personal project 09112015

Personal Investigation

Personal investigation.

Aim: To conduct a sustained photographic project based on a concept, issue or investigation.

• Produce images related to your chosen area• You may work within the studio or on location• You will edit images and show progression• You will continue secondary research on

artists/photographers relevant to your chosen topic• Consider how you will write your written material.

Personal investigation.

Assessment objectives.• Develop their ideas through sustained and

focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Personal Investigation.

Assessment objectives

AO1: Develop their ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Ideas gained from research of artists, photographers

Ideas gained from practical photography

Apply critical thinking when evaluating own personal research and

secondary sources.

Personal Investigation.Assessment objectives

AO2 Experiment with and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining their ideas as their work develops.

Experiment with e.g. camera techniques

and processes

Refining ideas through evaluation and developing

work further

Experiment with e.g. Photoshop approaches

Planning and gathering appropriate resources e.g. props

lightiing, location

Personal Investigation.

Assessment objectives

AO3 Record in visual and/or other forms ideas, observations and insights relevant to their

intentions, demonstrating an ability to reflect on their work and progress

Recording in blog, ideas, plans, reflecting and

evaluating

Producing new work in response to observations

and work in progress

Recording all forms of ideas and insights during

the project

Personal Investigation.

Assessment objectives

AO4 Present a personal, informed and meaningful response demonstrating critical understanding, realising intentions and, where appropriate, making connections between visual, written, oral or other elements.

Visual outcomes (final images) linked to research

Producing work based on personal insights

Drawing sound conclusions from Research sources

Personal Investigation.

You should be either

1. Research photographers relevant to your personal investigation.

– Use Critical analysis to evaluate imagery (context (background info who, what, where) connotation, denotation)

2. Carry out shoots 3. Draft a plan for executing your personal projects

Location shoots

• Students to inform tutor prior to departure.• Equipment used (tripods, cameras) to be

booked out and returned by the close of the lesson.

ResearchCritical Analysis

• Art criticism is responding to, interpreting meaning, and making critical judgments about specific works of art.

Contextual studies (similar to textual analysis in Media)• Is about how art work including photograph exists within a wider context of

e.g. a social, political context• Your research of a photograph must therefore be much broader than just

examining the photograph.• Ask your self why was the art work produced, for what purpose and so on…• The following slides should help you to critically analse

photographs/artwork.

Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.

Contextual studies in art.

Guernica: to understand Guernica I need to know when it was created (1937) and where (Basque town). By whom (Picasso) and why (commemoration of the Bombing of the Basque town). What were the artists intentions (to alert the world to the brutal killing of innocents by German bombers).

Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.

Subjective and emotive

Good,Bad, like, awful

I don’t like it, terrible, fantastic.

Objective and analytical terminology

Composition, tone, colour palette, Black and White, abstract, cubist, symbolic, propagandist, terror, anguish, screaming, emotive, sympathetic, political, agenda, etc.

Describing Pictures (Guernica).

AVOID USE

Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.

The flat Iron, 1905 Alfred Steichen

Contextual studies

Edward Steichen (1879-1983)Steichen took up photography in 1895, at the age of sixteen, and was self-taught.

he was associated with a style of photography known as Pictorials. The Pictorialists felt that the aesthetic promise of photography lay in an emulation of painting.

Steichen’s early work, adopted many Pictorialist techniques (a jiggled tripod, a lens bathed in glycerin, or various darkroom tricks).

Context (who)

Context (what)

Context (why)

Context (How, or process)

Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.

The flat Iron, 1905 Alfred Steichen

Contextual studies

This pictorialist approach is evident in Steichen’s photograph of the flat iron, the image is vague, with no clear point of focus. Like a painting the composition is tonally divided into foreground, middle and background.

The imagery is evocative (connotes to) of an impressionist painting where the detail of the imagery is left unresolved. It suggests the romance of a by-gone era where people where transported by horse drawn carraige to their homes.

denotation

connotation

Visual Essay & Contextual studies.

Written study:

AQA specification.

As the quality of written communication is an important aspect of this unit candidates should consider the following points:

• Written material of a critical, analytical nature. • Written material should be no less than 1000 and no more than 3000 words. • Sources should be identified and a bibliography should be included. • Candidates should demonstrate that they are aware of the discipline of

working within given word counts.

Visual Essay & Contextual studies.

What kind of Written work should I submit?

AQA specification.

Written material of a critical, analytical nature can be included in a variety of forms:

• A personal study• A Journal• A report • An evaluation and reflection on candidates’ work and that of others.

Visual Essay & Contextual studies.

Elements

Title:

IntroductionMain BodyConclusionsReferences

Visual Essay & Contextual studies.

Title: Notions of Beauty.Devise a precise area of investigation.• what is beauty and how is it to be portrayed?

Subsidiary sections.• How was beauty defined in the past.• How is beauty defined in the present.• How do photographers portray beauty.

Visual Essay & Contextual studies.Introduction.

The context, why you are investigating this subject?Include the scope of your investigations. Tell the readers what answers you want to gain from your investigations.

Example: Beauty products are a 40 billion dollar industry, yet what constitutes beauty, how should the photographer portray beauty? Are there different models by which we perceive beauty? The research looks at historical context of beauty, primitive elaborations and western concepts of beauty. Several photographers investigated including Nick Knight, Juergen Teller, etc.

Visual Essay & Contextual studies.

Main Body.

Subdivide into sections.

• A historical and cultural perspective on beauty.• Primitive elaborations.• Beautification through the use of cosmetics.• Defining Beauty.• Photographers interpretations

Visual Essay & Contextual studies.Main body.Analysing images.

Objective assessment.Composition, lighting, photographer, style, movement, colour, etc.Subjective assessment.Your personal interpretation of what the image means, the connotations. Happy, sad, moody, dark, funny, etc.Contextual assessment.At what period was the photograph taken, how does this image compare with the work of other photographers, what was the photographer wanting to portray?Techniques used?

Report writingConclusion.

Make sound conclusions based on the images you have analysed/evaluated.•what is beauty and how is it to be portrayed?

how should the photographer portray beauty?

There is no objective definition of beauty, the classical concept of Grecian beauty is an idea, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Photographers have the opportunity to portray various facets of beauty through their imagery challenging conventional concepts and stereo-types.

Report writingMain Body:

Figure 7: The rose garden, 2001Lux work exists somewhere in between the world of painted and photographic art. Prose (2005, p41) compared her work to the flawless perfection of a Vermeer.

References.

Prose, F. (2005) Loretta Lux: Imaginary portraits. New York: Aperture.

Report writingMain Body:

Figure 8: Gareth Pugh, S/S 2011Gareth Pugh’s (2011) fashion video, shot in black and white with harsh, film noire lighting bridges the gap between the cinematic and still image.

Reference.Pugh, G.’ Hogben R (2101),, Available from:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weCltin7_iQ> [Accessed 07 November 2015].