Portfolio Editing

For our final Year 1 FD project, we have to edit down our work into a portfolio - over the past year we have done 4 photographic assignments and 2 written Assignments.

The first Assignment was: Digital - Based on 'Space' - I chose not to put this into my portfolio because it was weak, my knowledge of photoshop was limited and the work I attempted was more intermediate, I basically threw myself into the deep end but still did well.

Second Assignment: British

Third Assignment: Consumerism 'I consume therefore I am...'

Fourth Assignment: Portraits

Here are the images chosen by Tutors and Course members:


Portrait Assignment: This based on the day to day life of my Nana, it was inspired by Kay Lynn Deveneys work - I am most pleased with the images from this assignment in comparisson to my others - these are the ones chosen by the tutors for my portfolio - I agree that there are 3 that are pretty strong - I'll leave you all to your own opinions...







Consumerism Assignment: 'I consume therefore I am...' - Personally I wouldn't have picked these images but they felt that they were all similar and therefore flowed better - the project was based on how fashion magazine influence a persons shopping habits and what they buy, even if they don't suit them or are way over the top.




British Assignment - This was based on the local Working Mens Club - I decided to show the venue rather than the people who attend, especially as the number of people attending such venues is dwindling dramatically!

Margaret Armitage - The Book

I finally finished my book based on my Nana, it was inspired by Kay Lynn Deveneys work (see previous posts). I spent 2 weeks documenting my Nana from her day to day chores and a couple of day trips. The book looks very professional and I am happy with most of the images I chose, although if I had the time I would remove a couple. I showed the book to a couple of people before I handed it in and they felt that the book had a 'sad' feeling to it, this wasn't intentional but I understand where they are coming from.

I have posted a few images from the book below:

Bonny Scotland

I have just enjoyed May Bank Holiday weekend and I went to Scotland for it, I stayed on a farm in 'Auchtermutchy' (I think thats how it's spelt) in Fife. The farm only kept cows and even though I was on a break I took plenty of photographs over the weekend (a few below). We visited Edinburgh and St Andrews, and all in all a very nice weekend, except now I have lots of work to crack on with for college - I have my portrait assignment due in this friday (7/05/10)I have decided to create an actual book so I need to get it sent to the printers and the 'industry and practice' assignment is due in the following week which involves lots of research and the final needs to be an essay and a presentation based on my interviews and research.

Mini Shoot - Rosie & Faye

I did a mini shoot with Faye and Rosie, I decided to do this to have more experience photographing people. I let the girls pick what to wear themselves so they felt more comfortable and tried to keep it simple, its the first time either of them have done this so they were quite nervous, I got a few good images from it, I think next time they do it for me they wont be so nervous!

Studio Dance School

So, Friday I did Photoshoot for a Dance School in Salford, I was 'hired' to take group photos of a Dance School Students for their Show Programme - http://www.thestudiomanchester.co.uk - The owners of the School are Lucy and Alexandra Marchant (image below) - Group photography is harder than I anticipated but I hope some of the images are usuable.





This week I plan on doing a mini photoshoot with a couple of girls I know - I have asked them to wear what they deem their 'most fashionable' outfits for the shoot. Once complete I will upload the images.

Also this week I need to arrange and decide on my portrait assignment where I am photographing my Nana in the style of Photojournalism.

Photojournalism/Documentary Photography

So college work has been piling up!! I have, however, managed to finish my Contextual Studies Essay based on the photography work by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans during the Great Depression in America, where they were hired to document the FSA (Farm Security Administration) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_Security_Administration

My new assignment is 'Portraits' which I am pleased about, however, I am going to move away from 'fashion' photography and I am going to document the day to day life of my Nana, similar to KayLynn Deveney - http://www.kaylynndeveney.com - this should prove to be an interesting series for others but to me its just the norm, saying that, I watched the Annie Leibovitz: Life through a Lens DVD and I quote her saying "something that didn't seem as though it was anything is something" which is why I decided to pursue this even though I will probably struggle to see anything artistic about it!

I have added a few of Kay Lynn Deveneys work below, I particulary like the one where she captured him closing the curtains, I like the lighting:

Fashion Shoot!

So, I started this blog as a way to inform you all as to what i'm up to and to share my work so far.

My third assignment for my FD was titled "I consume therefore I am..." - I decided to use how magazine's influence fashion and what we buy from the High Street as my inspiration.

I think that the advertising of products then using celebrities to promote them further influences many people who read the magazines to often copy 'looks' from them.

For my shoot I decided to keep it simple with a plain background like Irvin Penn, my inspiration in addition to magazine fashion pages comes from Cindy Sherman's over the top 'glamour' images - to do this I decided the girls should where a lot of make up and clashing outfits, all of which were put together using contemporary magazines with clothes available on the High Street.

For this assignment, we were told to use film as opposed to digital, which I am not used to at the moment and this was also the first time I have attempted a Fashion shoot of this kind, here are some simple point-and-shoot snapshots!



My Friend Emma helped style the girls and give them pointers and help with hair and make up.

It was fairly successful, I shot in colour film using a 35mm camera and then backed up with digital.



The final images will be photoshopped (placed on new pages and the dust removed) then put into a book along with montages of the magazines used for inspiration.


When I have finished the book I'll upload a few pages!