Professional Study

Professional Study

Brief - 

This module provides insight and investigation into the divers range of utilities and outcomes for photographers. Using work made, inspired or developed from your Professional Practice portfolio you are required to negotiate and identify a range of viewing outcomes appropriate to your extended career direction and to the work itself. The list below represents some of the possible outcomes for photographic images. Use this list as a basic for consideration but there are many more outcomes that may be utilised.

List - 

Gallery exhibition

Commercial or corporate exhibition

Site-specific display

Installation

Competition

Award Structures

Online showcase

Web site

Image or stock libraries

Photo books

eBooks

Print sales

Magazine and editorial articles

Newspaper inclusion

Guerrilla and viral

Personal artefact 

For assessment, submit a presentation that shows evidence of your range of presentation outcomes. This should be in the form of a presentation to the group lasting approximately 10 minutes. Your image evidence and all material relevant to assessment should form a section on your course blog.

Assessment Criteria - 

1. Thoroughness and understanding of relevant research material, together with analysis of own strengths and weaknesses in terms of personal goals. 
2. Articulation of ideas and information in visual, written and oral forms to individuals and groups in a range of situations.
3. Demonstrate a range of transferable skills in particular; manage own learning, formulate independent judgements, analyse personal strengths and needs, interact effectively with others, articulate ideas, source information. 

Learning Outcomes - 

• Make realistic career and post-grad. study decisions, based on clear articulation of their ambitions and a careful assessment of their own capabilities.
• Demonstrate the skills necessary for interpreting design briefs and clients requirements.
• Demonstrate competence in the application of a comprehensive range of transfer skills consistent with level three, degree study.
• Develop a variety of solutions and demonstrate awareness of the factors influencing contemporary photographic practice.

Hand in - 

4000 word equivelant between blog/report and portfolio 

Presentation containing evidence of range of outcomes. (approx. 10 mins)

Deadline - 

Friday 2nd May, 9.30am

Professional Practice Theme - 

As a theme for my Professional Practice work I photographed my Grandad - Eric Cryer. Within this theme and so within my final images I wanted to show who Eric Cryer is and what kind of person is, what he does in his day to day life and what hobbies he has. 

Through photographing him my project changed, I found myself concentration more on what person he has became since his wife, (my Grandma) died a few years ago.

I found myself photographing him as a lonely person and his personal belongings that had my grandma somewhere within them. 

Here below are the images which I took - 

First tutorial session with Andy - 

Within my first tutorial with Andy we discussed that for my work for PP and PS to progress in a way that would be suiting for the brief of PS, we decided that I need to take more image of people that had gone through loss, just like my Grandad had.

We also discussed the different outcomes that would be suitable to best showcase the type of images I would be producing. 

Professional Study Theme - 

As a progression from Professional Practice to Professional Study, I will be expanding upon the images of my Grandad which I have already taken. The Theme for my Professional Study work will be "Loss". I will be taking more images of people who have lost someone close to them in their lives.

The people I will be photographing will differ in different areas, things like - 

• people
• Age
• Gender
• Person they have lost
• Circumstance 

With these images I will be aiming to produce similar images in a style and feel to the images I took of the Grandad.

The different forums and functionality's that I will be looking at for this project to get my work out there into the public will be 3 different areas.

1. Photo books
2. Competitions
3. Online showcase

The first Forum that I will be using is a Photo book. I have decided to make my Professional Practice into a Photo book as its outcome because this is the most fitting outcome. It will present and showcase my work in a very clear and understanding way to its viewers and also with the images being within a book, I think it will help to put the idea and theme of "Loss" across more clearly and effective.

The 2 different sites that I have looked into and researched that make Photo books are "Blurb" and "Photobox".

Blurb - 

Here is an insert from the Blurb website explaining about the online company - 

"In 2005, Blurb founder Eileen Gittins wanted to do something she thought would be relatively simple: Make a book of her own photography. The “make a book” part was possible, sure, but the costs were prohibitive. And the “simple” part? Not really. “Why,” she thought, “should anyone have to take out a second mortgage and hire a small army just to publish a few copies of their own book?”

