So this has been quite a week for me. After almost four years of getting serious about photography, learning my trade, watching hours of YouTube tutorials and taking thousands of photographs I finally started my MA Degree with Falmouth University.
With a mixture of excitement, nervousness and actual fear I opened the link to my first weeks reading and assignments and got stuck in.
In reverse order the fear was based on those feelings 'what have I done' 'will I cope with it all, on top of my day job' 'will my photography output suffer'. The nervousness was the self doubt kicking in 'am I good enough' and the excitement was the sheer anticipation about where this MA could take me and my photography.
Well one week in and I pleased to say that a lot of the fear has gone. Whilst the amount of reading and research is huge I am confident I can fit it all in. One early trick has been to download the transcripts to all of the videos. Yes it means even more reading but it really helps me take in all of the information and make notes along the way. Still pretty nervous in terms of my ability, largely because I have now seen lots of images from the other students, and it is fair to say the quality is exceptional. But this does then help build my excitement even further because I now realise that in addition to all of the learning I am going to get from the online tutors, assignments and personal research, my peers are also going to be a great source of inspiration and knowledge over the next two years.
Our first week focused on The Global Image and I found the session on Windows on the World particularly thought provoking. I had never really considered before how a photograph is almost like looking through a window, effectively a cropped representation of a much wider view and I could see how many of my images, especially those of landscapes and urbanscapes fall very much into that category. However photographs can also be looked at as mirrors, reflecting back the photographers ideas and creativity. As my own images have developed I have become increasingly aware of the aesthetics of my photographs, and example above called 'Hazy Street' where the triple exposure effect, distorts what I was actually looking at, but was 100% what I was aiming for in terms of my creativity.
Whilst this session really resonated with me I must confess the section on 'Unity and Change' left me feeling like I have more to do in terms of making photographs that can unite and effect change. I do shoot some street photography but this tends to be more creative rather than documentary and having seen some stunning photographs of protests and the whole 'new norm' we have in 2020, with Covid19 related topics, I am keen to see what more I can do in terms of making a difference with my photography.
One week in and just under two years to go so it's going to be really interesting to look back on this blog as my journey continues. Hope you are ready for the ride.
Right lets open up Week 2...