Research methods reading task January 2013
Significant aspects of any research project
Title – A title is a an important factor to consider as it reveals more about the project than first appears, as is a subtitle although not critical it can give more information about the project. Also including a short summary about the project can help provide an understanding of the work to be done.
Topic – theme – The subject, topic, or theme is the most important part of a proposal and contains the important details of the project in hand, it doesn’t have to be a really long piece, usually about 2 or 3 paragraphs long. These paragraphs should show your passion and enthusiasm about the idea your trying to convey. But the most important is to clearly explain what you are intending to do and giving as much information as possible about the project, how I would approach making the photographs and how I would expect the project to develop.
Audience (context) E.g. picture essay/exhibition
My proposal should discuss the context and the audience I am aiming the body of work. Things I would have to consider when creating this proposal would be were would I like my work to exist in the world? Would it be an exhibition? Or a publication? Or would it be a public artwork? Or a picture essay to be published in a magazine or something else entirely? I would also need to consider how each context might give the work different meaning.
When doing this I need to think about how the photographs are read and consumed in the world, which will help me make decisions about the context for my
own work.
own work.
Approach-Methods
There is many angles to approaching my work by exploring different practical methods, this could be done by choosing your camera or the lighting I have chosen or possibly how I have decided to process my images. Or it could possibly be that I discuss the technical issues I could come across and how it relates to my project or my final piece of work. If I was to choose to approach it like this then I would have to make sure that the technical aspects I have discussed are suitable to the project in hand and show that I am comfortable and interested with the experimentation and the medium I have chosen.
The way i decide to finish and showcase my work should reflect an understanding of the context it will go into or appear in. This section of my proposal must show details of the ways in which I would conduct my related research. In this proposal I would possibly explore the possibility of collaboration and be able to explain it as part of my methodology for practise. In this proposal I should explain why I want to collaborate, what collaborations I have researched and the effect this way of working would have on my projects. If I am to collaborate with other people in my projects I would have to plan any issues with time management and division of tasks need to be planned carefully. Another possibility would be to co-write my proposal with who ever I am collaborating with to help develop my ideas.
Getting in – I might want to gain access to a certain location or organisation as part of my project, so it is important that I have this written in my proposal. Seeking permission plays a big part in my proposal if my project is location or documentary based. Laws govern who and when you can photograph from country to country and I should always be sure I understand the law before attempting to take photos in a public or private space. The parts of my proposal that describe my subjects and the context i am placing my work in to, will be the most relevant to an organisation or individual that you need to gain permission from. It also important to communicate these aspects of the proposal in emails, telephone conversations and at meetings.
Proposals for funding – when I am creating a more advanced research proposal to apply for funding for a body of work, there are extra considerations to think about, for example government art bodies, private funders, grant giving bodies, trusts, awards and commercial sponsors or partners. Each one of these will have a different application form, this is where i would have to think carefully about the specific headings or questions on the form. I should take my initial ideas and research and tailor them to a proposal to the funding organisation in question. Some organisation's require a written proposal only and some may request to look at visual examples of my work, if I do have to show them some visual examples then I have to think carefully and objectively about the works I have chosen to submit with a proposal for funding.
If I was asked to produce a project summary then think about the fact that it could be used in some sort of publicity for the project. I would have to consider how my summary would work on platforms like Twitter or Facebook or even on a blog. When creating my summary it should be up beat and want the reader to know more about the project, to help have a look at other people’s summaries on websites or ring the funding body to request examples of other peoples summaries for examples on how they did there’s.
Time line and budget – These two elements of a proposal for funding are very important, whoever is am directing the proposal to need to know weather the project is feasible. A timetable and a budget are the basics of a basic business plan, they person or persons need to know if i can sensibly plan a project right in both time and budget that is available. A project always has to be achieved in the time and budget i have planned.
Diaspora
Diaspora was a movement which is a migration of people moving away from an established area/town or ancestral land and would usually be involuntary.
Diaspora was a movement which is a migration of people moving away from an established area/town or ancestral land and would usually be involuntary.
Bill Brandt behind the camera aperture monograph
Steve mcCurry sanctuary The temples of Angkor monographs.
Obituaries
Obituaries are useful to photographers if there doing a case study on a certain person because it can tell you a little about that person about what they did in life, what they succeeded in, what there career was, if they had children and what age they were, who there parents were.
