More doesn't necessarily mean better
Photography students often ask for advice about submitting work for assessment, so with this in mind Jose Navarro has recorded a series of short videos on some of the key themes. They are:
1. More doesn’t necessary mean better (above)
2. About digital submissions
3. Submitting work as a book
4. Submitting prints for assessment
All of the videos are available to view in the Photography section of OCA Elements Please bear in mind these are pointers and just as the underlying creativity will out in exceptionally good work, the most perfect presentation will not disguise work which is lacking in creativity.
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Interesting and informative
These are very helpful guides which are both clear and interesting. Thanks Jose.
Interesting and informative, I agree, but also raising some questions.
I wonder how much of what Jose is saying is his own preference and how much is shared by other assessors? For example, be doesn’t like black backgrounds and he prefers prints which are matt or pearl finish. Personally, I have always felt that black backgrounds are great at showing up the colours in prints. Also, in my experience, ink jet printers seem to produce better results on glossy paper. So should I ‘go with Jose’ to coin a phrase, or risk the assessors reflections on my shiny prints with their gloriously matt black backgrounds?
Good point Jim. Yes, that’s my own preference but it is also the conclusion that I’ve come to after seeing many different solutions for the presentation of work. But you are right, at the end of the day this is very subjective and what I recommend is no more than what I personally think works best. As Clive said you need to find out what works for you and then be aware of the implications of your chosen format.
For example, it is true that a black background somehow brings out the colours in the photograph. But the price to pay is – in my opinion – the increased visual fatigue that the viewer experiences. Black backgrounds do not allow the image ‘to breathe’ the way a white background does. Interestingly, black or dark grey backgrounds work much better on the web than in print. Mind you, we tend to spend longer looking at a book in our hands than we do when browsing a website – less chances to suffer visual fatigue?
In any case it’s always a good idea to experiment with different presentations so that you find out the pros and cons of each of them.
It’s my opinion that both as a mount and on the web, black, especially on the web, and very dark neutral tones interfere more with the natural tonal scaling of an image than very light neutral tones or white do.
Presentation is an integral part of the photography Jim. You need to approach Jose’s hints and tips in the same way that you do your tutor’s advice; evaluate and then decide how you’re are going to respond to it, depending on what feels right to you.
Being an integral part of the photography, presentation has associative values as well as technical implications and you need to bear those in mind when deciding on your presentation.
Whilst wholeheartedly agreeing with your statement about what we should do with advice (evaluate and then decide how you’re going to respond to it) rather the statement ignores the fact that we as students have no real idea other than our own experience as to how generally accepted the advice is and how much of it is the tutor trying to re-write the assignments as he thinks they should be. We have even less idea about what the assessor will think.
I applaud the desire of the OCA to allow the student to think for him/herself and to present their own work but this does lead to a great deal of ambiguity in the assignment material. For me this has led to a total loss of confidence in the system and a feeling that I am shooting in the dark. My initial reaction is to disagree with my tutor and set out my reasons for consideration by the assessors. However I recognise that this will weigh heavily in the scales of success/failure and given the cost of the Course I have no real desire to have to do it again.
Presentation is all but as the emphasis appears to be on digital presentations we are at the mercy of the quality of the assessors computer and how well it is calibrated. We have no control over that. At least with a print you can send what you consider to be your best effort.
‘At least with a print you can send what you consider to be your best effort.’
That’s one of the things you have to evaluate when deciding how to present. It’s inherent in the technology that there will be variations in the rendering from screen to screen; differences are even detectable on calibrated high end monitors from example to example.
‘as students have no real idea other than our own experience as to how generally accepted the advice is’
‘how much of it is the tutor trying to re-write the assignments as he thinks they should be’
On these points you have to credit us with some professional expertise.
The assignments are open to interpretation and we positively encourage, and look for, students to make creative interpretations of the briefs; responses that will be progressive for them.
