Lucy Martyn

FINAL PROJECT EVALUATION

Overall, I am really happy with the progression of my project. I think my project has developed and
changed into something I did not really expect but I think the outcome and final ideas were very
effective. I think the second half of the project is a lot better in term of the work I was producing and
my ideas, mainly due to the fact that I had done more detailed research into photography theorists
and photographers which helped me to created and further develop my ideas. The initial title for my
project was Broken, I chose to base my project around this theme as it was very vague and I thought
this would allow me to be free in the work I would be able to produce. In previous projects I have
streamlined my work very quickly due to choosing a limited theme. I thought by choosing a more
open-ended theme, I would be able to explore a range of different ideas.

initially in my project I looked into the work of photographers such as Aaron Siskind and Christian
Richter as I wanted to initially explore the idea of things that were physically broken and I wanted to
look at how I could maybe work with this. Richter’s work focuses on building that have been
damaged and broken due to manmade disaster, for to explore this work, I photographed broken
aspects of a broken and abandoned building. We then looked at the concept of real and unreal and I
worked with the idea of a broken mirror and how the reflection I the mirror is the aspect of the
image that is broken, I then went on to develop this idea slightly. After the Regatta shoots is when I
started to streamline my project. In my formal essay I wrote I looked at the idea of photography
being a truthful means of communication and how effective photography is as a means of
communication. Within this essay I looked into the work of Susan Sontag and her theory of Plato’s
cave. After reviewing my work, I felt that it lacked a lot of structure and meaning, and I did not feel
like I was really getting anywhere with the work I was producing. After further review and discussion,
I decided to streamline my project on Susan Sontag’s theory of Plato’s cave and the idea that
photographs are a small fragment of the truth.

Although my project had changed to limited perspective it still links to the theme of broken to a
degree. From this point is when I think my project started to gain in meaning and I started to create
more effective work. I think the was definitely due to the added structure and the fact that I had
done research into Sontag’s theory and had a better idea of photography and how it is
communicated to the audience. I think this was really helpful and helped to enhance and better my
project and work. From here I started to look at different ways in which I could create and portray
limited perspective, I looked at using post production techniques such as burning images and
painting over images as well as used black and white film to limit perspective. I think another factor
that really helped was doing research booklet and further research into my chosen photographers
when doing artist research. O feel like this really helped me to think more about my work and the
way in which I work and in which photographers work and their influences. This is defiantly
something I want to do more of in future projects.

The most influential photographers I looked at within my work were Duane Michals and Uta Barth. I
think their work really helped me and influenced a lot of my work. although they work in very
different styles and work on creating and communicating very different things, they both use
techniques that link and work very well with the idea of limited perspective. Duane Michals uses
ambiguous text to create a sense of uncertainly. His narrative work forces the audience to create
their own meanings and opinions on his work, the narrative is very loose and therefore does not
reveal a lot of information into the meaning. I think this is very intresting and links to Sontag’s theory
well. The idea that a photograph has a specific message that was curated by the
photographer/artist. As audience member we do not know why the photographer is producing that
work and we don’t know the actual meaning behind Barth’s work is very different, a lot of her work
focuses on blur and creating a sense of nostalgia, which is something I looked at a lot within my work
to limit the images and what is visible to the audience. This work was very influential in my project,
especially in my final piece work as I used these techniques to create and further limit my work.

I think the most effective idea in my project was the idea of the mini sketchbook, this is the idea that
I then went on to further develop to create my final piece. I think this idea was a really intresting
approach to Sontag’s idea of limited perspective and I think that this idea worked really well. I think I
developed this well and the final outcome of this was effective. I feel that all elements of this fit well
with limited perspective and the work I was looking at creating.

Overall I am very happy with the progression and development of my project, although I was happy
with the work at the start of my project, I feel like the most effective work I produced was the work
in the second half of my project. I feel adding structure by looking and further researching Susan
Sontag really helped and helped me to produce more effective and meaningful work. The lack of
structure is something I have found difficult in the past, I think further research into other media and
photographers is very helpful to me especially as it makes me think about my work on a much
deeper level and how I can improve and further develop my work. I think this also really impacted
my final piece and made my final piece more effective. I feel doing the research really helped me
move forward and progress with my project. I am very happy with what I was able to produce and I
am happy with the outcome of my project. I think there is a lot that did not work and things that
were unsuccessful and less effective, like the shoots and work at the beginning of the project. I also
think there was a lot that needed further development and work, but I think there were a lot of
successful thing within this project and things that worked really well. I am happy with what I have
achieved.