How do I use research?

Good research is essential for your A-Level/Level 3 work as it incorporates many of the elements that you're assessed against...

Your ability to record relevant data/information
  "                "    summarise information
  "                "    synthesise information
  "                "   make observations relevant to your intentions

It's also a skill you'll need to take forwards into employment and university, so, if you can come to grips with it now and develop the basic skills at this level it'll set you up for the future. The university point is especially relevant because when you go for your interview at Uni with your portfolio, they'll be looking at your work to see if you've engaged with this aspect of the course. Your research will be reflected in the kind of final outcomes you produce, so if you've accessed diverse and good quality research material and your work is obviously inspired by a range of different approaches and not simply Flickr, it will demonstrate a deeper understanding of what photography is and its potential. It'll allow the interview panel to ask questions such as 'Who is this work inspired by'? And you'll be able to come up with a coherent answer that'll show them your time on your A-Level was spent studying.

Using research...

The most obvious way of using research is by direct association with the theme. Again using the idea your project is about dogs as an example, you should search through journals and books constantly always keeping an eye out for images or articles on dogs for possible use in conjunction with your work. If that's not an option or you've done that and drawn a blank, you might then search my list of photographers and found a few photographers that use dogs as a theme within their work. That's a direct approach and for the most part that should give you enough info to work with, but there is another way that might be useful, especially if you're photographing a theme that is obscure.

Indirect association research...

Keeping with the dog theme... you might have found some direct research either from my list or better still from a journal that you've decided to use. But, because you were using journals you also accessed so much more photography by the process or perusing the magazines and journals and in between looking for the dogs a number of other photographers caught your eye simply because of the way their images looked. For instance you may have seen the work of Don McCullin...

 

 Whilst this has nothing to do with the dogs project directly, it still may be worthy of a place amongst your research. You may have stopped at this image in the magazine simply because of the starkness and the mood evoked by a number of visual language elements within the image? Having looked at some of the specific dog research material, you may have got lots of ideas and were able to analyse the work of the photographers. But, you can do the same with indirect subject matter such as McCullins image here...

 

"Looking through the BJP's for dog photographers, I came across the work of Don McCullin. Whilst it doesn't feature dogs, I love the way that he produces these images and the stark effect he produces in his prints and it might be something I could consider incorporating into my own dog images? My dog project to some extent might explore the more menacing aspects of dog ownership and the relationships people have with their dogs and therefore this approach here that McCullin uses might offer a way in which I can evoke more negative connotations through the use of visual language".

 

As a student you could then (as advised) produce a high quality image of McCullins and then go through the process of deconstructing it and analysing it using the prompts on the Visual Language Analysis page add a few more smaller images to support your observations relevant to your intentions. Have a look at the interviews on Youtube, listen to what he says about his photography, look at the transcriptions of any interviews that are published on the internet (Search Google using "Don McCullin + Interview"), he's virtually guaranteed to say something about why he takes pictures that has some resonance with what you're doing - use some of this as quotes within your research ensuring you record the source in your bibliography.

 

Then towards the end, when you've identified that you've established as much info as you need to on McCullin, bring it back to your dogs (Or your theme) and reiterate the connection and how you're going to use aspects of McCullins practice in conjunction with your own work.

 

Other aspects that might drive your work forwards towards that A-Grade is the fact that through your research you might identify that for the most part his work is recognised for his war photography. You might discover that he uses a particular type of film... That then might lead you to conclude...

 

"Having looked at McCullins work in more depth, I understand that it's all shot on 35mm cameras much like the Pentax K1000's we use here at college. I've been inspired by this work and it's made me want to try and shoot my project in this way using film. Having spoken to our lecturers they say one of the most popular choices of film for this kind of approach is Kodak Tri-X Pan, so I'm going to try that out and see if I can get this affect..."

 

Which means your research (As intended) now gets you to start experimenting with new and exciting approaches to producing images - picking up on increasing amounts of learning outcomes as you go!

 

 

 



Section 21 - Your first shoot (Getting Started).

It is absolutely essential that you get your first set of images shot within a matter of days in some instances and certainly in the first week with the longer projects! Again we have to reiterate this becomes so much more manageable if you've been doing on-going research in your own time independently.

All art work is the product of a process of development of skills, techniques and the idea. Your project needs to show the development of these aspects over the period of the brief and this done by producing at least three shoots where the work improves and becomes more coherent as an idea and as a set of images. 

It therefore follows that your first shoot can be virtually anything as long as it is linked to your work. So in the example I've been using any images of shoes would do, as long as you're exploring some aspect of what you're going to do. The first shoot might just be exploring what angle you want to shoot the shoes from - a side view, the under-side, the top-side, whether you're going to have a single shoe or the pair. At the same time you could test the light that you might use and a range of lenses to see what works best. All of this is a part of the development process.