Sadly I have to say that ‘shooting in the dark’ does tend to lead to underexposed pictures in my experience
🙂
Maybe you need one of these Jim
‘When used in available light photography, the lens exceeds the perception of the human eye. Even the light from one candle can be sufficient for handheld photography.’
Mind you, it costs more than a degree!
Very useful videos.
This is an area that I have thought OCA have been lacking – giving tips etc on presentation. On a classroom based course, you would be able to easily discuss items like this with other students or your tutor and be able to see examples. Being an online couse makes this much more difficult. The videos are helpful and have given me some ideas on other means of presentation.
I was thinking the same as Jim when Jose said he preferred matt or pearl finishes etc. But I do know what Jose means about the problems with reflections on glossy paper.
Great stuff, thanks Jose. I think it would be really useful to see some examples of log books as well. I realise there is no set way that these should be presented but I would be really interested to see how other students tackle this. Also, this didn’t really cover how the assessors look at online blogs…
As both Jose and Clive know, I worry about these things! : )
I have just watched the video………..and……I’ll be honest, it leaves me with more doubts than solutions. First I hear:…we don’t want to impose criteria to send the work because this is an art school………..after that I hear: .but we evaluate the form not the contents………..
What shall I conclude??? If only the contents are relevant, why the criteria to send the work is not clearly indicated?????? Is this an inconsistency????
Leo
‘but we evaluate the form not the contents…’; I’m not quite sure where you’re getting this from but we want to see what you think is good work. The way you choose to present it is part of the work, as I’ve indicated above.
I’m sorry……I was a little over excited….what Jose says is just the opposite: .we evaluate the contents not the form……why is then the form important?????, and why not to give clear directives with regard to it???
Leo
‘why is then the form important?’, because it’s part of the overall communication as I pointed out above.
‘why not to give clear directives with regard to it?’, because it’s a signifier in your creative response, and potentially getting feedback on that from assessors is part of the learning experience; even though it won’t impact on the grade you are awarded.
Good work clumsily presented gets good marks; after all we don’t expect you to be the finished article, at Levels 1 & 2 at least. Although it has to be said that good work more often than not is presented to a good standard.
Nobody will be penalised for printing on gloss instead of matt, or penalised for not having a print box, or indeed putting their images in plastic sleeves.
But students have to accept that they are engaged in a learning experience and we are trying to point you in the direction of best, and accepted, practice, backed up with reasons.
Nothing is definitive but just because a student favours a particular form of presentation it doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to point out its draw backs and its connotational deviations, using knowledge and empirical experience gathered over many years engagement with creative, and professional, photographic culture and practice.
Thankyou Jose. I found some aspects of the vidoes very helpful as
I have been wanting some kind of clarification about how to submit my first assignment.
However, only yesterday I emailed my Tutor asking for clarification about wether or not it was appropriate for my prints to be on glossy paper or some other type. I got a 3 word repsonse which was – ‘Glossy is good’. As a result, I have since had 60 prints of my work done this way and spent all my money on the best paper and print cartridgesto do it! I realise that if you were now to assess my work, I would be penalised for this as it is not your prefered style of presentation.
While I completely respect your preferences and understand that we are dealing with an art form here, surely there should be some cohesion between assessors so that we all know what we should be doing to get the best marks we can and what not to waste our money on regarding things that specific individual assessors don’t like. I’m not sure how we will know this if you are all assessing our work differently and we don’t know which assessors we will get!
I’m with Leo here – Confused!
Mandy
You will not be penalised for going against the personal preferences of an assessor but you would be penalised if the paper you chose was not appropriate to the work on that paper. So if you think that a high gloss finish suits your images, go with it and explain somewhere why you think it appropriate, if using matt you should do the same, indeed you should explain in your learning log all the relevant choices and decisions you make.
As to cohesion between assessors there two things to remember, assessors are skilled and experienced at assessing and will do a professional job, secondly all submissions are double marked so if there were a conflict of opinion it would show up and the assessors would discuss it and come to a collective decision.
