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Evaluation
When I began my work, I had an idea: Gender Inequality in Landscape Photography. I chose this topic as my earliest memories of photography were going out with my family photographing the surrounding landscape. I loved it, but it was only recently I found that there is a massive gender inequality, but I couldn’t find the reason why. It felt like women were being excluded. This thought of exclusion reminded me of my previous studies in religion, where male dominance is rife. I then thought how could I combine the two. I did some research and found a local ancient pilgrimage, which was solely created by and made for men. I had the idea of using this pilgrimage as a backdrop to explore gender inequality and exclusion of women in religion and in the arts. I am contrasting the inequality in religion with the inequality in the arts and in turn society as well. I followed the pilgrimage and experienced it as a woman. I have photographed my journey and brought this together in a collage, symbolizing the strong force of exclusion women.
My images are simple yet complex. They are reminiscent of a by-gone age. This pilgrimage took part in Wales and there is a famous word here which sums this up perfectly for me. Hiraeth. Hiraeth refers to a nostalgic feeling. I feel this relates well to my work.
My work covers psychogeography, so I decided to include a map to give context to my images. This was always a plan of mine, but the execution of it came later. On these mapping images, I have included images of women in my family. This is me bringing in my version of strong women, they are on the journey with me, but do not feature in the main images, symbolizing their exclusion. I did this brings to note how the patriarchy is accepted and how women have been excluded for a very long time. The women in my work are on the outskirts. This also highlights the overarching male dominance in religion, arts and society. The final element to my images is the text. I have used verses from the bible to connect my images. I feel these elements work well side by side and have created a cohesive series of images.
There was a discussion about presentation with my tutor. I put forward my thoughts on what would be appropriate and we discussed and negotiated from there. I decided a newsletter format would be fitting.
I feel during this course I have learnt to utilize my research. I have done in-depth research into various artists and techniques that relates to my work, but I have also widened my research to get a clearer picture. The artists who have influenced me have varied along my journey, as my work has evolved. Each has contributed something to my work, but has done so at different stages. My research has helped me build my final work, from the visual ideas to the techniques and presentation; they all have had an impact on my process.
I have had a few issues and this course has definitely been a learning curve. At the beginning I now feel that I didn’t push myself enough, I took the safe route. My first assignment was fine, as I was able to start getting my idea out there. However, for assignment two, I played it safe. Following my tutor’s feedback, I widen my approach and narrowed down my aim for the next assignment. I began experimenting and getting out of my comfort zone. I felt I overcame my caution and pushed myself. On my later assignments I was having problems with print quality. My printer would not print the images correctly, there were lines, uneven colours etc. This massively affected the finished outcome. I have remedied this now and the images print correctly. I also had some personal bereavement during this course that impacted my journey.
I have taken on board the feedback I have received and have re-worked and improved my work along the way. I am happy with how it has turned out. I learnt so much over the course of this course, not only skills and techniques but on a personal level. I feel my creativeness has come through and my personal voice has developed significantly. But also, my eyes have been opened to the level of inequality that artists face and how some still deny its existence.
Reflection
My images are simple yet complex. There is a chaotic feel to them and an almost surreal cast to them. My images have a blue tinge to them, which ‘pops’. I wanted contrast in my images, I wanted them to stand out and the blue helped do this. It gives them a chaotic and surreal feel. This blue tinge looks give the impress of a time gone by. It is reminiscent of a by-gone age. I live in Wales and this pilgrimage took part in Wales and there is a famous word here which sums this up perfectly for me. Hiraeth. Hiraeth refers to a nostalgic feeling, a feeling of loss and longing. I feel this relates well to my work.
Assignments
I have reflected on each assignment and how this has aided me in my journey.
