Feedback on Presentation of Body of Work to the Level 3 Hangout Group.

Having presented my Body of Work to a group of Level 3 students in the fortnightly 'Hangout' session, one or two themes cropped up.  Firstly it was felt that my contextual writing was overlong and wordy and varied between personal, autobiographical writing and more scientific/geographical description.  This suggested to the group that my own thinking was still not clear and led to some confusion in the images.  It was felt that a) there were too many images and, b) there was no clear narrative.  I think that both of these points are valid, as, although I have narrowed my projects down following assignment 1, I am still experimenting with, perhaps, too many themes: personal memory and autobiography with the Water Rail Way project, a geographical journey and metaphor for life with the River Witham, perhaps linked to Tennyson's The Brook and the coexistence of nature and industry.  I think that I have attempted to tie these together too much and I would have been better keeping them totally separate.

For Assignment 2, however, I think I shall now concentrate on the river theme, looking at the geographical journey of the river and linking it with Tennyson's poem, The Brook, and an allegory for life.  With these images, though, it was felt by some that the intrusion of people/car/boats interrupted the narrative.  I'm not sure on this one as, since prehistoric times, the River Witham has been used by people and treasured artefacts include a Bronze Age log boat in Lincoln's Usher Gallery and the Bronze Age Witham Shield in the British Museum.

Looking at my photographs I feel that they have a leaning towards the picturesque.  I'm not sure whether this is a good or bad thing.  I think that like many people, trying to take well composed pictures in interesting lighting (picturesque) is ingrained in me.  I have been reading a great deal lately about the picturesque, the sublime and non-aesthetic topographic images.  My inclination for Assignment 2 is to complete the photography for the journey of the Witham to the sea and then submit a picturesque selection editing down to about 20 images.  I would then like to aim for a set of sublime images of the river and, perhaps, a set of topographic ones.

The what is easy, now I have to concentrate on the how.