photographers such as Ellie Davies. In discussion we drew out that this work is about close up scrutiny of parts of a community, though moving on I will be sharing both the macro and the micro. We talked about looking at the patterns and relationships that emerge from this, as well as considering possible poetic elements to the work.
Tutor comments on my Assignment 2 submission
• She liked my approach using dictionary definitions juxtaposed by images of close-up parts of the woodland, which communicates my inferred reflection of the woodland community to human communities.
• The type face I used is effective, though it was suggested that I could make the definitions more authentic by ensuring that they consistently using verb or nouns and by using the same respected source such as the Oxford English Dictionary. This is not something I need to do now, but that I could do before my final submission.
• She suggested that I continue to dig down into my theme of harmonious community that is at the centre of my work
• In the future I could use the separate parts of the woodland community that I’ve photographed this time, somewhere in my final work- possibly in an appendix, inserts or overlays.
• To experiment with my idea to represent the macro and the micro, we talked about using digital or physical overlays.
• My tutor suggested that I might think about patterns and settlements also to combine with my woodland images.
• I should check out the writings of Edward Weston.
• Ensure my images are of the correct quality to stand enlarged printing if required.
My tutor was encouraging about the work and the developing concept, saying that I am showing that I am open to development and open to inspiration. I should not be afraid to present aesthetically pleasing images, and not look for an alternative way of presenting just to show a point of difference; just to find one that communicates my message. She described my work as slightly poetic, and that I should continue with my photographing, whilst experimenting with methods of communicating the parallels of the woodland community to the human community.
She suggested I should look at:
• Man Ray’s Dust Breeding. David company essay on: https://davidcampany.com/dust-breeding-man-ray-1920/
• Giles Perez conversation with Gerhard Steidl where he talks about text and images and the new meaning that forms beyond the two: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/dbpfp22-gilles-peress
Next post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/2022/06/04/body-of-work-assignment-two-submission-genre-development/
BODY OF WORK ASSIGNMENT TWO DRAFT: REFLECTIONS AGAINST LEARNING OUTCOMES
Nicola South Student number: 514516
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- LO1 produce convincing visual products that communicate your intentions, using accomplished techniques in complex and unfamiliar environments, with minimal supervision from your tutor.
- I began the process with reconsidering the knub of my idea, this enabled me to focus on harmony in the community
- I realise that this work is fairly straightforward on the surface however I had to break down the context, woodlands, into smaller “parts” to understand their relationships, so that I can later work with the “whole” and communicate more fully about the community.
- The signposting using a border with a dictionary definition is to aid the communication of this notion and to tenuously draw a parallel to human communities.
- LO2 demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of your area of specialisation and be able to situate your own work within a larger context of practice in your field.
- To aid my work I researched the species, photographers who photograph these subjects. and photographers who use text to signpost their concepts.
- LO3 transform abstract concepts and ideas into rich narratives and integrate them in your images.
- I used dictionary definitions pertaining to community adjacent to my images to narrate and integrate my images with my concept.
- LO4 critically review your own work and evaluate it against desired outcomes.
- These images were a process that I needed to go through to be able to understand the relationships that exist in the ancient woodland. They are a step along the way to my intention to communicate the harmony in the community. As such the work develops my genre development, but importantly leads me to my next stage.
- Peer reviews made me reflect on my outcomes along the way, but I have stuck to my intention of not using humans in my work, preferring to know they have stimulated my concept, but that I will find a way to show this without their inclusion visually.
- Editing was a good reflection point, and where I realised the importance of what I’d shot, the parts, and relationships, so that I have a clearer understanding how to move on now and use this with more context.
