End

For creative and productivity purposes I have decided to put this blog into sketch books and will continue to work in that format until the end of this project.

-Alex Hurst

Return of the Nick

Whilst waiting for a tutorial Nick walked past me and we had a quick chat. He told me that since our chat he had a feeling of guilt, which was amusing, but he also told me that he has thought of an idea that I could try out. This idea being combining the lenticular stuff I’ve been doing with looking at the racecourse. What I would do it choose apart of the course on a busy meeting, set up tripod and camera and photograph the course going through its stages, so whilst everyone is a the parade ring so it will be pretty quiet, the before the race whilst everyone is putting their bets on, during the race where people will show lots of emotions and it will busiest and then post race where people are going back to the parade ring or collecting winnings. I’ve got to say it’s a good idea, I am going to try it out at the next race meeting in a week’s time and I hope something will come from it. At least it will get me taking photos again and hopefully it will be a good path to go down or at least point me into a look that will interest me and something I can then continue on doing.

Su talk

Just to get myself back into a state of knowing anything I had a quick tutorial with Su today so I could go over my project proposal and talk to her about where I should and could talk this project from the point it is now. The main thing that I took from the meeting was that I should not scrap the research that I’ve already done and that I should look at some of the old pictures I’ve taken from Leicester racecourse and just look and see if there is anything interesting that I could pick up on. Now with this in mind I’m really thinking about doing the portraits of stands as I’ve never done anything like that, I didn’t look at it at all in 3409 and it just seems like something that I can run with relatively quickly. I know of a fair few courses in the Midlands and there are a lot around London and Hertfordshire so it would think it would be do able getting to them its just trying to organise it and really do it.
Still not happy about this however getting on track doesn’t seem like mission impossible

"OK Time For Plan B"

After that, I have come to a couple of conclusions, firstly I’m glad, I’m glad that Nick told me this now, not wait until the end of the year for that to happen and me to be well and truly screwed, at least I have several months to get my act together and I know I can do it if I really try. Secondly I have to do something that I can do on my own accord and not have to rely on anyone at all and can be a completely individual project.

I have decided that I have two very murky paths that I can really go down from the research I’ve done and the proposal I wrote last term. The first is portrait, but have a strong, powerful subject to look at. Two things come to mind, the first is Leicester Racecourse, the problem is that I’m already looking at this location in my Tuesday Module, however I could do several things to alter it, first of look the main stand, and then travel to other courses so I’m taking a portrait of different stands from across the country. I think that’s got potential, will be expensive however I think that it would be a good thing to do, if I did it in the style of Thomas Ruff then I think it could look pretty striking. Another kind of portrait/documentary thing I could do, and something that my housemate offered was to look at launderettes. In my project last year I looked at a object that people just really don’t pay attention too, and I think that launderettes could be that subject, I know in the one I use it has a sign saying ‘ deaths on this property aren’t responsible to owner’ and I reckon other ones must be equally as random, also, they are stuck in the 80’s/ 90’s with the style and look and I think it could be interesting to look at.

The second path that I have potential of going down is technique based, and that’s lenticular. I do now know how to create them however I would have to find a very strong subject field to look at and something that wouldn’t just look tacky as hell, say a sunset would just look crap and I might as well drop out of the course now. It’s just a technique that just feels it has potential, Nick told me that he doesn’t normally like technique work however even he said it has potential, just have to really put my mind to it and try and find something that isn’t really looked at and something that would be interesting to have several frames taken of it.

Now I just need to take a step back, talk to Su and just try and get my act together on this on else I could fall into a pit.

Rock and a hard place

Just angry at what I've let myself do in this project and I'm well and truly stuck. Today I went and spoke to Nick Lockett, a professional photographer and my first year tutor and, not on purpose, he has blown this project into a million pieces. The really annoying thing is and the reason why I am so frustrated is that it's all stuff that I should have been paying attention to and stuff that I should, as a near professional photographer, should NOT have to have been pointed out to me. What he said is that I'm only looking at technique and no subject, which is entirely true. The problem is that my main interest is what I’m doing for my Tuesday module, and after that I’m keen on several techniques I’ve been practicing over the years. This is what I should be doing in second year not fucking third year where everything matters. This is also queries what on earth I was thinking about when I was choosing my subject. I honestly struggle to work with people, in the past when I’ve had photo shoots organized people always don’t show and trying to get everything planned, for me, is a massive pain. Also, I heavily criticize people who only use other students and people their own age in their photos, and that’s all I’m doing. I know this is still really in its experimental phase however with me lacking confidence I really have no clue what I was going to do for my final bit of work. So, change, and change ASAP, this project is very close to being dead and berried and its going to take a bit of experimentation to turn it around and get it back standing. I also spoke to the head of the course, Laura, to just to get a piece of mind and help me get on track. She, unsurprisingly agreed with everything Nick told me however did give me some ideas with what I can go into which really helped. I just need to find something to look at, very quickly, some area that I’m interesting, that doesn’t evolve me having to work with people and something that I can just get on with straight of bat. I need to get my head together but will try and think of a few possibilities later today.

Finished and editied

So over the weekend I edited the pictures in the way I wanted experiment with and then today I put them through the lenticular procedure. One thing I decided to experiment with was enlarger of facial features. So far I’ve only really though about what it would look like to remove people facial features however I’ve never thought about enlarging and that’s what some suggested in a tutorial a couple of weeks back. I’m really not sure what to think, like it would, in a way, people who saw me creating the pictures said some positive things however I’m not bought. I think it’s too comical, I had this problem in college where I had a technique which I experimented with and all of a sudden it look more comical then anything else and I initially set of wanted to produce work that would have some sort of shock value, not make people laugh. Images 3,4 & 8 are all with the enlarged features, I do like them, and there is almost something mysterious about them, which I do like however on the opposite hand they just don’t fit my aim which is really annoying and kind of problematic with a part of my mind looked at the final outcome. Pictures 7 & 10 are what I did in my first try, face looking at 3 or 4 different locations and then overlaid, I think 7 works the best as it hasn’t been manipulated in any way and to be it just works. Picture 9 is the same image twice however in one there are no facial features, got to say it has a very ghostly look about it, however another problem I’ve encountered is that sometimes making the lenticular and not putting the plastic over it looks like it really lowers the quality which is a bit annoying. Just because I want a fresh set of eyes on this project I’m having a meeting with my first year tutor Nick Lockett to see his opinion on my work.

Post photoshoot

So after the photo shoot I’m not too happy with the outcome however at least I’ve got some work edit however not as much as I would have liked. Unfortunately I only have three people show when ideally I would have had double and that’s how many people I was told would come. Not the end of the world however it does bring the question of why I decided to do a project on portraits in the first place as I’ve often had difficulties with trying to organise people in the past. Anyway after that note the three people who did show I’m very thankful of and also thankful that they where good people to photo. What I decided to do was keep it short and simple. Basic medium shot portrait with them facing directly into the camera and then looking at either side of the camera. I think it should give me some good looks when I edit them and put them through the lenticular process. Also for the sake of it and did a full body shot as I have a couple of ideas in mind that I want to experiment with. Below are four pictures of one of my models, just showing the shots that I was aiming for and the look I wanted.