Evaluation

This has been a year of ups and downs for me in regards to working.  The highs coming in my work experience with the Extended degree students, seeing one of my images so large on the wall at Wolferstans and my exhibition in The West End Gallery.  The lows came from my work experience with the Extended Diploma students, with the realisation of how difficult it is to engage teenagers!   Also the frustration of trying to co-ordinate many different personalities in the Been there, Seen it, Got the T-shirt exhibition.

With regards to my teaching experience, it served to confirm to me that it is definitely the route for me after my BA year.  Although I am unsure as to which route I want to take.  I definitely know i do not wish to work with very young children so the Primary and Early Years PGCE is off the table.  So that leaves the PGCE certificate in education for 11-18 year olds or Adult education.  I have spoken to Dave Kent and Jenna Bettey who have been PGCE students during my time at PCA, and I plan to go to the next Open Day at Plymouth University so that I can talk to the lecturers there to help me decide.  I have the prospectus and have perused the website but I am still not sure, so I hope this will help me decide which course will be best for me.  Working with the Extended Diploma students presented me with a challenge but I did enjoy trying to engage with them, and I am definitely one for a challenge!  SO maybe this is the way forward,  every day would be a challenge!

Working in a collective has been good and bad this year.  The Day Gallery exhibition was a group of people that were in it because they wanted to be and as such it was easy and a pleasant experience overall.  Apart from the problems with it actually getting off the ground, it was my first experience of getting my art on the wall of a gallery space and it was a massive ego boost! 

Our project 204, the Been There, Seen it, Got the T-shirt was infuriating and brilliant at the same time.  I found the apathy of some members of the group really negative and despite trying really hard not to take over, I found that alot of the time I had to, or else we would not have had a successful outcome at all.  This has taught me a valuable lesson, to make sure that I am working with people who are just as enthusiastic as I am about the project that I am working on.  This was difficult with project 204 as we were put into groups by the staff, but i did get to work with at least one person who I would love to work with again!  I networked well i think, making contacts with the City Centre manager, The Mall manager, the art correspondant at The Herald, and several traders within the city who were interested in getting involved in future projects.

Having submitted work for a commission for Wolferstans solicitors last year, it finally came to fruition nearly a year later!  It was frustrating dealing with the delays but it was confused by the fact Dave Kinney left and he was the point of contact with the solicitors.  It did however get there eventually and I recived  £50 for my image, with credit given on any usage of it in further publications.  I was so proud to see my picture on the wall on such a grand scale, and I was told that it had been the centre of much discussion since its installation, with people spending alot of time looking at it and picking out things that are not immediately apparent.

Working with Camper Obscura has been great too and without it I would not have had my exhibition at The West End Gallery and had such a great summer touring festivals and events across the west country.  I have also made contact with other artists that I would not have met and worked with without Camper Obscura and FOTONOW.

SO in conclusion I have thoroughly enjoyed my work experience, it has enable to decide a definite course of action for after my BA year, and an intention for the rest of my working life.  I have enjoyed having my worked exhibited, and imparting my small amount of knowledge to others.  I have learnt that teenagers are hard to live with and to teach!!  And I have learnt if you exhibit with others make sure they are as passionate as you or else you will end up doing all the work!  I hope in the future that I will have more exhibitions and be able to persue my personal practise and to be able to teach part-time, so I will still have time to spend with my family and time to spend on producing good art.  This is of course in a perfect world and things rarely turn out that way but it is my dream and I intend to chase it.

Day Gallery

I organised myself and some fellow students to take part in a pop-up gallery as part of the Arts Birthday celebrations in Plymouth.  For this I had to organise images, framing and mounting, punlic liabilty insurace and setting up.  Unfortunately the first exhibition was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances but it  meant that the gallery will open in a shop next to the London Camera Exchange, on the 5th Feb 2011. The event was quite a success with good footfall into the gallery space. I made a good contact in Jodie Bishop who is the art councillor for Plymouth City Council.  I enjoyed being involved with the other students and much thanks to Eileen Long and Benny Sullivan in particular for their help in getting our images ready :).

Presentation

Personalize your own free slideshow Been playing around with different presentation methods....bit bored with powerpoint!!!!!

CV

Emma Hirst

Artistic C.V

Introduction

·         I am mature student studying Photography at Plymouth College of Art.  My art is firmly based in black and white film photography and I often use my own life experiences to influence the images, experiencing a cathartic process along the way.  It is the process of black and white photography that appeals to me as it allows me to have complete control over my images.

