Starting Out

It's been a week or two now and I am starting to get to grips with the course and the first few projects. My first impressions are not too great, like many OCA courses there does not seem to be an appreciation fact that this is likely to be the 4th or 5th course that students take. Many of the initial exercises are warm ups for later work, however, that is what PaP and DPP are designed to do. This course is showing it's age and much in need of the upcoming refresh. This does not mean that the course is going to be unenjoyable or a waste of time, I just wish it would address the student at the level that they should now have attained. How many times do I need to do a vertical versus horizontal framing exercise?

I will do my best to turn these initial exercises into something more than they are, or alternatively just grin and bear it until I can start work on the assignments which are the guts of the course. Looking forward to going to the zoo, though. Fun place for people photography, unless of course you accidentally photograph a child and get accused of being a pervert - strange world we now live in. Henry Cartier-Bresson would have been on the sex offender list within weeks of doing any decisive moments.

As the title of this post suggests, this is my "just started a new course" statement, a place to summarize what I hope to get out of the course and where I want to be in a years time. It was a toss up between this and PWDP, a decision influenced by my Landscape course tutor and his observation that my work perhaps needs more of a human presence and that my digital skills are pretty much where they need to be for the time being.

So what do I expect to get out of this course and what do I plan to change in my current working practice:

1. The core reason for doing the course is to learn how to deal with the unwilling human subject, i.e. to photograph strangers confidently and to a degree fearlessly. We all start out with this sense of intrusion into other peoples lives and the worry that not all people will react with either a smile or indifference. By the time I finish I want to be far more comfortable getting into people's comfort zone and taking their photograph willing or not.

2. Develop a deeper understanding of how photography fits into the contemporary art world and how my work then aligns. By contemporarary I am thinking 20th/21st century, so perhaps not too contemporary. To create compelling work that other people want to look at it needs to at least address the issues of the modern art world not simply my personal aesthetic.

3. Start to look critically at other photographers work. I collect and study photo books, they are a source of inspiration and angst, however, I rarely look at a single image and really try to dissect it's meaning. I have bought a "paper" log book, something I have actively resisted so far. My aim is once a week or so to take a photograph from a book or the web, print it and then write a critique of what it means for me. I am using a log book to avoid copyright issues and also to permit me to scribble on the image. Let's see how this goes. I am realistic and it will probably last a week or two and then like many other similar ideas get swept away by my work load.

4. Spend some time understanding the philosophy of art and photography. I do not intend to start reading original works of philosophy, but at least spend some time on the books about books that are gathering dust on my shelves.

5. Improve the narrative content of my work, start stitching photographs into meaningful dialogs with the reader. This is the second key rationale for studying this particular course, to develop this element in my work under the guidance of an experienced practitioner.

6. Create a book of photographs, taken throughout the course, documenting the people of Munich and the city they live in, the reverse of my strategy for Landscape.

7. Treat the course with respect and get a decent grade. I need to avoid falling into the trap of belittling the subject matter, even if I think the projects and some of the assignments seem a little naive at first glance. They have been designed by smarter people than I, to get idiots like me to think...