Evaluation

Assessment Evaluation

January 28, 2021January 31, 2021 georginie

Word Count: 744

Evaluation

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/

November 25, 2020January 31, 2021 georginie

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. As a woman, I don’t see a reason why I couldn’t do the same as a man. 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 to create a body of work which worked together. I remembered studying pilgrimages a while ago, 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 in religion and in photography. I have done this by following the pilgrimage and experiencing it as a woman. I have photographed my journey and brought this together in a collage, symbolising the strong force of religion excluded women. As my work covers psychogeography, I decided to include a map to give context to the images. 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, as they would have been excluded. The final element to my images are the text. I have used verses from the bible to connect my images. I feel these element work well side by side and have created a cohesive series of images.

Techniques

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 feel, a feeling of loss and longing. I feel this relates well to my work.

I felt a collage would work best for my work, as it can bring different images together to create a new more meaningful one. Collages have been frequently associated with a craft done by women, so it is fitting with my narrative. I wanted to bring feminine aspects to a male dominated area. I want to highlight the inequality between men and women. I feel my work brings to note how patriarchy is accepted and how women have been excluded for a very long time. The women in my work are on the outskirts. They do not feature in the main images, as for this pilgrimage they were excluded. This also highlights the overarching male dominated religion and society.

I deliberately choose the font for my text so it would be like the text in the Bible. It is clear and void of it’s own agenda, but it is impactful. I choose verses from the Bible as I wanted it to relate to my topic, of religion, pilgrimage and women. These verses highlight the stark inequality in religion, they are quite eye-opening.

I felt my images needed a feminine aspect, so I decided to introduce this as a secondary part to my work. I used images from my own family archive as this was personal to me. I positioned these women on the mapping image. I did this as they are not part of the main image, they are excluded as such. There is a comparison that they feature on the journey but not at the forefront, similar to in religion and life.

I felt the mapping images helped contextualise my images. They give a brief introduction to the location and solidify the work as a journey and a pilgrimage.

Presentation

I have discussed presentation with my tutor. My first thoughts were to publish my images in a book. I could present my work like a record of my pilgrimage, like a journal. I feel this would suit the images as it would hold the theme of a journey.

Then I thought about a physical exhibition. This would be very different from a physical presentation like in a book. My images would be set out like in a gallery, but the location is up for debate. I think presenting it in a location near the journey would be meaningful. Even better would be presenting it in one of the churches/buildings, however due to my topic exploring the exclusion of women in religion, I doubt whether the churches would allow this.

I debated about having an online exhibition. Again, this would be suitable, but I feel it may be a bit impersonal for my work.

But overall I was drawn to publishing my work as a newsletter. This would hopefully resemble a newsletter you would get in a church, in keeping with the theme of religion. I tried different formats and have moved the images around to see which looked better. I printed the pages as an A5 because I wanted it to resemble a newsletter which are normally small and easy to distribute. A5 is small enough to distribute, and still easily legible, but it is not too big to be unhandable. I printed the images on matt paper, but not a heavy grade paper, as I wanted the feel of a homemade newsletter from a church.

Research

The artists which have influenced me have varied along my journey. Each has contributed something to my work, but have done so at different stages. As my work has changed and developed over time, so has my research.

I found Catherine Opie’s work As long as they are wild, helpful. One of my ideas was to represent my images differently to represent the discontent. I would do this by photographing out-of-focus, overexposed, underexposed and from different levels. Then I found Catherine Opie’s work. Opie has taken out-of-focus images of Yosemite, to represent her argument. I found her work similar to what I was aiming for, so to be able to see an artist accomplishing this was very influential.

I also looked at artists who documented pilgrimages and churchyards. I found these useful as they were the same terrain I am covering. This included artists such as Muhammad Sadiq Bey, Tim Hall, Nina Berman, Jess Kohl and Kaupo Kikkas. The work by these Artists have given me a chance to see how others have approached this topic. Hamish Fulton is an artist who photographs when he is walking, his work helped me as it showed a different approach to a journey.

One artist which I found later in my work was Mary Beth Edelson, who combined religion and gender inequality in art. Edelson used the last supper image and imposed images of female artist on top. Her images draws a comparison from the patriarchy in religion and in the art world. It was very helpful and influential to see another artist address a very similar topic.

My work has taken the form of a collage. Before creating this, I looked into artists who used this technique. These include Margaret Harrison, Linder Sterling, Peter Kennard, Barbara Kruger and even Mary Beth Edelson would be valuable here too. I found these artists had covered a large range of topics using a collage technique, and they all had created vastly different results. The techniques varied slightly, some using tradition cut and paste and others using a digital approach. By seeing these different methods, I could experiment and see which would suit my work the best.

Issues

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. But as time went on I felt I have overcome my caution and have experimented and pushed myself. My printer did cause my some problems for a while. It just could not print the images correctly, there were lines, uneven colours etc. I have remedied this now and it is printing the images correctly.

Positives

I have found my research has been extensive and has really helped me along the way. Every step of the way I have been able to refer to my research and do more research. I feel my research is extensive and I believe I have used it well. My experimentation has been extensive and varied. I wanted to try different things to see how it worked and whether it would suit my work. I have found these to be real positives. I have also found my organisation skill very useful. This has allowed me to keep on top of everything, without getting overwhelmed.

Outcome

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.

Final Assessment

November 25, 2020January 31, 2021 georginie

Note to Assessors

Welcome to my learning log for this course.

Navigation

I have kept separate tabs for each section of the course.

I have a Final Assessment tab, which contains items for my final assessment, including the final submissions of assignments, my evaluation and notes. Here are the link to these:

Assessment Submission – This post details my submission on G-Drive.

Assessment Evaluation – This is a link to my evaluation that accompanies my assessment.

Here is a link to my Introduction.

Learning Log Learning Outcomes – Here is the link to my learning log posts I have chosen to met the learning outcomes required for assessment.

I did write a longer Evaluation for this course, which can be found here: Evaluation

Learning Outcomes – This is a post I wrote about the outcomes overall of this course for me.

Critique – Here is my Critique of my work on this course.

Here is also a link to my Final Images for Assessment Submission. I decided to uploaded my images combined (as they would be) and separate in their files, so it would be easier to see the images separately. I have also uploaded my images as a newsletter for presentation and a video showing them on G-Drive.

My assignment tab contains each assignment and the work I did in preparation.

My research tab contains the research I have done throughout this course including on artists, resources, ideas and techniques.

My tutor feedback tab contains all my feedback forms from my tutor and my thoughts and response.

My coursework can be found under my coursework tab.

Links

Below are a few links for easy access to vital areas of my learning log.

Assignments