Externally Set Task 2019
Here is some advice and a few things you should include in your response to the Externally Set Task:
- Choose only ONE starting point. Choose carefully and don't change your mind later.
- Read the prompts very carefully. Highlight the key words. Look at the named photographers' work. What aspects of photography are you being encouraged to explore - a genre or genres (e.g. still life, landscape, portraiture etc.), an aspect of visual language (e.g. colour, composition, pattern etc.), a social issue (the environment, human relationships, protest etc.) or something else?
- Begin by writing down/mind-mapping your initial thoughts about this starting point. These will probably change/develop during your research so it's a good idea to record your first thoughts so you can compare them with your later (more sophisticated) thoughts.
- Research ALL of the named photographers in detail. Avoid superficial Google image searches and NEVER copy text from the Internet. Think hard about the photographer's work - what have you learned about it and how has this helped you develop your ideas?
- Find useful quotations and respond to them. You might not agree. You ought to have your own thoughts about them.
- Try to add a new photo shoot (of 10-30 pictures) each week to your web page. Evaluate your work thoughtfully identifying clearly what you have learned, what you might do more of and what you might avoid doing in future.
- Refer to the Threshold Concepts and associated resources. Which big ideas about photography are you investigating?
- Select individual images (at high resolution), add them to your web page and write about them in detail using this guide to help you.
- Experiment thoughtfully. This could include: refining your photographs in Photoshop (remember to screen shot your process); printing and adapting/collaging your photographs using different media; thinking about the scale of your photographs; experimenting with the scanner/photocopier; projecting your photographs onto different surfaces at different sizes; working in the darkroom; making your own pinhole camera; working with film and analogue equipment; working with found/vintage photographs; creating slideshows/films/animations etc.
- Leave plenty of time (at least two weeks) to prepare for the 10 hour Controlled Assessment. You will have no access to the Internet during the Controlled Assessment so make sure your web page ends sensibly e.g. with a plan for what you intend to do during the 10 hours. Make sure you have everything ready - all of the images you plan to use, a Powerpoint set up to document your work during the 10 hours, a USB key or hard drive to transfer images/files, bookings for particular equipment/resources you will need etc.
The Externally Set Assignment paper
It's a good idea to add these images to the top of your Component 2 web page (remember to click on each image and download the higher resolution versions). You might decide to annotate your paper copy with thoughtful notes/highlighting of key words etc. and add a scanned version of this to your page.
1. Texture
Many photographers have explored and emphasised the texture of surfaces. Aaron Siskind photographed peeling paint and Bill Mangold photographed rusty iron work. Klaus Pichler explored decaying food whilst Marc Anderson investigated texture in tree bark and wood grain.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own work based on Texture.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own work based on Texture.
Some other suggested resources:
The Surface of Things PhotoPedagogy resource. Making sense of photography PhotoPedagogy resource. A large archive of Aaron Siskind images at the Centre for Creative Photography. Brassai's Graffiti series. Brett Weston's Abstractions series. Irving Penn's Cigarettes close-ups. Mel Bochner's Transparent and Opaque series. Billy Kydd's Decaying Leaves. Moyra Davey's Copperhead series. Stephen Gill's Hackney Flowers. A video about Nicholas Nixon's New Work, featuring close-up portraits of himself and his wife. The self portraits of John Coplans. John Batho's Papiers Lumières. Brendan Austin's Paper Mountains. Hélène Binet's Ground. Maija Savolainen's Arrangements. |
The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh. Some questions:
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2. Discarded items
Discarded items sometimes create hazardous pollution, as David Attenborough showed in Blue Planet, and they can sometimes be the source of creative ideas. Eian Kantor has recorded discarded items in a series of photographs called ‘Found Sculptures’. In the project ‘Some cities and Mountains,’ Anthony Gerace produced photographs that record discarded items and aspects of neglect in the environment. Morgan Z Schultz created a short film with animation entitled ‘Discarded’ about the items people leave behind.
Investigate relevant sources and produce your own response to Discarded items.
Investigate relevant sources and produce your own response to Discarded items.
Some other suggested resources:
The photosculptures of Alina Szapocznikow. Keith Arnatt's Pictures From a Rubbish Tip. Peter Fraser's Everyday Icons and Nazraeli Monograph. Stephen Gill's A Series of Disappointments. Gabriel Orozco's Asterisms and this great article about his practice. Peter Coles' Canivaux series. The Golden Sack by photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg and writer Michael Salu. Michael Wolf's Lost Laundry, and My Favourite Thing - Groups. Liam Frankland's Lost and Found photography project. Alan R. Jones' Orphaned Objects. Erik Burg's Found and The Party's Over. Kevin Newark's Protoplasm series. Danny Treacy's Those series. Matt Russell's Waste series. Barry Rosenthal's Found in Nature series. Hong Hao's My Things No. 5 - 5000 pieces of Rubbish |
Yet people do leave traces in their wake: the refuse and detritus of history; the variegated remnants of daily life; or dust [...] A trace is very little, almost nothing. But it is also an index of life. Some questions:
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3. Messages
Barbara Kruger, Martha Rosler and Lorna Simpson combine words and phrases with their photographs to convey messages. In his animation ‘Awesome Stuff Week’, designer and illustrator Kyle Bean uses the stop frame process for a title sequence in a YouTube advertising campaign.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own work that conveys a message by combining words with photographs.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own work that conveys a message by combining words with photographs.
