Assignment 4 - Comments on Tutor's report

Plus side

- In his “Overall comments” my tutor Robert stated: "This is a personal and idiosyncratic view of your subject of Romagna. At times you’ve succeeded in creating a strong mood and expressing something of the character of the region in the colours and light particularly."
=> I am particularly happy about the fact that Robert appreciated the colours and the light of my shots because my major effort in this assignment was to focus on those two aspects which are the main characteristics of Romagna.
- Image 1. "There is a special ambience to holiday towns when they’re out-of-season. That pole looks like it could be used for something in the summer, but here it is rendered meaningless, like a black line, a purely visual element crossing the horizon. Technically this is very objective and rigorously composed, but it appears slightly soft focus in the sky. Such stylistic treatment does add a subjective rendering to an otherwise objective subject. You should be aware of this."
- Image 2. "This wider curving bay with silhouettes of people looking out to sea also has that bleak, stormy off-season look. This is by far the strongest picture here, the most ‘complete’ and finished. It is also the kind of photo that looks great large because you notice the details: the woman and child covered in black clothes, the seagulls on the shoreline, the misty distance that swallows the land."
=> Despite Image 2 is not my favourite shot for this assignment (I feel much "closer" to Image 1, 4, 5 and 6), I understand very well where Robert comes from with his comment and I will definitely print out a large sample of it.
- Image 5. "It’s a good strategy to seek out novel images of traditional themes, as you have done here with the twilight landscape over-view of a sea town with the foreground in car headlamps. It shows you are aware of tradition and want to transcend it."
- "As you say, you had been taking photos without any end result in mind. And it is this pre-visualization or vision that is your next level of development. Such a vision ties images together and gives you a goal to aim for when you’re wandering around searching for pictures. I think the best image here (Image 2) is worth building on and could form the basis for your final assignment.
Try to think in terms of the subject of “off-season” holiday locations."
=> I think I really must continue to improve my "vision" in order to better express myself with my photographic language.

Things to improve

- "It is difficult to find the thread that connects these pictures to a single, defined location. Romagna is a large and unwieldy ‘place’ to use as a subject for this assignment, so I think you would have been more successful if you had focused on one village or town rather than an entire region."
- "You have made some close detail shots here and hardly any wide landscape shots of the region and not many portraits. Such images would have been key elements in showing atmosphere in a place.
You seem to have stayed within your personal interest and that is an artistic ‘comfort zone’
that you should be aware of so you can challenge it. You clearly have visual talent, and that is something to be developed, but you must try to extend it rather than remain within its confines because it will eventually become a ‘manner’, a ‘style’."
=> I agree with Robert and I believe I must shape my "style" according to my creative vision. I must break out of my current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.
- Image 3. "Apart from the well spotted visual play, technically the image isn’t so good, with some obvious degradation in resolution of movement blur. At this stage in your development you should be editing out any picture that doesn’t pass basic tests like focus. It’s a bit like singing out of tune on a record, it is just unprofessional!"
=> Point taken! I fully agree with Robert.
- Image 6. "The orange paint makes a great background for your shadow-play here and certainly emphasises the character of the place. But it is a very ‘visual’ picture with aesthetic textures: cobble stones, weathered plaster and shadows. When I say this, I mean it has visual merit without really having much to say about subject. This photo though suggests that you had no decisive vision in mind and appears random in the context of the better photos here. You’ve been honest about that in your text."
=> I agree in principle with Robert's comment. Image 6 was supposed to show my very (!) humble version of the "decisive moment". I felt that everything was perfect in the very exact moment I shot my photo: the light, the background, the colour, the shadow and its lightness... Probably only who knows Romagna can understand this kind of "dolce vita" so typical there and my regret is not to be a great photographer (yet) to make this feeling pass through my images. I am sure I will improve!