Open College of the Arts

Tutor report
Student name Colin Dearing Student number 512413
Course/Module TAOP Assignment number 5
Overall Comments
You have produced images that to some extent fulfill the brief however; there
are aspects of your submission that could have been improved upon. This is
the final assignment of the course and therefore it would have been expected
that you work evidenced greater creativity and contextual reflection. The
images could have expressed a more personal perspective and greater
observational skills of the event. Your images could have exampled alternative
compositions and viewpoints, expressing more of an individual reflection. Your
contextual input is also lacking. There is no real reflection accompanying your
images or expressing your influences and process. The learning log still
doesnt demonstrate your critical engagement of the course reading material
that has been mentioned in previous reports.
You must carefully consider how and what you submit for assessment. Your
submission should be professional and coherent and contain both knowledge
of context and practical skills. Therefore, it is vital that you consider the
weaknesses of your course work and amend and add content so that the work
fulfills the assessment criteria. Below are the brief points, look again at your
course documents for a more indepth explanation of the criteria.
These criteria include!
"#emonstration of technical and visual skills
"$uality of outcome
"#emonstration of creativity
"%ontext
Feedback on assignment
You have produced a set of images and applied these to a mock up maga&ine
as re'uired from the assignment brief. The topic is appropriate and provided
the potential to provide a narrative of a particular event. You have also chosen
the event so that you could record your daughters progress. You have
produced various images of the event and made a maga&ine template. Your
images document the event in a chronological order and all but a couple
concentrate upon the runners. The pro(ect feels like a pure record of the
event, which is fine however, at this point in your studies it would have been
good to have seen some alternative images. )ost of the images of the
runners are taken from the same viewpoint; it would have been great if you
had also provided some images that had varying compositions. *roducing a
maga&ine layout is all about keeping the audience interested via the flow of
the photographs. *hotographers and editors do this by (uxtaposing different
types of images.
+t feels that you should have at times got closer, considered the peripheral and
other possible sub(ects around the marathon. You have produced two images
that dont concentrate solely upon the runners, the banana and bottled water
shots. These show the potential of your observation skills although applying
better angles of view would have resulted in stronger shots. You could have
treated them as still lives and photographed them in more interesting ways
thus giving the story alternative viewpoints. The downfall of the pro(ect is
probably that you have concentrated and made the main focus your daughter.
This has resulted in images that do not really evidence great creativity,
creativity expected at this stage of your studies. ,ooking out for your daughter
appears to have been your main focus rather than applying a photographers
sense of aesthetic and curiosity to the event. -vents like these are so much
more about things that happen around the actual race, there are the behind
the scene events, the crowd, the policing of the event, the build up and of
course the emotion that can be seen on the runners faces. Therefore it would
have been fantastic if you had provided images that represented the event as
a whole rather than (ust the runners at various stages of the course.
The layout of the maga&ine also re'uires some further input. .lthough layout
and design is a specific skill and ones not necessarily expected from students
at this stage, it would have been good though to have considered this further.
/ust a little research into maga&ines, such as the weekend supplements
would have aided your design. The text and font si&e could have been
improved upon and the overall layout could have been further refined.
0eeping it minimal is perfectly fine and your touch of applying the route with
images is a really good idea, but overall it feels a little unrefined.
The images and layout do in some respects fulfill the brief however, it feels
like more effort and focus could have been applied. 1ith a little more creative
input and alternative images born out of greater commitment, you had the
ability to have really excelled in what is the final assignment of the course.
You have also neglected to supply any reflection upon the images and
process. .dding context and reflecting upon the work 2especially at
assignment 34 is a ma(or part of the process. 5aving the ability to analyse and
critically engage with our own work and that of others is a vital part of
understating photography and one that aids or personal progress.
Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays Context
You have neglected to offer any indepth analyse of your assignment.
6eflection upon the work and its process is re'uired and unfortunately you
havent supplied this. +t appears that you have added two further entries to
your learning log reviewing books you have read and 7understanding fstops.
+t would have been beneficial if you had made some attempt at reflecting upon
the course reading material that has been mentioned within your reports over
the course.
Tutor name! % %oekin
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