Unit 1: Final Evaluation
Name: Ben Kennett
Use the prompts below to help you structure a detailed, reflective account of your Unit 1 investigations.
AO1:
Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
Which artists’ work have you explored during the course? How did you discover it? How has this shaped your understanding of photography? (approx. 150 words)
(Don’t write about everything you have done. Refer to a range of specific examples from both the Techniques & Processes and Personal Investigations in your description and explain the impact they had on you. Which artists/photographers have influenced you the most and why?)
Through the course I have studied many different photographers work and have experimented with my own to try see if I could improve in any way. I have studied a range of techniques such as cyanotypes, photograms, light painting etc. and have experimented with responding to various photographers who have inspired me to try different methods and approaches. Mobile photography was one of the main topics that made me realise that photography is such a big thing. When it came to the mobile photography we could take photos of anything as long as it was on some form of mobile device. That’s when I realised that photography could be anything you want it to be, whether it’s just a picture of a boring old post box to something amazing like a skyscraper photography is a vast project and I think its one of the biggest projects ever if you think about it. Ernst Haas has been a major influence on my abstract photography and some of his work influenced me to try some new ways of capturing my images. Sion Fullana was also another photographer who made an impact on my work, most of his work was in black and white yet he could still take some amazing photos in colour, the different shadings and tone in his images are really good because there is never just one point to focus on in the photos, every little detail is made into account and noticed.
What themes/subjects have you explored? Which have been the most successful and why? How have you sustained and developed your investigations? (approx. 150 words)
(Take care to explain the decisions you made in some detail. Remember you need to show critical understanding so explain the relationship between the artists you explored and the ideas you had.)
I explored mobile photography in quite some depth and the different methods of taking photos on mobile devices. The only thing I would change about how I approached mobile photography would be to change my subject matter; I didn’t really have a subject I think my work would have been more effective if I had chosen a clear theme for the images. Ernst Haas’ images of water and reflections are really inspiring and led me to try some of my own which I thought were very successful and creative. I am still trying to capture some of my own photography based on water and reflections with a new twist. I am using mirrors and placing them in unusual places to make out of shape photos that look peculiar, for example I have taken a few photos of reflections of the sky, trees and buildings, I still wish to explore this subject a bit more and develop them to make a final piece for my abstraction page.
AO2:
Experiment with and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining work as it develops.
Describe the experiments you have carried out with a range of media, techniques and processes and explain the decisions you made to refine and develop your work. (Approx. 150 words)
I have attempted many different techniques and processes such as, cyanotypes, the camera obscura, photograms, pinhole images, light painting and moving images. One of the most successful ones was probably light painting. I didn’t look into different photographers because I just wanted to start the project and think it went quite good and I liked the different techniques I explored. If I were to change anything about any of the techniques and processes it would look more closely at specific artists and analyse their work in more detail to see how I could have tried some of their methods or techniques and processes. Moving images was also a very successful project for me and I experimented with many different types of moving image but I would change the fact that I didn’t base any of my work around any other artists, so I would change that and look at other people’s work and try some of their methods. Abstraction in my opinion has been the best project yet to explore different methods of it to develop an understanding, right from the beginning when I did not have much understanding of abstraction and just started with patterns on walls, I researched different photographers such as Ernst Haas who based some of his work on reflections, so instead of copying him I made my own idea of instead of reflections on water I changed it up and based my work on reflections of objects such as trees and buildings in the reflection of the mirror.
AO4:
Present a personal, informed and meaningful response demonstrating critical understanding, realising intentions and, where appropriate, making connections between visual, written, oral or other elements.
Describe your final outcomes for each of the Personal Projects in some detail. What were you hoping to create? Did it work? How have your ideas evolved over time? What have been the most important influences on our work? How does this work reflect your interests as an artist/photographer - the way you see the world, what you want to say, how you like to use the tools at your disposal etc? (Approx. 200 words)
Personal projects were the biggest subject in photography in unit 1; the photography was a very wide range of ideas and subjects to explore on. Mobile photography was the first and probably one of the most biggest projects we did for photography unit 1, we went on a trip to a gallery up London and saw some interesting pieces of work by different mobile photographers and the way they presented their work in the gallery made us feel more confident in exploring different ways of photography on mobile devices, although there was no final piece for this work it was big and I felt I did quite well in the process of taking and presenting the images on my site. Multiple images was the first personal project where we had to come up with a final piece and present and evaluate it, my final piece was multiple photos of random students within the school and made them combine all into one big distorted face and I presented it on my site and evaluated it with detail. The last personal project for unit 1 was the abstraction project where my work was based on reflection, I started off with reflection from water and then advanced on to a new way of exploring the abstraction of reflection, I started to use mirrors and then got my final piece using one of those images based on reflection. The only thing I would change in unit 1 personal projects would be if I had more time to explore more ways of developing multiple images and to have more than one final piece.