Some other suggested resources:
Threshold Concept #7 Lee Friedlander's Letters From the People Duane Michals' Photographs with Text. Pencil Story by John Baldessari and other works by Baldessari. Hamish Fulton's Wind Through the Pines. A film about Sophie Calle's Take Care of Yourself. An interview with Taryn Simon about her work A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII. Lou Reed on Robert Frank's Sick of Boodbys and his later photographs taken in New York and Nova Scotia. The painted photographs of François-Marie Banier Gillian Wearing's Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say. This strange video about a workshop run by the photographer Jason Fulford. Teju Cole's book Blind Spot. Jim Goldberg's use of text and image and a film about his famous book Raised by Wolves. Lindsay Bottos' Anonymous project. Stefan Sagmeister's Things I have Learned In My Life So Far. Olaf Breuning's Complaining Forest and Can Someone Tell Us Why We Are Here? |
I'm interested in the invisible space between text and image, how one informs and transforms the other, back and forth; different forms of translation and transmission. Some questions:
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4. Elements of the landscape in portraiture
In their joint project ‘What’s on your mind’, Anaïs Faubert and Geneviève Bellehumeur added fantasy digital landscapes to the hair of their portrait models. Antonio Mora, Christopher Rivera and Miki Takahashi use elements of the landscape to suggest facial features in digitally layered portraits. Research appropriate sources and produce portraits where elements of the landscape are included.
N.B. You are strongly advised to avoid this starting point.
N.B. You are strongly advised to avoid this starting point.
5. Working
Lewis Hine and Dorothea Lange were commissioned to produce photographs that documented the conditions under which people worked in fields and factories. More recently, Getty Images commissioned photographers such as Sean Gallup to produce images that portray the tasks of seasonal farm workers in Poland, and Luke Sharrett to photograph tobacco plantation workers in Kentucky.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own response to the theme of Working.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own response to the theme of Working.
Some other suggested resources:
A wonderful film interview with Dorothea Lange about her life and career. The Farm Security Administration's collection of photographs (featuring work by Lange and many others during the 1930's Depression. François Kollar's A Working Eye. Women War Workers of the North West. W. Eugene Smith's photographs of Pittsburgh. Lee Friedlander's At Work. Paul Graham's Beyond Caring. Anna Fox's Work Stations. Polly Braden's London's Square Mile. Alain Delorme's Totems. Glen McClure's Portraits of Shipyard Workers. Chris Crisman's Women's Work. Jamie Reid's Work and Play. Nigel Shafran's Supermarket Portraits. |
I am trying here to say something about the despised, the defeated, the alienated. About death and disaster, about the wounded, the crippled, the helpless, the rootless, the dislocated. About finality. About the last ditch. Some questions:
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6. The choice of colour
Daroo Photography, Jacob Reischel and Matt Russell produce still life photographs where choices about colour strength and contrast are very important. Martin Parr and Alec Soth carefully consider the colour of props, clothing and background in their documentary studies of people and places.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own work where the choice of colour is important.
Study appropriate sources and produce your own work where the choice of colour is important.
Some other suggested resources:
Contemporary Still Life photography and Vanitas. Lorenzo Vitturi Dalston Anatomy. Erin O'Keefe Built Work. Scheltens and Abbenes The Sink. Barbara Kasten Collision. Contemporary documentary photographers article from the V&A. Mitch Epstein's The City. Paul Graham A New Europe. Julian Germain's For Every Minute You Are Angry You Lose Sixty Seconds Of Happiness. Stefanie Moshammer's Land of Black Milk. Peter Fraser Mathematics. |
It’s a weird combination that makes a great picture. It’s a complete mystery to me. Some questions:
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7. Spaces
The theme Spaces can be interpreted in many ways. Refer to appropriate sources to develop your own interpretation of Spaces, or respond to one of the following:
(a) explore different types of spaces in the local environment
(b) explore negative space within a composition
(c) ‘Spaces’: an advertising company called ‘Spaces’ requires photographs for a brochure that will show how products are marketed in public places, such as on bus shelters and billboards.
(a) explore different types of spaces in the local environment
(b) explore negative space within a composition
(c) ‘Spaces’: an advertising company called ‘Spaces’ requires photographs for a brochure that will show how products are marketed in public places, such as on bus shelters and billboards.
Some suggested resources:
Click on the images below to view the associated resource.
Click on the images below to view the associated resource.