One year later, in 2006, Eileen launched Blurb, the world’s first platform for making, printing and publishing independent books. The democratisation of illustrated publishing had arrived. But these weren’t just any books. They were beautiful, bookshop-quality books on premium paper stock with archival-quality binding. And anyone could make one. Literally, just one. Or two. Or ten thousand.
Blurb was one of those amazing big-picture ideas made real: A mash-up of creative freedom with print-on-demand technology. It was groundbreaking. It was liberating and empowering and thrilling. And people like Eileen started making the books they’d always dreamed of, but never thought they could make."

PhotoBox -

Here is an insert from the PhotoBox website explaining about the online company - 

"PhotoBox is Europe's leading online digital photo service with over 27 million members.

We are market leaders because we’re passionate about what we do – the photography and the collaboration – and how we do it – insanely great products and customer service.

We help people create memories and keep them alive through Photobooks, cards, wall decor, mugs, t-shirts, and more.

We've built an active and extensive online community that sparks much of our innovation – we’re always finding new ways to engage with them and share the joy of PhotoBox."

Both these two site are very reliable as I have used them both before to make photo books of my mine, both for personal use and for university use. Also both sites are reasonably priced and good quality final products that will show my work in a high standard. 

The second of the Forums that I will be using are Competitions. I will be using online photography competitions because they are a very easy and accessible way to get your image out there for many different people to see. Also with using photography competitions you able to see if your images are good enough to win, which I think adds another factor to your work. Here below are just a few different website that I have looked at that hold photography competitions. 

Photo Contest Insider - 

Here is an insert from the Photo Contest Insider website explaining about the online company -

"Photo Contest Insider - formerly Photography Competitions Netwrok.
Finding photo contests is not difficult, but finding them prior to the deadline and still open to entry can be a hugh challenge. At Photo Contest Insider, we've solved that problem for you. We keep an up to date, comprehensive list of contests only open to entries.

We have over 200 open photo contests published, and to help you find what you are looking for, you can use our unique Photo Contest Filter. This feature is a quick and easy way to find contests that are of interest to you, but thats not all, we can also send you a weekly email with contest updates.

Photo contest can have pages of details and long complicated terms and conditions to read and understand. At PCI we work hard to simplify this process for you, whilst creating openness and transparency. to do this we publish bite size, easily digestible details about the contest, helping you to make a quick, easy and informed decision about entering."

Read more: http://www.photocontestinsider.com/about/#ixzz2uL1mNWIN

View Bug - 

Here is an insert from the ViewBug website explaining about the online company -

"ViewBug is a company where you can participate in photo contests with the coolest brands and awesomest judges, gain recognition and exposure."

Black and White Spider Award - 

Here is an insert from the Bland and White Spider Awards website explaining about the online company -

"Black & White Spider Awards is an organization dedicated to the advancement of black and white photography. Our aim is to bring photographers from all corners of the globe together with leading industry figures to participate in a unique annual celebration of this classic art-form.

Now in its 9th year, it has showcased thousands of photographs from 96 countries around the world, making it a benchmark by which international photography is rated.

By selecting the best eyes in the industry to judge and jury the most expressive and creative photographs, we hope to inject a fresh artistic vision into the world of photography."

All these internet competitions provide opportunities for me to get my work out to different people, to showcase it in a different way that I have never tried before. 

And lastly the third and final forum that I will be using to show my work is that of an Online showcase. 
A showcase website is a web portal used by individuals and organisations to showcase things of interest or value. They differ from review websites in that they offer little or no interaction with the user nor do they attempt to harvest user internet activity metrics. In most cases these sites are completely open for any guest visitors.

Creative Internet users can showcase the results of their writing, artistry or use of any other talents.


Exposure.so - 

Here is an insert from the Exposure.so website explaining about the online company -

" The best tool for crafting photo narratives."

Exposure is for photographers who want a more meaningful and effortless way to publish their work - in the context of a narrative, instead of a feed or single photo on a permalink page. 

We will help you tell a great story, while putting your photography front and centre." 

