Self Evaluation Report

Below is the 1000+ word report/ self evaluation that we were asked to produce to go alongside out body of work. I really enjoyed writing this piece of text as it allowed me to reflect and think about my choices!

Report

Ben Stokes

“Tools of The Trade”

During the advance research strategies module I researched into my chosen subject matter, which enabled me to produce a project proposal for my negotiated final major project. My photographic style at the time of producing the project proposal was surrounding real life portraits of engineers from different areas within the United Kingdom. I initially intended to continue this work for my NMP using portraiture as my medium of doing so. From past research in other modules and through further research during the ARS module I began to delve in-depth into my chosen subject area. I have always been interested in the praise of the declining metalworking industry within the country and this project was focusing on just this.

During a one-to-one meeting with a tutor, I discussed my proposal and how best to develop the project. It became apparent that although I had initially intended to produce a number of “real life” portraits, it was my still life photography that held the most strength and it was proposed that I focus upon that to develop an area of my photographic practice that needed further development and focus. This gave me an ideal opportunity to challenge myself in working outside my usual style and I was enthusiastic to begin experimenting with still life photography. The idea ignited upon presenting to a tutor a number of my archive images that were surrounding the praise of engineer’s concept. The tutor noticed something within this work that would work well for my NMP and together we decided that my proposal would change to incorporate the still life photography. Below is the archive image that I presented to the tutor at the one-to-one meeting; it was taken at the forge at which I have worked at for over 5 years.

  

I began photographing straight away having always found this the best way to gather ideas and to develop a style for a project. At this point my project was in need of its own unique impression on the overall theme of the praise of engineers.

I therefore decided that I would focus upon one aspect of life within the forge itself and by delving into and unpicking each archive still life photograph it enabled me to decide upon the focus for this project. Through experiencing life first hand within the forge I had a greater understanding of the industry and how it has been on a journey for many years. One element of the trade that has remained similar throughout the years is the basic elements that enable the engineers to function, be that the food they eat or the tools that they utilize. I began photographing at the forge several times with this idea in mind and I collected many diverse and interesting images whilst doing so.

The next stage of my project was further research, and due to changing my idea from what was initially suggested this research was vital. In particular, I took great influence from Chris Harrison who similar to myself used photography to capture elements of the industrial past. I have found it extremely useful to see how other photographers go about photographing a similar subject; Harrison has been a great influence of mine in what he chooses to photograph and how he goes about this. I continued to research and apply what I had found out to my project on a regular basis, which enabled me to perfect and create a diverse series of photographs.

The editing down of my vast amount of images was crucial, I needed to identify a specific aesthetic style to push forward and perfect. During a feedback session with Moira Lovell and David Oates, I was able to distinguish the chosen aesthetic for my final set of photographs. The chosen aesthetic was minimal, with a plain background that isolated out the subject in the middle of the photograph, similar to my “real life” portraits of the men who utilize such items in the photographs. This isolating method has been influenced by my work surrounding the use of the dead pan aesthetic and has been enhanced by my meticulous personality, which helped to work well with how food photography is so fastidious in the present day. From my research it was obvious to see that as mentioned above, the food photography industry has exceptionally high standards in terms of the final outcome. This influenced me to produce high quality perfectly turned out photographs for my final edit. I re-shot some photograph set up’s in order to maintain this high standard that was expected for my final major project. Throughout the project I tried to keep the learning outcomes and module aims in mind to make sure that I produced a professional quality body of work that would be of marketable quality.

Undertaking vast amounts of research into the presentation of my final photographs I have been able to understand what it takes to produce a professional quality exhibition worthy project. I now understand the hardship that a photographer goes through when designing and putting together an exhibition. I have taken into consideration each individual element of presentation, from test prints and picture quality to framing and mounting of the final product. I believe that this has been a massive learning curve for myself and I have begun to understand the work ethic, drive and passion that are needed to be successful within the photographic industry.