Thankyou Peter. This is very helpful to know. This is the first time I have used ‘glossy’ paper and I have done this specifically because I don’t usually and wondered how it would affect the presentation of my images. I thought it would be a ‘learning curve’ and had documented this in my learning log some weeks ago. I might try a different type of paper for another assignment just to experiment with how things look.
I am enjoying the course and appreciate all the Tutor/Assessor advice and resouces (even when it makes me question things as this is the only way to learn). I realise that a rubbish image will look rubbish on any paper! That’s why I’m here!
Now that I watched the other videos I think the situation is even worse. So white letters with a black background is strident. Why?????? This is purely a matter of taste, isn’t it? Who dares to say that white backgrounds are better?? …..and if they are……..why don’t you just say “do it like that”……….so, you encourage people to be creative, but there is nice and strident, and I don’t want to say it like that because we are an art school……………but we have to evaluate………..
eeeeeeeeuuuuuughhhhhh???????
Interesting, but can we have similar for fine art – painting or drawing please?
Thanks Jose. As someone who has recently started TAOP I can now safely say I shall not bother to get assessed and just try to learn from the course. I have raised an official complaint with OCA because the course notes state on pp6 and 7 that assignment 1 is not assessed but the guidelines (received after the course notes) say it is. What are we supposed to believe?
I have been told by my tutor that they are looking for images that go beyond the exercise and could be submitted for exhibition. For goodness sake, I thought we were doing the introductory course…
Jose’s comments simply add to my disbelief in the process. As well as the comments above, he even criticises the SIZE of the image. I have presented many different sizes of image for club competitions and never has this been an issue, judges understand that different sizes suit different subjects.
I could rant further but feel disillusioned enough.
These are great Jose – thank you very much. I particularly liked seeing all the different options and solutions people have found and found it helpful to hear you talk through the pros and cons.
For anyone interested in making a photobook, I think this webinar http://www.blurb.com/help/video/layout_design
is really worth watching. It’s nearly 70 minutes long, but if you’re serious about making a good book I think it is really valuable. there are others very good videos on this site too.
“But students have to accept that they are engaged in a learning experience and we are trying to point you in the direction of best, and accepted, practice, backed up with reasons.”
“But students have to accept that they are engaged in a learning experience and we are trying to point you in the direction of best, and accepted, practice, backed up with reasons.”
The best practice? …..and…….The accepted practice???……who decides what is best in terms of art??? and what is the base, the accepted practice?????…which means that if something is not generally accepted is not good?????……… (I am not questioning, just asking)…..
Are we not mixing apples with pears?
And learning and be creative are also two different things. Learning is about modifying what you do and creating is about innovating, which means you start from the old (assuming you know it) and you create something new…….but in order to be creative first you have to know the old practice.
And what about the reasons to back the whole thing up??? Does art need of reasons to back it up??? (again just asking)
Thanks for doing these Jose – after my first assessment I was left to wonder what the different criteria meant. I now have a much better grasp of what both the ‘Communications’ and ‘Judgement’ criteria include – and not just because you’ve talked about presentation, but because you’ve talked about the thought processes the assessors are looking for evidence of.
I think this video is very confused. Firstly, it is stated at the beginning that students should show “initiative and creativity” in presenting their work, but then the submission on CD – which must surely rank as the least creative way of presenting work – is praised as getting a higher grade. Secondly the quantity of work is discussed but with no reference to the number or size of the images on the CD. Surely OCA have not made this video just to show that CDs are physically smaller than hard copy ?
‘The best practice? …..and…….The accepted practice???……who decides what is best in terms of art???’
Galleries, curators, art buyers, publishers and… photography tutors. ‘ }
‘And learning and be creative are also two different things.’
You can learn to be creative.
‘And what about the reasons to back the whole thing up??? Does art need of reasons to back it up???’
