“Style is a simple way
of saying complicated things”
Jean Cocteau
Having reread my last couple of posts, I realised they were a bit...depressing (I didn't even put in any of these irritating little asides, or feeble attempts at humour!) Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be happy to know normal service has been resumed. When I get a chance I'll do a rewrite, until then feel free to ignore them.
Questions, Questions
When I say I'm having style issues, I'm not talking about my lack of sartorial grace (that's beyond anybodies ability to help.) What I'm talking about, is the style and tone of my pictures. As I said in my photo story post, that task really made me think about the connections between photos, and how they can affect the way people look at them. That there is what's gotten me a little worried. I think I might be lacking a bit of cohesion in my ideas for the main assignment.
Having settled on my expressive colour theme, I've now got to decide what style of photos I want to take. The marking criteria states that in order to achieve the maximum three points: "all images must relate consistently and coherently to the theme." Hmm...disconcerting. I've got so many different inspirations & styles I want to try, but I'm not sure just how closely I have to adhere to the theme. Is anything OK as long as there are people in it? Do I have to stick to one style, or technique for all six photos? I appreciate the length of the course means I can't hope to fit in all the ideas, and some of them are probably far to complicated for my current level, but I would like to try a little variety.
I know I want to use coloured backgrounds in some, if not all of my pictures, but that's just the basic idea. It's what you do with the models in front of those backdrops and how you present the pictures, that I'm confused about. For example, some of the photos I want to take are more standard style portraits, and yet, I've seen a David Hockney photo montage that I'd really like to try and emulate (not the contents, but the idea.) The question is, would that be going off at too much of a tangent?
It's possible I'm having delusions of grandeur, that most of my ideas are unattainable, but I'd rather try and fail, than not try at all. On the other hand, I don't want my over exuberant nature to cost me the vital marks that I'll need to get a distinction. It's frustrating that I can't settle on one thing, but that's me I'm afraid.
There you go, that was a bit more upbeat:)
Hey Graham, I like the David Hockney idea alot (we can talk about your idea in more detail when I see you)If your theme is people then obviously as long as people are in your images then you are following the rule! Once you've begun taking images and putting them together you will have a much clearer idea of what images relate to one another and those that don't! An image may stand alone and be very strong and yet not work in the set...the more images you have to chose from the greater chance you shall have of creating a really strong set that is coherent (unless you have planned each shot methodically) I'm begining to ramble! We can talk about it on wednesday. Bring some props along and we can have a go at shooting some stuff in the studio. Your ideas are great, I just want you to be aware of the time you have available...
ReplyDeleteI will be asking everyone to write up an action plan for the remainder of the course, just to give everyone a better idea of what needs to be done by when etc, I think this will help everyone stay focused!
I shall also be going over the criteria again on wednesday to give everyone a clearer idea about what is expected etc, hope this helps, see you wednesday :)