Awaiting Formal Assessment - Last Post

Note for readers

If you are on this page this will be my last post before assessment. Any exhibitions visited or observations recently made will be saved for another time.

Thank you for following my journey thus far, as well as helping me gather my thoughts and present my learning I hope that this blog has been informative for those observing my ramblings, even if on what NOT to do!

Thank you to those who took time to comment either on the blog directly, through flickr or via email. Your feedback, peer assessments and morale boosters were gratefully received, and very helpful. It was a struggle in places but I got here in the end and hopefully after a short break (stupidly I am sitting my GCSE Maths exam in June) I shall decide what to do next.

Thank you to both tutors who got me through PwDP and those tutors who organised and led many of the useful study visits, which I loved.

Going forward with my studies I recognise that I need to continue learning about flash and artificial light (got the book need to read it and carry out some of the exercises) print more of my work and explore commercial printing further. I shall continue looking at other practitioners and genres, read more of the theory/essays that are out there.

For me learning is best through VAK experiences, watching videos, going to exhibitions, physically flicking through, and being able to annotate books is really helpful. There is no comparison to seeing work in real life, how it is presented and the clarity of the prints. Seeing a whole body of work tells a much better narrative than a snapshot and is presented in the way that it should be viewed in order to gain maximum impact. I feel I have gained from attending several artists talk, even if I didn't agree with everything they said. Getting hands on practice or watching people demonstrate techniques, either with the camera or post-processing is better than reading an over technical tome. Thank you YouTube!

Working independently and discovering through error is par for the course but I love the human interaction with my fellow students. Study days are invaluable to not only swap ideas but to know others are out there. Looking at other students work inspires me, makes me realise the standard I should be aiming for, how I can challenge myself and introduces me to other practitioners/approaches I may not otherwise have considered. Peer critique assists with confirming I am on the right path or helps me onto the right path. Thank you again to those who give me feedback and ideas.

Thinking about doing documentary next I shall look closely at the different ways this genre can be approached. Hopefully know myself as a photographer a little more.

Note for Assessors

Welcome to my online Blog. On the right-hand side there are pages which contain links to all the original assignments, feedback and reworkings, tutor reports, inspirational books/resources and exhibitions visited.

Relevant labels are also to be found to the right, should you wish clarification on thought processes and research undertaken.

A web slideshow of images only can be found HERE

Thank you for looking.

regards

Jan