Photography education - feedback

Thank you to all those who responded to my recent post regarding education and in particular photography. The comments and suggestions have been most informative. I was a little disappointed that no full-time educationalists were able to contribute to the discussion as I feel their viewpoints and position are critical to how the industry/education responds to the new demands being placed upon it.

From the feedback I received from students, professionals and part-time lecturers(photographers), there seemed to be a consensus regarding the following:

- teaching of core camera skills and work-flow practices
- a need to develop a far greater understanding of the business elements of the industry
- realistic views and goals of student progression into the photography industry

and also
- students should be prepared to work far more independently at higher levels
- less 'spoon feeding' of students in regards to ideas and responses to briefs/assignments
- less able students should be 'allowed' to fail

I know some of these comments are extremely controversial in the current academic environment but many industry watchers perceive a severe dilution of the current academic awards and a reticence amongst many institutions/exam boards to be realistic about students' true level of  competence/ability.

Many of the students who respond were already despondent about how their qualification was perceived by industry even before completing  it and many felt the award was 'not worth the paper it was written on' in respects to their future employment. Also they felt that many of the briefs/assignments they received bore no relationship to the requirements of the 'real world'.

Personally I feel they should be a balance struck in the structure of higher level courses between the real needs of industry at the moment and also the development of the individual as both a photographer and image producer.

I don't feel that there is an easy answer  but with the coming increase in students fees and the vast reduction in education spending (reduction both in teaching hours/resources), I feel that this conversation needs to be held.

Following my previous post, I will try over my next few educational posts, to try and include feedback and views from those in the graphics/advertising industry.

For those with a keen interest in the photography education sector, Skillset have posted several reports on the industry and education:

www.skillset.org/uploads/pdf/asset_9291.pdf

If you have any comments, I would be delighted to hear them especially those of full-time academics. 

Richard Southall

www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Initial preview images - Spaghetti

My new personal project - Spaghetti, is starting to take shape. I have attached a couple of preview images for comments and feedback.

Richard Southall
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Do photography students ask too much of their courses?

Over the last couple of months, through my involvement in FRAME and education in general, I tried to ask recent and current photography students what they expect from their courses and what they feel they should be taught. There seems to a growing resentment among those questioned about the quality and quantity of the education they have received especially given the rising cost of tuition fees.

Also, I have asked for feedback from current local practitioners who still hire assistants and have views about the trade skills of this new crop of aspiring photographers.

We are asking these questions at FRAME so as to devise an effective and rounded strategy to support new and aspiring talent in the West Midlands. This will hopefully be a multi-pronged approach that will involve current practitioners and current and former educationalists.

Below are a few of the comments and suggestions that have been made:

-       Students should expect at least 12/15 hours contact time per week with course tutors on higher level courses (level 4 and above)

-       Tutors on the courses should have been or are still practitioners of photography (preferably with 10+ years of commercial experience).

-       The individual modules within the qualifications should be based on ‘real life’ commercial scenarios.

-       A stronger emphasis on photographic workflow (both digital and conventional).

-       Far more workshops on the basic skills of photographer i.e. lighting, studio practice, digital work-flow, colour management etc.

-       Far more detailed and frank feedback both in tutorials and assignment assessments.

-       Clearer aims and objectives of both the individual modules and how they relate to the overall outcomes of the course.

Also students specifically asked for greater emphasis to be given on the following topics:

-       teaching of key camera skills (including medium & large format and darkroom practice)

-       Colour management

-       Basic lighting techniques or people and product photography

-       Health & Safety and its relevance to the photo industry

-       Detail business practice including marketing, accountancy, insurance, current legislation and copyright

-       Visiting lecturers who will give workshops on specific specialties such as journalism, portraiture, studio, architectural etc.

This is not meant to be a rant against education or dig at any particular establishments but merely an attempt to see where we are going with training of our future photographers and image-makers.

We (I) at FRAME are very keen to get feedback from all concerned especially current lecturers. Are students being unrealistic in their demands? Do you feel that they should be more self-guided in their learning at this level or do you feel the students want to be ‘spoon-fed’?

We are eager for all comments so that we develop and refine a strategy to support all new incomers to this professional that we dearly love.

Richard Southall

www.emphasis.biz

www.richardsouthall.co.uk

New mini project update

The theme of the new mini project is starting to develop and will be based around the architecture of Spaghetti junction in Birmingham. The underside areas of this massive structure are quite bizarre and in many ways reflect the interior of a modern cathedral.The intention now that the majority of the day shots have been completed is to revisit the area at night with a large format Sinar camera and try to capture the lonely and haunting atmosphere while keeping true to an architectural interpretation.

Images to follow shortly - provided the weather improves :)

Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

1st image from the new mini project

This is one of the 1st images back from the film processors yesterday. I am still a little concerned by the level of noise and grain structure reproduction I am getting from the Noritsu scanner at the lab. The other tendency of the scanner is to produce images with a tonal range akin to grade 0 on B&W printing paper.