We have been giving you reasons, demonstrating that it’s not just a whim on our part. As I’ve said previously, ‘On these points you have to credit us with some professional expertise.’ ‘ }
“but then the submission on CD – which must surely rank as the least creative way of presenting work”
I’m no tutor so don’t take my word for it – but if the student has concluded that the most effective way to submit their work is on a CD because it requires something (such as AV) that can only be provided on an electronic medium then it seems to be that is considerably more creative than putting a lot of expensive prints in an expensive portfolio box without really considring the impact.
Ultimately this is a degree course – it’s about mental input not just slavishly following instructions.
You can add different type of borders in certain photographic packages, perhaps thats what he means? Coloured, double mount etc…
Pleeeease don’t add digital borders particularly pretend frames unless being naff is part of the project you are engaged on.
Ooooooo Peter you said the n*ff word. Does that mean I can use it? I’ve been dying to! Hahahha
Of course Dawn uses all kinds of digital stuff that is totally appropriate for her work as a fine artist but would be rather errmmm… outre in the context of a pure photography course. ‘ }
What I had in mind was images that could only be presented in e-versions – 360panoramas for example – or images that had to be presented as a ‘slide show’ because of some interaction between individual images. I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons for going the digital route.
My thoughts exactly
(don’t worry no-one speaks Polare here 🙂 )
Oooooooo ain’t he bold Jules?
Comes trollin’ in ‘er callin’ us naff!
Show ‘im you ain’t naff Jules, no go on! Show it to ‘im!
Hahahaha
Polari – http://chris-d.net/polari/ – in case anyone is wondering
I was actually being flippant… the borders are crap on photos…
Sorry – the problem with forum communications – as usual. PS love the technical expression :0)
Yes exactly Nigel, you had it spot on…
‘Ultimately this is a degree course – it’s about mental input not just slavishly following instructions.’
I have just viewed the submission videos as advised by my tutor. Part of my submission was shown in a good light and I thought I would add an opinion.. view… which hopefully may be helpful. If not then after reading discard to one side……
For my last submission I sent in the following, 2x log books, 2x image study books, 1x A4 portfolio of my assignments, a photo book and a selection of high quality prints. I got a B or 2:1 equivalent grade which ever you prefer and my feedback was not negative, however was my entry two much? What could be done to improve my result?
Personally I think I entered the right amount of work for what I was trying to communicate. I worked with my tutor and took his opinions on board and for me the key element is that all the items submitted create a positive clear narrative that shows the assessor your path of development.
With my submission I think I could of still improved my communication a bit to gain extra marks, but the rest is down to how far I can stretch my thought process and question my ideas…
To conclude: Bad communication leaves us less room to grow
Good luck everyone
I thank you Jose for the invaluable videos on presentation; it was long overdue.
I must second Eileen’s link to Blurb’s layout design. In addition I will suggest that it is a good idea to analyze layouts of photo-books for ex. Chroma, although expensive, the beauty inside that book is amazing and I think it gives a ground base on the details that should be carefully taken when compiling the images for a book or indeed, for assessment. The layout will apply even if you spread all of your prints down.
Regarding what is the best presentation, nothing much to add. Do what it is best for you as an individual artist, as a person with particular characteristics.
Oh and remember that only the grade you get in L3/L6 is the one that counts towards the degree. So plenty of room for improvement.
‘it is a good idea to analyze layouts of photo-books’ this is a good tip Yiann that I recommend to my students. I also warn them about the temptations of going over the top with layout wizards on the book sites.
Hi Clive
I don’t know what Jose says in the video about books, but from past discussions, I would guess that very high quality printed books are really only for HE6 / L3?
And then also only if the course itself was done as to be presented in the end as a book.
Anyone wondering what I’m talking about could have a search on this on the Flickr forum, various tutors gave their opinions on this if I remember correctly.
And the final thought was that it might not be best…
Has this changed?
Dewald
The quality from Blurb and Photobox books is acceptable, from what I’ve seen, at any level. But it would be good to back it up with some sample prints to show the ultimate photographic quality.
Jose is flagging up format, layout and typography in the video. As Yiann says, choose a high quality photo book as your template and you won’t go far wrong.
