Reflection & Rework – Martyn Rainbird

Assignment 3 Rework

The main aim of the rework as identified by my tutor’s feedback was to improve the narrative as it was unclear what the viewer should be looking at. It was felt than an objective viewer would not understand the aim of my series. A combination of my convoluted narrative and the layout hindered the submission.

A strong recommendation from my tutor was to give the assignment a title. I thought I had chosen ‘My Media Diary’ but this must have been so bland that my tutor did not recognise it as a title. I gave this feedback some thought and after reflecting on it chose to pick a song title ‘21st Century Man‘ that captured the modernity of media consumption. This title would reinforce the narrative and I felt that this change was a good idea.

My tutor had also identified that I had not followed up on his artist recommendations from previous assignments. This was a fair point so I decided to research Peter Fraser [15], one of my tutor’s suggestions. Fraser is a photographer using the mundane and everyday. His subjects carefully chosen and straightforward but include examples of nostalgia and use of colour. His work gave me confidence to amend some of the tighter close up images from my original set, including more in the frame. Interestingly his work also helped me go slightly tighter on some images to clarify the subject.

I took on board the feedback to use a text device to improve the narrative by using diary entries from a single day. The narrative would be one day, from waking up to bedtime. I initially thought I would need to reshoot some scenes but found I already had enough images to fulfil the story. The ‘CD’ story needed to be clearer so I replaced a wider table shot with a tighter Bluetooth headphones shot. For the ‘Book’ story I chose a wider bookshelf image to make it more about books.

I re-cropped and changed orientation to landscape for all of the images. Some of the images I felt where cropped too tightly such as the DVDs in the cabinet. By making it a wider angle I included the other DVD boxes which showed a collection rather than the viewer thinking it was all about ‘Shawshank Redemption’. I tightened up on the Amazon Alexa device to give less distractions.

As it was now a ‘day in the life’ series the five stories/chapters would be sequential. I over-complicated the original series by overlapping them. This was hindered even more by variations in orientation. I decided to keep the aspect ratio relating to the old media format but the narrative would be clearer by having a consistent orientation.

My final challenge was the layout in the eBook. I had already identified this as being a difficult process for me in the original submission. My decision for my reworked book was to keep all four images in each set the same size. I started and ended with two images on a page to give a consistent beginning and end – a days cycle.

There were other parings I wanted to keep on a double page spread, particulary the ‘TV’ story images with the Amazon remote control and ‘Sneaky Pete’. These I felt could be full bleed as was suggested by my tutor.

As I had started and ended with two images on a page I needed at least one other page containing two images. The result was to put a full ‘LP’ story on a two page spread.

Text positioning was also difficult as I had no rules or idea other than to not have text associated with every image. This added variety and also offered the viewer some space to read the images.

Here are my text and image selection for the reworked submission.

Diary entry 13/12/17

Overslept! Radio reception playing up so didn’t hear it.

“Alexa! Play Radio 5 Live.”

“Alexa! Set alarm for 7.30am tomorrow.”

Snowing, so working from home today. Everybody’s out so can play my music a bit louder.

The kids will be back later. They won’t want to listen to my stuff!

I wonder if the CD they bought me last year for Father’s Day is available to stream?

Finished work. Kids home now.

What was I listening to?

Ah yes that was it. This library has everything. Happy to get rid of DVDs, CDs and books, but my LPs…

Kids have finished with the telly.

Someone at work recommended a new TV series…

Maybe time to send some DVDs to charity.

Where did I put my tablet?

Need to catch up with football news.

I need some new bedtime reading. I wonder if Kindle have a Jeremy Corbyn biography?

Reworked Submission – 21st Century Man

My assignment submission, 21st Century Man, is presented as an eBook and can be viewed by clicking this link.

This submission is the culmination of ‘Putting yourself in the picture’. which covered self-portraits and self-absented portraiture. The assignment raised challenges whichever route I took as discussed in my Early Ideas post [1].

I was keen to understand the mundane Washing-up series by Nigel Shafran [2], as I was dismissive of his work in my coursework post [10]. It raised questions as to why I liked Wolfgang Tillmans’ desk in Studio Still Life [8] and not Shafran’s sink. They are both showing us something about their daily life and the places where they spend a lot of their time. I started taking Shafran a little more seriously after reading an interview [3] he’d had with Charlotte Cotton where he described his process. As a result I decided to take this opportunity to produce a self-absented portraiture project inspired by Shafran’s work.

My diary [4] concentrated on my leisure activities around the home and it became obvious that I spent a lot of time wearing Bluetooth headphones, listening to mp3 music and watching You Tube and Netflix. I noted that I played a CD the other day which was probably the first time this year. This made me think about the analogue to digital media age, including photography. I had already noted the things I now take for granted around the home – books on shelves, DVD cabinet, CD Cabinet, Vinyl LPs tucked away.

I was also intrigued by the notion presented by psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos [11], that stress in the modern age is on the increase due to humans not keeping pace with technology and how quickly technology has moved on relative to mankind’s existence. We used to be ‘deep divers’, reading books, LP sleeve notes. Now we are ‘jet skiers’ skimming across readily available digital media.

