Assessment Submission

 

 

 

As the picture shows, I'm there - everything ready to go.  I am not intending to close off with any lengthy reflection; there's enough of that at various stages in the blog anyway.  Plus, I'm already getting heavily into 'Reflection' as I start my Level Three module, blogged here Body of Work.  It has been quite a lengthy journey - partly interrupted with OCASA duties - and it is nearly two years since I started this module.  To be fair to myself, the early part overlapped with completing People & Place for Assessment, and I really finished this course round October, but had no chance of getting it ready for November Assessment.

 

 

I will put on record my belief that I have progressed enormously over that period of time - so hopefully lived up to the title of the module!  The reading I've done; the exhibitions and photobooks I've looked at; the work on my revised Assignment One; the research for Assignment Four; the work for Assignment Five; all that has, I think, prepared me well for the next step.  Enormous thanks to Jesse for his support and encouragement; he has allowed me to explore 'off-piste' and has even encouraged my subversive tendencies, so I am hugely grateful for that.  Thanks also to fellow students who have looked at, and commented on, my work here and on the OCA Flickr forum; and from whom I've also learned by looking at their work and by getting into discussion with them - usually virtually, but thankfully, these days, face to face on occasions.

 

This work goes to OCA for assessment in a few weeks time & that will be my last post here until I have my results.  I'll reflect on that and feedback here, when I know the outcome, whatever it might be.

Assignment Five - Prints for Assessment Submission

I have to admit that I've made a bit of a meal of the decision-making process about how to get this assignment printed.  As recorded before, I've felt that my own inkjet prints on archival matte paper produced the sharpest contrast and avoided issues with a reflective surface.  However, I have been keen to print to quite a large size, and have wholeheartedly accepted my tutor's recommendation to mount on card.  I was convinced that I could do my own spray-mounting, but despite a successful one-off experiment, subsequent efforts have not come up to the standard I would be looking for at Assessment.  The sorts of problems encountered included curling of the card due to different reactions as the adhesive dried and issues with getting a really neat final trim.  I might have eventually succeeded, with even more 'pain', time and expense (and I've managed with the Assignment One A4 prints), but I eventually decided to give in gracefully.  Getting professional, mounted inkjets at the size I wanted was going to prove hugely expensive, so I have eventually gone back to Peak Imaging's C-prints on their matte paper, which has meant accepting some surface reflection but I have managed to counter my contrast concerns with some further 'tweaking' of the file.  It hasn't been cheap but at least I'm now happy with the outcome.  They're printed at 30cm by 45cm, without borders (for the reason discussed before but perhaps worth repeating - there are 'borders' in a number of the images that appear in my assemblies & so printing with yet another border begins to look odd).

So - Assignment Five well and truly completed - it's been a fascinating process from which I've learned a very great deal.

Assignment One - Final Prints for Submission

Time to round off things with some final blog posts in here.  Firstly, I want to record the direction I've chosen to take with the Assessment submission for Assignment One.  As discussed with Jesse, I am going with six images from the 'Tied' project and I am submitting A4 prints that I've produced myself.  I've also mounted them on card myself - using spray-mounting.  As will become clear, I've gone through all sorts of twists and turns for my Assignment Five submission, and eventually gone for professional prints.  That has partly influenced my decision on this assignment.  I kind of feel that it is good, at some stage in the submission for Assessment, to demonstrate what I can do printing myself.  Spray-mounting has proved reasonably manageable for A4 prints, so I'm happy with this outcome.