The images
I have not had much opportunity yet to process my images however I have made some initial choices and have a clear sense of the type of photographs I would like to include in my portfolio. I have also been able to share my images with some photographers – the feedback has been very helpful in terms of both the way I might process the images and also thinking about the overall effect of the portfolio and its integrity as a piece of work. Readers of this blog will recall I had a previous trip to Skye where I produced a few “shortlisted” images. These are below:
The following image I intend to convert to black and white to see whether it is a contender:
These are my images from the latest trip in early draft form:
I still have a number of images to review and need to consider the balance and breadth of them in the context of the portfolio as a whole.
New methodology for making images
I wanted to try a new methodology for recording my feelings, thoughts and decisions as follows:
Develop a new methodology for recording and understanding my emotional response to potential images in the field and the subsequent processing of them. To this end I will record my thoughts (via my mobile phone or transcription device) in terms of how I am experiencing the Road, the weather, my feelings, the scene (colours, impact, light, what attracts me), the message or narrative I am aiming for, and the camera (how it feels, settings, approach, composition). I will also record my thoughts as I process the image. In this I will seek to achieve epoche in the process of recording. Finally, I will generate a Word Cloud using nVivo which will pick out the predominant words during this process. I intend to display the narrative next to the image in whatever format I choose to present my portfolio.
I trialled the idea as planned by using my mobile phone to record my thoughts. Although I did achieve this and have a number of recordings to transcribe I found it hard to “slow down” sufficiently to really allow myself to think deeply about my image making. I believe this is to be expected at this stage and I can work on my concentration and the speed of my image making as I move through further modules.
Possible Collaborations
I was able to meet up with local Skye artist Julia Christie to discuss possible collaboration on this work and also a joint exhibition in July 2018. The intention would be for Julia and I to both consider the same scene and make choices about our focus depending upon our own personal preferences and artistic genre. We will then each produce our image/painting and our thoughts and feelings about it to be included next to the image in the exhibition. Although we have a venue for the exhibition in 2018 we are also researching the possibility of other venues on Skye to show our work.
With Julia’s permission a few of her stunning paintings below:
