This year didn’t have the ended I thought it would however it has been overall a very good experience. From moving 2 and a half hours away from home and starting at Leeds art university it has all come with its different challenges and I hope I have overcome them all okay! At the beginning of the year my plan was to try and push myself when producing work and not become shy when showing my work which I definitely have been in the past. I think I have definitely achieved this and learnt that all feedback is good even if it’s bad. One of the reasons I am having more confidence is because when I put a shoot up on my Instagram of some disposables I took at gig and the band ended up offering me a photographer pass to their next gig. This has shown me to be more confident with putting my work out there. Something I found very interesting was learning new skills which included using the studio and the equipment properly and also the film cameras and developing my images in the darkrooms. One of the highlights of my year was the start of the year when we went to Featherston castle as it was a very good opportunity to get to know everyone and bond with them. Also was an amazing experience to shoot in. this module has been one that I have really enjoyed as I feel like I have learnt a lot about the industry and has helped me prepare for the future. I really enjoyed the Getty task as I found it very creative and free. I found the actual writing side of the blogs the hardest part of the module because I don’t natural have a good way of saying or writing words however, I think that by doing this it definitely helped with that a lot. I’d like to improve my photography by finding my style and become more specific when taking photos. I realise this will take time so I won’t rush the process but will definitely think about it a lot in level 5. I am very excited to be more creative in level five and overcome new challenges.

Even thought I have been to the open eye gallery it was a very different experience to see it virtually and the work that was presented in it was really amazing and was sad it could not been seen by real eyes. I am going to talk about a few particular images that really stuck out to me.

These were taken by Ren Hang in 2014, what really stuck out to me was the colours of the lily pads and how much of a vibrant turquoise they are. I think this contrasting with the blackness of the water works really well and then to have the face as the brightest feature means my eyes were drawn to the subject first. Another image of Rens that I want to talk about is the one below this. I think it works really well as it tricks the eye. This one however reminds me more of a makeup or fashion shoot which I am very drawn too, again with the colours it ties it in beautiful with the other images she has taken and together they are a strong collection because of this link .

I decided to pick my camera up and just walk round the house to see if I could find anything interesting that I have never taken a photo of, this isn’t really my style but that these strange times I think it was a perfect opportunity to try something new. These are my images with reasonings behind them!

This photos was actually in the middle of another photo shoot however in the other one I used a model (my sister) however I thought just the backdrop and the chair were very interesting colours together and I don’t thing it needed a model sitting on it.

During quarantine I’ve been trying to stay fit but also going outside also is helping me mentally, I have been leaning towards just hitting tennis balls with my family just to get ourselves moving, as you can see we don’t keep the rackets neatly as they’re in use so often so I think this image really portrays how much we are doing it.

At the start of quarantine I put some daffodils in my room to brighten it up however I just let them to die and have yet to take them outside. In a way I think this photo is a good example of most peoples mood at this difficult time where everyone is locked in which is obviously not going to be good for anyone’s mental health.

I think during this time we have all had time to think and reflect and I think this image tells it very well as it is the chairs me and mum left outside from when we were having a chat which we have had many in the time just to help with each others mental health.

When taking this image I noticed the beautiful light coming from behind my curtain.

• 

• 

I was playing round with my bulb light and looking at the reflections (especially in the second one) of the window looking at natural light and artificial light. I enjoyed playing around with the camera settings with these.

I have been feeling very uninspired during lockdown and had a very hard time feeling creative for about a month. However after being stuck in my house for 5weeks at this point I decided to create a fun fashion shoot with my sister as I have no one else to model for me. She is obviously not a professional model so one of the issues I had to overcome was to direct her. I wanted the shoot to be very simple so I got her to wear black clothes and I was shooting against the blue sky and a hung up white sheet. The sun was very bright so I had the intention of creating big contrasts and turning the images black and white. Overall I was not that happy with the outcomes however I now believe it’s a start for me to get back into being creative as I had lost all motivation.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic we are not in university at the moment so are missing out on such things like talks from photographers that the university normally organised for us. However, we were very lucky to have David Brandon Geeting to do presentation to us all the way from New York via google classroom, this was an amazing opportunity to listen to someone who has been commissioned by many amazing people and brands such as vogue and Nike.

One of the things he talked to us about was how he’s been keeping busy in quarantine and how he’s stayed creative. He wanted to look at beauty in the mundane through still life projects of just random objects experimenting with things such as compositions. Some of the images were really intriguing and I was surprised at the fact they were taken in his home. For example one I was really interested in was a portrait he took but it was the image off the tv however with the plants in the foreground it looks like he was really there but zooming in loads.

He also takes to us about his books that he’s published, the one that stood out to me was the book called amusement park, this book included images that were colourful, loud, movement but as you grow older you become aware of the gross nature of them. This books mixes between fun and strange like amusement parks. The one that really stuck out to me was the landscape image of the beach and it had toothpaste over the top like a trail leading under the rocks. I just like the strangeness and questions that go through my mind when I look at it.