At this stage, digital works well just to get pictures in your books/folders and demonstrates that you've made a start and enables your lecturers to give you feedback and discuss what you're doing. More importantly though, it's through this process of doing 'Test shoots' that you'll get some sense of the challenges that you may face in getting the project to the next stage.

Once you've shot the images, these need to be put in your book. Ideally you would produce a contact sheet with all the images on and handful of images 4 or 6 perhaps - approx 5" x 7" in size. You will then have to annotate the images with observations you've made about the process so far.

At this point you will need to do your first reflective written piece using the Gibbs Reflective Practice model.

Section 4 - Research

http://www.listofphotographers.blogspot.co.uk/

Here's some ideas on the theme of your research...

Research (Also check out this newer link on research here)

Right from the very outset we will be advising you to look at contemporary and historical photographers primarily exploring their ideas and reasons for shooting their images in the manner that they do. We strongly advise that you do not use the Internet as your starting point, as this tends to produce superficial and weak research material. The advised approach that we'll introduce you to, is to use Photographic Journals such as the BJP, allocating a little time each week to look at the new issues of each of the magazines and getting ideas together and gradually building a knowledge bank of contemporary and historical photographers and their work.

Using this approach you would be introducing yourself to a very broad range of photographic approaches and establishing a far greater depth and understanding of photography's potential. You should make notes and photo-copy interesting images and articles and get to grips with the language used and the ideas and concepts that are explored through photography.

We cannot stress how important it is to use the resources in the library (Journals, magazines and books). By virtue of being published in hard copy, the information in the articles is written by professional editors, writers, reviewers, academics and other artists and therefore of a much higher calibre. The nature of the articles in the magazines, books and journals tends to be far more concise and to the point, addressing all of the necessary components of your own research.

Your research should be conducted in two forms... (1) Initial Research (2) On-going Research.

(1). The initial research under-pins the project and should be the element your work is based on and around. We suggest that you explore 3 artists that connect with your idea and as part of that process you would ideally make a decision about your idea quickly connected with one or more of the artists/photographers you research. This part of your research has to be done at the start of your project and this is the reason we advise you to be continually looking at contemporary art photography throughout the course and building up a knowledge bank of sources to which you can turn to and use in conjunction with your work.

Throughout the duration of the course you're expected to experiment with your images using experimental in camera and post production techniques to enhance the meaning behind your images. One of the more difficult aspects of this is, the fusing together of your concept and the experimental approach. In order to increase your chances of being able to unite the idea and the experimental approach is to have a very wide appreciation of photographers that use these approaches and their techniques and how they use them together. This knowledge will only be gained through studying and researching contemporary art photography (The journals in the library) and seeing how and why they do it.

When you're looking at artists associated with your theme/approach the key things you need to identify are...

• What is their work about (Its meaning)
• How is the meaning conveyed in their images
• If they use experimental techniques/approaches within their - work how does this enhance the images
• Who are they influenced by - show how/why
• Is their work a part of a continuing tradition
• Where and how are their images used
• What influences you are going to draw from their work

Use one A4 'Key' image in full colour, as high quality as you can source. Annotate this image identifying the Visual Language used in the image. For each artist aim to write in excess of 300 words describing the above bullet pointed aspects. Add additional images (In colour) to illustrate any points that are important and use quotes from books and journals in addition to the 300 words.

 

Then compare and contrast the work of at least 2 of the artists that you research again looking to write another 300 words,

 

·         What is the idea/concept behind the artist/photographers work?

·         Read the articles and look at the images – what is the work about, see the list below describe how it links in with one of these or another and say why the artist or you think it’s important or interesting.

o   Self

o   Space/places

o   Time

o   Religion

o   Sex/gender

o   Society

o   Conflict/War

o   Family/Kinship

o   The mind/mental illness

o   Violence/crime

o   Disease

o   Politics

o   History

o   Nature/environment

o   Confusion

o   Escapism

·         What materials, techniques and processes are used and why?

·         How big is the work – scale and size, how might this affect the way that it’s perceived?

·         Over what period was the work made – is this relevant?

·         Where are these images seen and used – how are they used – what’s their purpose?

·         Who or what is the work influenced by?

·         What’s been said about the work by art critics, curators, reviewers and other artists?

·         Is the meaning behind the work “Obvious”  or “Ambiguous”?

·         Have you been able to grasp the meaning behind the work – what do you think about it?

·         What have you taken from the research and applied to your own work (Idea/Concept or Practical/visual) elements?


 If you're struggling with ideas/concept based photography, have a look at this video as it may help... (Photography as contemporary art)

Once you've made a start on the research and you've looked at some contemporary photographers and their work that has some link with your initial idea. You need to now outline a plan - what you're going to do next...