- LO5 demonstrate management, leadership and communication skills and have deployed them during the negotiation and production of the final body of work with your tutor and third parties.
n/a
Next Post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/2022/06/04/body-of-work-assignment-2/
BODY OF WORK ASSIGNMENT TWO DRAFT: GENRE DEVELOPMENT
Nicola South Student number: 514516
GENRE DEVELOPMENT SHOOT
Brief: Spend some time reviewing your personal reflection and your tutor feedback. Develop a series of carefully considered images that moves your idea forward. Hand in this series to your tutor together with a new reflective commentary setting out where you plan to go from here.
These images follow on from my first genre shoot developing my exploration of my concept, the ancient woodlands, as a visual metaphor for my theme of community. I was encouraged after my last assignment, to get to the knub of my idea and form a working title; I have decided on “A harmonious community”. The how and why of sharing my concept is still developing.
I reread and found new material on woodland species I photographed, trees, lichen, moss, ferns, and fungi. This increased my respect for them as individual subjects and enhanced my understanding of how they work together to create this harmonious woodland community. Sheldrake’s quote about lichens being undividable “They flicker between “wholes and “collections of parts”” (Wildlife Trusts, 2021), could equally apply to all these woodland species. This time as I photographed, I shuttled between the perspectives of the whole and the parts, but increasingly focused on individual woodland species. When I reflected on my images it became obvious that it is almost impossible to separate these parts from the whole, as the woodlands are all about the collective working together.
Photographing these species was a process I needed to go through to understand the parts that make the whole harmonious community. I tried different ways of looking and using unusual perspectives but returned to simply showing the close relationships the species have with each other. I considered various text to signpost my intention, settling on simply adding a border combined with a dictionary definition to add definition to the images. Interestingly these definitions of words that relating to a harmonious community, mostly refer to people or persons. My concept is inspired by humans, they are not evident in my images, although they are the stimulus to my intention and observations, they do not need to be visually evident, I am sure of that.
Next steps
These images were not inspired by the photographers I researched, however returning to this research, when reflecting on my outcomes, helped me to consider on ways forward now. Of those, I identify with the work of Ellie Davies, particularly her practice where she “walks, thinks, sits, listens then creates” (Davies, 2018). Although her outcomes are created by intervention and construction in the woodlands which I don’t lean towards, I share her desire to photograph to explain the landscape’s effect on the photographer; this is something I will focus on going forwards- an intention to communicate the woodland’s exceptional quality of harmony and mutual relationships. Can I put something of myself in the space as Davies does without intervening in the landscape?
After this close focus on interrelationships in the ancient woodlands, I now want to return to a wider view of the moss-covered landscape to express my feelings about this community. I may try like Thomas Struth’s work in forests and jungles to present so much information that viewers will surrender to just looking. I have a thought to try mixing into each image, both the “whole” and the “parts”.
References:
Wildlife Trusts (2021) Look at a lichen At: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/guest/look-lichen (Accessed 07/03/2022).
Davies, E. (2016) Ellie Davies. At: https://elliedavies.co.uk/statement/ (Accessed 07/02/2022).
ASSIGNMENT TWO IMAGES
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BOW ASSIGNMENT 2 DRAFT: CONTACT SHEETS
By predominant group:
Fungi
Lichen
Ferns
Moss
Trees
BODY OF WORK ASSIGNMENT TWO: GENRE DEVELOPMENT
LEARNING LOG
Initial thoughts
Following my tutor feedback on assignment 2 I first focused on refining my project ideas.
I worked to clarify the how and why of my concept.
The why I am clear about already: my appreciation of the effectiveness of the woodland community, as a contrast and stimulated by my general disappointment in human communities. The how is more difficult and I am still working into.
I then focused on developing a working title, which was at first harmony in the woodland versus dissonance in the human community; as I worked into it this became, A harmonious community.
My key words were: Flourishing, harmony, cooperation, resilience, network, diversity, exchange, mutual, nurture, partnerships, mutuality, collective, co dependence.
I briefly noted down some of my previous reading on ancient woodlands, trees, fungi, moss, and lichen. By noting down some of my reading I was able to check that nothing important in their nature or relationship had escaped me. I have noted down further material that I may return to. Reading the science and the ecology behind the species reinforced my feelings about the uniqueness of ancient woodlands.
