Conclusion: Assignment Reflection

Of all the assignments I feel this one really suited me the most. Will dwell on the positives first! This assignment brief really encouraged me to break free of photoshop and look at creating images using a more hands-on approach. I like using photoshop, have continued to use it for the duration, but I really wanted to try creating artistic imagery without it. Because I utilised film cameras leading up to the 'Time' Project I wanted to branch off in a different direction for this assignment. I was aware that the assignment brief demanded a certain amount of darkroom experimentation but in order to make the most of this experience I didn't want to repeat methods I had already explored. During lessons I was able to play with pinhole cameras (mixed results!) and paint with tints. I had a lot of fun with the photocopier and this featured very strongly in my final images for this project: the roses and hand-written text in the bath image, the pouring water in the portrait. I also looked at methods I could easily play with off site. I produced a series of images using a Polaroid camera and out of date film and many images using light sensitive paper. I also created digital negatives from some of my images and used these to create contact prints, both on light sensitive paper and in the darkroom. I did re-visit some techniques I had used before: TTV photography and in-camera techniques such as slow shutter speeds to create blur. On to the negatives... If I'm honest I'm not entirely sure that the images I produced are that great! I had a lot of fun during the process but I don't look at any of them and feel any particular sense of satisfaction. For me this assignment has been more about experimenting and looking at different ways of producing images, it has encouraged me to move outside of my comfort zone and go a little wild - from that perspective I am really happy! Would I change anything? absolutely not. I feel I managed to explore quite a few new techniques in a very short amount of time. I also feel that these are techniques I would use again. I think after my inital elation at the prospect of a project with such an inviting title 'fantasy landscapes' I went through a slightly despondent phase when I realised everyone else seemed to interpret that as meaning cut and paste in photoshop... I started this course because I found myself using photoshop way too much! I think I may have stretched the brief in some regards, few of my images are landscapes, but they are fantastical in that nothing in them is real... am very pleased that in the main I managed to create this using a camera,scanner or processing and not software!