Adams created a series of images walking within and on the outskirts of Longmont, Colorado (ASX, 2010). A number of things strike me about the images within the set, some of which are shown below. They are square in format. This makes the viewer focus on whatever is in the image, front and centre. I […]
Author: tonyoca
Exercise 2.4: Is Appropriation Appropriate
This exercise asks me to look at an from Geoff Dyer (Dyer, 2012) on artists that have captured scenes from Google Street view and asks me to answer the title of the exercise. I started this exercise with a pre-conceived idea of the images that would likely be simple screen grabs from google maps and […]
Exercise 2.3: Typographies
Typography is something I personally became interested in when I first started photographing people, but not something I have tried in a landscape context. I think I have found it difficult to understand where to start, what is it that makes a series of landscape images interesting enough to create a typographical series. I have begun […]
Photographer: Alec Soth, Sleeping by the Mississippi
I researched Alec Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississippi (Soth, 2004)) and in particular his interview by Schuman in See Saw Magazine (Schumann, 2004). Quotes given in this piece are from that magazine article. The first thing that strikes me when I look at the series that whilst it is inspired by a journey along the […]
Exercise 2.2: Explore a Road
Part 1 – My Road Photograph a road near you in any style you choose. I found this exercise interesting, as the contact sheet shows, I took a variety of shots but roughly half were shot looking along the road itself and half picking out points of interest along the road. On the contact sheet I […]
Photographer: Friedlander, America by Car
Frielander’s series America by Car was taken travelling by hire car across most of America’s 50 states (Lee Friedlander: America By Car, n.d.). The images are all taken from inside the car and show different scenes of America outside the car. From each scene, one sees a different element of American culture. What I especially like about the […]
Assignment 6: Draft Scenes
For assignment 6, we are asked to pre-visualise a scene and then capture an image from each month of the year. This builds over the year to create a record of how the scene changes over time. I have chosen a view from the top of my garden! This is not because it is easy […]
Exercise 2.1: Territorial Photography
Exercise Review the paper “Territorial Photography” by Joel Snyder, published in the book “Landscape and Power” by Mitchell, W.J.T. (2002). The University of Chicago Press. Review of Paper Snyder starts by stating that when photography was first emerging (1830s) people were unsure what it is was for or how it should be considered. By the […]
Assignment 1: Reflection
Technical and Visual Skills From a technical perspective, the most challenging aspect of this assignment was the very high dynamic range that the winter light creates between sky and land, this is exacerbated by the reflection of the sky in the canal which essentially rules out the use of a graduated filter. Building on Exercise 1.8, […]
Assignment 1: Beauty and the Sublime
The Thames and Severn Canal – Not an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Introduction This assignment interprets the brief in the same way that I want to challenge my landscape photography; by questioning what is a beautiful landscape. Before commencing OCA study, my photographic practice was largely what I called at the time ‘landscape’ but during […]
Exercise 1.8: Zone System in practice
Exercise Demonstrate your awareness of the principles of the Zone System and your ability to take accurate light readings by producing three photographs taken in relatively high dynamic range, i.e. contrasting light conditions. Make sure that your exposure choice renders as much detail as possible in the brightest and darkest areas of the photograph. Interpretation […]
Exercise 1.7: Assignment Preparation
Exercise Email your tutor a short summary of any ideas you have for this assignment. Use their feedback to help you to refine or expand your ideas. Include a description of how you intend to submit your assignment, as well as any other questions you may have. Record your correspondence in your learning log. My […]
Exercise 1.6: The Sublime
Exercise Background Reading the course text and Morley’s essay on sublime (Morley, 2010), taught me a new meaning to the word which I had previously understood to mean ‘nice’ in the incorrect manner as de Bolla describes in the BBC In our Time podcast (BBC, 2004), ‘that soup was sublime’.
Photographer: Paul Seawright
I researched Seawright’s project Invisible Cities (Seawright, n.d.). In this collection the images “examine how peripheral developments and settlements have become a frontier through unconventional and largely unrecorded means” (ibid.). I found the series interesting because it reminded me of the time I spent in Nairobi, Kenya and also Harare, Zimbabwe. The images aim to capture the […]
Exercise 1.5: Visualising Assignment 6
For this assignment I have decided to build upon what I think is going to be the subject of my Assignment 1, the Toadsmoor Valley near Stroud. I have chosen this valley partly because I live in it but mainly because I only moved here two years ago and it is the first time that […]
Exercise 1.4: Photography and Artistic Photography
This is an analysis of Photography and Photography and Artistic-Photography by Zayas (De Zayas, 1913). Summary The principle argument that flows throughout the article is that there is a difference between an image that is intended purely to demonstrate physical form, and one that is intended to convey an emotion or a feeling that is evoked […]
Exercise 1.3: Establishing Conventions
Exercise This exercise first looks at 12 18th and 19th Century landscape paintings in order to look for comanality between them. It then goes on to look at landscape photographs to look for similarity and difference.
Photographer: Justin Partyka
I enjoyed looking at Justin Partyka’s website and images (Partyka, n.d.). They are closer to where I feel that my interests have moved to rather than the stereotypical landscape image such as the example I included in Exercise 1.1 of this course.
Exercise 1.2: Krauss – Photography’s Discursive Spaces
Exercise This exercise was to read Krauss’ journal article (Krauss, 1982) and comment / reflect upon it.
Exercise 1.1: Preconceptions
I think this exercise shows why I have chosen photography for my art rather than doing my own painting. This is my sketch of what one might expect from a landscape scene.