I have attempted to produce a narrative of my daily interaction with analogue and digital media which will tell the viewer a lot about me without me being present. I don’t want the images to be too staged as I want to make it like a wander around my home. The older media will be shown in cabinets fairly well organised and unused. The modern media will be shown in current use.

My research [5] involved looking at Abelardo Morell’s Childhood [6] series of objects from around the home from a child’s perspective. I also decided to use a technique that Paul Graham had used in Shimmer of Possibility [7] where he produced a series of small stories and combined it with the process of looking and glancing at the subject and surroundings.

Peter Fraser [15] was recommended in my tutor feedback as a photographer who uses the mundane and everyday. His work gave me confidence to amend some of the tighter close up images from my original set, including more in the frame. Interestingly his work also helped me go slightly tighter on some images to clarify the subject.

After a number of presentation iterations [12] and tutor feedback [13], I have presented my diary in the form of an eBook that shows my interaction with media and provides an insight to my home life. There are 5 ‘stories’, each made up of 4 images. The five stories represent one day, from morning through to evening.

The development of the images and my creative choices are described in my Contact Sheets and Edits [8] post. In addition, my rework post [14] details the reasons behind the changes I made to the original submission.

The images and text are available to view in the rework post [14] in case there are problems viewing the pubHTML5 eBook. Note: Image quality on a Windows platform is improved by increasing the magnification. Refer to Late Changes post 12] for discussion of variability across platforms.

Although I have embraced new technology, as this assignment demonstrates, I am still left with a feeling of nostalgia where I reminisce about simpler times.

References:

M. Rainbird, Early Ideas post, 2017
Nigel Shafran Washing-up [accessed 24/11/2017]
Nigel Shafran and Charlotte Cotton interview 2004 [accessed 27/11/2017]
M. Rainbird, Diary Ideas post, 2017
M. Rainbird, Research post, 2017
Abellardo Morell, Childhood, 1986-1991
Paul Graham, Shimmer of Possibility, 2007
Wolfgang Tillmans, Studio Still Life, 2014
M. Rainbird, Contact Sheets and Edit post, 2017
M. Rainbird, Self-absented Portraiture post, 2017
Dr Linda Papadopoulos , Psychologist [accessed 15/12/2017]
M. Rainbird, Late Changes post, 2017
12a. Graham. P, Whiteness of the Whale, MACK, 2015
12b. Paul Graham, Shimmer of Possibility, 2007 [accessed 24/11/2017]
12c. Designing an Exhibition Wall [accessed 16/12/2017]
12d. Image [&] Narrative Vol 16, No 3 (2015), B. Lockemann essay [accessed 16/12/2017]
12e. Beyond the Decisive Moment: Temporality and Montage in Paul Graham’s A Shimmer of Possibility, Bettina Lockeman, 2015,[PDF]
12f. Blas Gonzales- Putting Yourself in the picture, OCA post, Rob Bloomfield [accessed 16/12/2017]
M.Rainbird, Response to Tutor Feedback post 2018
M.Rainbird, Assignment 3 Rework post, 2018
M.Rainbird, Peter Fraser post, 2018

Reflection on Tutor Feedback

There are a lot of positives within the report particularly the use of the eBook and the comment ‘You have evidenced your ability and enthusiasm to be open minded about non-traditional approaches’. Another positive is the comment ‘The images are straightforward and competently shot’…well I’ve taken it in a positive manner even if it may not be the most glowing of praise.

My attention is drawn to the comments regarding the effectiveness of the narrative within the eBook and whether an objective viewer would understand what they are supposed to be looking at. Changes to my edit and the layout will help with this, although I have had no feedback on individual images successful or otherwise. Looking at my submission again, and a brief view of Peter Fraser’s work, I think the tighter cropped images can be reworked to offer a clearer idea of my subject.

I take on board the suggestion of using a text device, especially in light of it being a diary, so there are a number of ways forward on this. Captions and text have become a confusing area for me based on previous feedback from my current and previous tutors. For this assignment I didn’t really give this much thought as I had feedback from my previous submission still fresh in my ears.

I will rework the assignment with a view to modifying the edit and adding some text. My first thought is to add a diary entry for each of my 5 ‘stories’, possibly covering a single day. ie. Woke up and asked Alexa to “play Radio 5 Live”. Possibly the whole diary entry will be a single day. Woke up and listened to news on Alexa; Logged in to work on Laptop and listened to music on Bluetooth speaker and then headphones.;Logged off laptop and sat down to listen to Amazon Music on headphones; Decided to watch TV/ movie on streaming device; Caught up on my social media world before going to bed.

I will hopefully be able to use existing shots for my re-edit by changing tight crops and orientations. I would like to stick with the same aspect ratio idea for the ‘old’ media size format. My main area of concern is amending the book layout and decision making on full bleed pages and how many images per page. I am up for the challenge on this as I have enjoyed putting the eBook together and I will hopefully gain in my knowledge in this area.