Initial Reflections

Well here I am at the beginning of my final level.  I have recently received the results for the March Assessment of my latest Module: Progressing With Digital Photography.  I was awarded 58% which meant that I passed, but yet again I was tantalizingly close to that elusive 60% which has been the case for all of my Level 1 and 2 modules.  I would really like to achieve a 2:1 for my final degree, so I have a challenge on my hands and will be pulling out all the stops.  I know that my technical skills and presentation are good and I scored well in creativity.  Whilst maintaining standards in those areas I will need to focus on communication of ideas and contextualisation.

I have received my new course materials for Contextual Studies and Body of Work and have to admit to being daunted by them.  Body of Work begins by looking at Genres and very briefly mentions traditional genres with which I am familiar and which are listed in the the course Reader Photography: The key Concepts: portraiture, landscape, still life, documentary etc, before moving swiftly on to discuss a different set of genres: tableaux, personal journeys and fictional autobiography, the archive, psychogeography, conceptual photography and genres hopping.  Having read the first part of the course, I have had a problem relating these new genres to the more traditional ones.  Also I need to link my Body of Work to one or more of them.  Similarly, the Contextual Studies unit begins with Visual Culture in Practice and discusses the concepts of Modernism, Post Modernism, Poststructuralism and the language of photography, Photography and reality and Photography in the global age.  The first Contextual Studies Assignment requires an essay relating my Body of Work to one of these aspects of visual culture; yet again a challenge.

In order to have an image to display on this first page I have included a wildlife and a landscape shot from a recent trip to Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve and Flamborough Head.

To view large, please click on an image

Gannet collecting nest material

North Landing Flamborough