I saw the email come through last night before I went to bed and had a quick read. I did brace myself a bit and I’m grateful to my tutor for being kind and constructive. The bottom line is that this was unfinished, muddled and overly complicated.
I was thinking back to an assessment comment after EYV. It said, “don’t be afraid to experiment”. I think since then that I’ve felt compelled to show ‘creativity’, afraid that what I present is boring and too conventional. There is of course, a feeling of impostor syndrome. I quite often feel that I’m ‘blagging’ my way through this as I’ve started from scratch with no prior experience of photography before the course. The best assignments I’ve submitted have been the simple ones. That’s not to say there isn’t value in getting into a muddle. It’s all part of the journey.
My tutor recognises that the overall idea is appropriate but needs refining. I knew this. I had a number of ideas but couldn’t distill it down into something simpler. Visually also, my tutor comments that I’ve still a lot of refining to do. I think my mistake was that I had a preconception of what I wanted to produce however when I got to Rendlesham, it wasn’t what I found. I had this idea of dark and moody images but the forest is quite open and managed with lots of straight lines. I took some longer exposures when it was quite windy so there’s movement in the branches of the trees. I’m not so sure of the effect of this. I also got fixed on the idea of twelve images when I really need to have a much tighter edit.
Then there’s accompanying text. In a previous unit, a tutor commented not to be too obvious in my text, to leave some room for viewer interpretation. I’ve gone too far the other way with this. I’ve looked at the accompanying text of loads of projects and tried to get an idea of what an artist statement consists of. In an attempt to be more conceptually driven, it’s become muddied and far too abstract. So I have to find the right balance with this. If I’m honest, I don’t know whether I should be including a separate piece of text with the images or if the accompanying text is under the headings that were suggested. I need clarity on this.
Plans for rework
I’ve already given this some thought. I have two options. Firstly is to return to Rendlesham with a clearer and simpler idea of what I’m after. Take a bit more time setting up specific shots rather than being a bit haphazard and trying to find visual ideas that simply aren’t there. The other option is to use another location which I’ll have to justify. I may be going to the Lake district in September, subject to of course what happens with the current lockdown. There is a lovely wood very close to where I’m staying.
What I’d like to do is photograph it at twilight. It’s a very different location to Rendlesham being more in keeping with the ‘fairytale’ idea. There are lots of old trees, streams and old stone walls. It’s certainly a location that I feel more inspired by. Having more options as to the time of day that I can shoot I think would be beneficial. I found the light at Rendlesham very flat but if that’s what I end up having to work with, then I have to find a way to make that work.
All in all, this assignment was a bit of a disaster. In hindsight, I should have waited till it was more complete before sending it to my tutor. What I have to take from this as well, is that I knew it wasn’t flowing, so in future, I have to recognise that, stop and regroup. I have a tendency to always be in a hurry!
Landscape, Place and Environment 