I put the viewers first when deciding certain presentation elements, which has showed me that it is necessary to do so in order to create an impacting and memorable exhibition. I decided that the final name for the body of work would be chosen during the closing stages of the project, this has enabled me to develop a name that suits my final photographs well and which summarizes what they are about. The chosen name for the project was “Tools of The Trade” which comes from the fact that the food and the tools are both actual “tools” that are utilized and they both have their own history within the industry.

I have noticed myself being taken on a journey throughout this project, I have been able to notice myself changing my idea naturally and I have let the project take its own course which has brought me out with a body of work which looks professional and puts across my initial ideas successfully. Other students and tutors have picked up on how naturally my idea has progressed and developed, this way of project development will now come into its own now that I have more time to finish future projects after I leave university. Another area of my professional practice that I have been able to develop during this project is the ability to talk to others about my photographic practice whilst also taking on board constructive criticism in a profession manner. The development of an Artist Statement has also been very beneficial for my future work as it enabled me to practice talking about my own work in a critical and professional way. I have also incorporated the use of a real life project budget, which I have been able to stick too so far; this has been great practice for when I have to manage my own projects in the future. Identifying my target audience early on in my project was beneficial to my work as I was able to keep this in mind when photographing to again produce a professional quality body of work. Finally, one element of the exhibition design has benefitted the body of work greatly, the decision to include wall brackets that are made at the forge at which I have been photographing has given a real sense of praise for the work that the engineers do there.

The project has enabled me to focus upon one area of photography that I may not have been able to devote time to in the past and I believe that from doing so I have opened a new doorway in terms of my professional progression. The food photography industry is a competitive industry to thrive in however after this project I believe that I would be able to do so in a successful manner in the future. The photographs that I have produced for this project will stand as a testament to the rapidly declining metal working industry in this country. The photographs successfully fulfill my intentions and allow others a unique insight into an industry that will one day be extinct.

Exhibition Justification Statement

Below is a short piece of text that justifies my choices made when designing my virtual exhibition with the intention to design my final show in the same way. 

Statement

The layout of an exhibition is of great importance to me, I believe the viewer should be taken into account when deciding each individual element of the design.

I start by talking about the order of the photographs, something that took a great deal of time editing down and deciding which image to place in which order. Through a number of different editing sessions both with other photographers/ peers and also by myself, I was able to use test prints to experiment with the order of the photographs. This was a very worthwhile exercise as it enabled me to become better educated in how to order a body of work more successfully. It is important that whilst editing down to the final set of images that a photographer gets other peoples opinions, these opinions can bring new ideas or ideas that the photographer might not have seen initially. Physically printing out the test prints enabled me to visualize the photographs as a sequence and it was easier to decide the order from doing so. The photographs needed to have some sort of continuity about them, many exhibitions that I have visited have considered the way that a viewer reads a body of work. I therefore decided to use one landscape-orientated image followed by a portrait image and so on, this gives the viewer a reoccurring pattern.

Using the virtual online exhibition software, Exhibbit, enabled me to visualize my work as if it was being hung on a gallery wall. This was a great experience as it enabled me to practice how I would like my photographs to be presented during the final show. The software had several downsides however; it was very basic and only enabled the user to make basic changes to the layout. From the very beginning of my assignment I decided that I would exhibit my photographs on one single white wall with no separation by other walls, this was mainly due to the way in which the viewer would experience and read the images without being distracted. Although we have not been allocated a space for the final show as of yet, I have requested a long plain white wall so that I would be able to exhibit my images in one long sequence. I produced a mock up design using the software, the images of which can be seen within the folder named “DESIGN 1”. It is obvious to see that the images within this design are very close together, this is not how I will choose to exhibit my final prints, I intend to have a larger are of white space separating each image. The final 9x A1 size images would not have been able to fit on the wall within the Exhibbit software and the user is unable to change the size of the space. This design does however show how I intend to display my final images once I am given a longer wall at the final show.

As a precaution, and incase I am not allocated a single long white wall to exhibit, I have designed another layout using the software. The second layout can be seen within the folder named “DESIGN 2”.

