P&P: Getting Started

For the first time since enrolling with OCA, I have spoken with a tutor.  On two previous courses communication was entirely by email. I was expecting the same for People and Place so was a bit surprised when I was asked for a skype call.  It turned out to be a simple meet-and-greet, a chance to to see and hear who we will be working with over the course of the next 12-18 months.  It was actually a welcome change.

As I explained during our online meeting, I expect work on this course to proceed somewhat slowly.  In January I will start work on a thesis for an unrelated MA and in preparation for that I am presently taking a course on ethnological research methodology.  I hope to be able to use the photography exercises and assignments to explore visual aspects of my ethnography research.  The tutor seems supportive and encouraging, as does my MA thesis adviser.

The research methods course will occupy most of my hours through the end of 2014, and the thesis most of my hours for 2015.  The plan is to allow the ethnography research to frame the photography practice. I have skimmed the P&P course notes and given some consideration to assignment subjects.

Part 1:  Exercises 1-8.  Assignment requires 5-7 portraits of one person, preferably shot over several sittings.  I may approach one of the members of the temple to be a subject, perhaps even one of the monks. 

Part 2:  Exercises 9-15.  Assignment calls for 10 images of people engaged in meaningful activity.  Here I imagine shooting a temple scene.  Could be a micro engagement, such as the morning offering, or something larger, such as a full-day at the temple.   

Part 3:  Exercises 16-18. This one I may have to be more creative if I wish to stick with the temple/religious theme as the assignment asks for 2-4 images of 5-6 different buildings.  I may have to cast my net a bit wider and do different types of religious space:  mosque, church, gudwara, temple.   

Part 4:  Exercises 8-12.  Here I can come back to my main temple, or some part of it.  The assignment asks for 12 images of one place. 

Part 5:  No exercises.  8-12 images on a subject of choice.  Not sure yet where this might lead.  Let’s see what circumstances suggest.  

Perusing the Reading List for the course, I picked out four texts to which I have immediate access:

1. Angier, Roswell. (2007)Train Your Gaze: A Practical and Theoretical Introduction to Portrait Photography
2. Cotton, Charlotte. (2009) The Photograph as Contemporary Art
3. Short, Martha. (2011) Basics Creative Photography 02: Context and Narrative
4. Wells, Liz. (2002) The Photography Reader

My immediate goal is to finish these over the duration of the course.