Tutor Report Form

Student name: / Douglas Stephens
Student number: / 491082
Course/Module title: / Photography 2: Digital Photographic Practice
Assignment number: / 3: A Critical Review

Thank you for submitting your 3rd assignment, which brings this module to a conclusion. I hope you have enjoyed this opportunity to develop your photographic skills as well as to advance your critical thinking in relation to digital practice.

Feedback on assignment

This is a fairly well written text that draws upon relevant examples, which are discussed with some rigor.

Academic Style and Research

Although they are relevant, they are fairly seasoned examples, i.e. I have seen all of these discussed at length before. Although this is of course out of your hands, to better demonstrate the depth of your research, in future, try to find some less common examples within a subject area, if you can.

Judging by the examples of imagery you discuss, and your limited bibliography ( www.museumofhoaxes.com and www.famouspictures.org), the depth of your research is inadequate for serious study at HE level 5. Particularly with this assignment in mind, these may be a reasonable starting point for your investigations, but when discussing a topic with such polarized discussion, it is necessary to broaden your research.

A lack of references to specific points is problematic, particularly for study at HE Level 5. In any case, it is important for the reader to distinguish between the comments and viewpoints you have researched, and your personal assertions. It is also useful to know precisely ‘who said what’ for your own future reference.

Within the remit of this task, you are required to reach informed conclusions, and as it stands, there is no evidence that you have actually consulted any authority other than your own. With that said, it is important to draw and articulate your own opinion, but you must show how you have reached them.

The prose is clear and for the most part well written. But a few instances let down an otherwise engaging voice with a conversational style, e.g: “We don’t honestly think the crystal blue skies in the car advert will follow us around in our Cabriolet GTi mega coupe, but the image on the billboard is more appealing than the reality of trying to put the top back up during a downpour in Bognor Regis”. p.5

Also, don’t use capital letters for particular words to emphasize you’re writing voice; it shows a lack of consideration, proper vocabulary or adherence to academic conventions.

Subject Content and Discussion

You highlight some interesting points for consideration, such as bearing in mind the role of institutions and in particular editors. And you demonstrate a fairly good awareness of the questions surrounding some of these debates.

You do not make a proper distinction between photographs where the image is manipulated after it has been taken, and those where the actual event (or the composition of the event, in the case of Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, for instance) was manipulated deliberately to at the time of capture, to be passed off as an accurate depiction of an actual scenario.

Although you contextualize the National Geographic example quite well, there isn’t enough consideration of the historical contexts from which the other examples come from. Surely it is the case that the consequences of misleading an audience must be taken into account when judging the ethics of staged- or post-production manipulation? If, for instance and as you say, most adults are aware of the level of digital manipulation within commercial photography, then perhaps this isn’t of concern, but does that mean that more consideration should be given to the imagery we show to children? If a link really exists between heavily altered images and eating disorders, then how does this effect the ethics of beauty photography with the advertising industry? Thinking about the Walski incident: How does knowledge of the practices of Western photojournalists and editors (I’m positive, a very small minority of) influence the opinions of Iraqi civilians? If terrorist attacks are linked to media scandals (as I think they were in the staged British abuse of Iraqi prisoners that Piers Morgan published in the Mirror) then I think you are too lenient on Walski.

Learning Log

None submitted.

Suggested reading/viewing

If you wish to take explore this area in greater depth, then these are some relevant titles:

Macdonald, S. 2007 Propaganda and information warfare in the twenty-first century: altered images and deception operations, New York, Routledge.

MEYER, P. 1995. Truths & Fictions. A journey from Documentary to Digital Photography. New York, USA: Aperture.

MITCHELL, W. 1992. The reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

RITCHIN, Fred (2009) After Photography New York, USA: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Conclusions

I believe it is your intention to submit your work for this module for formal assessment. In its current state, this may pass at formal assessment, although I would strongly suggest reviewing it in light of my comments above, and particularly try to expand your research resources. As with your practical work, and as I have mentioned previously in feedback and in our correspondences, at HE level it is of paramount importance that you can justify your choices and demonstrate that you show an awareness of the broader issues surrounding your work. Specifically in relation to this submission, you need to demonstrate an awareness of different individual’s opinions in relation to the subject matter.

Tutor name: / Jesse Alexander
Date: / 13.09.12
Next assignment due: / n/a

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