Assignment 2 self-reflection
Technical and visual
I very much feel that this assignment has been a win for me – as it has pushed how I put images together and how I interpret them. Also, I was able to use my technical ability with the camera and composition to good use to make interesting images from a simple subject.
However, what was the major failing of the assignment on its first submission was the poor assignment notes. I did not articulate my thoughts well enough – yes the idea came from a random cigarette packet in the street, but I did explain how I saw them all as lost little animals.
Quality of outcome
What I like about the how I have made the images as a set; technically the images are just as I wanted them – I haven’t used any complex photographic techniques.
The project can still be pushed much further over longer time – include for example the sweeping up of images. However, after weeks of walking the streets, I was able to get that shot I did consider a staged shit but the way a street is cleaned here with a bamboo brush would make it very hard with just friends, and my Cantonese is not nearly enough to explain what I want to a street sweeper.
Creativity
The “A-ha” moment on this assignment was when I was trying to photograph crowds with the underlying theme of mobile phone and saw a solitary cigarette pack in the middle road in the centre of one of the busiest areas of Hong Kong it looks like a lost animal or child waiting for something. Once that was in my head, the other images came together very quickly. It’s not the most creative idea but it as I said, in my earlier comment, it’s a big leap for me.
What I have realised is I’m not researching enough to feed my creativity, I rely on my skill with the camera – this has to change.
Context
This the first major creative project I’ve undertaken in photography in years perhaps since my day doing a City & Guilds in photography in the late 1990’s. I have relied on camera ability and my surroundings to inspire me. I have done one shoot on a theme with the camera club or friend but nothing like this – to me this was true art. I enjoyed the whole process of interpreting the images and also producing images that we minimally processed using Lightroom presets and the occasional global tweak of exposure.
Now on to the rework of assignment three then I and focus on part four the language of light with a clear mind.