Demonstration of technical and visual skills

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

I believe the series represents a progression in technical and visual skills in relation to street photography over the street shots in assignment 1 – The square mile.

Composition was a very important part of in successfully expressing the vision I had for this assignment along with choice of aperture and focal length. All were carefully thought out for the successful photographs in this series.

Quality of outcome

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

I believe that I have successfully conveyed my vision and communicated the idea behind this assignment, a relatively simple message which I believe is clearly expressed through the series. I do not believe that any of the individual shots are particularly successful however collectively they work to evoke the impression I was looking for. Much like the core inspiration for the series, where individually the photographs do not make much sense however collectively convey a strong message.

Presentation with an accompanying poem I believe adds to the series and also as photobook (in video) helps communication of the idea for the series.

Discernment shown through the similarity in look and in body language in the selected photographs, I found myself spending more time than I normally would to take the specific shot I wanted, waiting for the right moment. In this way I was discerning even before taking the shot. This idea came from specific feedback from my tutor on assignment 2 where we discussed trying to reduce the number of shots taken. The aim being to increase the number of good shots over rejected shots. I found the exercise interesting and enjoyable.

Demonstration of creativity

Imagination, experimentation, invention.

Perhaps the series I decided not to present demonstrates more imagination, experimentation and invention. There is some imagination and invention in visualising the message I wanted to convey and what this may look like before I went out to take the shots and create the photographs.

Again the series I have chosen not to present holds perhaps a greater degree of experimentation. I found the series presented to not require a lot of experimentation, I had a clear idea and strong sense of what would work. This is probably represented in the relatively low number of photographs on the contact sheet.

Context

Reflection, research, critical thinking.

Street photography is not an area I have spent much of my time doing over the past few years. I, much like many people I believe am inherently uncomfortable taking pictures of people without their permission. That said it is an area I am interested in progressing for myself and found that I became more comfortable as I progressed through assignment.

My idea itself demonstrates critical thinking where I considered Colin Pantall’s review of Paul Graham The Present and challenge one of the core messages with the series. Other than the challenge I attempted to in many ways to emulate the work. In this way I hope the challenge I present comes through clearly.

I found the book – On composition and improvisation by Larry Fink to be very influential in my composition selections for the series.