Matthew Mills

Creative Conserns

Reflection on the work that I have produced over my time doing this course shows a consistent theme that runs through. This shows a level of commitment to the specific subject fields. However, it doesn’t then show a varied level of experimentation and ‘challenge’. This could be down to the ways that I have felt that the projects that I have done could spring in another direction, or it could be that I have felt comfortable with the subject. I think that on reflection, I have challenged myself in other areas but could have done more to pursue different routes when looking at past work. I feel like this is somewhat down to the teaching that we had when it came to informed concepts and theory analysis that we never got shown how to do to a high level until later in the course. This new analysis of theory has helped me find a path that led me into the shooting of Bins. This is a subject that I didn’t think I would be shooting. However, the work that I have done to build to that point shows my personal development and changes in my thought process on what a ‘good’ image can be. 

Read (2017) ‘ Looking back at the concerns that form the backbone of the work and the interests that fuel it, with or without input from others, will serve to provide evidence of where they have been and point in the direction for the future. 

This statement from Read shows that the concerns that you might have in your work are what form the backbone of the work and keep the interest there that keeps you wanting to shoot more and fuel the fire. He also states that it can be “with or without input from others.” This input or lack of input from others can then point the work in a direction that is better due to the critical thinking that has been enforced with the view that it can be improved. A concern, therefore, is just a creative process of development, which can lead to a different path that was not initially imagined and can expose aspects of a piece of work that were hidden when first shooting the idea. 

The overall view of my work shows a process of creative decision-making and personal choices that either work or fail. Failure is just a way of saying development, as no work can fail completely as you always learn from the mistakes that are made. Edison says, “The road to success is paved with accelerated failures.”.

References

Read and Simmons (2017) Photographers and Research, The Role of Research in Contemporary Photographic Practice. Taylor and Francis, New York