Assignment 4: feedback and reflections

To try and push myself for this assignment I decided to pick a subject that was of real personal interest to me.  I felt that this would enable me to communicate my ideas more successfully whilst adding a personal touch to my work.  When we look to other photographers we see that their personal projects centre round something that they have a vested interest in.  For example, William Klein’s work in New York, Lewis Hine’s series on child labour or Don McCullin’s war images. 

Adding this subjective element to my work presented a few problems.  As the message I was trying to communicate had an emotional element or sentiment to it I found it harder to pin down.   In hindsight I think that the theme may have been to complex and it would have been better for me to have chosen another subject that was personal to me – perhaps something I had recently experienced.

As a result I lost my way a little and the message I was communicating wasn’t as clear as I had originally planned.  My tutor was quick to point this out and suggested that I could have looked at focussing on one of the themes I introduced in the assignment.  I think my dilemma was that I felt if I had done this my work would have been too restrictive.  Again in hindsight I believe he was right and if I were to redo this assignment I would focus on one of the aspects I introduced. 

Despite all this, I am really happy that I was brave enough to challenge myself to break with my norms and work on a more personally inspired project.   I believe I made some strong statements about life in Hackney by including the place where Agnes Sina-Inakoju was shot dead.  I also believe that I captured some of the essence of life in the borough in Hackney People. 

I think one area where I need to improve in my images is thinking more about my audience and what they will see when they look at my work.  It is clear here in this assignment that what I think is interesting isn’t always the case as my tutor pointed out in my first image for Inner City Living.  Focusing more on narrative will help me move forward.  Avoiding the obvious will help too.  However, I think having a clear message to communicate will provide the best foundation for future assignments. 

Note on colour management:

My tutor mentioned that my colours were slightly off in some of the images and that I should  think about calibrating my monitor.  I’ve been calibrated my monitor for over a year so I was a little confused by this.  I have since spoken to my tutor about this and resolved the issue.