Chas Bedford's OCA learning blog (BA Photography 2 • Landscape, Place and Environment)
Spend an hour or so looking at photographers’ artists’ statements. Some will be on their own websites (although it’s surprising how few practitioners do this), but you’ll find most information from the websites of the galleries that represent them. Collect a selection that interest you, noting the tone that’s used and how the practitioner’s inspiration... Continue Reading →
Although you’re not expected to produce any kind of installation or exhibition of your projects at Level 2 (HE5), there is certainly no reason why you shouldn’t be thinking about where you could present your work, and how the meaning of your photographs could be strengthened or expanded by their physical location. Think about whether... Continue Reading →
Read John A Walker’s essay ‘Context as a Determinant of Photographic Meaning’, first published in 1980. The text is not devoted to site-specific work in particular; however, it addresses the themes encountered in Part Five. Summarise Walker’s key points and note down your personal reflections. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19997617/Context-as-a-Determinanrt-of- Photographic-Meaningwps Context is a vital part of understanding the... Continue Reading →
Look at some of the audio-visual slideshows on the websites listed above. Make some notes about particular works of interest, considering how they are edited, sequenced and how audio is used with images. Note down your own personal observations. Whether or not you intend to present your photographs for Assignment Five as an audio-visual piece,... Continue Reading →
An online audio-visual piece doesn’t necessarily have to be the piece of art in itself, but may simply be part of the ‘presence’ of the work, put together to promote it, possibly to coincide with an exhibition or publication, or to help generate interest more speculatively. This post by Sharon Boothroyd on WeAreOCA discusses a... Continue Reading →
Whether or not you intend to produce a book to present your photographs for Assignment Five, suppose for this exercise that you will. During this exercise you’ll familiarise yourself with a print-on-demand application and experiment with a book design. If you don’t already have one, set up an account with a print-on-demand service, such as... Continue Reading →
As noted in my previous posting, some ‘prosumer’ printing houses offer remarkably cheap c-type printing (cheaper than the cost of paper and ink in my home inkjet) which I considered worth the experiment. Two prints and two packs of sample swatches arrived by post today. The low priced offerings (£1.20 for an A3 print) are... Continue Reading →
It’s not a requirement to submit prints for formal assessment, so you may choose to submit your work on the self-directed project in a different format, such as a book or a multi-media piece. However for the purposes of this exercise please imagine that you’re going to submit prints. Search the internet for different companies... Continue Reading →
Read Thomas McEvilley’s introduction to Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, which provides a good summary of O’Doherty’s suite of essays. Note down the key points and your own reflections in your learning log. ‘Inside the White Cube’ is a 1986 extended essay deriving from a series of three 1976 articles... Continue Reading →
Find an advert from a magazine, newspaper or the internet, which has some clearly identifiable signs. Using the example above to help you, list the signs. What are the signifiers? What is signified? Read Barthes’ essay to help clarify your understanding of these principles. You might find Barthes hard going at first, but please persevere.... Continue Reading →
Landscape Lines 