Refining thoughts mind map:
Shooting
In assignment 1 I shot and shared a variety of aspects of the ancient woodlands that signify community to me, general landscapes, close up, and abstract studies. This time I set out to shoot to capture the various types of organisms that make up this ancient woodland community, trees, lichen, fungi, ferns, moss. Of course, it proved impossible to separate these species as they are interwoven together in many forms. This proved to be the point eventually, the harmonious coexistence of these various parts into a thriving community. For their success they depend on each other, they provide for each other, they exchange and nurture.
I had planned to experiment with scale, perspective, and distortion. However, when photographing I found I was keener to expose the details than disguise them. I shot closer and closer to expose these details, until I had accidentally collected almost a typology of the woodland community.
I returned to shoot many times, but within the same month. Each time I had reviewed previous images and sought to improve technically. Sometimes I returned to the same subject, though I learnt that this usually proved impossible as the landscape changes quickly in response to weather, even though many of these species are slow growing.
Fungi was naturally the most aesthetic, but other subjects gave a strong message of a harmonious community. Moss was always there in the background, and I only realised with hindsight that this is becoming of more interest to me.
At the same time, I considered the methods that I would use to signpost my message and give an entry point to my viewers. I focused mainly on definitions of the keywords that apply to the ancient woodland community. I narrowed down those that I would use by checking actual dictionary terms, and decided that the most relevant were exchange, network, diversity, interdependent, nourish, harmony, reciprocal, and cooperation. I reviewed the images that I’d shot to check whether I had some of each species that would align with the definitions, which I had and then began to edit.
Editing
I reflected on the images and their meaning, for instance which of these two fern images I should use:
I considered what they each might be saying and decided that the fern emerging from the moss signalled harmony, whilst the ivy and the moss had less desired meaning.
I asked myself whether this image of the fungi said anything about community, so I substituted it for another image which I cropped tighter to show the relationship between the fungi, tree, and moss.
When I shared the images without text, some of my peers were underwhelmed and suggested that the needed more of an angle of some link. Also, I was concerned that the images were rather “straight”, and did think to reshoot in more artistic manner as portrayed below:
However, on sharing this possibility with peers again they like myself preferred the original images. I felt disillusioned when my peers I might add humans as comparisons to the images in some way, but I knew this was not where I wanted my work to go. I know that I will not be producing a documentary project, but that my work sits between the genres of landscape and expressionism. I do realise that I need to find a point of difference so to speak, however I do not want to do this to merely tick a box, or make my work look unusual. Therefore, I decided to stick to my own path. This work is in any case this is nowhere near the final product of the course, merely a steppingstone along the way.
My intention was strengthened when I referred to my tutors’ words that though dissonance in human community may have stimulated my work on the harmony in woodland communities, that doesn’t mean that they must be present in my work – this motivation may just underpin the work.
The images that I’m using depict coexisting/co-dependent ancient woodland plant species. Some are more ambiguous because of their scale of their unusualness, but I am not attempting to disguise them but photographing them in a way to make them and their relationships clearer. I have chosen images that emphasis relationships.
Editing mind map:
Presentation
I contemplated using the definitions that I had chosen as a border of underlying text. Eventually I decided that by simply adding definitions to a border on a print that the message was stronger.
The future
This work is already leading me forwards. I do not intend to develop te work in this style, studies of species that live harmoniously in the woodland community, but it was a process I had to go through, to move myself forwards. Seeing, studying and photographing them, has enabled me to appreciate more clearly and their interrelationships. At this point I feel my next springboard will be to use images of trees and moss to contextualise the success of this community and I might look at overlaying close up images of species onto these i some way.
Next post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/body-of-work/bow-assignments/assignment-2/a2-contact-sheets/
NIKI SOUTH 