I feel very happy and relaxed following this feedback.
Previously, I have found myself feeling irritated and have disagreed with certain statements made by my tutor, but this time, I am in full agreement, and appreciate the guidance he has offered.
I agree that three of the images are weaker as they offer fewer possibilities for interpretation. What you see is what you get, with those shots. This stems largely from the fact that I was shooting at home, and was, for the most part, not arranging the scenes, so much as shooting what was there, and simply arranging the lighting. Sometimes I got lucky, as the home I share with my wife can be a little unconventional at times. But there’s only so much ‘weird’ to be found in one house.
As a development of this kind of work, I may at some point in the future try using the same methodology, but outdoors, away from my home. The derelict building that will appear in my next exercise (5.1) would offer a lot of possibilities for this kind of work, though the location would probably make such work quite dangerous. We’ll see.
My tutors advice, regarding studying contemporary works that seem to fly in the face of conventional photographic practice, is very welcome. It’s something that has been bothering me for some time. The coursework teaches a set of skills, yet much contemporary art actively eschews these methods… and I need to get my head around this.
Photos Things & Stuff 