Demonstration of technical and visual skills
This was a very challenging assignment that required a solid demonstration of acquired knowledge, not only of the image being critiqued, but also adding appropriate context and academic theory. On top of that getting to grips with proper Harvard referencing and critical essay writing.
I rejected my first few attempts at the intro as it did not clearly show that the essay was about Morell’s image. Frank, Eggleston and MoMA all in one paragraph was too much too soon. No mention of Morell anywhere until end of para 2. Although I knew that identifying a title for the essay would help but I struggled to settle on a title. I had too much I wanted to include but having gone back to the brief it was clear that the key was choosing an image. My early drafts concentrated on external factors and links such as all the MoMA content.
I liked the structure of my completed first draft and there are connections between the paragraphs which helped the flow. The final submission is 1,021 words which I hope is acceptable as this includes the citation text.
Quality of outcome
Having read a few of the essays in ‘Singular Images’ I found them to be engaging and free flowing with descriptions, thoughts and ideas. My first draft seemed to be ‘make point 1, move on to point 2, set up point 3 then make point 3 etc. etc.‘.
Having completed an adequate draft #1 and got the hang of Harvard Referencing I produced my final submission using a different introduction and structure. Overall I concentrated on keeping it focussed on Morell. Associated points had to be only one step removed and always directly linked to him.
I also had a lot of citations in the early drafts to back up every point I made, which I heavily edited so that I could include my own thoughts and ideas.
I am happy that I have narrowed down my discussion, but I am not fully happy with the text, as the more I change it the more muddled it gets. Therefore, I have reached the point where I need some tutor feedback to identify what direction to take with it.
Demonstration of creativity
Comparing my essay to the ones in Sophie Howarth’s ‘Singular Images’ shows that a lot more practice and more years of study is required. The problem I had was getting the balance of showing I understood some of the ideas around reading images and also keeping it focussed on the image being critiqued.
A limited vocabulary and little recent experience of descriptive writing hindered the whole assignment and delayed the submission.
I probably could do some more research in to colour theory but I was already struggling to put a decent argument forward with all the information that I had already gathered.
Context
I really enjoyed researching this assignment and acquired lots of information, quotes and contextual connections. A lot of these had to be discarded in the final submission. I could have written a completely separate essay on the influence of MoMA/John Szarkowski on art photography.
I struggled to find too much information on the black and white versus colour topic. It is a hot topic on the OCA student forums as a lot of students believe they like black and white without really understanding why they are using it. I have been the opposite. I have stuck with colour (apart from the one specific black and white course exercise) as I have had no valid reason to use it in any of my assignments.
It was one of the reasons I chose a black and white image to critique. On reflection I’m not sure I have gleaned too much more on that aspect, but I have certainly acquired a better understanding of the emergence of colour and some post-modern theory.
Martyn Rainbird 