Fashion: Final Presentation

 We have produced a presentation for our fashion unit which we will present in front of the whole year tomorrow. We will all talk about our individual roles, sharing out the powerpoint between us.

Fashion Presentation

I am very pleased with this unit as I feel that I put a lot of effort into many different aspects of it, working particularly well with certain team members. I also felt that our time management was very efficient and we were well organised for the shoot day. Although we had some problems with post-production I also think that we work well as a group to figure out any problems we had at this stage producing an image that we are all satisfied with. 

The presentation in front of Jonathan, Sam, Steve & the rest of the year went really well and I was a lot less nervous about this than the commission pitch despite the larger numbered audience. I was very happy to present ours first being group 1 and then was able to relax while listening to the other groups present their 10 minute presentations.
I cannot believe that it has already been a whole year of my photography degree gone, and so far I have felt really happy about my performance throughout all of the units set so far working not only individually but also as a team. The differently set out units have helped me to learn how to work through varying situations and I have felt my confidence and professionalism grow. 

Commission Exhibition: Pitch

The following powerpoint is Ollie Gapper, Lily Kale, Salvador Dewald & my commission pitch explaining our process, developing our concept for our exhibition through venue choice, series placement, lighting choices & a series of other decisions which we made as a team.
Commission Pitch1

During the pitch we will all speak about our different roles and what decisions we were mainly involved in. As curator, Ollie will take charge of the majority of the pitch particularly our exhibition concept, printing choices & the self evaluation, while I will talk about the venue, explain floor plans & lighting choices, Lily will discuss the press release & images labels and Salvador will explain his designs for the poster & exhibition program.

After we did initial research into the possible venue choices we decided to choose Fort Amherst due to its advantages in displaying our work. I visited the location & made floor plans, and felt very strongly about designing and making a scale model as well as figuring out work placement & helped the group figuring out lighting for each of their photographs.
Ollie was very keen to research different printing choices for all of us due to his experience in this area of photography; after discussing with each of us the effect we wanted to create, he helped us choose the perfect printing paper & process.
Lily thought that her strongest skill was writing therefore she was best for writing the press release for our exhibition, which she did by using a combination of all of our concepts, the exhibition concept and gallery details. She was also in charge of supporting us in designing labels & writing to go with our series of images.
As Salvador is skilled on InDesign he would be best at designing the poster to advertise our exhibition; he also decided to create a possible exhibition program which would be handed out during the private viewing.

We have worked really well as a team and despite the limited time we had due to the fashion unit shoots, we have worked efficiently and produced a solid pitch and exhibtion plan that we would all be happy to create. We worked well as a team dividing out the roles in response to each individual's strengths while also collaborating & supporting one another.

Commission Exhibition: Scale Model with Images

After everyone in the group decided what sizes they would want their images printed I took the measurements and converted them to be proportional to the scale of the model I have made. I figuring out these to the ratio 1 metre : 1 inch which I proceeded to use to scale down the photographs with the scaled frames & mounts we each decided on, I then printed them out, cut them out.
I discussed & checked with the group members as to how they wanted to sequence their images and where they wanted them positioned within the space; after this I placed them in the different rooms which has helped us to visualise the space much more & have an idea of how the space would look for the exhibition.
 

 

 

We are all really pleased with the placing of all of our work and feel it works really well within the space; by having my work at the beginning and end of the venue this creates a nice flow through the exhibition. The rooms that we have positioned the different series of photographs in work well to create the right atmosphere for the subject matter in the images. The model has also helped us to understand how lighting would work within the space.
In our meeting today Ollie has been figuring out small details for the pitch such as prices, and Salvador has been finalising the poster as well as designing a program which we would hand out as a limited edition during the private viewing. Lily has also been finishing off the press release and making it look formal, while I have have been fine tuning our ideas for lighting and image positioning while also producing the powerpoint presentation for the pitch with the help of Lily.

Commission Exhibition: Meeting with Steffi

Today we had a last minute meeting with Steffi Klenz to discuss what is required for the pitch next Tuesday combined with the blog post Steffi posted up on the photography blog I have made a series of notes to help me and my group to do our presentation and pitch:  

The pitch must be a 10 minute powerpoint presentation with 15 minutes Q&A and feedback from Steffi Klenz, Paul Wombell & Bruno Ceschel; the presentation can be done by one member or all the members of the group. The following points must be mentioned and outlined in our pitch or are important to remember for the presentation:

- Concept of exhibition

- Why you have chosen the venue over any other

- Group member’s roles

- Floor plan of chosen venue

- Model of exhibition space with proportionally sized images on walls

- How it would be lit

- Advertisement/posters/program design and ideas

- Press release indicating theme and title                                                                                                                                         - Tutorial will be in Rm. 806

PRESENTATION STRUCTURE

Our presentation must meet the following criteria:

1. A clear introduction to your proposed publication choice, outlining the concept behind your choice.

2. Include your Research and Visual References, with a clear explanation of what you think their significance is and why. 

Why have you chosen your particular exhibition venue? Or how has your research related to your proposal? 

What do you think are the most important factors that you have learnt from your research? How have the particularities of your chosen publication output influenced your own choices?