Outcomes for Forums - 

To be able to fit my photographs into 3/4 different forums I first had to develop my images by taking more of different people and the different people they have lost in their lives. In total I photographed 3 different people. These people are all male - Eric, Ken and Stuart. Between them they have lost a wife, a mother or parents and siblings.

Here below are the new images of Ken and Stuart I took to show "Loss" - 

Ken - 

Stuart - 

From looking at my final images as a whole group together I have decided to use the following forums :- 

• Online Gallery
• ebook
• Personal Artefact

The reason as to why I have chosen these 3 different forums is because of the nature of my photographs. These forums are more suitable and work best to the theme of "Loss".

So the first outcome I used was the online gallery. For this online gallery I used a site called exposure.co. exposure.co is a really quick, easy and simple site to use to showcase and get your work out there to be viewed by a wider audience. 

Here are some screenshots to show how I have set my gallery out. Also here is the link to direct you to my gallery page.
I had never used an online gallery before this project, but having enjoyed using it, I would definitely use it again to showcase more of my work that I create in the future. 

https://sophiecryer91.exposure.co

The second forum I used to present my work to people is book making. To produce my work in book form I will be using a site called blurb. From using this site I will be fulfilling 1 kind of book form, from this site I will produce an ebook to be viewed online. 

The reasons as to why I have chosen to make books as one of my outcomes is because my images tell a story of people and their loss and the most common way to tell stories is through a book. Another reason as to why I have opted for an ebook instead of a normal book is because if a just made a single hardback book there would really only be me and a hand few of people of that would be able to view it, whereas if I made an ebook if would be open to view to a great pool of people because it would be on the internet.

The reason as to why I am using Blurb.com is because I have used that site before and I was more than pleased with the product that I made.

Here below are some screenshot images to show how I made my book and how it turned out:- 

For the front cover of my book I didn't want to use a photograph, I wanted it too a bit different and stand out, to do this I created a word cloud. This is where you have many words together that kind of have the same meaning behind them. I created a word cloud for the front cover of my book because I wanted something that stood out and something that went along side my images. The main word I used to start off my word cloud was "Loss".

Here is the image of my word cloud that I created in Photoshop - 

Here below are some screen shots to show as evidence that I paid for my ebook after creating it - 

The last forum I used to showcase my photographs is Personal Artefact. The reason as to why I chose to make my images into a personal artefact is because I feel the images would make a nice "keepsake" for  the people who I photographed and their families. The photographs will be another way of remember the person who is no longer with them and a way to teach their children or remind them of who the person was. 

For these personal artefacts of my photographs I will be printing the images off at a 6x4 size and then mounting each photograph on to piece of card with a written statement that will go along side the images. After each image has been mounted, they will be kept altogether in a box.

For my personal Artefact I didnt want to create something that most people might have, like a book, or a photo album, so I decided on the box idea for something different.

Here below is an image of the things I used to create my personal artefact - 

The craft materials I used were - 

• 6x4 photographs
• White card
• White baggage craft tags
• Double sided tape
• Foam alphabet sticker letters
• Box
• Word stickers

Here are some images of how the personal artefacts turned out :-

To create this personal artefact I made it more into a scrapbook rather than a formal book. To do this I just simply added words or captions that would relate to the theme of the images. To add these different captions I added tags, letters and phases. 

My images that I have produced for my ebook and my personal artefact are all the same images, but both put across to the viewer in different ways.

For the ebook I created I wanted there to be strong theme and feeling for the people viewing the images of "Loss" and "Bereavement", so they could understand that the person within the images had lost someone important to them. Whereas in the personal artefact even though there is still a strong sense of loss, I wanted the personal artefact to come across more as looking back on the happy memories they shared with the person they had lost. I created the personal artefact to be something that would be looked at often with found memories and good times.

Overall - 

Overall I am please with the 3 different outcomes that I have used within my PS work. I feel that the Online Gallery, ebook, and Personal Artefact were the best choices for my images and the most fittings ways to see, think about, or discusses the delicate subject of loss.