Common mistakes are having too much variation in the layout from spread to spread and too large a type size in an inappropriate fonts.
My concern about photo-books (Blurb or whatever) is that students might use them because they look slick and are the latest thing, rather the same goes for specially constructed web-sites, not because that was the intention when the project was conceived and how the images were taken. The result can be that there is less content than product or that the product obscures the content and can send the wrong message to the assessor or just the general viewer. Presentation should be carefully chosen to reflect the purpose of the content not the other way round!
I absolutely agree and if we are going to accept books then students have to factor your concerns in. We aren’t taken in by slick. ‘ }
…or by what students imagine to be slick.
I’ve been shown books, after the fact, that have degraded the original work and so pointed out improvements that could have been made, but the authors have been so enraptured by seeing their first work ‘in print’ that they’ve taken no notice and submitted them anyway.
If you’re thinking of doing a book I think you should ask your tutor’s advice and send them PDFs of sample spreads for their feedback before you commit.
Second that Clive, but students must remember that these are photography modules not modules on book and graphic design so advice will be brief!
Oh yes, certainly should be kept short like, ‘Don’t do it!’ Hahahahaha
🙂 Hahahahaha
Hi everyone… I’m going to risk posting something, even though I can not see the videos (the host site is blocked in the country I live, but this site is not).
I’m on my fourth course with OCA, and for me there has been a huge difference in the way I actually did the first course, and the second course.
First one was all cut / glue / print / folders etc, and I was really concerned that I didn’t do enough… But I think what helped me in the first course the most, was the changes in the way that I saw / learned / captured everything. From my first handwritten page in the folder, all the way through to the last page, which was typed, with embedded inspiration images, in a format an font that I feel is me, ‘talking’ to me logbook, and telling it something, and getting past the idea of putting stuff in there ‘what my tutor wants to read’.
I guess that OCA / Jose made these videos to give some guidelines, as to what other students do / did, since there has been so many questions recently (like always before an assessment event), but I wonder if some of you are not taking it too literally (I mean it in the nicest possible way, please see it as such).
Yes, tutors have a lot of experience, and they see a lot of material, but I do think there is still room for each individual student to disagree, or at least the space to say why he / she thinks differently from the tutor. Just put your reasons down…
I have done that, and more often than not, I have gone back a few weeks later and realized exactly why my tutor said something, that I couldn’t see / agree with at the time.
It’s an abstract thing, I think, but you have to make the way you do this part of your everyday life, and not a separate thing… or it will show as such.
Ok, enough from me… good luck everyone!
Dewald
‘I do think there is still room for each individual student to disagree, or at least the space to say why he / she thinks differently from the tutor. Just put your reasons down…
I have done that, and more often than not, I have gone back a few weeks later and realized exactly why my tutor said something, that I couldn’t see / agree with at the time.’
This is the learning experience and it’s expected.’}
As a student’s understanding becomes more sophisticated then perhaps they begin to see issues where they didn’t see them before and thought they were simply being gainsaid by the tutor.
These are the things that students should be recording in their learning logs. Don’t just write something down and forget it but go back to earlier comments and add new ones as ones ideas and understanding change…that is the learning journey.
Dewald’s contribution is illuminating for me. He explains that he has changed the ways he presents things through self-reflection and learning on the different courses he has done so far and has now found those methods which he feels represent his own creativity, self-expression and communication.
I am learning that photography has many uses/purposes. It is concerned with visual images but it is no longer just about marks on paper as there are so many ways to communicate both an image and its message nowadays. To paraphrase McLuhan, “The medium is the message”.
The sense I am making of the videos and the discussion around their content is that I can present in any way I choose for formal assessment. However, I need to remember that my presentation is not only the means whereby I am communicating my work, creativity and judgment but is a communication in itself. This means, for example, that if a book was intended to be the final outcome of the work/project that book should be included in the presentation and display my work to its best advantage. I therefore need to be careful about the format I choose and the quality of the printed work.