I have yet to resolve my own scanning issues since the abortive attempt 2 weeks ago to try and make a scsi scanner work on the leopard operating system. Trust me when I say, life is to short to go through that level of frustration. I just hope that the new owner of my Minolta Film scanner doesn't attempt the same scenario.

Oh well - back to shooting!

Richard
www.emphasis.biz

www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Interior Shoots - London

A couple of very enjoyable residential shoots in London this month. The long hard shadows from the sun are starting to cause their annual problems again but I suppose we should make the most of the good weather while it lasts.

Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

New website - www.richardsouthall.co.uk

I am pleased to announce the completion and launch of our sister site (www.richardsouthall.co.uk) yesterday. The purpose of this new site is to show case all my recent and current personal projects. My recently completed project 'Smethwick' is now online and can be bought in book form directly from Blurb publishers.

All images on the site can be purchased individually as either archive quality ink-jet prints or c-type prints. Please contact me directly for prices and sizes.

The site will be regularly updated and I will look forward to hearing your comments and feedback as the site develops and grows.

Yours,


Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Book Project - 'Smethwick' is finished!!

At last, my current project is completed! This has been a 12 month project looking at the slow decline of Smethwick, once the industrial workshop of the world. This has been a challenging yet rewarding project for myself and it has allowed me to dabble again with older technologies and remind myself of the joy of using film.
The book can be previewed, in full, at the link below:
 http://www.blurb.com/books/1710491

 I will also be putting a link up shortly to allow people to buy individual prints from the images in the book.

If you have any queries or would like more information about the project, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours,
Richard


www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Bourjois - London

Above are a couple images from the shoot we undertook at Bourjois head offices in London last week. Many thanks to the client's customer for all the assistance they gave throughout the shoot.

Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Personal Work - Dovedale

Early this month, I managed to escape for the day to Dovedale. I have been working around a few new ideas for my next project and decided to use the opportunity to do a few test shots with an old Hasselblad and some Tri-x. Unfortunately, the weather conditions were far from brilliant and the light was of a particularly poor quality.
I ended up re-rating the Tri-x at 320iso and using a small Gorilla pod of had brought along with me. My original intention had been to process the films in Rodinal but I let my locally processor loose with them instead (ID11). In retrospect, this was probably a mistake and I should have done the processing myself. The Rodinal would have given the images a little more 'punch' in the blacks and brought up a touch more shadow detail.

We live and learn :)

Richard
www.emphasis.biz

Henleys - Bury

An interesting assignment from the early part of this week. This particular job presented several problems with mixed lighting from 2 varied sources (daylight & a range of varying colour temperature tungsten bulbs). A combination of filtration and post production overcame the problem but yet again a good quality Macbeth reference card saved the day:)

Well done to the guys at Design LSM for another strong design solution and good luck with the awards submission.

Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Book Update - Smethwick

Yesterday, I managed to get out again to do some more images for this project. I think that this project is almost a 'wrap' with only one more shoot required. The aim is to produce a short book of approximately 25/30 images that encapsulate my reactions to this area's slow and painful industrial decline. Most of the buildings to be featured in the book were photographed by myself over 20 years ago at the beginning of my career when the area was vibrant and relatively prosperous. A full update including a final publishing date will be announced soon.

Chaobaby - Trafford Centre, Manchester

Congratulations to the Chaopraya Restaurant team on their latest venue, Chaobaby, at the Trafford Centre, Manchester. Many thanks to the staff for all their help and assistance during the shoot last week. Love the new fish tank :)

Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk

Historic buildings - Birmingham

Yesterday was a little bit different, I shot the former central Birmingham synagogue which is now the home of Athol Masonic Lodge. One of the interesting features of the main lodge room is the organ which dates back to the time of the original synagogue, 200 years ago. This was supposedly played by Mendelssohn during his visits to Birmingham. A truly unique building which should be treasured as part of Birmingham's history.

Book Project - 'Clubbed' (working title)

It's taken a little while but I am now a lot closer to the final selection of venues for my 15 year nightclub retrospective. I have sifted through between 3/400 shoots and narrowed it down to these.

