I will continue with the format introduced for Asg. 4, commenting alongside the tutor feedback.
Received 9 Oct 19
Overall Comments
Thanks Nick for sending assignment 5 with prints, and well done on completing this course. You have made progress through the course and this assignment shows you again engaging thoroughly with different possibilities (within each theme) of what to include in your assignment set. Great to see you refecting on different possibilities and how they sit together as you work to develop your personal approach in communicating to an audience.
Feedback on assignment
You have clearly worked hard on this assignment and been very productive. I think your approach to going out and reshooting is really positive in enabling you to collect a wide range of images in relation to your idea. Sometimes this diversity means you end up with several interesting strands which could be productively developed into different projects. There is a balancing act in terms of working between the production of a series where all the images seem too similar and a series that offers less clear framing for the work. As you progress through the degree you will be able to continue to experiment with this in your assignment work to fnd a route through. [1]
I am interested in the way, in many of your images, you are successfully exploring the human interaction with plants without human presence in the images. I think the dying plants next to the priced label of fowers and the dead fowers tied to the bollard are most successful in their regard. This makes me think about experimenting with two sets of images: one that has no physical human presence, and another where people are deliberately featured in the images. This might help you to refect on the different ways you could approach your idea. The fact that the child in the lavender is the only shot of a person feels as though it needs other images of people to strengthen its position if it is included. [2]
I think the idea of revisiting the tree and observing the different stages of regrowth and human control has potential and is an interesting conceptual brief (echoed somewhat by the lily shots). I would refect on its format in this set, and how the presentation of images and text works in relation to the other images. Could you look to build another project which documents different locations and particular plant forms and human control? I wonder if just using one image (the frst image of the 3 where the brutally chopped trunk is visible along with regrowth, or the bare 3rd image) would sit visually more easily in this assignment set? [3]
Given the diversity of images across your development work, I wonder about the inclusion of both macro shots of plants that start your set as they feel the least connected to your idea of human interaction as you write about it in the assignment explanation. There are many images in your development work that hold potential to add into the fnal set depending on how you decide to push this idea for your submission for assessment. The 21 images in your list for printing hold together well as they cover the diversity of your idea, without giving more weight to one type than another and by not placing similar images next to each other there is more visual variety. Think about how you can build on this success in your fnal assignment set, or take a more focused approach. The image of the woman building a fower/plant wall next to a ladder in an interesting shot without the human being too distracting. Or the tube station wall if you are opting for no physical human presence, as well as the dead fowers in front of the shops. [4]
Beyond the 21 I think the wrapped trees show another interesting element in your idea, and the contrast between the green foliage and the artifcial green of the fabric makes a strong visual statement, though you may not have compositionally got what you were hoping for. I am drawn to the shot of the photographer in the lavender as it mirrors your role in the set capturing the plant life. Even the shot of the two girls taking a selfe could be included in a different version of this assignment where people were featured more prominently in the images. [5]