Assignment Five: Tutor Feedback Report

Overall Comments

What a great approach Eddy – good to see you move this forward. I like the title and subject matter and the questions you set for the interviews are intriguing.  I was actually quite interested in the whole run up although you said you used the first ones to warm up the interviewee.

The voices are great!  An excellent series. I think it’s one of your most interesting to date.  And also fits in well with your broader theme on Gilbert Court.

You have a lovely manner when you are dealing with your friends / subjects which is not to be taken for granted and will stand you in good stead for working with people in the future.

Assessment Potential

I understand your aim is to go for the Photography Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, and providing you commit yourself to the course, I suggest that you are likely to be successful in the assessment.

Feedback on Assignment

Images

Eddy – Not a particularly compelling and perhaps a bit too obvious picture to start off with.  Maybe ask what technology does to enhance your life, the effects of the technology rather than a more literal point of view.

Like always, when you point out  an image that’s not right it suddenly sticks out like a sore thumb and I wonder why it is that I can’t see this for myself before I send in my submission.  I think this new one fits rather better, and I hope you’ll think so too.

Yes, much better overall.  I think yours is a marked improvement and now makes a good lead in to the series.

Glad you approve of the change to my own image, I just suddenly got the inspiration for that one as I was sitting there with that cup of coffee, remarkable to me how well it worked.

I like your conversation with yourself!  Nice and candid and there is something funny about that, particularly when you are talking about one of the most modern pieces of technology you have being hearing aids!

Pat – this is great because I can’t see the technology in question and it leads me into the interview in a way that I am interested to find out what her story is.  The light is beautiful and her aversion of the camera gives her an enigmatic feel.  Her voice is painfully broken which really adds to the complete interview.

Bob – I like his shot – he looks perplexed.  The voice, again, is great.  The voice really adds another dimension – I started to see him as more confident and assured than when I first looked at the picture.  Very interesting about how the photograph really doesn’t give accurate descriptions of people.

Joyce – Another beautiful shot.  She looks wistful.  The looking back you are making them do in the interview is reflected in the picture which is interesting.  I just wrote about nostalgia on weareoca.  Amazing how she remembers the exact year of her first car!  I doubt many people from our generation could reel off dates like that.  “I’m quite happy with what I’ve got.”  What a poignant phrase.

John – I wonder if this shot would work better if it was more still and composed and not mid speech.  It looks too casual for the series in my opinion.

I had a lot of doubts about this image before I sent it in.  I tried all sorts of things with it to make it acceptable, but I wasn’t really satisfied although I like the way I’ve caught John.  I was also too wedded to the idea that all the images in a series have to be the same orientation, which I couldn’t fit to the new picture.  Having bitten the bullet, so to speak, and put a portrait orientation in, this image is much the better of the two although the expression belies John’s affable character.

John – better. 

Ann – she is absorbed!   A good image as it shows how technology can get a hold on people – even if she isn’t entirely sure what she is doing.  I like the ambiguity here – she could be hooked or clueless J  An interesting connection between women getting things after they got married – what is the connection here I wonder?

Vera – This voice really brings her to life in a way that the photograph doesn’t.  I wonder if you could enhance this but moving closer to her as she watches the TV, with the glow of the TV lighting her face.

All it took was a slightly smaller crop and I think it’s improved the picture no end.

Vera – If it was me I’d crop out he whole TV.  But it is getting there.

I’ve got to be honest and say that a tighter crop of Vera doesn’t look very good technically and doesn’t do anything for me artistically, so I think I’ll leave it as is.

Jean – I like this shot.  Again the light is great, she looks vulnerable and then the voice kind of takes me by surprise as she sounds younger than she looks.  Their stories are often surprising – amazing testimonies from these residents.

The project as a whole raises interesting issues of satisfaction and desire being related to the acquisition of ‘things’. Very modern complexes that many of these people appear to be immune from.  Fascinating.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical Essays

As ever you remain critically engaged, passionate (more than ever!), thorough and involved in the student body.  This is great.  I like that you put yourself out there for feedback and can filter it accordingly.  You show a willingness to move forward whist having tighten up your own expectations for your own work.  You have clearly identified people you trust for their opinion and this id encouraging.  You continue to ask yourself good questions and are gaining more insight to your work that is coming out in practice – which must be a relief!  Too true.

Suggested Reading/Viewing

I’d love to see an exhibition in Gilbert Court – I think the residents would appreciate it and feel part of a community.

I’m not so sure about that; what I’ve been doing with this work hasn’t been universally popular within Gilbert Court, and to make the images and sound work in an exhibition would need some thought to be able to put them into their right context.  It would also require a lot of editing of the captions so that no-ones feelings get hurt as the subjects may not want the details they’ve allowed me to use made public within their own community.

Pointers For The Next Assignments

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I really enjoyed watching this module evolve for you and enjoyed every stage.  Well done Eddy – you should be really pleased with yourself.

When preparing for assessment I think you should provide prints of these in a box – perhaps even a very small box and prints to emphasise the intimacy.  This could accompany the blog or give the interviews on a stick with earphones so the experience becomes almost like an installation for the viewer.

http://www.processuk.net/AGENCY_PORTFOLIO_BOX_8_x_10/p740597_3427984.aspx

Your research on good software could come in handy for presentation just to take it to the next professional level.  I think the content is there it’s just about the presentation now.

I hope I’m right in thinking that this approach I’ve taken is unusual and perhaps I should explore it further with my next course??  I’ll be consulting my next tutor as well of course, but you know I value your advice very highly and it will add to my decision-making process.

Yes I think you should consider it for future projects – but remember that it was good for this assignment and another format might better suit whatever you do next so bear it in mind but i wouldn’t set out with that as the sole intention.

 

I’m glad you got a lot from the dialogue and that your new tutor wants that too 🙂

 

Good luck!  I’d love to see some prints of these in your own time…