Qualifications

·         9 GCSE’s Grade C and Above

·         Level 0 Extended Degree year –Pass

·         Foundation Degree in Photography – Graduating June 2012

Work History

·         5 weeks of one day a week working with Extended Degree students on their darkroom skills, supporting them and giving advice

·         Curator of work for Pop up Day Gallery organised by Plymouth City Council March 2011

·         Workshops with children of Flora Court Plymouth, culminating in 2 exhibitions of the work produced July 2011

·         Exhibition of portraits in West End Gallery in conjunction with FOTONOW July 2011

·         5 weeks of one day a week working with Extended Diploma students on their darkroom skills, supporting them and giving advice.

·         Touring with Camper Obscura bringing the Obscura to the public all over Plymouth and the South West

·         Curating a collaborative show with other students culminating in a live show, bringing the art to the viewing public in the form of a walking exhibition in Plymouth City Centre March 2012

·         Planned collaborative exhibition with other students end of year show June 2012

Future Plans

·         Graduate and progress to B.A. top up year

·         Graduate B.A. and progress to PGCE at Plymouth University

·         Continue to produce and exhibit work

Contacts

During our exhibition we made contact with the city centre manager who was very excited about our display and would be happy to support any further projects.  Also one trader is setting up a night market and would happily give us a free pitch if we wanted to sell our art as a collective, all in all a good day :)

Dissemination

Whilst i really enjoyed our Been There, Seen it, Got the T-shirt exhibition, I found very frustrating and I ended up doing alot of the work myself.  I am going to look at the possiblities of doing a solo exhibition in the near future, I also have an idea to set up an award for over 25 year old photographers.  There are so many competitions for under 25's or under 30's I think there is a niche for something for more mature artists!.

204

Had a tour aroound the other exhibitions after ours had finished, they all look fantastic!  I really loved the space that one group was in and may look into getting that for a future exhibition, The Pipe is a fabulous place!  There were so many people at Eileen's exhibition in B-Bar, it was a great atmosphere.  I really loved the full on show at Sprouts restaurant, so many pictures and all so different but they blended really well together.

Its all over!

The day was fabulous, it could so easily have been a complete flop, but despite the majority of people walking past with their heads down, we did manage to engage a good many people and we had a great response.  We have all learned lessons from today about how difficult it can be to get people to take part in art whether they are in gallerys or on the streets.

Exhibition day!!!!!!!!

The day has finally dawned for our walking exhibition, i am so nervous i feel sick!  I have called radio Plymouth, Radio 1, and Heart this morning, as well as calling Spotlight news this morning, all before we start!!

Wolferstans

Last year I entered a competition to produce imagery for Wolferstans solicitors new offices.  I was picked for one of my images and we had a presentation :), I won £50 for my image and it looks amazing on the wall I am over the moon!  They will also be using my image in leaflets and on their website for marketing purposes, with credit to me :) woohooooooo!!!!

Things gather pace

Our t-shirt exhibition is gathering pace, we have 4 a2 poster spaces in the mall for advertising, the herald are going to come down and take our picture and interview me :), we have sourced a gr8 price for our t-shirts, £11 and the images are printed into the material, which creates better colours and higher quality.

204

We have a great idea for our exhibition!  We are going to print our images onto t-shirts and take a walking exhibition around the centre of plymouth :), we are going to try engage the great and good of plymouth with art!!! Wish us luck!

Project 204

We have been briefed on our personal promotion project, we have to put on an external exhibition, do all the marketing etc ourselves.  It should be fun! I am not sure about this, i would like to do something different, but i am unsure how this is going to work.  Oh well watch this space!

Week 3

More darkroom skills with the extended diploma students, again i feel like a spare part.  The students don't really engage with me and are more inclined to ask Phil or Oz for advice.  I appreciate that I am only a student myself and that maybe that is why, but following my experience with the Level 0 students last year I feel a bit impotent.

ED students

Week 2 and I have been working with Phil on the extended diploma with their darkroom time.  I feel a bit redundant as we have myself, Phil and Oz there and I'm not sure that I am helping out that much, but i am learning alot myself from Phil!

ED students

Have started the new year with some experience helping out with  and the extended diploma students, this is going to be more of a challenge as they are all 16 and 17 years old and I can feel the apathy coming off them in waves!!  Sat in on their briefing and made a few suggestions of photographers they may want to look at, and they looked at me like i have 2 heads!!!  Also helped with their first deving of film this week and they did better than we did on our first time, at least theirs all came out!!!

West End Gallery

Have spent a few days invigilating in the West End Gallery, this has taught me an invaluable lesson to take forward.  It is really hard to engage people in art, many people have been using the gallery as a walk-thru and not even stopping to look at the images on the walls.  Need to think about how to get people thru the door that will stop and look and engage!  It is a really good space but I don't feel it is successful in so far as actually making a connection with a wider audience.
Also the kids pictures from Flora Court are up in the Gallery, they look amazing, I am so proud of them!

Exhibition Take 2

So my protraits of the kids in Flora Court are going to be the first up in the West End Gallery eeeekkkk!!!  Major rush to get the printing and mounting done but i made it in time and they look good!!!  Also got my picture in the Herald for it too Woohoo...fame here i come?

