Week 4
We're done!
As of approximately 1:00pm today, the final FDA Commercial Photography students left for Christmas. An adequate time for reflection on my first term at AUCB.
I think I can speak for most of us in saying we've had quite a ball. It's undoubtedly daunting at first but everyone already seems to be treating the place like a second home. Feet on the sofas. It's not all been plain sailing but we've hardly had to fight the system the whole way either (On which note, make sure you buy your copy of Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the name of, for Christmas number one!)
It's been interesting to see everyone's work coming in and out of the darkrooms and digital suite. Some familiar with film, digital, both. Unfortunately due to the strict requirements of image content our first Crit didn't exactly display a varied selection of images. I'm hoping with the following units after Christmas and subsequently our self written briefs we'll see a far more personal voice emerging in everyone's work.
Something I think we'll certainly be seeing after Christmas is the class-wide transition to digital. Using film was a requirement of the unit past, and given a choice I've not spoken to anyone who wouldn't side with technology. Choosing to further their knowledge of Photoshop in lieu of the darkrooms.. Sensible move. We are practicing commercial photography students, after all.
I even managed to enjoy a unit on Photographic Visual Culture! Trust me, you're more likely to see the Pope disband the Church for Science.
That covers the work. Half (Okay not half) the point of University nowadays is to meet new people. Potentially the same people you'll be leading the industry with (And competing against) in the years to come. And I really have met some corkers. Arts universities definitely attract a certain type of person. Mulling around the darkrooms and studios you're never more than 10 seconds away from a conversation with a stranger. It's a fantastically friendly place.
So now I've cleaned my flat, I'm packing up and travelling (On a 5 hour 30 minute train journey) home. Hopefully to be greeted by a good friend and a KFC. What more could one ask for.
I'l save Christmas talk for next weeks blog!
Week 3
And we're still here!
As far as I'm aware, the majority of Universities ceased trading this Friday past. Leading to the inevitable abundance of shrill cries from everyone I know not studying at AUCB, "You've not finished yet?!". Well no, I haven't, and frankly, good.
RANT WARNING - If you hate people moaning on the Internet, please skip to "Moving swiftly on.."
It seems every students aim in life, from pre-school to University, continued on through working adulthood to retirement, is to milk as much time off from whatever they should be doing as possible. Through compulsory education I completely understand, I do. You're young (I still am), forced to arise at 7:30 every morning to go somewhere you don't want too, to learn a myriad of skills you truely believe you'll have no use for upon your departure from whatever establishment you have to attend. It especially sucks if you attend somewhere that takes the Governments recommended guidelines for hours of Physical Education per week and doubles it (Unless you happen to attend a School where extreme sports are part of the curriculum, answers in the comments if you did!).
Now you've left school. You've chosen to carry on into further education and gain some A levels, perhaps a BTEC. Well done. The real gem is that this is all still free (to you). So many people transition from Year 11 into lower sixth form without so much as a hiccup and a long summer holiday. By this point you wouldn't be blamed for thinking all education was an easy financial ride.
But now you've done your AS levels and you're thinking about University. The big league. More biscuits than you can possibly imagine.
Given your current experience of the educational system - and the level of detachment you, as a student, have from the financial preceedings soon to follow - you rarely have to worry about the cost of it! Let me make one thing Evian water clear..
UNIVERSITY COSTS YOU MONEY!
I'm not talking about the money your parents pay in compulsory tax to cover your education, or the money you'll pay in compulsory tax to cover your childrens. I'm talking about money you will choose to accept from the Government to pay for your course, which like every other loan, you have to pay back. You are paying a University to provide you with a service, and by sending you away for as much of the year as possible it potentially limits the bang for buck you're receiving on your education. You want the chance to be there as much as possible, not on holiday!
Would you pay £3.3k to own a car to be told you can only drive it for 25 weeks of the year? Whist your friend who opted for something else gets to drive it for 30? Thought not.
Fear not, that should hopefully be my last OAP routine for 2009.
Moving swiftly on, I recently stumbled upon some video interviews that are well worth a watch, featuring amongst others no other than Solve Sundsbo and Tim Walker.
http://www.showstudio.com/project/infashion
Many of their photos grace my wall, and are both absolutely fantastic, inspirational photographers.
Personal work this week has been relegated largely to typing and Photoshop. I'm just racking my brains for something to show you.
Nothing is coming up. Instead, a particularly beautiful image of Coca Rocha, by Tim Walker.
http://foe.blog.so-net.ne.jp/_images/blog/_494/foe/coco-rocha-by-tim-walker-for-vogue-uk-5.jpg
Aha, something just came up. The night before last I attended a party. Upon my return home I was advised to start watching the LIFE series on BBC iPlayer, narrated by David Attenborough. As we're all well aware, you never turn down a David Attenborough documentary, and this is no less amazing than any of his others. Unfortunately this took me till roughly 4:30am, by which point I decided it would simply be best to stay up and take photos of the sunrise. One short trip to the beach later and I was contently freezing my fingers off in the darkness. As the title of the blog is Seaside Student, I thought it only too apt to show you the seaside near which I reside.
Unfortunately the stiching didn't work terribly well, and I apologise for the size (The original image is 36849x5223, which is 183.55mp - A little too big for blogging).. Oh and I didn't account for wave movements so they're all half cock. I'l do this again properly with a heavy ND filter and some smooth water. Due to width limitations of my blog that also isn't the whole image. Click here if you would like to see it.
If you're not doing so already, get into the Christmas spirit! You miserly git!
Week 2
"Imagine your worst nightmare. Your mum, your sister, your girlfriend, all leave you for the same man.. And you still quite like him.. The handsome swine! It's Michael Bublé!" - Dermot O'Leary, Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
Someone that's been popping up on my playlists quite a lot in the past week, and I must say, it's fantastic. Now we're into December and the Christmas cheer is kicking in, the red cups are at Starbucks, the German Christmas markets are in town (Of which Manchester boasts the best - Bournemouth possibly the worst). A bit of Bublé is just what you need to kickstart the festive season.
Happy music is all the more important when spending most of your waking hours in the darkrooms, too. Genuinely depressing places. Light, dark, light, dark, ad nauseam. I admit, I'm a digital kid. I was born far too late to hold a genuine interest in developer, stop bath or fix. Negatives infuriate me, or more, their delicate nature. And all the waiting around is an accident waiting to happen. There is one thing however, you cannot beat about film (Other than it's highlight retention). Providing you're willing to give into it. Acceptance. Or perhaps more accurately, lowered standards. (Or maybe we have unachievable standards with digital? Oooo!)
Whilst the odd print comes out where I'm literally climbing the walls to just take a spot heal brush to it, there is a definite quality of accepting the idiosyncrasies of negatives and prints you simply wouldn't stand for with digital. You could spend the next 3 hours in Photoshop causing more harm than good, or you could step back from your nice C-type print, warts and all, and just think "You know what, not bad. Not bad at all.". This generally doesn't stop me being any less pissed off when a perfectly good photo is ruined by a problem with the emulsion, though.
And you still can't really beat 5x4 transparency. Except with maybe 10x8 transparency.
Will I be saying goodbye to film and back into the arms of my beloved 5DMKII after Christmas? Probably. Will I miss it? Certainly.
So, in the spirit, a photo, Fuji Pro 160S, Hassleblad 501, printed on Kodak Endura (Excuse the colour, it's just a snap taken of the print)
Film on people!