Freya's Blog

We picked one of our documentary photographs and had someone criticize it following the guidelines:

describe

• list everything you see
• what do I see
• what colours and shapes are visible
• are there any unknown objects

analyze

• how is line used
• how are shapes working
• how are texture and colours effective
• how does the viewers eye move
• how does the viewer interact

interpret

• what do I see is happening
• how does it make you feel
• what is the most important part
• why was this piece created
• what does this art say to me

decide

• what do I like
• what do I dislike
• what is best
• what would I change

These guidelines  helped me understand that just saying “i like it” cant help you to improve you work

I found learning about and experimenting with making moodboards really interesting as I learnt they don’t always have to be made up of flat images. Making moodboards to reflect the word descent with different objects we had found also helped me think more about the word and what else it could mean.

I went to see DRAG: Self-portraits and Body Politics at the Hayward gallery, the exhibition mainly focuses gender and identity and explores it through mostly photography. I like the different ways it shows hiding and changing identities for example there was a series of photographs of a man applying a mask, covering his face making him impossible to label or identify.

On Monday we visited the Photographers Gallery to see two exhibitions. The first was Tish Murtha: Works 1976-1991, her photographs were all based around social deprivation, poverty and instability in Britain. This exhibition linked to the theme of descent well as it showed the descent of building (particularly council estates), innocence and faith/respect of authorities. This was shown clearly in one photo of “cops piss off” graffitied on a wall.

One photograph that stood out to me was of three little girls all staring at cigarettes in one of their hand. I think this picture depicted the descent out of childhood innocence and into teenage rebellion.

The other exhibition at the photographers gallery was Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive. I loved her bright technicolour style of photography and how staged and movie like they were.

Descent

While we were thinking about the word descent it was clear it could be interpreted in many different ways and as a stimulus it could send you in many different directions. Some of the words that stood out to me were: drilling, dream state, slipping into unconsciousness, hooliganism and tunnels. I like the idea of the descent of the mind or spiraling out of and losing control.

Descent Brainstorms