Exhibition

So today is the day for the kids to show off their work to their family and friends.  I have organised some nibbles for them and we have some music.  It made me sad that only 2 people from the wider community turned up to see the exhibition despite all the invitations that the kids put out, it was such a shame and a bit of a let down for the children, but I made sure that i told them how proud of them I am!  They did a great job and i had real fun with them.

West End Project

Second day with the kids of Flora Court, this time we were going through the images that they made in the last workshop.  Not such a good day, it was difficult to engage the kids as they were more interested in making more images than sitting at a computer editing and choosing pictures.  I did manage to get a few of them to help me choose with some guidance i think they did a great job and we are going to hold an exhibition in their community flat for their family and friends before the photographs go up in the West End Gallery the following week.

Boardmasters

2 full days with Camper at Boardmasters the music festival.  I could get used to this! Not only meeting such a diverse people and to show them camper in all her glory as the sun was shining and we got some amazing images, but to get to see some great music acts.  Had a reallt great weekend :)

West End Project

First workshop with the kids of Flora Court.  Despite much advertising I was stood for half an hour waiting, and i dont think anyone would have turned up if I hadn't spotted one kid who i recognised and got him to round up some more!  Still eventually had about 7 kids to work with and we had a great morning trying to make dynamic images.  Two of the children really stood out, they were engaged and really enjoyed themselves.  It has definitely been a learning experience for me to deal with quite challenging behaviour, confrontation and children that are at times quite abusive. However it was easy to see the good in them too.

West End Project

FOTONOW have invited me to take part in the West End Project, centred around the West End of Plymouth, on its businesses and residents, with a gallery space in Cornwall Street to show off the images made.  I have decided to work with the children of Flora Court.  I will conduct a series of workshops with them, taking photographs and editing and curating them into an exhibition which will be shown in their community flat and the west end gallery.

Port Eliot Festival

Went with FOTONOW to Port Eliot festival, we had Camper set up and I spent a couple of hours handing out flyers and making badges to give out to people.  Unfortunately it rained quite heavily and so we couldn't show Camper off to the public :(,

Another day another school

This time I have been to Mount Wise community school.  This was a different experience as there are lots more children at this school!  This time we were entertaining the kids during breaks and lunchtime, it was a beautiful day and it produced some great images in Camper.  the kids enjoyed picking out their friends playing in the playground and their teachers too.

Level 0

End of the project with the Level 0 students and they have produced some fantastic images, I am going to look forward to seeing their final products all together.  I have made soem new friends as well as solidifying my own darkroom techniques whilst teaching them.  It has been a good learning experience for me as I have learnt to engage with some of the younger students better.  I have always found this hard as i struggle with people who dont work as hard as I do, but through this experience I have learnt to accept that people deal with learning differently and I have become a more tolerant person because of it.  Much thanks to Tim Gundry for letting me have this experience and to the students who have listened and learnt, and taught me things in return :)

More Camper action......

A solo camper action for me :), went to Mount Street Primary school for the day and had groups of children in camper to show them how it works.  I had good fun teaching them about light and they were very good at answering all my questions.  The older children were also having a photography workshop with another FOTONOW employee Kendal.  All around a great photography based day!

Darkroom bound

This week the Level 0 students have been pretty much independant, I have been there for advice and help if needed but they seem to be very confident and I have been encouoraging them to make their creative decisions for themselves and to not seek approval.  I have been asking them to feedback to me and evalute their prints so they can learn from their mistakes but have the courage to believe in their work.  This is something i struggles with myself and it can be really hard not to keep asking for approval all the time.  I hope i have managed to impart this lesson well!

Out on the road with Camper!

We went along to Flora Court with Camper today, what an experience!  The kids were nothing if not hectic but i had a really good laugh with them!  I hope that every day is a good as this one!

Week 3 with Level 0

Week 3 has seen some great images coming from the students, I have really enjoyed working with them and i think i have helped quite a bit this week.  Also Tim came down and watched me for a bit and said i was doing really well.  Some of the students have reported back to him that I have helped them out and have contributed a lot to their understanding in the darkroom :D what a great week!

Camper Obscura

I have been helping out on Camper Obscura on the Hoe this week and I have had a great time!  It has been fab to engage with the public and talk to them about my passion of photography.  I have also had the oppportunity to meet a few fellow students, past and present, that were helping out as well.  I hope I can keep this up for the summer :)

Week 2 with the Level 0 students

It has been a good session this week.  I have taught a few students how to split grade which has added another dimension to their images.  I think the lesson for this week is lots of test strips will give you the opportunity to get a perfect image.  It is nice that there is a number of mature students who I can obviously connect with as I am a mature student myself.  I have found the younger students a bit more difficult to engage with but i think i am getting there!