I was excited by assignment 1; it seemed to fall into my hands as being something that I like to photograph and that I was a good photographer, and this could show off what I had to offer.

How wrong I was, my tutor on our initial conversation said was about finding something I wanted to illustrate and exploring that theme. This confused me and which left me wondering and procrastinating on what I should shoot – my research into the suggested artists left me more confused.

What should have been a simple assignment led to procrastination, and me putting together a set that was just a nice set of individual images.

What I learnt from my tutor was that there was no consistency to my images in style or theme and if I’m honest I didn’t understand what he meant – even after the post feedback telephone discussion and as I worked on the rework.

For the rework, I concentrated on a re-edit of the images firstly to correct the inconsistent crops and then followed my tutor’s advice of concentrating on an individual theme.

The overpowering theme from the images that I had shot was signage so I followed this line. While I could see a more consistency in the rework, my head or more correctly, my heart conflicted. The original set had faults in the individual images, but I liked them better as a set than the revised set. I wasn’t that I didn’t like the revised set it was my heart conflicting with me.

My Tutor commented that it was much tighter set, and that was pleasing, but I was still a little confused. This confusion did not start to clear until I was shooting assignment 2  and now when I look back, I understand much clearer why the 2nd set was better.

1. Try focusing on a single element in the square mile
2. Highlight the reasons why these photos are important to me.

I was trying to convey what Hong Kong is to me with the original set of images; and with Hong Kong being a very diverse place, my initial edit was too “widespread” (or as my tutor Simon said eclectic)

In this edit, I have tried to distill down to images with a single denominator -signage.

Signage in Yau Mai Tai through Western Eyes.

 Hong Kong is a unique city – with its history where the majority of items are usually displayed in bilingual (Chinese and English). However, in more local areas, Chinese is the predominant language used (naturally) and in this set, I am trying to illustrate from a Westerner perspective, what this signage means to me. The various forms of signage with some downright dodgy in nature reminds me where I am.

Picture 1

“Traders” on streets buying and selling questionable merchandises like expensive alcohol, gadgets are familiar on the streets of Hong Kong. This guy’s reaction is perfect to me as it confirms how I feel about these businesses. The “no photo” reaction together with signs showing bottles brandy etc. set the scene to the viewers.

Picture 2

Real estate is big business in Hong Kong, often destroying local communities in its wake. The torn discarded posters act as a metaphor for how the real estate business goes on with little thought to the community it destroys.

Picture 3

This sign tells me I’m in Hong Kong – where else in the world would there be an official handwritten sign (C.L.P is an electric company) in both Chinese and English. There is also a touch of irony in how it says “Post No Bills” with the touch of “stencil graffiti.”

Picture 4

Massage businesses are common in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia. There is always that doubt of how legitimate an individual parlor is. I feel that the stairs and posters in the shot convey this doubt in a seemingly legitimate establishment.

Picture 5

Handwritten signs in Chinese fascinate me; as I can’t read any Chinese characters – whenever I see them, they raise questions in my head. They are part of what keeps Hong Kong mystery alive to me after six years.

Picture 6

This is a typical generic Asian scene. A small one-man business on the side of the road, not busy, the proprietor in his own world. What adds to it, to make it Hong Kong, is the handwritten sign with the English translation.

Thoughts on reworking

 I believe I have achieved what I have set out to do with reworking this assignment. However, there are doubts in my mind about how quickly the viewers can pick up the theme and understand the messages I am trying to convey here.

Working to tell a particular story has been quite a challenge for me – while I rarely doubt my ability on the technical side, I sometimes question my artistic and aesthetic flare.

I have also re-cropped all the images to a 3:2 ratio, trying to keep them more aligned, which also doubt my inclusion of the portrait format image for this particular assignment.

I hope the rework has an improved outcome. It’s still not perfect, but it gives me a few good pointers for the next assignment, which I am beginning to shoot.

1st August 2015  – Tutor Response.

“Hi Pete,

Yes, I think the re-work definitely tightens up and improves the work. Re your concerns over the portrait image, I think it is quite legitimate to mix landscape and portrait orientations. You could still crop into the image on the right hand side to bring it more into line with the aspect ratio of the other images and yeast still convey what you want.

Regards

Simon”

Very happy with this response from Simon – gives me a good basis for moving forward.

You will notice a fair bit of activity on my blog over the past week, after a long period of silence, this is because I have just returned from a six-week trip to South America; however, it is now time to get this course back on track.

The feedback I received from Simon, my tutor, was that while I had good individual images, they did not work together and were a more eclectic collection of things that caught my eye on that particular day.

