Evaluation

It only took three years and a few dozen projects for me to find my thing. Landscapes. I feel I should justify why only a Landscape project here and now. There’s three reasons one, time I know how much land there is to cover in Lincolnshire and I knew if i split my attention it would make it a less well focused piece and I wanted it to have a real sense of cohesion. Two, more importantly after the Landscape module I clocked that I’m good at Landscapes and I wanted an excuse to push that side of Photography as until the Landscape module I had always thought that landscapes were my short-coming and three, people in Lincolnshire tend to have some fantastic stories to tell and not ones that I could do justice to with a short conversation and cherry picking quotes from. You could spend a fortnight in one village and still have more to do, I’m not sure why but people who move to the sticks in Lincolnshire tend to have lived some pretty incredible lives. I mean, that could be a sign of my youth and the difference in life experience but I am always surprised when I talk to some of the older people around the place and so many of them have worked  all across the globe generally doing engineering work of some sort, from working in eastern block gunsmiths in berlin to fixing oil rigs where death is an accepted risk and not uncommon.

Now, with regards to research for this project I didn’t really have to do much, thanks to my dad having lived there most of his life and me being there on and off since I was a toddler. I know the place pretty well and I knew that I wanted to make a visual record of the Land and try and show the diversity of the place through that alone. I feel that has been successful though I don’t consider it a finished piece, it is one that I want to continue and I intend to chase some contacts I have in the County about doing something with the work. In a perfect world I’d love to exhibit the piece and make some form of return on investment, but I doubt making any money off it is a likely proposition. Still, don’t ask. Don’t get.

If there’s one thing I wish I could do different it’s give myself more time to shoot. I should have got back at working towards it sooner as it would have given me more than just shy of two weeks to get her done. It would have also let me spend some more time with my younger siblings but, that’s a total aside and not relevant. Mind you, the weather was pretty unpredictable in March so I’m not sure how many days shooting I would have actually got out of it. Still, it would have done the piece good to have more to choose from. Also, I feel I need to work on my post-processing (especially with regards to white balancing, I always seem to get things close but, just and just off. It could just be because I’ve spent a long time staring at the images but, I think they’re slightly too warm which makes them look a little magenta which is kinda annoying. It’s not my monitor being mis-calibrated. I think it would do me good to shoot some Motorsports for someone with a tight deadline to force myself to get back into the swing of being able to edit quickly and accurately.

Now, a couple things I am pleased with. One, the title ‘The Road Beneath My Feet’. Although it does mean a couple of images that I love just don’t fit the edit I do like the title, it was a name that popped into my whilst I was on a train and my mind just wandered to it. I only later realised that it’s a song lyric, from Frank Turner’s The Road. First few lines of the song:

“To the east, to the east. The road beneath my feet. To the west, to the west. Well I haven’t got there yet. And to the north, to the north. Never to be caught. To the south, to the south. My time is running out”.

I still think the title works really well, it just makes me chuckle that I thought it was an original thought. Nope, totally stole it from someone, though it is appropriate for the project which would probably explain why my mind went for it. If knowing a few hundred songs is good for anything it’s to randomly plucks part for project titles.

Another thing I’m glad I did was to go to London and get them printed on 16×12’s and have them in a box with sleeves. It really does make them feel so much more like mine. Or to quote our very own Mr Moxon “take some ownership of your work” not cheap, but in the grand scheme, it’s not all that much and it certainly makes for a portfolio with impact. I just need to find someone who’ll look at them and hopefully get something out of it. So, first port of call is the County Council. If nothing else they may know some people.

As for the unit itself, I love the fact it’s totally open and the output is something which is agreed rather than dictated. While I agree that this would work as a book, to a degree. I am also of the opinion that this works far better a box of large prints (or possibly as an exhibition, though with a harsher edit). If this had been any other unit the output would have been dictated by the module guide and while I agree that is necessary for other units. For gods sake don’t change MDP and as much of a busy time as the run off from Christmas to Landscape exhibition and Diss hand-in is. I’m glad we then have the last couple of months to solely focus our attention on one thing. It gave me the time to sit on an idea all year and let it develop in my head. Then I had time to do a test shoot, sit on the images over a few days and think about it and let it develop into a project on rural Lincolnshire.

There are certainly more ambitious projects that people have undertaken than mine but, upon reflection. That doesn’t phase me, there is room for a wide variety of Photographers and everyone takes pictures of different things. So, I need to remind myself that I don’t suck and that it’s a good thing that there is better work than mine. Gives me something to aim for, not to be jealous of or to be put off by its existence. Also, I need to admit the flaws in my own work otherwise I’ll never improve. My main one with this is that the images all come from within about a 40 mile radius. The county is bigger than this and i didn’t get to the seaside (which is still rural in parts, and a large part of Lincolnshire, what with it being coastal). So, there is certainly room for expansion and you know what, good. I’d be rather dismayed if I could have shot everything there is to see in just two weeks. To me, it says the project has legs and room for it to grow.

As a short summary of this rambling mess. Good unit, don’t change a thing. I’m pleased with my work but it has more to give and I want to chase that. Finally, So long, and thanks for all the fish.