- Research into image analysis and essay structure
- Research into my chosen image
- Research on the planning and writing of an essay at first year undergraduate level.
Research into image analysis and essay structure
In order to keep this post fairly concise, I have written separately on this topic and my thoughts can be found here. I also found the following books useful with regards to thinking about image analysis:
- ‘Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography’ by Roland Barthes (1982) London: Jonathan Cape
- ‘Context and Narrative’ by Maria Short (2011) Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA
- ‘Reading Photographs: An Introduction to the Theory and Meaning of Images’ by Richard Salkeld (2014) London: Bloomsbury Publishing plc
- ‘Semiotics: the basics’ (2nd ed.) by Daniel Chandler (2007) Abingdon: Routledge
Research into my chosen image
I began by carrying out an initial analysis of the image based on parts of a checklist provided by OCA in the Level Two photography course ‘Progressing with Digital Photography’ (Freeman, 2011) as a basic structure in order to look objectively at the photograph. This analysis can be read here.
Looking deeper into the image, my research material mainly came from books and the internet and these have been listed either as direct references or in my bibliography. I was very conscious from the beginning of the importance of using reputable sources and was pleased to find Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century written by Peter Galassi in the library. Galassi is the former Chief Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and organised exhibitions with Cartier-Bresson for MoMA in 1987 and 2010 so I was comfortable with his credentials. Indeed this book became the central point of my research.
It was serendipitous to be able to view Juvisy first-hand at the A Decisive Collection exhibition of Cartier-Bresson’s work held at Beetles + Huxley gallery in London in March. Physically seeing the print made me much more aware of its quality, its details and tones and I was able to stand back both physically and metaphorically from it and consider it in conjunction with the earlier research that I had gathered. I found it also helpful to view it in context alongside Cartier-Bresson’s other work.
I soon discovered that Juvisy had a lot of substance and scope for my critical review and found that my research spiralled off into different areas, from leisure to politics, from paintings to picnics. Whilst much of this research was not included in my essay due to the word-count limitation, I feel that it has benefited me both with regard to this assignment as well as for my studies beyond so I will record it, albeit in note form, in a separate post on my blog.
Research on the planning and writing of an essay at first year undergraduate level
Whilst I am used to writing reports and papers, albeit in purely factual form, as part of my job, I soon realised that both preparing a critical essay and writing it to the required standard was not going to be as easy as I initially thought it might be. I very quickly found that I was creating a growing heap of notes detailing my research which if I could see could end up out of control if I was not careful and be difficult to collate. I therefore decided to stop work on the assignment for a week and get organised. I borrowed an arts study guide from the library which helped a great deal, both with making/collating notes and managing the writing process as well as with the art of essay writing. Although this did delay my assignment submission, this additional learning has been extremely worthwhile and I consider it to be time well spent both for this assignment and for my future studies.
The course notes suggested that we read Singular Images: Essays on Remarkable Photographs (Howarth, 2005) as a guide to the level of critical analysis that is expected by the assessors and I found this to be useful as to the style of writing to adopt, even if the book is rather difficult to get hold of (I ended up with various chapters downloaded from the internet as well as a couple kindly provided by a fellow student).
Another suggested read from the course notes which proved useful was an article on essay writing published online by the University for the Creative Arts (UCA, n.d.) which covers aspects from developing your research area through to presentation and format.
References:
Barthes, R. (1982) Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography. London: Jonathan Cape
Chambers, E and Northedge, A. (2008 ) The Arts Good Study Guide (2nd ed.) Milton Keynes: The Open University
Chandler, D. (2007) Semiotics: the basics (2nd ed.) Abingdon: Routledge
Freeman, M. (2011) Photography 2: Progressing with Digital Photography
Galassi, P. (2010) Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Howarth, S. (ed.) (2005) Singular Images: Essays on Remarkable Photographs. London: Tate Publishing
Salkeld, R. (2014) Reading Photographs: An Introduction to the Theory and Meaning of Images London: Bloomsbury Publishing plc
Short, M. (2011) Context and Narrative. Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA
University for the Creative Arts (n.d.) Essay Writing [online]. Available from http://community.ucreative.ac.uk/index.cfm?articleid=12239 [accessed 13 April 2015]
Context and Narrative 