Level 3 Photography Nicola Hampshire

I sent this to the group to have a look at (time permitting before the meeting) I feel like I’m at the beginning of Assignment 2 with my photos because my initial plan has been hampered by the weather (rain, rain and more rain led to the space I was investigating becoming inaccessible!) After a period of rethinking my approach and lots of reading for my literature review, I decided to focus on rubbish dropped by people in the environment. This is the micro. My grand narrative is waste. The site I am investigating is the redundant village coalmine. All the machinery has been removed, the shafts filled in and it is owned by a group at present who have used it to sort coal fines. During my last OCA course, I explored the site and used archived images laid on top of actual site images to “reconstruct” the past. A few years ago, planning permission was sought and refused for a big waste incinerator on the site on environmental grounds (2 bird species on the adjoining heath) Waste...

Weather - intermittent showers to torrential rain  Plan to start walking around the perimeter of the pit  over a period of days  tracking my route on an app. Collect 15 pieces of rubbish, photograph insitu, then photograph together in the environment. Today is a hard surface walk using ex-colliery railway line. How long do I need to walk to find 15 pieces? Will it always be the same distance? I left rubbish on the way there so I could record it on the way back and collect in a bag. I will creatively photograph on a drier day. (This map shows the distance required to find 30 pieces of rubbish and return journey so 1.75 miles for 30 pieces. Does the distance increase as the walk leaves the populated area?) Research question Do you see more litter in one direction than the other? I'm not working with the turnip or the numerous dog poo bags. This can be presented as typology. Personally I don't think it is creative enough for me but will be useful to...

OCA North Meeting  This is the first time I have joined OCA North regional group. With a venue not too far away, Hazel and I decided to join the group for the afternoon. The group is for students of all disciplines. Andrew Conroy (tutor) was presenting his work with a collaboration theme. I was interested to note how collaborations can sometimes happen and how different they can be. Andrew also introduced us to his personal work which was fascinating and work for the OCA photography pathway.  Helen brought four paintings for us to look at with a list of four questions to think about. We were encouraged to re-order the sequence and see if the answers were different. Although I know nothing about painting, this was an interesting exercise to consider with work that was not my own because I like order and have difficulty re-sequencing my own work. It showed me that this is one of my weaknesses which I need to challenge.  Some photography students showed their curre...

We have had an awful lot of rain in the last few days. I went for a walk to look at and count local litter to see what was feasible. Wearing wellies, I slipped over a wet root and fell hard, and managed to break my camera which was in the camera bag. Fortunately I had my phone which I used as a back up camera. As the walk progressed, the route was inaccessible due to very wet sand and slag which I sank into and kept losing my boot. It was reminiscent of being stuck in a peat bog. My next walk will involve some harder surfaces. I have confirmed there is enough litter around to work with.

Tutor Led Group Work HE6  Contextual Studies and Body of Work This session was presented by Ariadne Xenou through a slide show with questions and a discussion following the presentation. I pulled out a number of points from the presentation which I think will be useful personally and to give a flavour of the presentation to the OCA student hangout group I belong to. Don't separate the approach - BOW and CS Be analytical - show the big picture through micro details. Microstories and methodology are important Eloquence is key Grand narrative (the overarching theme of your project) Look at what interests you and break it down into why it interests you. Then put those components under the microscope. A grand narrative can be changeable. Is there a grader narrative than the grand narrative? Need to understand the context. Have a statement to test - what is your issue and why do you want to talk about it? A micro narrative stops you making the work too big. Research ques...

Whilst having a quick walk (a break from reading), I came across this poster in the local dog walking area (a former pit tip). Unfortunately I couldn't make the date, but it tied in with my current CS  reading. It was advertised on the local council website, together with advice on how to litter pick and a risk assessment.  There are a few litter picking groups in the area. I also found a government publication which supported litter picking by community groups and individuals. I will be referring to this in my critical writing so don't want to say too much here. I'm still thinking about rubbish in the environment. Social / civic pride and responsibility. Trail fairies are male and female. Mother earth - gender? I'm bored with negative images in the news of waste. Have we got to saturation point? I need to create something different for my images and perhaps "create" or performance art is the way to go. Key words to think about: waste, commodifica...