Name: Ben Kennett
Use the prompts below to help you structure a detailed, reflective account of your Unit 1 investigations.
AO1:
Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
Which artists’ work have you explored during the course? How did you discover it? How has this shaped your understanding of photography? (approx. 150 words)
(Don’t write about everything you have done. Refer to a range of specific examples from both the Techniques & Processes and Personal Investigations in your description and explain the impact they had on you. Which artists/photographers have influenced you the most and why?)
Through the course I have studied many different photographers work and have experimented with my own to try see if I could improve in any way. I have studied a range of techniques such as cyanotypes, photograms, light painting etc. and have experimented with responding to various photographers who have inspired me to try different methods and approaches. Mobile photography was one of the main topics that made me realise that photography is such a big thing. When it came to the mobile photography we could take photos of anything as long as it was on some form of mobile device. That’s when I realised that photography could be anything you want it to be, whether it’s just a picture of a boring old post box to something amazing like a skyscraper photography is a vast project and I think its one of the biggest projects ever if you think about it. Ernst Haas has been a major influence on my abstract photography and some of his work influenced me to try some new ways of capturing my images. Sion Fullana was also another photographer who made an impact on my work, most of his work was in black and white yet he could still take some amazing photos in colour, the different shadings and tone in his images are really good because there is never just one point to focus on in the photos, every little detail is made into account and noticed.
What themes/subjects have you explored? Which have been the most successful and why? How have you sustained and developed your investigations? (approx. 150 words)
(Take care to explain the decisions you made in some detail. Remember you need to show critical understanding so explain the relationship between the artists you explored and the ideas you had.)
I explored mobile photography in quite some depth and the different methods of taking photos on mobile devices. The only thing I would change about how I approached mobile photography would be to change my subject matter; I didn’t really have a subject I think my work would have been more effective if I had chosen a clear theme for the images. Ernst Haas’ images of water and reflections are really inspiring and led me to try some of my own which I thought were very successful and creative. I am still trying to capture some of my own photography based on water and reflections with a new twist. I am using mirrors and placing them in unusual places to make out of shape photos that look peculiar, for example I have taken a few photos of reflections of the sky, trees and buildings, I still wish to explore this subject a bit more and develop them to make a final piece for my abstraction page.
AO2:
Experiment with and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining work as it develops.
Describe the experiments you have carried out with a range of media, techniques and processes and explain the decisions you made to refine and develop your work. (Approx. 150 words)
I have attempted many different techniques and processes such as, cyanotypes, the camera obscura, photograms, pinhole images, light painting and moving images. One of the most successful ones was probably light painting. I didn’t look into different photographers because I just wanted to start the project and think it went quite good and I liked the different techniques I explored. If I were to change anything about any of the techniques and processes it would look more closely at specific artists and analyse their work in more detail to see how I could have tried some of their methods or techniques and processes. Moving images was also a very successful project for me and I experimented with many different types of moving image but I would change the fact that I didn’t base any of my work around any other artists, so I would change that and look at other people’s work and try some of their methods. Abstraction in my opinion has been the best project yet to explore different methods of it to develop an understanding, right from the beginning when I did not have much understanding of abstraction and just started with patterns on walls, I researched different photographers such as Ernst Haas who based some of his work on reflections, so instead of copying him I made my own idea of instead of reflections on water I changed it up and based my work on reflections of objects such as trees and buildings in the reflection of the mirror.
AO4:
Present a personal, informed and meaningful response demonstrating critical understanding, realising intentions and, where appropriate, making connections between visual, written, oral or other elements.
Describe your final outcomes for each of the Personal Projects in some detail. What were you hoping to create? Did it work? How have your ideas evolved over time? What have been the most important influences on our work? How does this work reflect your interests as an artist/photographer - the way you see the world, what you want to say, how you like to use the tools at your disposal etc? (Approx. 200 words)
Personal projects were the biggest subject in photography in unit 1; the photography was a very wide range of ideas and subjects to explore on. Mobile photography was the first and probably one of the most biggest projects we did for photography unit 1, we went on a trip to a gallery up London and saw some interesting pieces of work by different mobile photographers and the way they presented their work in the gallery made us feel more confident in exploring different ways of photography on mobile devices, although there was no final piece for this work it was big and I felt I did quite well in the process of taking and presenting the images on my site. Multiple images was the first personal project where we had to come up with a final piece and present and evaluate it, my final piece was multiple photos of random students within the school and made them combine all into one big distorted face and I presented it on my site and evaluated it with detail. The last personal project for unit 1 was the abstraction project where my work was based on reflection, I started off with reflection from water and then advanced on to a new way of exploring the abstraction of reflection, I started to use mirrors and then got my final piece using one of those images based on reflection. The only thing I would change in unit 1 personal projects would be if I had more time to explore more ways of developing multiple images and to have more than one final piece.