3. Highlight your editorial choices and the reasons behind your selection. You should discuss matters of curation, relationship of images to one another. Sequencing of images and the experience this creates for your audience. 

4. Roles and responsibilities, how you worked together as a team as well as individuals. 

5. Finally include a Self-Evaluation:

How do you think your editorial choices translate to your idea?  What have you learned? What could you have done better or what needed more consideration? How have you managed this task of the unit? What has been the most significant challenge regarding this task? How can you overcome them in the future?

We must refer to the unit brief to make sure we meet all of the criteria. Our pitch is scheduled on Monday 21^st in room 806 between 3 & 3:25; however if we want to we can put our presentation on to the computer desktop before the first pitch at 10:15.  

Commission Exhibition: Group Meeting 15/05

Today in the brief meeting with my group, Salvador, Lily and Ollie, we began by deciding on our roles in this process, they are as follows:

Roles:

Curator- Ollie

Writer- Lily

Architect/ Exhibition Designer- Amie

Artist/Designer- Salvador

These are the roles for each person because, Ollie has been figuring out overall themes & supporting others in the image selection process, Lily is keen to express our concepts through writing the press release and is controlling text throughout the exhibition, Salvador is designing the posters for the gallery and possible program to accompany the exhibition & I so far have designed the floor plans and built the model and plan to support in image placement through use of the model and lighting ideas.  

By considering our overall concept of lost purpose & melancholy and looking through the handwritten notes made by our family members, we discovered the quote ‘Invisible Bonds’ which we really related to everyone’s work in different ways. While Lily’s uncle and Ollie’s dad despite being isolated still have a bond with their family, Salvador’s subjects have all been left in nursing homes yet still have a bond to their families despite the separation and isolation they are experiencing. While with my images the subjects are dresses that were once worn by their owners and although they have been stored away they still have a connection to the owner, joining us together as a family. In the Press Release & Exhibition description that Lily is writing as the group’s writer, she plans to mention the reasoning behind this title and the overall subject matter of our exhibition.   

Exhibition poster designed by Salvador

We have decided we will all put matte white walls up in each room to give all of our work a nice clean backdrop.

The boards will cover over the fireplace in the extra room where Salvador’s work will be presented giving a vast white space to display his 3 A1 sized images printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, framed by ivory or white frames with 10cm mounts. He plans to have one image centrally positioned on each wall to create a feeling of isolation for the subjects.

Ollie & Salvador's mount inspiration

Ollie will have the two adjoining rooms on the lower floor again with dart walls on the two side walls of each room and covering the end wall (and in turn the fireplace). He plans to have seven images printed on pearl paper at 12x16” which would be presented on side walls; and he is also printing out two landscapes at A0 size (33.1 × 46.8”) which will both be displayed on the end walls. He plans to frame them with oak or black and have small mounts for the large images and thicker mounts for the small images. 

Lily will have her work presented in the first room you come to on the upper floor, she will have dart walls covering the hooks below the shelves where four images will be hung on either side, printed on pearl paper sized 12x16” mounted by a thin, ‘handmade’ frame holding all four images, as well as two images of the same size framed in a similar manner hung above the fire place.

Lily's framing inspiration

Lily will use the shelves to display the small sculptures her Uncle made.

I will print my images as previously mentioned, 40x60” on aluminium, I do not plan to frame my images, as I will use bulldog clips to hang the photographs to create this idea of hanging out the clothing on a washing line.

My Hanging Inspiration

Two of my images will be in corridors, one at the end of the corridor leading from the entrance hall to the first rooms on the lower floor and one at the end of the upper floor corridor before the staircase; this leads the audience through the exhibition due to the way they are all spread out. The other two prints will be isolated in the other room on the upper floor again mounted onto dart walls which will be positioned around the whole room not only giving a clean surface but also reducing the room size. The images in the corridors will be hung from whatever hooks are available or from fishing line while the other two will be hung by nails in dart walls.     

All of our series of images except Salvador’s photographs will be accompanied by writing written by the subjects or owners of the subjects to allow people to understand more about the story and background of the images. By Salvador not having writing and having his images in a separate room this emphasises the distance, loneliness & melancholy the people in the photographs must feel; this exaggerates the way he has photographed his subject’s obscured by doorways etc.    

As for lighting, Lily, Ollie and Salvador all want similar lighting, heavy illumination by using the existing lighting available soft lighting will be mounted to beams in the centre of the rooms; and in Salvador’s case because of the light already available and no beams he will have floor lights carefully positioned and protected from the public- this is possible due to the large space. This sort of lighting will work well with their work because of the natural lighting featured in all three of their series; however my images have black backgrounds and I want them isolated within the space they are in. Therefore, I plan to light them by having spotlights hung from the ceiling trained solely on the images with the surrounding lights turned off; I will do this for both the images in the corridor and in the room.

My Lighting Inspiration

We also decided that we will have the exhibition in June, with there being a private viewing on Friday 1^st and then running from 2^nd to 30^th June. Even though it will be Summer, from previous people’s exhibitions held here we have found that the location is still very cold due to no heating so we would plan to light the fire in the entrance hall to warm the whole location as much as possible.