I know my own work very well and understand its layout and this includes my blog/learning journal. However, if I decide to go for formal assessment at the end of the Course, the Assessors will only have a certain amount of time available to assess my work and understand my thought processes. Therefore I should make it as easy as possible for them. In addition, I need to make sure that I have communicated why I chose a particular route.
I think that you have hit the nail on the head.
Thankyou for the videos. I am about to submit my third
assesment and the video that explaind all about submiting
prints was of great inportance because i was about to send
my prints in sleeves.So now i can adjust my assesment submision.
Now I am confused !
I do all my work the old fashioned way I don’t do blogs this is my first step to communicating with other OCA members and even that is a learning curve.
Since starting this course nearly two years ago and recently deciding to submit my first assignment for the degree after all.
I have become increasingly aware of my lack of skills and just how long it takes me to grasp things
Basically I have found that I am dyslexic and and numerically dyslexic too.Not easy when it comes to F numbers I can tell you.
So using the blogs etc is not an option for me at the moment ,too much learning in one go.
I love taking photos and I know I have some talent,but not everyone is comfortable with blos/disc etc .
I will continue my old fashioned way and gradually learn some of the techy stuff but I hope this will not go against me when it comes to assessing.
The video was interesting and has helped, but do I still send my 5 journals ,my work with amendments, all my photos, how many photos on card or mounted etc etc.
I won’t be sending this amount of work to IMPRESS ! That is all I can do at the moment.I hope it will be my photos that impress and the fact that I have progressed during the course
That is precisely why I will vigorously resit attempts to be too prescriptive in terms of assessment requirements. I want to see what the individual student makes of the tasks set not how well they can follow instructions. Keep going the old fashioned way if it suites you.
Incidentally the word ‘necessarily’ is not in the title by accident.
Re Black v White etc. Having just arranged and hung an exhibition, we refuse to have anything with mounts other than white/cream and at a push have one with a black mount. There is a way round it if you so wish by putting a small border to the image in the colour you wish.
Hope this is useful.
With Rob’s help, I now managed to view all the videos. Thanks to all. I know that I’ve picked up on a few things I would for sure have done incorrectly have I sent in a book or mounted prints again….
I don’t envy the assessors their job, but something that did come to mind was, that opening every submission, must be like opening a small intimate package of a person, and that must be something special… that student has worked or lived with his / her work for some time, and is for sure to some extent an extension of that student’s personality and life.
Not everyone presents it the same way, because we are all individuals. Sadly some work will present better than others, some people will get higher marks.
Of course (and there was a discussion about this earlier that personal circumstances should / shouldn’t be taken in account as we are adult students) the assessors are not robots, and I hope they don’t (to put it maybe harsh) become blunt to appreciating this, when seeing so much work in a limited time span.
Again, interesting and informative. Thanks
Dewald
Just to add… I don’t by any means say that it should influence the assessors’ way of grading the work, but purely enjoying their work.
I think that the mix of comments from Dewald, Catherine and Jane are pretty much spot on. For me, I have listened to the advice from my three tutors so far and pretty much tried to respond accordingly – I suppose I have accepted that they generally knew much more than me and that this is part of my learning process. It is only now that I am starting on my fourth course that I feel more confident and competent to listen and challenge rather than just listen and learn.
I found the videos extremely useful, so thank you very much for them. I listened, I learnt, I challenged, and now I will do my own thing. Look out for those black backgrounds making a come back!…(not).
Just to add something on the black backgrounds – I’ve recently bought (a reprint of) Tono Monogatari by Moriyama, and this is printed on black pages (the photo part). It’s a small book – 10×15 portrait, and the images are generally landscape, so they’re approx. 6×10. Small, in other words. As it’s by Moriyama, the images are also quite dark, resulting in an experience that is very intense but also quite tiring on the eyes. On the whole though, it works. Or at least it does for me.
