Overall Comments
Many thanks for submitting this assignment Michael, the imagery and
contextualization for which worked well in my opinion.
Key issues mentioned in my last report are as follows:
- Look at the work of Evans / Joshua Cooper / Davis
- Further research the term ‘Genus Loci’ and in particular its application within photographic practice.
- Continue to read around the subject matter and cite academic reference.
Within the broader photographic consideration of the terms ‘real’
and ‘fake’, I normally suggest to my students to take a look at this image
taken by Nick Ut in Trang Bang village just outside Saigon, Vietnam in 1972
[see below]. It is a very famous image
that has been seen all around the world and has been used on various front
covers of magazines etc [Time 1972]. It
depicts the young nine year old girl Kim Phuc, running towards the camera after
a Napalm attack on her village by the US forces … another example of friendly
fire as the villagers were allied Southern Vietnamese and not part of the North
Viet Cong fighters. The image is full of
all the harrowing impact expected to be found in war imagery and has lost none
of its initial impact over the past 40 years since it was taken. There was also some moving image footage
taken of exactly the same event at the same time, but this fails to have the
impact of the stills shot which has literally caught the moment in time. The reason I bring this image to your
attention is that the original image was cropped slighted on the right hand
side. We now know that this was shot on
35mm monochrome film and therefore the format of the shot is slightly more
square than it should be for a full frame 35mm image. What was excluded from the shot was a soldier
at the side of the road loading a film into a camera – which when included
completely reduces the overall impact of the image as the question is asked why
he was not in assistance etc. He was
removed to add impact.
There is also a similar debate raised with an image taken by a
photographer called Dorothea Lange, who took photographs for the American Farm
Security Administration [FSA] in the 1930’s.
This image has been called ‘Migrant Mother’ and is also pictured below –
the debate was about a ‘thumb’ that had been printed out of the bottom right
hand corner, suggesting somebody was ‘revealing’ the family from behind the
side of the tent and therefore staging the shot.
It might also be worth reading about Robert Capa’s ‘Death of a
Spanish Militiaman’ taken in 1936. These
are all healthy arguments still raging within photographic debate in relation to
image manipulation and could be elaborated upon within your blog.
Feedback on assignment
From the outset I was impressed with the fact you had mentioned
Morrissey in your initial research, as his attention to detail in terms of
packaging his creative output was inspirational to an entire generation. It may also have been an idea to have shown
some visuals here of specifics in relation to these covers … including any
critical opinions sourced and your own thoughts etc.
Both Cover A and Cover B are fair attempts and your intention to
keep the cover as simple as possible was evident in both. I think in this respect Cover B worked better
and was actually quite convincing. I was also very happy to observe the
attention you had given to the use of text on the image, which again worked
better in Cover B in my opinion. This is
something that is often overlooked with this exercise or certainly placed at
the bottom of the list. The 30% / 60% is
a good rule of thumb and the title sat well on the box at the bottom of the
image – even the colour of the type face looked correct as if it had been
directly sourced from the original matchbox.
As a technical exercise I think you have learnt from this assignment,
which will become helpful in the future.
There is an assignment at level HE5 which requires students to actually
produce an illustration of one of a series of titles including Perfume / The
Diceman / The Outsiders / 1984 etc … which students find very challenging – you
could almost view this attempt as a precursor to that assignment.
Learning Logs/Critical essays
This is proving to be a good vehicle for evidencing the development
of ideas and generation of research and testing. There is plenty of practitioner research
being conducted and reviews of exhibitions etc.
Also … you may want to remove any evidence of the use of Wikipedia as
source of reference, if this applies.
As mentioned above, you’ll also need to include books / literature /
journals / magazines as source of research prior to submission for assessment.
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