18th October: Niki in the Basement Studio.
Formative Assessment
We got together at 2pm and were prepared for a Formative Assessment where we had to go through the checklist of everything that we’d done already in the first few weeks of the new year.
Niki started with the 4FP018 module so that I could take part and then leave them for the module that I completed last year.
We discussed everything that we’d done and then we began talking of the Full Year Project.
A few of my course mates had strong ideas on what they wanted to do and I was intrigued by some of their ideas. When it came my turn I told Niki that I’d had a few ideas but that I was interested in something I’d seen on Sunday, Maurice Broomfield’s Industrial Sublime exhibition at the V&A in London.
The pictures on display there were amazingly put together in a skilled fashion and served a dual purpose for commercial companies and also as fine art. They really became something else when the factories and industrial heart of the UK started to be ripped down.
I wondered if it was something that I might be able to do, being heavily involved in the manufacturing sector and having access to a Factory at my workplace.
I’ll do some further research on this and also pick a couple more ideas from my generated list to investigate a bit more before starting the big journey.
Negative Work
Once we’d discussed the contents of our Sketchbooks, Journals, Seminar Notes, and Project notes I was able to grab the Colour Negatives from Noah and then go and set up in the Dark Room. After grabbing some paper and a Focus Finder I was able to pick one of my negatives to try and print.
I chose the negative of “Nails 4 U” that we took on the Nikon FM3 Camera two weeks prior. I set the filters on the enlarger to Y90,M90,C0 as a start to match with what we got the week before whilst doing the contact sheet.
I had some success with getting some test strips produced and after a few efforts to get a reasonable exposure I succeeded in getting a strip of an image that was acceptable. It’s not going to be a great image when the full print comes out but before I could get the full sheet of paper into the Easel it was time for us to pack up.
Now it’s time to take a look at the exhibitions available in the local area and also around the city of Liverpool for when we go on our trip on Friday.
An exhibition research post will follow soon, and also exhibition reviews of Chris Killips Retrospective at The Photographers Gallery, Maurice Broomfield’s Industrial Sublime at the V&A and possibly the TPG’s Alternative History Of Photography. Also following that will be a review of the Turner Prize exhibition in Liverpool along with any of the other exhibitions we find whilst we’re there.
Summary
Today I was expecting to go through all of my produce so far but it was really just a shorter session ot check in and make sure that we’re on track. I’m not alone in not having much in for the Full Year Project yet but there were also a couple of my peers who didn’t bring anything along with them.
The colour darkroom work was challenging again and I feel I need to take some decent negatives that I’ve made over the summer to actually pull out a print that I’m happy with. We’ll see what the project brings..
A Tuesday afternoon is tricky for me to get away from work and head over to Wolves for, but at the moment I’m able to do so with my manager’s consent and hopefully as time gets on I’ll be working more independently and won’t need to go in every Tuesday..
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