Week Six and the terrors of taking an image...

Week Six already and more substantive input from Henry Iddon and Andy Greaves.  I think Henry is ex-DMU and Andy is currently in his second year of the MA.  You can check both of them out at their sites as highlighted.  I rated Henry's Spots of Time project pretty highly - I've been doing detailed research into nocturnal images of the land for my first essay (a comparison of Misrach and Martins, more to follow on this) - and he genuinely has done something different with this approach.  I especially love those images where the moonlight casts a really solid light on the land but the distant various light sources reveal the timing of the images and create a really uncanny 'newness' to scenes that might otherwise seem pedestrian and cliched.  His commitment and persistence to getting the pictures is something that is becoming increasingly clear - bodies of strong, thoughtful and novel work don't simply 'happen' but have to be worked at.  Henry said something that Andy also emphasized - start thinking through a final project right now...i.e. six weeks into a two year course!

Cake File...if there was cake it must have been stonking...as I arrived a little late and there was no sign!

Andy showed a strong body of images stretching back over quite a few years - he's been taking serious photographs for ages and also has a very developed practice.  He's tackling 'Englishness' as a subject for his...and already has a fair few images and associated ideas to hand.  It was good to see and hear someone who is still putting together his project as well as those who've done the finished product.

Still one thing that's coming through now is that quite a few of us in the current year  are feeling a little removed from the making of images at the moment - or maybe it's just me?  We have been listening a lot, and now starting to talk a little, about photography.  However that's very much been the focus...and I'm beginning to feel a kind of creeping tyranny around actually taking a picture.  I'm looking at such a lot of work...not all uniformly good, let alone great, but enough of sufficient quality to make me feel pretty inadequate.  It's underlined my initial thoughts that I'm a painter who takes a few snaps...but I guess that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.