Sunday 5 February 2012

Initial Plans for Landscape


I've spoken to my tutor now and had that introductory chat. Funny, I must be a creature of habit as I was a little nervous making contact with a new tutor. We spoke by good old fashioned phone, as I failed with skype...oh well, I can save that pleasure.

What became clear as our conversation progressed was the need for me to contain the breadth of ideas. As I threw yet another idea at him I think he became, quite rightly, a little anxious that I may be in danger of spreading myself too thinly. So I will have to park a number of ideas and trains of thought for now, which I think is wise.

However, despite this, I am still considering five or six threads and they are all vying for my attention...which means I'm flitting about a little again.  However, I do prefer to be working on a number of projects concurrently, to keep it varied and interesting. Inevitably there will be some failures and this approach allows for some to fall by the wayside. It also may mean that my first assignment, which is entitled 'the season', may be the amalgam of two or perhaps even three independent themes. This is less than ideal but in the long-run I think there is some logic in it and will enable me to meet the 1 April deadline more easily than trying to get twelve images on one theme.

My overarching aim for this course is to challenge the 'default' image of the Lakes, as you've probably heard me say once or thrice before!

So for starters, areas of work that I will be concentrating my efforts on over the next twelve months, all with their own caveats at the moment:
  • my view of the Lakes when I build up the courage, have the right weather and a number of other factors all coming together at the same time
  • rural street photography during the busier months
  • folklore when I work out how to actually achieve this
  • in the style of Mitch Epstein when I get to that part of the course
It's always dangerous laying down your intentions as you can become unnecessarily imprisoned by them. And I don't like putting it to paper if I don't intend to do it. However, they're just words at the moment...so I need to put my film where my camera is now and just get on with it.

7 comments:

  1. Re the folklore - I saw something that might be interesting on Self Publish, Be Happy, but no idea where the link was now...

    I must say, I only wish I was so focussed so early on - I kind of just ramble onwards, but I guess that shows in my marks...

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  2. Same here. I read what Freeman wanted and then kinda replicated his words with some photographs. In the early days I was like a rabbit in headlights.

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  3. Just to reinforce it, of course it's not about what Freeman wants, the assignments are a base camp to set out from to scale the heights. ' }

    In assessment we're looking for students that have, to throw in another metaphor, taken the ball and run with it; Penny's last assessment is proof of that. ' }

    When we see that calibre of development we instantly recognise it. We don't have to trawl through the whole submission and add up all the figures before realising, to our surprise, that we're looking at A standard work. ' }

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  4. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! Especially the folklore idea because that is so far beyond me; also your view of the lakes. No chocolate-box images here, methinks!

    Bet you will take the ball and run with it!

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  5. Sounds like you're going to be running with more than one ball here Penny. I bet you're a great juggler though and look forward to your interpretations of Landscape.

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  6. Hello...more metaphors than I can shake a stick at here today!!

    Thanks for all the comments...

    Nigel, Rob, I guess I'm learning from what has come before...and that very much includes your experiences of landscape too...from that point of view with the blogs and online forum, we're not learning entirely in isolation...I find it most rewarding to use the course as a vehicle to try things I previously didn't feel brave enough to or lacked the justification to pursue and so set myself my own challenges which loosely fits the assignment briefs. We'll have to see if this approach works with landscape too.

    Thank you for the encouraging words Clive...the assessment certainly has been a confidence boost, but naturally I worry that I can't do it again!!! Landscape is quite a different beast to social documentary, which I do feel more at home with, so I will need to make sure I get myself out of my comfort zone.

    Vicki. Chocolate box...it may come to that yet, lol (you'll see in my next post). And 'folklore' and 'my own view of lakes' is beyond me too at the moment!!! In my head I know exactly what I want to do...but actually creating it is much harder!!

    And time will only tell how my juggling is Catherine...hopefully I'm not running before I can walk...

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  7. Ah yes it's that difficult 'second album' ' }

    Best not to think too hard, just do and let it come. You can work out what it means after the fact. ' }

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