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Don McCullin – Tate Britain

517401 OCA Photography

This is a huge retrospective of McCullin’s work covering a period of 50 years from his picture ‘The Gu’vnors’ published by the Observer in 1959 to photographs of war torn Homs taken last year in Syria. This is the first time the Tate has exhibited a retrospective of a living photographer. The exhibition is full on, featuring 250 black & white images printed by McCullin himself and a projection room featuring colour work that he did for magazines including The Sunday Times and the Observer amongst others. The exhibition features images from the many conflicts McCullin covered and at times … Continue reading Don McCullin – Tate Britain

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Kaylynn Deveney – The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings and Karen Knorr – Gentlemen

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The Day-to-Day Life of Alfred Hastings is a collection of 83 images by KayLynn Deveney, 77 hand written captions by Alfred Hastings and an assortment of his poems, drawings and family photographs. Deveney first met Albert Hastings in 2001 and shortly afterwards began taking photographs of him, continuing until his death in 2007 at the age of 91 . As the title suggests, the photographs depict everyday events from Albert’s life. I like this work, I think the images combined with the hand written captions on lined paper by Albert are personal, intimate and give an indication of the connection … Continue reading Kaylynn Deveney – The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings and Karen Knorr – Gentlemen

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Research point – Sophie Calle – Take Care of Yourself

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In contrast to Sophy Rickett’s collaboration with one person, Dr. Willstrop, Sophie Calle’s work Take Care of Yourself was a collaboration with 108 other people, her ex-partner who emailed to tell her he was ending their relationship and 107 of her women who responded to her request to comment on the email which she had sent to them and asked them to comment on it in their professional capacity. She then photographed or videoed them and their response. The email from her boyfiend that Calle shared is set out below: Sophie, I have been meaning to write and reply to … Continue reading Research point – Sophie Calle – Take Care of Yourself

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Research point – Sophy Rickett – Objects in the Field

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Sophy Rickett’s Objects in the Field is a work produced when she was undertaking an artist fellowship at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. The work was produced from the 125 negatives taken over a 2 year period by Dr Roderick Willstrop using the Three Mirror Telescope that he developed. Dr Willstrop’s involvement was not limited to providing the negatives but also the captions for the images and narration for Rickett’s video Afterword (Polishing, Not Grinding). Reading about the work it is clear that there is a tension between the Rickett and Willstrop in their appreciation of the images. … Continue reading Research point – Sophy Rickett – Objects in the Field

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Exercise 2.2 – Image and text (P.55)

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Cut out some pictures from a newspaper and write your own captions. • How do the words you put next to the image contextualise/re-contextualise it? • How many meanings can you give to the same picture? Try the same exercise for both anchoring and relaying. In China, they’re closing churches, jailing pastors – and even rewriting scripture This is the original headline from the article which the picture accompanied. Elsewhere in the paper there was a report of the first decline in car sales in China for 20 years. With this in mind I thought the of changing the headline … Continue reading Exercise 2.2 – Image and text (P.55)

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Assignment 1 – Two sides of the story – reflection

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Having looked at the images I took and having an idea in my mind of what I was hoping to achieve I found that I was not clear on what the story is. Put simply I think it could be titled ‘Two views of Cambridge’ an attempt to show the city from the perspective of a tourist and a resident, however, I recognise that there is a problem with this as only half the images can be thought of as authentic, those I have taken as resident, the others are my interpretation of what a visitor to the city would … Continue reading Assignment 1 – Two sides of the story – reflection

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Assignment 1 – Two sides of the story

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Because of its proximity to London, its university and its relatively compact size, Cambridge is a major tourist destination for overseas visitors. A Guardian article from October 2018 put the number of visitors at 8.1 million a massive number compared to the 125,000 residents. This huge influx of visitors contributes £835 million to the local economy and accounts for 22% of jobs but over 80% of the visitors are day trippers sometimes staying for as little as 2 or 3 hours. Given the limited number of images available in this exercise and using the 2 – 3 hours as a … Continue reading Assignment 1 – Two sides of the story

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Exercise 2.1 – Telling a story – The Dad Project (P.51)

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How does Bryony Campbell’s The Dad Project compare with Country Doctor? Briony Campbell’s The Dad Project is a photo essay that chronicles her father’s death from cancer. The work was made with her father’s input and is semi-autobiographical as Campbell herself features in some of the images. On Campbell’s website the images are accompanied with text and there is also a ten minute video featuring interviews with Campbell’s father. The Country Doctor was a photo essay shot by W. Eugene Smith that appeared in LIFE magazine in 1948. The photographs were of Dr. Ernest Ceriani, the GP to the 2,000 residents of Kremmling, … Continue reading Exercise 2.1 – Telling a story – The Dad Project (P.51)

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Assignment 1 – revised approach

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After trying some initial test shots I have decided to revise my approach to this assignment. Whilst taking some pictures around New Year, I was struck by the number of tourists taking pictures of and selfies in front of the famous sites in Cambridge and that some were even brave enough to go punting in January, so I have decided to portray Cambridge from the perspective of a tourist and a resident. My main reasons for changing from the other approaches I had identified was that I was concerned that there would be a lack of variety in the images … Continue reading Assignment 1 – revised approach