I think this is very fair comment – my images do lack focus and cohesion and according to my girlfriend, have done for years. I should look at more work in gallery’s etc. to appreciate things more. And also to think about what I am trying to say about a particular set of images.

I have been to used to going out for the day shooting what I see and putting an album on Facebook.

Simon suggested that I return to my original set of contact sheets and look out of theme that interested me, and I want to tell a story with and rework the assignment from there.

As I am a street photographer at heart, and that is little how this first assignment went, Simon has also suggested that I research:

Bruce Gilden

Bruce Davidsons’ Subway Series

Joel Meyerowitz

Philip Lorca Di Corcia.

Tutor Feedback Assignment 1

Peter Walker – 514508

OCA Photography – Expressing Your Vision

Assignment 1 “the square mile.”

My first impression of the square mile project was one of excitement. I thought I could explore the area where I lived; however, on thinking the project through and chatting with my tutor, I realized it was important to focus on style rather than an emphasis on a good location.

With the above in mind, I reviewed the links provided by the OCA; I  was rather taken by with the work of Karen Knorr, Peter Mansell and Venetia Dearden. While not particularly copying anything from their work, I did take the overall view that there is not one compelling way to do the project.

I looked at Michael Wolf for inspiration on capturing different aspects of the city. I liked the Hong Kong Break series; however though it subject too narrow for this assignment.

I used a full-frame DSLR with a 24-70 f2.8 lens. I used the aperture priority, to give me some creative control of depth of field.

The 12 photographs I have chosen, represent what I see when walking through the Jordan / Yau Mai Tai area in Kowloon –an inner city area and one of the older areas in Hong Kong.

Reading left to right on the “Assignment Final Contact sheet.”

Picture 1: I have tried to get low to be on the same plane as the subject, the reaction of hand up is what I wanted, but ideally I would be closer.

Picture 2. Typical alley scene, tells the story of why he is there; however, feel I could be more engaged the subject.

Picture 3. A standard view, looking up from the street, have tried using a dutch angle to give some depth to the image.

Picture 4. A detail shot of torn real estate posters, used shallow DoF and diagonal to draw the viewer in – maybe a bit lacking in context.

Picture 5. Detail shot I like the colours and texture; however could be lacking in context.

Picture 6. A traditional market shot to me showing cultural variety in the area, again though not close enough and maybe not visible to the viewer.

Picture 7. Painted wall sign I find these interest from an old world perspective. Diagonals are used to draw in the audience.

Picture 8. Massage stairs very familiar sight in the area, I like how the stairs bring you on to the image of the ladies back. The white area on the right is distracting, but cropping unbalanced the image.

Picture 9. Handwritten signs are found all over the area, these like picture 7 have an old-world feel but also raises questions as what they are for.

Picture 10. Typical summer scene of tradesman in Hong Kong, hip shot, lacks some purpose as you can’t see where he is looking, the passing lady raises the question with her look but overall the overlap each other too much.

Picture 11. Detail shot from an alley while in isolation lacks context; it raises a question why are two cough mixer bottles in an air vent.

Picture 12. Sleeping residents, I like how their posture reflects each other e.g. both have shoes off.

Overall, I think there is the lack of context or connection between the detail and the people shots – shows Hong Kong me; but I’m not sure I would to a non-resident.

After editing the initial picks, I was looking for a combination of people and detail to illustrate what I find interesting about “Kowloon side” this was much more challenging that I was anticipating. I instinctively know what I like but often can not quantify it.

While I am happy with the set, I think they could be stronger, with more detail shots rather than people shots.(or visa-Versa) For the moment the assignment looks like the contact sheet above and is going to be submitted to my tutor for feedback.

I feel I have not engaged enough with the subjects, especially in the market shot (picture 6) as I’m too far away, and the background is a distracting.

Pictures 10 & 12 are maybe the strongest; however, I await feedback from my tutor.

It was harder than I thought, as I know these places so well. Viewing with the new eye was hard.

Here are the Contact sheets:

The plan is to document the walk from Sham Shui Po to Jordan; a path I have taken many times before. So without a camera, I walked part of the way observing thing I should be looking for to document an area. I did this to remove the pressure of having a camera, of course, on the day I’m there-there will be differences in human interaction. However, I have a feel for the static things.

I will be looking at:

Building

Small details e.g. outlets, signs, shop food

People and their interaction with environment

Right, that’s the planning lets get this into action.

I am more of a street style photographer; I will start my research the work of some of the street/documentary photographers who have used a documentary style in the past to cover a local area.

Names which spring to mind are Don McCullin, Bruce Davidson; I will look at some of the suggestion in the course book as those names are unfamiliar. Another photographer that might be worth me looking at the Michael Wolf as he as photographed many building and housing estates here in Hong Kong.