As with my first Digital Image and Culture assignment, my tutor and I had a Google hangout to talk through the work conducted for my second assignment The Archive. It was most certainly an interesting discussion, with an unexpected outcome, that I sort of expected.
Our conversation started with my book Life, Love and Laughter which he thought was good, from a family archive perspective however, for this project my tutor felt it too personal; even though he thought it great that my mum loved the final product, this was not the reaction he was looking for in my work. Sitting back after our call and taking the time to think about this one point, I can understand where he is coming from as although this was a personal project, using my own family archive as the source material, I became too intimate with the content whereas I should have adopted a more methodical approach. Comments surrounding the book continue below:
- As we have established, the final product was too personal, I needed to distance myself and look at the photographs as an outsider or archivist therefore being more objective with the content.
- There were too many photographs, again I believe this to be true as I set out to make this project personal, looking at it through my own eyes and not as a stranger who found the images and edited them for content value over sentiment.
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Family Fun Days page 8
The selection of images used were good and some worked really well together; an example of this can be seen in this extraction of page 8 where both photographs tended towards the left of the frame. My tutor suggested that having random comments, not necessarily associated with the accompanying photographs would make the book more interesting to read/view.
- The layout is too fussy and inconsistent because too many photographs have been used, and some of these photographs are too small on the page; one image, but no more than two should be enough to occupy a page. Once more it was commented that the book has the feel of a family photo album (which was my ambition) and not a book of interesting, informative images.
- My tutor liked the comments made up of my mums memories, he said that they were fun and a good inclusion in the project.
To summarise, he suggested that I rework the book, take out some photographs and those photographs left should be made bigger. The written comments should remain but in a fun, random fashion and I need to be more objective when making my final selection of images.
After we discussed my assignment, I asked whether he had looked at my supplementary book Off with their heads? And this is the point where everything changed. He loved it, he laughed a lot and thought it perfect for an assignment submission. I knew that this would be the case; when I decided to create this supplementary document, I was in two minds whether I should use it for the assignment, especially as it is more in line with the work of Schmid and Kessels, the artists we had studied during part two. Needless to say, when I suggested to my tutor that I replace my original book for this one in the assignment, without hesitation he said yes, that would be a great idea.
There are a few things I need to address with Off with their heads however, I know what needs to be done and I will start the process straight away, while I have the momentum. If only I had gone with my gut on this one, although I am still happy with my original book and the memories it represents. As my tutor and I spent some time discussing Life, Love and Laughter, over the coming weeks/months I will revisit it and carry out the suggestions made above, it will be good to come back to this project at a later date, as I hope to look at it with new eyes and be more selective in the final outcome.
For my next assignment I have to write a 2,500-word critical essay, which I have yet to decide the subject however, of the four options given it will probably be between:
- Has the ‘digital revolution’ created more problems that opportunities for today’s professional photographers?
- Discuss how the conditions of the ‘post-photographic era’ relate to a particular area or institution of photography.
I will work through Part Three a little more before I make my final decision and hopefully this will be submitted by the end of April 2018.
Photography 2: Digital Image and Culture 