Here is an example of an obituary i found at http://www.ochsclassof63.com/obituaries_Vol.I.htm
As you can see from this its states when he died, were he was born, who his parents are/were, which school he graduated from. It then goes on to say he was a barber and tells you were he worked, It also tells you that he served as a Vietnam army veteran. It tells you what he enjoyed doing and who he was married to and what date he got married and if members of his family are still alive. From a photographers (myself) point of view this obituary gives you a enough information to go on to do a lot more extensive research about this person for example this person Gary Proper went to Oil City high school so maybe i would go and check out the school records if possible. Or maybe check the army records as he a Vietnam army veteran. Or possibly contact one of the remaining family members. At first i couldn't see why a obituary would be useful but after extensive research in to obituaries i now know that an obituary could be the key to researching about a certain person and gives you just enough information to take that research further.
Evaluating the potential of three recommended sites/publications
Photoworks - http://www.photoworks.org.uk
This sight is brilliant for photographers, the potential is massive for new talent and established photographers. By offering a broad range of services from exhibiting, to projects to video tutorials, photography talks, publications ( which could end up collectable items), they even offer programmes that i could participate and even a magazine, the list goes on. This sight is brilliant for photographers the potential is massive and i think by getting photoworks to exhibit your work really would be great as they can get your work out to the U.K. Their aim is to get people talking and thinking about photography constantly and collaborate with artist and agency's all over the u.k to the widest audience possible. From what i can gather the this opens its self to a much broader spectrum by not just keeping itself down to a few genres but to all genres of photography. By being a member of this site/agency i think it would play a vital role in getting my work out to the masses.
Aperture - http://www.aperture.org/
This website is brilliant non profit foundation photography community and there main function is to be a multiplatform publisher which means that they will publish prints, online gallery's, exhibition spaces. They sell books from classical to emerging contemporary photographers, they also do books on the best photography writers past and present. This site would in many ways help me the photographer by self promotion, research, inspiration, archive content and monographs to help with case studies on other photographers. This site is also good at giving you exhibition information on were they are being held and times etc... which is good for me furthering my research in person. Its also gives me reviews on the photo books which would help give you more of an insight into the production of a particular book. Some of the photographers who are members of aperture are very re known and represented by aperture which is a great lead for research.
Exit Magazine http://www.exitmagazine.co.uk/news/
Exit magazine is a brilliant source for research, which is not just photography based there is film, fashion, music travel etc not just photography. Every photography exhibition on there has a link to gallery websites pages were i can find the information about that photographer, when the exhibitions are being held, the dates and previous exhibitions that have been held in that gallery.It is good way of researching in to a photographer or a certain project a photographer has done which can relate to my research proposal. Its also good for when im stuck for inspiration and need something to get my brain juices flowing then this site can help with that. I also think this website is brilliant for finding out when some of the best exhibitions in the world are being held and links to there websites.
In this section i have to look at three photographers and consider how all the above research methods apply to a particular project.
Thinking Task
We were told as part of a thinking exercise to photograph the alphabet and spell our name out at the end of it, so here is my name photographically.
if you right click on the link above and select the link it will take you on to my research presentation
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Research Proposal
Essay
Aims
My aim is to
do an 8-10 week project of portraits of people in their cars but I want to be
able to express that their car and belongings around them reflect their
personality for example if they have cd’s hanging around or cuddly toys or even
by their choice of car from the colour, shape, style, attitude of the car or
even the person, is the car clean or dirty? Any signs of what there hobbies are
or even their jobs? All these above will be important key elements in reading
that persons personality through their car and them.
Objectives
I will go
about doing this by going out to different areas around the country and the
reason for this is I want to mix the personalities up a bit by capturing the
surfer dude, or the city man/women who do business or the farmer with the
wellie’s in the foot well. I will do
this by approaching people who are near their cars or look like interesting
people to photograph with release forms in hand and ask people politely if I
could photograph them in their car. And when I do this I want to also have a
Dictaphone and ask them a few questions about themselves (explained in
audience) each time i photograph someone the questions will be different. I
will have these images in an exhibition which will be explained in audience
Rational
My initial
idea is to create a series of images that reflect a person’s personality
through their cars and their belongings in the car although I do want the
owners to be in the car. I want to do this due to wanting to express how
sometimes in the right context you can read a person’s personality through a
photograph and a couple of words. Having recently been part of trying to find
my mother in law a car, she new she wanted a mini cooper and took her endless
viewing’s before she eventually found the right one, there was usually
something she didn’t like about for example that it wasn’t leather or the right
colour or even if it had a sun roof or not, all these are the smaller details
that are important when finding the right car that’s suitable to your
personality. And then it got me thinking about a video clip I was shown in
class one day by Martin Parr called a to b tales of modern motoring which sort
of linked in with my idea except he did video’s of people in their cars making
journeys and them sharing their thoughts as they drove, he also did a book on
the same subject which I have ordered but it still hasn’t arrived. I also have
a book called stars cars and infamy which I thought linked in quite well with
my project apart from my subjects are not famous people but links through the
choice of cars these stars although the book isn’t a serious of images, its
images gathered over time and placed into one book. And I would try and get
funding from a well known website kickstarter, the website works by the artist
proposing a project and if the person reading it likes the idea they will give
you a donation towards the subject, I also think market research company’s
could possibly be interested for research for car manufacturer’s.