Is black of the moment though? Not in general, but I think the choice of whether to use it would depend on the work at hand. Something that I guess has been mentioned before… : )
It requires a fine, informed, judgement because, as I seem to remember Peter saying somewhere or other, that black isn’t black.
In a properly designed and printed book the tone of the black,its surface quality laid on the paper and its effect would have been carefully considered, evaluated and adjusted.
Also there would have been a thought through reason for adopting the approach that would probably be more sophisticated than ‘it makes it look punchier’. ‘ }
The original book will possibly have been printed using different techniques – often photogravure, which gives a different black to digital printing techniques. Not sure if this will have been the case here…
And yes, these books are the art, originally the images were not for hanging on gallery walls.
I was told by my internationally respected tutor at Goldsmiths that the Japanese consider the book to be the optimum form for photography with gallery hangings seen to be rather inferior.
Producing a black out of CMYK is a black art in itself. ‘ }
Yes, this was certainly the case, although things are changing I believe. Part of this started thanks to Szarkowski over at MoMA…
I’m getting a slowly growing collection of reprints together – I can only mange the reprints, and even some of these are expensive. I saw an original of Farewell Photography by Moriyama advertised for nearly £14k the other day. I’ve got someone trying to track down the reprint in Japan for me, but this will still cost me about £80!
I’ll be looking into this Japan / book thing Rob, if you don’t mind… since it just struck me, that there are precious few galleries (with photos / pictures) here, and I never actually thought that it could be sometime to do with what is seen as the ultimate art!
There is one gallery in Suzhou (except for the excellent museum) which I visit with every single artist change, but other than that, nothing worth much. Shanghai is the closest place to see something.
Don’t see myself printing books soon, but something I will look into for sure…
Dewald
Why would I mind?
Well, Jose! You’ve certainly stirred up some controversy here. After reading all of this and reflecting on it I have concluded that I will continue to have the confidence to stick with my own judgements on presentational forms. I accept that not all assessors are going to agree with me, however, that’s their mistake not mine! More seriously, though it is an art degree, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is not like a degree in mathematics, and we have to accept there will be some softness and natural variation in the judgements that are made. The moderation process should help to reduce this variation, and it would be reasonable to expect moderators to exert particular care around the grade borderlines, as is normal HEI practice.
Help ! The video keeps breaking up. I’m sure it’s my problem but I don’t know how to sort it.Can you help?
If you sign up on vimeo (it’s free) you can download the videos, although they are quite large. Once downloaded, you don’t need to worry about them breaking up, as this will be a download speed thing (are you watching at peak hours – i.e. during lunch at work?)
I’ve also rehosted them (with OCA permission, of course) on my blog (www.robtm.co.uk – in the other stuff section). This was done primarily for Dewald and those others over in China, where vimeo is blocked, but feel free to look there. They are a lower quality though, as I’ve compressed them.
There are so many things it could be Marjorie. Wait for a few hours and see if it cures itself; in the mean time try on another device if you have one.
I’ve just found this long stream and would like to put in my pennyworth.
To quote Dewald
‘Not everyone presents it the same way, because we are all individuals. Sadly some work will present better than others, some people will get higher marks’.
Assessors will do their very best to be fair and rational, and not allow personal preference to cloud their judgment.
We seem to have got bogged down with subjective issues, such as paper types, mounts, borders etc. I agree with Peter H, if you are sure it fits the concept of your work and you can offer a critically valid justification for your style of presentation in your supporting texts, the assessors will evaluate accordingly.
If you want to get your ‘eye in’ about different types of presentation try to go to as many photography exhibitions as possible, and take time to go to browse in good book shops/ art galleries and discover how published photographers present themselves.
And, yes, as Rob said start collecting photography books. They are often relatively short print runs and the big names often gain in value.
I bought Josef Koudelka’s Exiles about 15 years ago for about £25.00. I’ve been showing it to students ever since, (daytime job) so it’s now pretty dogeared. According to Amazon it’s now worth £299.00.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joseph-Koudelka-Exiles-Josef/dp/0500542082
Over and out!