Project Conclusion

This project encouraged me to experiment with techniques and concepts that hitherto I had been unacquainted with. Upon reflection, the proximity of its commencement to the completion of my undergraduate degree hindered my ability to embrace the playfulness of the learning process. The final project of the BA (Hons) photography required me to hone the skills acquired over the preceding four years to produce a single polished, professional outcome. The commencement of this project felt retrograde, returning to the experimentation of my foundation year. However, comparing the outcomes then and now demonstrates reassuring progress in my ability to contemplate academic theories and apply them to the creative process.

Mid-project I believe that the penny finally dropped, I understood the reasoning behind this playful heterogeneous approach. My inherently ridged, photography-centric, thought process needed to be dismantled to be remade in a more flexible, adaptable way. I cannot say that the process passed without anxiety, the first weeks were filled with apprehension and enduring imposter syndrome. But I remind myself that this isn’t the first time I have needed to deal with stressful or demanding situations, and it will not be the last. Emerging from this process I am more resilient and, I believe, better equipped to contemplate and express myself in a range of mediums.

Reading the semiotic codes present in a simple geometric shape and applying them to a creative practice was enjoyable. The capacity of the triangle to change its intrinsic signification and connotation conditional upon its orientation or the cultural perspective of the viewer fascinated me. I recognise that my research was less focussed on artists who worked specifically with the triangle and more directed towards the wider academic thinking and related concepts linked to its form. But I feel that this allowed me the space required to find my own direction, for an assortment of deltoid creations.

It is, perhaps, inevitable that my photographic experiment was my preferred exercise. But it was not for the process of creating images with a camera that I enjoyed the work. I found myself captivated by the concept behind TJ Cole’s monograph Blind Spot, and embarked upon a journey, finding triangles in the every day that were illusory, marked not by their presence but their absence or a transitory occurrence. This is a concept that links so well to self-absented portraiture, a favourite practice of mine and illustrated beautifully by photographer Nigel Shafran in his series Washing Up.

But enough of photography. Both Screen Printing and Collagraphy held my attention and fired my imagination. My first collagraphic print was an entirely instinctive creation, at points in the process my hands appeared to outpace my cognisance, but the resulting print really pleased me and once framed I liked it enough to hang it on a wall at home. Screen Printing, especially printing in half-tone is a far more scientific activity, requiring technical knowledge, accuracy, and no small amount of creativity to make something of merit. I feel that I have a long way to go to produce work of any level of accomplishment, but I enjoy the process and want to do more.

I look forward to a further broadening of my visual communication skills in the second semester and through to my final project in the summer.