Funding
For this
project I will pledge my idea on kickstarter for £2000, a funding platform for
creative people were if people like your idea they will donate a small amount
of money to see the project go through. And possibly offering portrait shots at
a reduced rate so that I can raise the money for this project, and another
possibility would be to approach the event and club organisers of the car shows
to see if they could possibly sponsor my project as a possible way of getting
funding. I will spilt the money up in to
£500 for travel costs around the country and £500 for print costs and £500 for
exhibition costs and another £500 for miscellaneous.
Approach & Methodology
The way in which I will approach this project
will be by raising the money to fund this project through Kickstarter a funding
platform for creative projects. I will then travel to various locations around
the country and approach people ask them if they drive and if so could I please
photograph them in their car. I will have each person sign a license to use
form and a model release form so I can use these images for public consumption
and covers my back legally. I will use my canon 7d as my chosen format to shoot
these photographs. I don’t want every image taken from the same angle I want to
mix it up a bit and have images taken through the sun roof or from sat in the
back or through the window, each one will be different in that respect, I think
my 18-55 will be the choice lens to use here as I have from quite a wide angle
to zoom were I think both will come in useful for this set of images. All the
images I create for the exhibition will be in colour. After I have photographed
each person I will use a Dictaphone and ask each person a little about there
selves without disclosing there name. After I have done that I will get them to
give me their address so I can send them an invitation for the exhibitions that
will be being held.
Audience
For these
set of images I want them placed in the right context and I think this will be
at car shows like Good Wood, Silverstone and Santa Pod, my reasoning for this
is I want to reach the widest audience possible and I think by doing it this
way my images are around car fanatics otherwise they wouldn’t be at these
shows, who are like minded people and have common interests in cars and people.
I will have the exhibition held in one of those tents that you tend to see a
lot at these shows with 50 images on show, also in the background to will have
an audio playing of the people I have photographed so when a viewer comes they
have to match up the images to the voice and see if they can match to the
personalities I have photographed, just so the viewer get be involved somehow
if they want to be ( this will be optional) or just to enjoy the images
aesthetically.
Review of literature
As part of my research I looked in to 2
different sources of inspiration that had a similar vain to it than mine which
was stars, cars and infamy which is a book had gathered a collection of images
over time of famous people with their cars and each image had a piece of text
about that photograph. Which I thought was on a similar vain to mine. Also I
looked at some video clips on you tube by Martin Parr which I also thought was
on a similar vain to my project, the only thing different is his subject is
based on the thoughts of modern motorist whist on a journey which he also did a
book about.
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Ethics & Issues
To avoid any
issues when I approach people to photograph I will explain in full detail what
my intentions are in this project so there will be no misunderstandings and
this is just for a creative exhibition and if they agree I will get them to
sign a model release form and a license to use form, which I will then give
them a copy of. I will tell them how im going to portray the images and that
the images are going to be honest so that I can get a real sense of that
person’s personality.
Projected Time Allocation
For this
project I will have a 8-10 week period to create this project, I will have 4
weeks were I will go to various locations around the country and gather my
images I will then need 2 weeks for post production making sure every image I
want to exhibit are as I want them to be, then I will have two weeks to get my
images printed at a professional printing company ready for the exhibitions in
the summer at the car shows that I talked about above.
References
martin parr
from a to b tales of modern motoring - YouTube. 2013. martin parr from a to b
tales of modern motoring - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=martin+parr+from+a+to+b+tales+of+modern+motoring+&oq=martin+parr+from+a+to+b+tales+of+modern+motoring+&gs_l=youtube.12...125847.125847.0.126842.1.1.0.0.0.0.78.78.1.1.0...0.0...1ac.2.11.youtube.qyPDnrxcau8.
[Accessed 13 May 2013].
Buckley, mb,
2003. stars, cars & infamy. 1st ed. USA: MBI publishing company.
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