Venue	Location	Operator	Designer
Strawberries	London
Club Cube	Edinburgh	Alfredo Alongi	Graven Images
Bed	Watford	Gatecrasher	Matt Rawlinson
Gatecrasher	Birmingham	Gatecrasher	Cal Fortis/Design at Source
Oceana	Kingston	Luminar Leisure	Bignell Shacklady Ewing
Jongleurs	Nottingham	Regent Inns
Liquid	Romford	Luminar Leisure	Core Design
Zanzibar	Birmingham	Springwood Leisure	Blueprint
Club Wow	Manchester	First Leisure	Tibbatts
Barcelona	Leeds	First Leisure	Tibbatts
Atlantis	Wolverhampton	First Leisure	Tibbatts
The Works	Nottingam	First Leisure	Esquisse
Isis	Nottingham	First Leisure
Eros	Edinburgh	First Leisure	Esquisse
Walkabout	Birmingham	Regent Inns	John Glover
Jam House	Birmingham	First Leisure
Evolution	Leeds		Blueprint Design
All Bar One	Birmingham	M&B	McAndrew Watts
Empire	Milton Keynes	First Leisure	Tibbatts
Nightingales	Birmingham	Co-operative	GMP
Flamingoes	Blackpool	Co-operative
Kartouche	Ipswich	Mezzanine Group
Mezzanine	Wolverhampton	Mezzanine Group
Chinawhite	London	Privately Owned	Tibbatts
Sticky Fingers	Manchester	Bill Wyman	Design LSM
Club Aquarium	London	Privately Owned
DNA	Birmingham
Browns	London
The Works	Birmingham	First Leisure	Esquisse
Mood	Liverpool
Mechu	Birmingham	Town & Country	Matt Rawlinson
The Bar	Windsor	Luminar Leisure
MPV Bar	Leeds
Equinox	London	First Leisure
Heaven & Hell	Leeds
Babylon	Greenock
Ikon/Diva	York	Northern Leisure	Tibbatts
Eros	Newcastle
Miss Moneypennys	Birmingham	Privately owned	Patrick Casey
Air (Gods Kitchen)	Birmingham	Privately owned
Ministry of Sound	Birmingham	M&B

As you can see, it is quite an interesting and varied list. The intention is publish a 90/100 page book with a 2 page feature on each of the above venues. This feature will include about a page and half of images, with the rest given over to quotes and comments from the designers, architects, owners, builders and trade press who were involved in these projects.

As you see from the list, some of our project information is either out of date or missing (I am surprised how few copies of DI and Night I kept).This is where you can help, any additional info you can supply me would be extremely helpful. I am also really keen to get in contact with the following people:
Paul Fowler
Steve Thomas
Tony Pinkstone
Paul Day
Matt Turner
So if you contact nos or email address, I would really appreciate them. If you wish to be involved in the project, please do not hesitate to contact (it won't cost you a dime!).

The aim is to publish the book in late January next year and also have an exhibition of the work included around May/June.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Absolute Tenpin - Slough

Latest images from yesterday's shoot. A very enjoyable day and many thanks to the staff at the venue for all their assistance.

Emphasis Autumn Update

Over the last week or so, we have been putting the final touches to our 1st quarterly portfolio update. This will be sent out by email and will include the latest images from both my commercial and personal portfolios. I am eager to get your feedback on what we are doing and especially about the way my own personal work is developing.

In this issue, I have included a couple images from my new book project which should reach completion around the end of October. I am in the last stages of editing at the moment and hope to have a draft by the end of the month.

If you haven't received a copy of our update and you wish to, please email me and I will send you one by return.

e: richard@emphasis.biz

Cannock Chase - scouting trip

Recent image from a scouting trip for landscape locations in the West Midlands. This will hopefully form part of my new book project for next year and a change in direction from my recent personal work.

Latest images from London Residential Shoot

Images from our latest London residential interior shoot.

www.emphasis.biz
Architectural Photography

The project continues....

I spent an enjoyable morning yesterday working on the new book project. As yet, I haven't decided on a title but I feel the images are starting to work as a cohesive set. The quality of the light around 11am was particularly good and the range of old/derelict buildings within the Constitution Hill area was challenging. It is a while since my last wander in this area and was surprised to see the old HQ nightclub building had been demolished.

Attached to this post are several of the 1st edits from yesterday shoot.

The Adox film mystery

Over the last 3 months, I have started shooting 5'x4' B&W film again. This has been part of my new book project about West Bromwich. I was particularly drawn to experiment with Adox film emulsions and in particular the 25 iso variety. I was looking for high image detail capture combined with a warm 50's feel.

Both my lab and I was surprised by the results we received from the processed film. The film was processed in standard ID11 and fixed for 10 minutes. The processed film exhibited a warm yellow cast the around edges (up to an inch deep) and even when the film was re-fixed, the effect refused to disappear.

We have since tried several other developers with similar results (yes, we have changed the fix) and are now considering a more traditional developer such as Rodinal.
Fortunately none of the yellowing shows through on the scans we have produced and I am so far pleased with the results. Will report back once we have used the Rodinal!

Limited edition prints now available!

Further to quite a few recent request regarding individual images from the book, Passing through Gethsemane, which I published last year. I have now these images available for purchase through our website and they are supplied as either C-Type prints or Archival inkjet prints.
The link to view the images is:

www.emphasis.biz/v/r/C59974050

The book can still be purchased and can be bought by following the link below:
www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/775260

Any queries, just email me!

The Cube, Birmingham

The Cube, in Birmingham, has been a fascinating project to watch progress over the last 2 years. Based at the Mailbox, it has proved to be a controversial build and has been dogged with financial difficulties. However it is really refreshing to see such a challenging project been undertaken in Birmingham.
The only downside to my first foray to shoot this project was the ubiquitous security guards who challenged and threaten me at every stage, even though the images were taken from the public highway. Oh well, Section 44 might be gone but the life of an architectural photographer does not improve!

July Update

July was a busy month with several really enjoyable shoots. Many thanks for all those that participated and the support they gave on the jobs. Enjoy the pics!