One Day Brief - Flash Fiction.

Today we were set a one day brief.  We picked at random a piece of flash fiction; a story with a specific word count.  We then had to create 5 images that would accompany and help illustrate the text.  This was then presented at the end of the day in a 6 slide powerpoint.  At first I was unsure about the brief, but as it progressed, I found myself enjoying it more and more.  Here are the images and the text:

Nathan was finally asleep after hours of restlessness.  Thoughts and dreams filled his head.  After only a few minutes his phone rang.  He jumped out his of skin.  Abusive language threatened him and frightened him.  He was all alone.  

Visiting Speaker - Caroline Molloy.

Today we had Caroline Molloy give a lecture about herself and her work.  Caroline works as a professional portrait photographer.  She has worked for Glamour magazine, Marie Clare, Good House Keeping, Prima, and many others.  Caroline didn't have enough time to go into more detail about her commercial work, which was a shame, as I would have liked to hear more about it.  Caroline has worked on a few personal projects, such as Age 20 Isreal 95, Troubled thoughts, and a project on identical twins, which I forget the name of.

Age 20 Isreal 95 was a project about the Isreali army.  The Isreali army conscripts both men and women, and Caroline chose to focus on the women in the army.  Caroline spoke of a feeling of 'family', and that the women feel that they have to serve for their family.

Troubled thoughts was a project on the troubles in Ireland.  Caroline is a Catholic, and although she wasn't affected directly by the troubles, she wanted to document how it affected others, and tell their stories.  Caroline used still images as well as moving images in her project, and used the transcript from the video as an art piece in its own right.

The identical twins project started as a result of Caroline starting to notice twins everywhere.  When she started photographing the twins, she didn't know what the project would become, and didn't know what direction she would take with it.  This project would eventually help to get commissions for commercial work.

PP1, Lecture 2, Social Media Success

Today's lecture was about the success of social media, and how it has now become an essential part of professional and personal life.  One thing that I picked up on, was that networks make things work; many aspects of networks. Networks of friends and family, water and sewage system networks, business networks, and many others.  Social network sites link people, and it is very important to be aware of the difference between personal and professional when using the sites.  Innapropriate content on a Facebook page could be taken in the wrong way.  This could be the difference between gaining and losing a client.

PPP1, Lecture 1, Who are you?

This first lecture was on the topic, 'Who are you?'.  We looked at personality archetypes and personality traits and how they work for and against us in the professional work place.  The personality archetypes work by you selecting one word from four different lists, each with two words each.  These words then form a four letter sequence, that has an explanation.  My sequence was ISFJ, which means I am quiet, friendly, responsible and conscientious.  I agree with this to an extent, but I think that some of the other categories apply to me too.

We also looked at personality mapping.  This is where you rate certain aspects of your life out of 100, and then draw these figures on a graph, and it comes out looking like a spiders web.  This can be done regularly, so you can see how you and your personality changes over a period of time.

Ways of Looking.

Today, group B and I went to Bradford, to visit the Ways of Looking photography exhibition.  One of the exhibitions halls we went to, was the Impressions Gallery, where I was told Martin Parr had his first exhibition, while the gallery was based in York, before the gallery moved to Bradford.

The first exhibition we went to was in the Pop Up space, next to Costa.  The work that caught my eye the most was that of Rob Ball.  His striking prints were of pacemakers that had been taken out of the bodies they powered before cremation.  This sounds grim I know but they had been cleaned up before they were photographed.

Ball created the series after working as a Forensic photographer, and it shows.  The meticulous attention to detail really comes through in the prints.  Each pacemaker is photographed on a white background, and in the centre of the frame.  The white helps to the visitor to focus on the pacemaker and in details.  Also, there is no meaningful text under each photograph, only the serial number of each pacemaker, which means that the viewer has to come to their own conclusion of the context of the photographs.  The prints do not have a frame which makes them seem to blend into the walls.  This makes the pacemakers look even smaller.


The next Gallery we went to was the Impression Gallery, where we were shown round by a fine art graduate called India.

This exhibition was created by Jeremy Deller.  He produced the exhibition from an archive of photos from a photography studio called The Belle Vue Studio in Bradford, and the photos are from the 50's to 70's.  The photos document the large number of immigrants arriving from Asia and the Caribbean at that time.  Deller used these photographs to explore the cultural and political heritage of Britain.  

All of the images are studio based, and the sitters are wearing smart suits that were provided by the studio, along with other props.  The sitters would then send the photo home, to show how good their new lives were.  The photos are framed with a creamy-white surround, with a black frame.  The photos looked dwarfed against the wall and frame, but this draws you in to look closely at the prints, and I like this idea.  

We were then shown around an exhibition of Red Saunders' work by India.  All of the photos are representations of historical events.  The photographs are subjective, trying to tell you something about the event that they are depicting.  The images have been shot in a way that makes them look like paintings, with the lighting highlighting different parts of the image that help to tell the story.  All of the images are staged, on sets and complicated lighting set ups.  

The photos have been printed very large, and are shown on a deep red background.  This is a reference to the great halls in old houses that had rooms to show the big paintings.  The walls were painted really rich, deep colours to set the paintings off.  

Overall, I enjoyed looking around all of the exhibitions, there were some interesting photos which gave me some ideas for my briefs.  

Also, here is a picture of Sam looking happy in the sunshine, in his sunglasses.

Charlie Meecham at Ways of Seeing Festival bradford.

Charlie Meecham is a photographer that documents the changing landscape of our environment.  For the Ways of Seeing Festival, Meecham set about documenting how Bradford is changing, sourcing old photographs of landmarks in Bradford, and re-visiting the sites of the photographs to document how the site has changed.  He has created an almost typology like body of work, which is one that I would like to see.