Assignment one was daunting as it was the start and I really wasn’t what to expect. I knew roughly what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to show images that weren’t perfect, to symbolise the inequality, to make the viewer think. I looked into various artists and found some that really helped me. Here is my feedback and how I responded to it.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/30/assignment-one-2/
I realise for Assignment two that I didn’t push myself properly. I stayed within my comfort zone and this did hinder me. Here is my feedback and how I responded to it.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/30/assignment-two-2/
I felt things starting to come together in Assignment three. I took my tutor’s feedback onboard and pushed myself. I began experimenting and got out of my comfort zone. I created my collages. I did make several for choice to see which worked better.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/30/assignment-three-2/
I created my mapping images for this assignment and started to think properly about the text. Whilst I did have problems with my printing, I felt the images coming to life. I experimented with various texts, including different fonts. Here is my feedback link:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/30/assignment-four-2/
Assignment five brought everything together. I took my tutor’s advice and changed the black font to a greyer colour. This does improve the finish significantly. My images feel complete. I feel my images work well together and it has resulted in a complete series of images. Here is my final feedback:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/30/assignment-five-2/
Research
Catherine Opie’s work was very influential in my work. I liked how her images were blurry and out-of-focus. I felt the result was very thought provoking and I decided to try this for my work.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/11/01/assignment-images-reflective-commentary-2/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/08/catherine-opie/
As I was looking at pilgrimages, I researched pilgrimages.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/06/pilgrimage/
I also researched artists who undertook similar journeys. I looked at:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/08/muhammad-sadiq-bey/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/12/12/hamish-fulton/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/08/tim-hall/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/08/08/annie-leibovitz/
It was very helpful to see how other artists undertook this challenge. I looked at their methodology, and how they went about it. Annie Leibovitz didn’t follow a traditional pilgrimage; rather she undertook a personal pilgrimage. This is partly what I am doing, so her work did help get a different perspective. As I was photographing churches and churchyards, I looked into artists how had done the same:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/10/25/nina-berman/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/10/25/kaupo-kikkas/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/10/25/jess-kohl/
These artists were helpful in seeing how they addressed the landscape. Jess Kohl’s images are very thought provoking. They do feature people, whereas mine do not, but her images of the location are very helpful for my work.
My attention then turned to different techniques. I decided to create a collage for my work. I looked into several artists and how they went about this:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/12/05/mary-beth-edelson/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/12/12/barbara-kruger/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/12/12/margaret-harrison/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/12/12/linder-sterling/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/12/12/peter-kennard/
Mary Beth Edelson’s image Some Living American Women Artists proved very valuable in my work. We were investigating and portraying very similar Things. We both have a religious theme and are looking at the gender inequality in the arts.
Collage
I took my research on board when I began experimenting with collages.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2019/12/05/collage/
Maps
I decided to include a side image, which showed the locations map. This would give context to the image, but also so it has it’s own agenda. I wanted something personal to me in the images, as this was also my journey. I decided to include archive images of my family. These women would not feature on the main images, to give the impression of them being excluded. Here is my process of my mapping images:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/05/15/sub-series/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/05/15/mapping/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/05/15/archive-images/
Text
I brought my images to a close with text. I wanted to keep to the religious theme and have bible quotes. I had a play around with the text, and following my tutor’s feedback, I settled with a plain text, which resembles a Bible’s font. I have changed the text to a more grey. The change is subtle. I notice it better when it is printed out rather than on a computer screen.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/05/15/text/
Introduction
I first wrote a draft of my introduction but have reworked it following my tutor’s feedback:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2021/01/31/final-introduction/
Title
I thought long and hard about a title for my work. As the pilgrimage I followed uses the name “In the Shadow of the Preselis”. I decided to play on the words and call my work. “In the Shadow of Men”. I feel this links to the fact women are excluded and gives the viewer a hint as to what is going.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/07/27/title/
Presentation
I thought about various ways to present my work but I decided on a newsletter format for printing. I feel this works well as it reminds me of the newsletter you get from churches, so again keeping in the religious theme.
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/07/27/presentation-2/
I decided to present them in a black folder; similar to the ones you get documents in. As this is a digital assessment it is not possible to show the finished product in person to my assessors. I hope the images do it justice.
Evaluation
Here is a link to a longer evaluation I wrote for this course:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/11/25/evaluation-2/
Assessment Outcomes
I have talked about the assessment outcomes for each assignment here:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/11/25/assessment-criteria/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/11/25/assessment-criteria-2/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/11/25/assessment-criteria-3/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/11/25/assessment-criteria-4/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/11/25/assessment-criteria-5/
Critique
I have critiqued my overall time on this course:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2021/01/30/critique/
Learning Outcome
I have also discussed the learning outcomes here:
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2020/11/25/learning-outcomes/
https://georginasbodyofwork.photo.blog/2021/01/27/learning-log-learning-outcomes/