research and contextual studies presentation for A level photography

1. Personal Investigation

2. Personal investigation.
Aim: To conduct a sustained photographic project
based on a concept, issue or investigation.
• Produce images related to your chosen area
• You may work within the studio or on location
• You will edit images and show progression
• You will continue secondary research on
artists/photographers relevant to your chosen
topic
• Consider how you will write your written
material.

3. Personal investigation.
Assessment objectives.
• Develop their ideas through sustained and
focused investigations informed by contextual
and other sources, demonstrating analytical
and critical understanding.

4. Personal Investigation.
Assessment objectives
AO1: Develop their ideas through
sustained and focused
investigations informed by
contextual and other sources,
demonstrating analytical and
critical understanding.
Ideas gained
from research
of artists,
photographers
Ideas gained
from practical
photography
Apply critical thinking
when evaluating own
personal research and
secondary sources.

5. Personal Investigation.
Assessment objectives
AO2 Experiment with and select appropriate
resources, media, materials, techniques and
processes, reviewing and refining their ideas as
their work develops.
Experiment with e.g.
camera techniques
and processes
Refining ideas through
evaluation and developing
work further
Experiment with e.g.
Photoshop
approaches
Planning and
gathering appropriate
resources e.g. props
lightiing, location

6. Personal Investigation.
Assessment objectives
AO3 Record in visual and/or other forms ideas,
observations and insights relevant to their
intentions, demonstrating an ability to reflect on
their work and progress
Recording in blog, ideas,
plans, reflecting and
evaluating
Producing new work in
response to
observations and work
in progress
Recording all forms of
ideas and insights during
the project

7. Personal Investigation.
Assessment objectives
AO4 Present a personal, informed and
meaningful response demonstrating critical
understanding, realising intentions and, where
appropriate, making connections between visual,
written, oral or other elements.
Visual outcomes
(final images)
linked to research
Producing work
based on personal
insights
Drawing sound
conclusions from
Research sources

8. Personal Investigation.
You should be either
1. Research photographers relevant to your
personal investigation.
– Use Critical analysis to evaluate imagery (context
(background info who, what, where) connotation,
denotation)
2. Carry out shoots
3. Draft a plan for executing your personal projects

9. Location shoots
• Students to inform tutor prior to departure.
• Equipment used (tripods, cameras) to be
booked out and returned by the close of the
lesson.

10. Research
Critical Analysis
• Art criticism is responding to, interpreting meaning, and making
critical judgments about specific works of art.
Contextual studies (similar to textual analysis in Media)
• Is about how art work including photograph exists within a wider
context of e.g. a social, political context
• Your research of a photograph must therefore be much broader
than just examining the photograph.
• Ask your self why was the art work produced, for what purpose and
so on…
• The following slides should help you to critically analse
photographs/artwork.

11. Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.
Contextual studies in art.
Guernica: to understand Guernica I need to know when it was created (1937)
and where (Basque town). By whom (Picasso) and why (commemoration of
the Bombing of the Basque town). What were the artists intentions (to alert the
world to the brutal killing of innocents by German bombers).

12. Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.
Subjective and emotive
Good,Bad, like, awful
I don’t like it, terrible, fantastic.
Objective and analytical
terminology
Composition, tone, colour palette,
Black and White, abstract, cubist,
symbolic, propagandist, terror,
anguish, screaming, emotive,
sympathetic, political, agenda, etc.
Describing Pictures (Guernica).
AVOID USE

13. Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.
The flat Iron, 1905 Alfred Steichen
Contextual studies
Edward Steichen (1879-1983)
Steichen took up photography in 1895, at
the age of sixteen, and was self-taught.
he was associated with a style of
photography known as Pictorials. The
Pictorialists felt that the aesthetic promise
of photography lay in an emulation of
painting.
Steichen’s early work, adopted many
Pictorialist techniques (a jiggled tripod, a
lens bathed in glycerin, or various darkroom
tricks).
Context
(who)
Context
(what)
Context
(why)
Context
(How, or
process)

14. Researching, Artwork, Contextual Studies.
The flat Iron, 1905 Alfred Steichen
Contextual studies
This pictorialist approach is evident in
Steichen’s photograph of the flat iron,
the image is vague, with no clear
point of focus. Like a painting the
composition is tonally divided into
foreground, middle and background.
The imagery is evocative (connotes
to) of an impressionist painting where
the detail of the imagery is left
unresolved. It suggests the romance
of a by-gone era where people where
transported by horse drawn carraige
to their homes.
denotation
connotation

15. Visual Essay & Contextual studies.
Written study:
AQA specification.
As the quality of written communication is an important aspect of this unit candidates
should consider the following points:
• Written material of a critical, analytical nature.
• Written material should be no less than 1000 and no more than 3000 words.
• Sources should be identified and a bibliography should be included.
• Candidates should demonstrate that they are aware of the discipline of
working within given word counts.

16. Visual Essay & Contextual studies.
What kind of Written work should I submit?
AQA specification.
Written material of a critical, analytical nature can be included in a variety of forms:
• A personal study
• A Journal
• A report
• An evaluation and reflection on candidates’ work and that of others.

17. Visual Essay & Contextual studies.
Elements
Title:
Introduction
Main Body
Conclusions
References

18. Visual Essay & Contextual studies.
Title: Notions of Beauty.
Devise a precise area of investigation.
• what is beauty and how is it to be portrayed?
Subsidiary sections.
•How was beauty defined in the past.
•How is beauty defined in the present.
•How do photographers portray beauty.

19. Visual Essay & Contextual studies.
Introduction.
The context, why you are investigating this subject?
Include the scope of your investigations. Tell the readers what answers you want to
gain from your investigations.
Example: Beauty products are a 40 billion dollar industry, yet what constitutes
beauty, how should the photographer portray beauty? Are there different models
by which we perceive beauty? The research looks at historical context of beauty,
primitive elaborations and western concepts of beauty. Several photographers
investigated including Nick Knight, Juergen Teller, etc.

20. Visual Essay & Contextual studies.
Main Body.
Subdivide into sections.
• A historical and cultural perspective on beauty.
• Primitive elaborations.
• Beautification through the use of cosmetics.
• Defining Beauty.
• Photographers interpretations

21. Visual Essay & Contextual studies.
Main body.
Analysing images.
Objective assessment.
Composition, lighting, photographer, style, movement, colour, etc.
Subjective assessment.
Your personal interpretation of what the image means, the connotations. Happy,
sad, moody, dark, funny, etc.
Contextual assessment.
At what period was the photograph taken, how does this image compare with the
work of other photographers, what was the photographer wanting to portray?
Techniques used?

22. Report writing
Conclusion.
Make sound conclusions based on the images you have analysed/evaluated.
•what is beauty and how is it to be portrayed?
how should the photographer portray beauty?
There is no objective definition of beauty, the classical concept of Grecian beauty is an
idea, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Photographers have the opportunity to portray various facets of beauty through their
imagery challenging conventional concepts and stereo-types.

23. Report writing
Main Body:
Figure 7: The rose garden, 2001
Lux work exists somewhere in between the world of painted and photographic art.
Prose (2005, p41) compared her work to the flawless perfection of a Vermeer.
References.
Prose, F. (2005) Loretta Lux: Imaginary portraits. New York: Aperture.

24. Report writing
Main Body:
Figure 8: Gareth Pugh, S/S 2011
Gareth Pugh’s (2011) fashion video, shot in black and white with harsh, film noire
lighting bridges the gap between the cinematic and still image.
Reference.
Pugh, G.’ Hogben R (2101),, Available from:<
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weCltin7_iQ> [Accessed 07 November 2015].