This layout incorporates two different walls into the design and through designing this I have been able to practice the layout incase I am allocated 2 different walls or more. I consciously decided to separate the images onto two walls so that they looked equal, the two landscape orientated images either side of the portrait orientated image works successfully.

In terms of the framing that I will use for the exhibition, I have chosen to incorporate the forge into the production of the brackets that will hold my work onto the wall. I will encase each print within two clear A1 size pieces of Perspex/ acrylic sheet. This frame will then be attached to the wall by the brackets made by the engineers at Risley Forge, the company at which I have been photographing. This is a great way of incorporating the highly talented engineers work into this project, which is all about the praise of these men.

The scale of the prints has been of great importance to myself throughout this project, as the project is a praise of these engineers and their way of life, I intend to have large-scale prints. Due to the high quality photographs that I have produced, it enables me to have the images at size A1, which will give the viewer a chance to see the enormous amount of detail in each photograph. As mentioned on my blog, I have chosen to have  white boarder around each image to frame each image and enable them to stand out. The white boarder will be only a couple of inches wide due to personal preference.

I believe that the body of work along side the display choices that I have made for the exhibition will create a flowing and well designed exhibition that will give the viewer a professional quality experience.

The detail of each element of the design is shown in more detail on my blog,

http://neg-major-photo-project-ben-stokes.blogspot.co.uk/.

Evaluation & Report

I am going to write a 1000 word report which talks about my project intentions and working process throughout this project. This will act as an evaluation and will allow me to reflect upon my journey as well as summarise everything that I have achieved throughout my final major project.

Paper Quality

Just a quick note... Leading on from my previous blog post about paper quality, I have decided that I will get my photographs printed in gloss finish. Standard gloss gives me the best of both worlds, there isn't as much light reflection as with high gloss but there is enough of a glossy look so that the image is clear and details can be picked up by the viewer.

Justification of Changes From My Initial Proposal

This post is surrounding the justification of the changes that I have made throughout this project, I have developed and changed my idea from the project proposal however I have also kept my work surrounding the same ideas/ concepts. I initially proposed to create a set of real life portraits of the people within different forges around the UK, this then changed due to me deciding that my work would benefit from moving away from portraiture and focussing on still life/ food photography. The main turning point for my project was when I had a one-to-one meeting with a programme leader who noticed that my still life photography was some what more interesting than some of my portraiture. I sometimes disregard my still life photography in the attempt to perfect my portraiture however in this situation it seemed right to take a different route for my final major project. I saw the FMP as a chance for me to really experiment with one aspect of my photography that needed some attention and as my previous project had been focussing on portraiture I decided to focus on the still life food photography as suggested. I am glad that I chose to change my route and my initial proposal because it has been very interesting to delve into this area of photography. 

Preparation Sessions

In the run up to the final show, we have been asked to attend sessions at university which are there to help our class make the right decisions for the final exhibition. The sessions will cover the following: editing, printing, framing, statements, name labels and production of postcards. I am looking forward to these session as I believe David Oates will be able to iron out any wrinkles that we each may have in our work before we start the final production of prints etc. 

Virtual Online Gallery Space 2

Revised Design

As previously mentioned I have been experimenting with the virtual online gallery space software called Exhibbit. I have been producing different designs using the software and it has proven very tricky to actually find a suitable way of organising my photograph to produce a visually sound professional standard exhibition. I originally thought that it would have been some what easy to work with the space within the software however it was hard to scale the images right to fit in the room space. This was tricky for me since I have only produced two exhibitions in the past. I have been able to overcome this and have worked at designing a more suitable design than I originally produced. 

