Introduction

I’ve just received tutor feedback for Assignment 1 – The non-familiar. The overall view was that my submission met the brief with a series of portraits that worked well together, were technically good and sympathetic to the subjects. There were some interesting observations and recommendations for further consideration that I will address in this post. On reflection, I am really happy with how this assignment was received by not only my tutor, but everyone else who has seen the work.

Using Text with Images

“The use of text and image is an area that can be fraught with difficulties and needs careful consideration as to how text and image will work together. There is always the danger that text will swamp the narrative within the images and will not allow the viewer an independence of interpretation when viewing the work. Everything is directed through the text rather than letting the images reveal the narrative. When reflecting upon the images you might ask how will they be interpreted without the text?”

This is a really welcome observation as when I was getting to know my subjects, I was making mental notes about their story that I then wrote up when I left the conversation. I didn’t write lengthy commentaries, but just enough to prompt the memory of our conversation when I came to write up the assignment. At this point I was thinking that I may have many ‘interviews’ with subjects, so wanted to ensure that I didn’t overlook anything important. When it came to the write-up, I selected a a few of the notes to include with the pictures. It would have been easy to have written a very clear narrative from the notes that described in great detail how the subjects used the park. Of course, the more detail the less room for manoeuvre in interpreting the theme for the images and the series. I was reminded of Paul Seawright’s comment about narrative in the previous course and how the artist should give enough context to help the viewer reach a conclusion about the work. His work Sectarian Murder was a great example of pairing text with photographs and when I revisited my research into the work[1], I could see how I was influenced in my inclusion of text with these photographs. In Seawright’s photographs, the text suggested the horrors of the Irish conflict taking place at the seemingly peaceful scenes. The inclusion of the two contexts together tells a story that each cannot when considered individually. I think that my photographs in Assignment 1 refer to the subjects back-stories through both the text and their pose/expression, but when the text is removed, the scope for interpreting the meaning of the pictures expands. I believe that I managed to stay the right side of Seawright’s comment on narrative with each short paragraph revealing just enough about the subject to ask questions about why they visit the park.

Diversity of Subjects

“A wider range of age groups would have opened up other challenges in interpretation and it would have been interesting to see the images made from such encounters. But you have commented upon the absence of diverse groups in the park and considered this an area for further investigation. Perhaps this will result in a future project?”

The second piece of feedback that resonated with me was this comment about the lack of diversity in the shots, whether in terms of age or race. This was something that I reflected on during the shoot and certainly interested me from the point of view of the questions it raised. Why was the park used predominantly by white families and the middle-aged to elderly? It was particularly interesting because it wasn’t based on the lack of diversity in the town itself. Malvern has a number of private schools, so there are many young people around. It also has a large population of people from the Middle East, which is most noted in diversity of the businesses in the town. It’s perhaps easy to see why young families would visit with the children’s playground and the ducks around the lake. The concentration of middle-aged to elderly was also obvious to me at the time as there is a ‘retirement town’ vibe to the town, mainly because of its beautiful hills and rolling fields. The lack of young people and people from other ethnic groups was a puzzle, to the extent that I had looked out for them in the weeks after completing the shoot. What was more interesting was thinking about how a more diverse group would affect the narrative for the series. Their absence already points to a social typology for a space like a park, but by including some young adults or some families from the Iranian, Indian and Turkish communities, perhaps that would replace that idea with a statement on multiculturalism. I was reminded of the German obsession with physiognomy in the late 1920s, where pseudo-scientific conclusions were reached by a person’s physical characteristics. Perhaps a series with more diversity could seek to break any pre-existing assumptions about the park and perhaps, more interestingly a series made up entirely of a different culture, age group or culture could contrast with the gentile impression of our little Victorian town. It’s something I definitely want to pursue outside of my studies as it combines both the engagement with strangers with the development of an alternative story.

Overall Conclusions

In conclusion I was very happy with the feedback given. The warning of being over-prescriptive with the addition of text was a useful insight that I will keep an eye on in future projects. The recommendation about a project on the diversity of the park visitors is something I will be looking at in the future.

References

[1] Fletcher R, 2020, ‘Project 4: The Gallery Wall – Documentary as Art’, OCA Blog Post, https://richardfletcherphotography.photo.blog/2020/05/12/project-4-the-gallery-wall-documentary-as-art/