As part of the preparation for assessment, we are provided with a template for self evaluation on the G drive. As this evaluation is quite limited in size, perhaps to encourage us to be concise, I have used that as a starting point and expanded on that evaluation here.
Self-evaluation of Landscape Course.
I started this course with some trepidation, not because it was outside of my comfort zone, rather I already enjoyed landscape photography and worried that I may not be challenging myself enough. My concerns proved to be unfounded. Photography 2 Landscape has allowed me to explore and research subjects I am passionate about, local history, the canal network, walking, whilst at the same time discovering that the the landscape genre has a much wider focus than than I first imagined. I have also enjoyed researching areas I would not have normally associated with landscape such as memory and the use of text in photography and art in general. In short, I have learnt what a limited view I previously had of landscape photography.
I have become more open minded and learnt to explore and question areas of art I would previously have dismissed and text is a good example of this. Even as late as assignment 4, I was questioning what role text had in art, particularly when presented as art in its own right. Research into a number of artists as part of my critical review, led to a change in thinking and as a direct result, the inclusion of text in my own work. One discovery that has taken me by surprise is that I am now appreciating contemporary and conceptual art, and I include photography in that, much more than previously. This has crept up on me but came to light when I visited 2 exhibitions in Avignon about 18 months ago. The first was the ‘Collection Lambert’, the museum of contemporary art and one of the first places I saw some really exciting work that included text being used. It was the first time I became familiar with the work of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton as well as a French Canadian painter called Claire Tabouret, whose huge paintings of the haunted faces of children really blew me away. By comparison, the ‘Musee Angladon‘ that I had looked forward to, promising Picasso, Alfred Sisley and Degas, was disappointing. The way I approach exhibitions has also changed in that more and more, I am coming away with something I want to try for myself. ‘Outside the Woods of Thought’, in the Argentea Gallery, Birmingham in December 18 is a good example, when I came away committed to trying double exposures, (Guy Dickenson), printing on vellum, (Joseph Wright), using text as an influence, (Lynda Laird) and other creative process that I have yet to explore. Following this exhibition I attended an artist’s talk with one the exhibitors who uses literature, often in the form of war poets, to influence his work, (Rob Hudson). I have also discovered that when you show an interest in an artist’s work and contact them, they are in general, very generous with their responses. Shona Grant has shared some of the processes she uses in her book making projects and Rob Hudson, some of the methods he uses to get movement into his work.
I have experimented and taken more risks throughout this course than previously, both in terms of taking photographs and how they are presented. I have perhaps been more successful with the latter and I know I need to keep pushing the boundaries and trust the results rather than trying to control them. I also need to continue to work on editing, though I found the advice of John Blakemore at a recently attended book- making workshop to be particularly useful when he advised that the final edit will almost always be influenced by the means of presentation.
The best thing I take from this course is the toolkit I have developed along the way. Ideas and processes ‘borrowed’ from other artists, experiments I have tried, research sources I have discovered and the networks I have become part of. The South West OCA group has been amazing. The multi-disciplinary nature of this group makes it a rich source of support, critique, challenge and collaboration and I will continue to work with them as I progress to level 3. I have also valued the monthly hangouts with fellow landscape students that I have organised. It has been a small group of regular attendees but we have supported and challenged each other and provided a sounding board for our thoughts and ideas. Finally my tutor has been prompt with his responses and supporting and constructive in his feedback and I thank him for that.
Anne's Landscape Learning Log 