My pre-BA8 learning agreement

In Year 3 it is my intention to expand my connections with other artistic professionals. I will collaborate in fashion, portrait, make-up, styling, directing and location. I will be producing portraits and exploring beauty portraits and fashion portraits.

Visually I am drawn to images with strong composition and contrast, colour and fashion. I think what draws me to these images are their ability to portray emotions through the elements in the images. I think the use of colour in photography really has an impact on how an image can be perceived so I think it would be a great idea to explore this. I am very interested in retouching and manipulation so I think BA8 would be a great time to expand my skills and apply them accordingly.

I really enjoy transforming the people that I photograph on set through styling, in camera and in post-production. In the words of Roy Strong in reference to Cecil Beaton, I want to present my ‘sitters as their ideal selves and not as they were or could be at their worst’. So I think this is something to focus on in my images. 

Richard Mosse’s use of Kodachrome Infrared film in his series Infra is a constant inspiration to me of late. While his images hold deep meanings concerning the cover-up of the abuse and war in the Dominican Republic of Congo, the peculiar and strikingly contrasting colours that appear in his images create a dream-like but happier glamorized feeling to his photographs. This could be viewed as quite controversial as it is glamourizing a tragedy, nonetheless, I like the thought process that has gone into creating these images.

I think a potential career path for myself as an artistic professional could be to work as a retoucher as this is something I enjoy a lot and spend my spare time doing.

My research report will be about Manipulation in portraits in todays world. I will briefly touch on manipulation through the use of negatives but the main body will be about staging and post processing, the ethics of this and how it effects our media and the public.

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Assessment Work:         

For the outcome of BA8 I would like to produce a portfolio of 15/20 successful images in the form of a book. My website will be updated and much better than it is now and I would like to kit myself out with new and appropriate self promotional material such as postcards and business cards so I am prepared for work after university, this would come under my marketing package that I need to produce for the completion of BA8. I think this is an appropriate way to market myself as a photographer and also as a retoucher. I think it is appropriate and suits a lot of the photographic work fields. I will also complete a body of studio work, a logbook, a reflective journal and a 5000 word research report.

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Schedule of Work: (to include the deadline for submission of assessment):           

Deadlines –

In order to complete my Research report by 30 January 2015, I need to have my draft handed in by 21^st of November. My draft will be at least 1000 words.

The Mid-year review 16 March 2015 will be crutial to my project development.

Practical work is due 29 May 2015.

In order to achieve handing all my work in by 29^th of May, the minimum I would need to complete is a shoot every week. Ideally 2 or 3 shoots per week would provide me with a range of images for my portolio. If this fails I would then need to complete 2 shoots per every other week to keep on time with my deadline. I will reshoot shoots that go wrong, and if my project takes a turn for the worst I will allow myself 1 single week during BA8 to take a breather, discuss with my tutor, re-evaluate, replan and then execute.

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Resource requirements:            

In order to complete BA8 I will need lighting equipment. I will either use the university studio, book out the ranger kits or use my own flash equipment. I will need manipulation and editing software which I own and also have access to at university. I will print throughout the year using the digital darkroom but may consider printing else where for my portfolio and hand-in requirements. If anything is in need of mounting and framing I will use Norwich Frame Workshop as I have used that in the past and consider the standard to be rather high. I will travel to gallery openings and award ceremonies such as the AOP Awards to network with other people in the industry and learn more about it and the standard of work. If I need to travel to a shoot location, I have teamed up with a friend who is happy to drive me and the team there. I will be paying for petrol, MUA and styling myself, along with props etc.