Exercise 5.7: Prepare your artist’s statement

This will be included as part of my submission for Assignment 5.

I think whilst there may be an overarching statement I suspect that an artist's statement would change of time as perhaps their interests, subject of work, context of work, chosen development and concept progression changes or even just a statement regarding the collection of work being produced

I will balance this statement in line with where I feel I am now and my approach to assignment 5

The following link gives a helpful approach toward producing an artist statement:

https://digital-photography-school.com/6-tips-for-writing-an-artist%E2%80%99s-statement/


Warren Jones Artists Statement - Assignment 5

As a late starter to photography and during my journey of photographic education I have been intrigued by the methods used by photographic artists in the presentation of the negative impact man has on his surroundings. I have undertaken a small and simple personal observation of man's negative impact within my own local area.

Exercise 5.6: Context and Meaning

We are asked to read Read John A Walker’s essay ‘Context as a Determinant of Photographic Meaning’, first published in 1980:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19997617/Context-as-a-Determinanrt-of-PhotographicMeaningwps

Its an interesting piece describing how a photographic image can have different meaning in terms of its context and method of display ranging from the intimate to the public and even in the public arena how the image is seen changes in relation to the context its presented in and even how it has been circulated.

Walker addresses how a photograph has meaning to one person and how this can have multiple meanings to other people as result of their personal beliefs and histories.

Interestingly this piece is reviewed and question as to whether an image can have billions of meanings. Of course true even if the meaning are interpreted with a very fine difference.

An image seen with a open mind for the first time could also be interpreted differently if not viewed as part of a set or even in appreciation of a specific genre or overall theme the photographic artist is currently following.

In relation to this particular section of the course its helping us students to match the type or style of image perhaps to the correct method of presentation in the context of the the photographer expects the image to be viewed

Liz Wells: Sense of Place: European Landscape Photography

The book is in landscape format and interestingly and despite its subject matter many books aren't.

This lends itself very well to the landscape images it contains which appear to be from well known and also unknown artists with images from around 30 countries.

I've not read this book start to finish but dived in an out and also flicked through images allowing them to be absorbed and pondered over. Unlike the picturesque style of landscape images, the content appears to be focused on allowing the viewer to get a "sense of place" from the images at the locations they are taken in.

The book groups images of the artists some large and some small with accompanying text. What I find strange is that its aimed at people reading both English and German since text is shared in both languages. Whilst I see the commercial reasons for this, reasons I personally find said, the result means that it results in either a larger book, smaller font size, less text explanation or a combination of them all.

What I've enjoyed most about the book, and I haven't read it all is that the photographers share their deep insights into the images and why they have taken them. I think this are in fact artists statements and I enjoyed these very much.The images alone with the untrained / uneducated eye (My eyes are likely at the level of school reception class) vary between being striking, interesting and unusual though in the most part interesting and created within me a desire to know more about the location and to read the accompanying text.

There is variation between the artists in terms of the framing, exposure, and subject matter. Its the latter I find particularly interesting because as I mention above the artists and some more so than others do definitely generate a sense of the location they are in. I tend to think of this as being a landscape reportage style of photography. That said Elina Brotherus produces a set of images that takes the landscape genre into another direction, landscape self portraiture

This is a book I can pick-up and study, pud down and pick-up again and I always find something new either in images I originally did not truly see or words that a re-reading allow discovery of something else.

A few strong themes I've taken from this book are:

• do not over think images, trust your instinct / growing instinct
• experiment with different framing, exposure and lighting
• simple can also be complex. Gursky's Rhine II image a good example
• the presentation of the image (exposure, lighting, framing and even processing) can enhance the feel of the location that perhaps the artist wants to express to the viewer

Of the many books I viewed and read this has been one of my favorites in terms showing me a wide selection of styles and techniques and suggests that I should trust my instincts more

Exercise 5.5: Create a slideshow

Create a slideshow

As part of my back plan for assignment 6 I have taken 4 images from a local and popular tourist sport called Symonds Yat Rock in the Forest of Dean

Each of these images have been taken during one of the four seasons. I had intended to use these 4 images for Assignment 6 but it appears to have a common choice with even selection being included in of the weekly OCA updates as a slide show.

