BRIEFING and REFLECTION/FUTURE PLANS

We have received our briefing today with Matthew Andrew for our negotiated major project which is twelve weeks long, and totals at 40 credits, rather than the usual 20. This module focussed upon preparing us for the real world, and helping us to create a body of work for our portfolio and final exhibition, as well as producing portfolio material through experimentation and reflection. My work in my previous module was very much portrait and fashion based, with some aspects of food and still life being present. However, reflecting on my feedback, I have decided to concentrate more on still life and art photography as a concept, and work from there. Although portraiture is something I feel passionate about, I feel that my ideas and concepts would work better with still life being at the forefront of this exploration.

We first discussed the MIS which looks at what we had to do for each point of the module to gain marks. In short, we need to look at relevant photographers, work upon my ideas and their concepts and create an inspired series of work. He also talked about professional practice and how our final piece is "marketable", which means something we can be proud of but at the same time, appeal to a wider audience.

The first thing we discussed was budgets, and how prints and work can be presented. My feedback touched upon my budget, and how a lot of my research was focussing upon cinematic photographers and filmmakers with bit budgets and lots of time. I now understand a budget of £500 is not going to cover the ideas and dreams I have for this project, but my tutorials with Moira will hopefully guide me towards a good budget and controlled props and locations that are within my budget. I have already been sourcing budgets and outfits for my initial experimentation from charity shops, so I am trying to stick to my budget through sourcing cheaper alternatives and experimenting with alternative ideas. I am also trying to work with models, make up artists and other creatives on a TFP basis, so we can all help each other and it keeps my budget lower. At the moment, my presentation of my work is based around the concept of high class fairytales, so if all goes according to plan will present my images in gilt frames to represent the theme behind them.

Public engagement is something that is especially important when looking at our exhibition space and personal body of work. We need to focus on the audience of the exhibition, and what sort of audience our work will attract. I also need to think about publication for my work, in magazines and books such as fashion and beauty reading, and tailor my photographs towards that ideal. 

The timetable is spread evenly between individual tutorial times with our mentors, and workshops/discussions as a group. A professional practice day has also been scheduled, whereby graduates are coming in to discuss life after University and the options available, as well as a trip to London to visit galleries and exhibitions, where we can gain research into framing, printing and presentation. I think that these will be especially useful in getting us to think about our final major exhibition, and how we are going to present our work.

My last module looked into fariytales, and after speaking to tutors after handing in, I have come to the conclusion that my work needs to take a more sophisticated approach. Therefore, I decided to read my project proposal again, and see what I could change to make this fit my professional portfolio more.

"For my final piece, I plan to bring together everything that I have explored in my experimentation in a collection of carefully planned images representing the themes and food that are included within them, but creating a cinematic feel in all. The fairytales used will be Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella. I aim to explore this using inspiration from Gregory Crewdson and Margarita Kareva, as well as paying attention to outfits, props and location. Here, I plan to develop my ideas into editorial styled images, selling the food but paying homage to fairytales and the darker side of them.

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For my final piece, I plan to bring together everything I have done for this module in the form of a staged piece, advertising the food but using models and elaborate set ups to recreate the fairytales. The five fairytales and children’s stories that I plan to represent are Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella. All of these fairytales have food that represent them, and are part of the storyline. For example, the red apple will represent Snow White, as I have already experimented with. A gingerbread house will represent Hansel and Gretel, a bowl of porridge will represent Goldilocks, a pumpkin will represent Cinderella, and finally the tea party hosted by the Mad Hatter will represent Alice in Wonderland. My main inspiration for this work is Ernie Button, Kyle Thompson and Margarita Kareva. All these photographers work have inspired me for a number of reasons, all relating to their ability and creative drive to capture beauty within people, nature, animals and food. I have also been inspired by the work of Gregory Crewdson for his technique and lighting. My work will be presented in a gallery format, printed on large glossy paper in a white or gold gilt frame. I will also plan to submit my work to magazines such as Dark Beauty magazine and other independent photography magazines that would showcase my work. This will be my last chance for a year to produce photographic work before I go and study a PGCE in Further Education, so would love to build my published portfolio before this. I will have to pay special attention to lighting, location and the models pose and clothing, to create the best possible image and meaning. The equipment I will have to use is my DSLR camera, alongside lighting equipment with a generator so I can use the equipment on location, as well as speed lights to create depth and atmosphere to my images. For travel and transport consideration, I have access to a car, as well as a few friends and family members who own vans for transportation of bigger props, the only problem being I will have to work around their times. I plan to set a budget of £350 for this project, which should cover the props and outfits I will need for my project, as well as location hire, prints, frames and props needed for the layout of my final exhibition. I plan to rent outfits from high street stores and local designers, with the fee being my services to save money to make sure my budget is focused upon the printing and framing of my images. I will have an extra £150 on the side incase I need to buy more expensive prints or props to make my shoot and final images the best quality possible."

I still would wish to produce a good quality project before I head off to University to study my PGCE next year, however, I have been thinking that this is the only opportunity to create a series of work that allows me to connect with my work on an academic basis, by referencing my work to books. I fear my work will be overshadowed by the amazing, deep work of my fellow peers, so I need to experiment and come up with a plan for my work to stand out from the crowd.