This is the last week of my first module Positions and Practice, so I take it as a good opportunity to reflect on how I have progressed during that time. The reason why I wanted to study MA was to develop intellectually, learn to think outside of box and be more critical about my own work. For the last couple of years I have been producing an incredible amount of photographs without thinking what I was doing and why. I did not have a concept or give my work a second thought. I would not consider it an issue until my online tutor asked me what is the purpose of my work. I was not able to answer the question. She also mentioned that regardless of how beautiful the photos are, without a meaning there is less value to them. I thought; I am not interested in passing any message to the world I just want to create beautiful work pleasant to look at. What I have learned: As time went on I began to understand what she meant. It is worthwhile to develop an understanding of own work, the concept and aim of it. I believe that having a clear idea will help the photographer become less ‚messy‘ , more focused and produce a better quality work. When it matters people are prepared to concentrate harder when receiving it. When it does not matter photography always stays trivial. Hodgson, 2012 How I have progressed: I started to realise that I was a photo consumer; I would consume hundreds of photos daily on social media without stopping and thinking about them. So I began to scrutinise other practitioners and their work (not just) in relation to my own photography. By learning how to look and being able to identify why certain photographs draw your attention (and why some do not), you learn about yourself, which is beneficial for moving forward in your practice. We need to estabilish some kind of shared vocabulary in which to describe quality. Some kind of recognition for things which matter. Hodgson, 2012 I needed to clarify to myself what I actually wanted to achieve with my work. For now, I have decided that I would like the viewer to see the ways how I perceive the human body. I came up with a project called Naked Forms which demonstrates different perceptions of the body in nude photography. Putting more thought in what I was doing made me come up with new ideas that could enrich my practice and project. Besides body as a whole I also started focusing on ambiguous body details, portraits depicting the subject’s personality and objects in the world having similar visual patterns as some body parts. What next: I have certainly come out my comfort zone by experimenting with those new concepts/themes and trying to deliver the photographs to a deadline. I am happy to discover that my subject matter can be much more than just a naked body. Now I want to stick to my project’s plan and keep photographing all the themes accordingly throughout the year (and longer). Besides shooting, I want to keep educating myself – improve my technical knowledge and develop further my level of criticality.
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