I do often use the FB OCA Photography Students group and recently asked if anyone could recommend some slideshow software. One of the students kindly pointed out that with Windows 7 Movie Maker is and exiting app. All this time and I never knew it existed

Movie make is intuitive to use and it was fun and fairly easy to put together. I added some titles and set up the slide show to fade in/out the images

I did find a website called Free Music Archive however I wasn't able to successfully combine the 4 pieces of music from each of Vivaldi's 4 seasons in a mix that came across professionally.

Here is the link to the slide show:

The Four Seasons at Symonds Yat Rock 

Exercise 5.4: Online exhibitions

Exercise 5.4: Online exhibitions

The problem with on-line exhibitions is possibly that the type and size of the device being used to view the images can be limiting to the quality and the image being viewed at a size not originally intended.

However it can be used to say present the work an exhibition at a desired size, say via a projector, where perhaps space may be limited or even because it aligns to the artists visualisation of how the images should be displayed or rotated through. It would definitely suit my set of back up images that I have taken of the four seasons at Symonds Yat Rock in the Forest of Dean.

Additional an on-line exhibition as part of a photographers website can be used to aid the flow of images to avoid the viewer having to continually click etc to move to the next image. Instead perhaps the viewer seeing a particular image by clicking on it the image flow is stopped and the image shown at full resolution so it can come under closer scrutiny by the viewer.

Not all photographers are of a stature that can command an exhibition at say a prominent location or area, perhaps cost could be a factor etc. The ability to exhibit their art on-line makes it more accessible and perhaps at a reduced cost. Art exhibited at a single location may also be inaccessible to all interested parties due to location.

Additionally perhaps a wedding photographer can display images for potential sales

The use of online exhibitions certainly embraces the modern digital world. On-line text and music can be added to a single or group of images which perhaps may not be feasible in a gallery with limited space and competing music

Exercise 5.3: Print-on-demand mock-up

Print-on-demand mock-up

I created blurb book using images from a previous assignment as I didn't have enough to use those so far for Assignment 5 and they haven't been processed.yet.

The blurb software was easy to install and I'm sure there are some notes / instructions but I thought I would just go ahead and see how intuitive it was.

I was quickly able to make a book, copying containers for re-use, understanding the container sixes and proximate to margins. Within an hour I had my first book and I had paid attention to the help and advice in the OCA video....simple is best.

I used minimal test, lots of spaces and the images had plenty of space around them. I also used black test on white background.

The advice in the OCA video is great if used as part of an assessment submission and also if the book is to be a coffee table book. Perhaps if you want it to be more would you still use blurb, would make the book more complex. If its a book that is to be sold to the public then whilst simple is best I would expect the buying public may want more from the book in terms of very simple content.

I can say any books influenced me because I've never bought or seen books of this simplicity. This was echoded in Jose Navarro's video clip - very helpful

I did not that the pdf version of the book resulted in very poor image quality which I expect is on purpose for commercial reasons. Unfortunately I don't think I can upload the pdf file to my blog.

Exercise 5.2: Print quotes

Exercise 5.2: Print quotes

1. As part of the activities for this module I have looked at multiple vendors for the printing of images. There is a balance to be found between cost and quality. There is also a difference to be found be customer service in terms who wants to help, I found this quite refreshing in some cases

Most vendors wont give quotes, you simply use their website and through a series of selections are able to price of the work you want printed.  Many offer calibration cards and jpegs to help you get colours matching this on the screen t print card to help avoid the photographer seeing an image in colours of a certain shade on their screen being surprised when seeing the final print

2. The relevant print company will want a file in a preffered minimum file size. resolution (ideally 300 dpi) will need to be set as will the colour profile to match want the printer recommends (e.g. sRGB)

A significant element I've learnt as part of this landscape is that your printed images doe not have to fully fill the paper size. Of course when thinking about this, many framed printed images are not filly filling the frame but will have a border of some kind. Prints for the assignments and assessments will benefit from this approach of having a decent border. paper type, weight and type of print can vary considerably

3. Can an image on inkjet be considered a photograph. I wonder where this question has come from as pre-digital the photograph was what was developed on the photographic paper was the photograph. The medium from which the camera captured image is put onto is my mind is the photograph/in the digital world until this point its a digital image.

The quality of an image produced by an inkjet print may have a variable quality and traditionally will be on normal paper but can be printed onto photographic paper. In the same way a vendor produced photographic print can also vary in quality.

Wikipedia's definition of a photograph is "a picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused on to light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment, or stored digitally". I would tend to a agree do an inkjet print is a photograph but likely not of a quality one might expect for a normal printed photograph. It all depends on the requirement