I noticed that the images looked too small when on the large wall, I knew that I wanted the images to be size A1 in order to give the viewer enough scale to appreciate each crisp highly detailed photograph. I then decided to make the size of the images bigger on the walls, this caused me to then have to move onto the next wall space in order to fit all of the 9 images in. I initially intended my images to be on one long straight wall however this is sometimes hard to find in some galleries. This gave me great experience with overcoming possible difficulties that may arise when producing the final show so this is a good way to learn certain lessons! I would still very much like to have my images all on one long wall, this would flow better and I think that with the work spread between two walls the work can sometimes loose the flow and this can affect the viewers experience. The software that I have been using is basic and you are unable to change certain aspects of the exhibition, because of this I have decided to try out another piece of software in order to possible produce a better design. I downloaded a similar piece of software called VAS Virtual Art Space, this seems to have a little more choice than Exhibbit and I am pleased with the ease of this software. Below is another design that I have produced using this new software, I tried to iron out and wrinkles in my initial design.

When stating the size/ dimensions of the space that I require at the final show, I requested that I have enough wall space to fit 9x A1 Images, this size is likely to be the final size of my images unless I am advised by staff that the space that I require may not be available. If this is the case, I will get the prints made at A2 size, only as a last resort. It is a big part of my project that these images are of a large scale, the critical underpinning behind this being that my work is a praise and the scale of the images can reflect this, they will be grand and well printed with abundant detail. 

I noted in the request form that I required the following: I will require existing wall space to display 9 x (23.4" x 33.1") (A1 Size) prints. A mixture of both landscape and portrait orientation with ample space separating each image.

We were also asked to write a short sentence to summarise what our individual work is about, mine read as follows. 

"Many years of experience in the metalworking industry unveiled a strong appreciation of the skills and techniques that have been passed down through generations. The remaining forges that continue to utilize these techniques are in decline due to an increase of products being imported into the UK. These photographs are part of an ongoing project, which aims to praise these talented engineers for their craftsmanship and passion for the work they produce. Fuelling and assisting these engineers are their food and tools, both of which have their own story to tell. The recipes and devices that give these men the means to carry out such physically demanding jobs are a vital part of life within the forge. Unique hand crafted tools have been passed down through families, from generation to generation and these photographs are a testament to a way of life that will soon be forgotten."

When I begun designing/ using the software on the VAS Virtual Art Space website, it became apparent that it took a long time to change anything or upload information or images using the software. It would take around an hour to create the exhibition and this wasn't practical for my work or progression. I then decided to continue using the first software that I found because I had started getting used to that and it was much quicker. 

Below is another design that I have produced using the Exhibbit software, I tried to iron out and wrinkles in my initial design. I also wanted to create a design that would utilise only one long stright wall, as mentioned previously I think that if the sequence is broken by a different angle wall then it can disrupt the viewers attention/ experience. Below are some screen shots of the latest design that I have come up with. 

The above design is taking into account the fact that I may not have as much space as I would like to have in the final show due to size constraints. This is a very real situation and it is great to be able to have the chance to overcome this issue whilst at university and not when I have graduated. I will now produce one more exhibition design, I have noticed several things that I dont like about the latest design. The first thing that I dislike about the design is that the images are too close together, I have wanted a considerable gap between each image from the very start of this project. This is the most major downside of this design and I will now adapt this to be more suitable. I will go back to the initial design and use the idea of using two or more walls to enable me to have enough space separating the images whilst keeping the size of each print the same. I know that using more than one wall goes against my initial idea but I believe that if possible, I will use just one wall in my final show. So the one wall design will be the chosen design that I will submit and use at the final show as long as I have enough space to display them. I will however still design another layout out of curiosity to see if it works better by breaking the images us using another wall. Below is the last design that I produced, it works really well once I had a play around with scale and positioning, I may even use this design to submit for hand-in. 

I would also include my artist statement/ introductory statement at the beginning of the prints, A4 size.  

It was important that the exhibition looked equally proportioned and spaced out, however having to split an odd number between the two walls proved difficult and therefore I had to compromise on the spacing with the first 3 prints. 

I am pleased with the way that the designing has come out, I know that this is only a rough design because we have not been given the final spaces that we will be allocated for the final show yet. I am confident about the size of my final prints, it is just the layout on the one wall design that I cannot successfully put across through this software. Therefore, I am going to submit both of the designs for submission.