Lastly he talked to us about his commissions and one that I was really interested in was his commission by Nike as it was using his style but with Nike shoes which for him was different but made sure his style was still visible. It made me think that I am itching to find my style so I can do this in the future too.

The Costume Institute’s spring 2017 exhibition examines the work of fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, known for her avant-garde designs and ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability. The thematic show features approximately 140 examples of Kawakubo’s womenswear for Comme des Garçons dating from the early 1980s to her most recent collection, many with heads and wigs created and styled by Julien d’Ys.

The website aloud me to see the different parts of the exhibition and the clothes to match which were all themed, then there was some photography which was the part I was most interested in. Following are some images I particularly liked.

Overall I think this is my favourite image from this exhibition due to all the small features coming together. For example, the make up is very bland and understated so draws the viewers eyes to the fashion, the background coordinates really well without over powering the clothes. I think this is a very powerful image judging by their faces and also the outfit which is match with combat boots.

I like this image partly because of the outfit and the masculine side of it and how it’s modelled by a women however my favourite part is the shadows, I think they work because the outfit creases a lot showing shadows but also has lots of tones of grey in so therefore the shadows on the backdrop relate to the outfit.

This is a very interesting image and I have been wondering how it has been done. I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a double exposure rather than been edited to look like this. I think the red hair really stands out and makes it a very bold photo and also the background does this too because of the texture.

Overall, I appreciate that places are doing online exhibitions because I believe that the arts should not be taken away from us at this point in time and if anything are more important than before.

During our time at university we got taken on a tour of all the creative spaces that Leeds had to offer. We started off the tour by going into the Parkinson’s building on uni of Leeds campus where there were two art galleries. Normally these aren’t the type of galleries I am drawn to however I was nice to look at art I wouldn’t normally look at. The galleries were called The Stanley and Audrey Burton gallery. The other was called the library gallery. There was one piece of work I was drawn to which was images taken of a baby’s hand in different compositions by Mary Kelly. It was part of a project that she did on post-partum relationships.

The second place we went was village book shop. I was very inspired by village as I saw it as a good starting pace if I were to ever want to produce and print a book as they made it clear that they stock books even if you’re a up and coming artist. Also, they have a small exhibition space upstairs which anyone can book out to have work shown and often have open evenings there.

Next we went to surf, it was an ex Leeds art student’s studio where he explained that he and many other creatives work in this rented space. They then turn half of it into an exhibition space for them or others to show their work. Standing in such a creative space really gave me a push to make me more creative as this is a space that I could see myself working in in the future.

The last place we visited was colours may vary which was linked with a café so had much attraction and had a very nice exhibition space to show work however it was more to sell work so therefore being an inexperienced student this is something id look to do after uni.

• 

• 

For the Getty trends task we got set, I was in a group with 2 other girls and we chose the theme clean slate, one of the reasons I wanted to do this one was because I saw it as a good opportunity to do fashion photography which is one of my passions, I thought of the idea of doing a pink themed fashion shoot where the model is wearing everything pink but also shooting with a pink backdrop. We as a group created a mood bored to inspire us more:

Then we decided on our model and outfits we booked the studio out too do our shoot, overall I think it’s a strong set of photos and relate back to our main aim of doing pink on pink, one thing I think we could have improved is made the backdrop brighter as in our photos it does look a little dull which when it came to post production I tried to make it brighter.

One area of photography that I want to explore more of is music and concert photography, this is because I have a massive passion for music and try and attend as many live shows as I can. I recently went to a gig at the o2 academy in Leeds where I watched the Sherlock’s, due to not having a photographers pass I could only bring a small disposable camera with me to take photos. I managed to get to the front in order to try and take photos of the band but also the crowd to show how amazing the atmosphere was. It was an amazing experience being in the crowd but also taking photos! The next day I got them developed and I’m incredibly happy with the results of them!

After putting these images on my photography instagram, the band reached out to me and praised my work and said they thought they were great. They then went on to offer me a photographers pass for a future show if I wanted it: I obviously accepted and I’m in the middle of trying to organise a time when I can go and photography them! This is a very big achievement for me and has made me so much more confident about showing my work!

Miniclick curates free talks and discussions, hosts participatory events, workshops and exhibitions and publishes affordable photography books and ‘zines with the remit of being open and accessible to all, experimenting with different ways of looking at images and focusing on stories and ideas instead of kit and cameras.

I recently went to a miniclick talk which was held in Leeds and the Brunswick Pub. Here is where I listened to both Thomas Duffield and Simon Weldon talk about their work which both centred around family and connections.

Simon’s work was centred around his relationship with his dad but also his dads relationship with alcohol and how that affected his family, unfortunately his father passed away mid project however Simon found ways to still include him and their relationship in his photos, below are a couple of my favourite images from his project.

Thomas Duffields work was more obvious at showing a relationship in the family, his project included both him and his grandfather. I loved his ascetics of his images and looked really good as a collection of images, one of my favourites was one where two images were side by side and they swapped clothes and even who was holding the trigger.