Practical - Reflective Post

On reflection, I learnt a lot about reportage work and story telling when carrying out this project. I discovered the challenges of creating a coherent body of work whilst experiencing a new place and immersing myself into the story and the group of people that the story is about. It was difficult to balance my existence within the place I was visiting, to be a member of the camp and to contribute to it, but also be a passive observer of the camp documenting what I was witnessing. I think in hindsight I was perhaps too much the former than the latter, and could have made more work had I been less involved. However I do still believe that being involved is a way to learn about the subjects more and to get a better understanding of the story you are telling through the work. Another tricky thing was to figure out what the story was that I was trying to tell, and how to create and consolidate the work created into a body of work that effectively communicates that. Deciding on an angle to approach the project is something that can often be illusive until a later stage, making it difficult to create the work whilst on location with said angle in mind.

Drawing on location itself is a struggle. Without keeping the practice up, getting back into it can be disheartening and disappointing when the results don't turn out too great. Trying to balance this accurate capturing of forms whilst also making sure the story is being told in a justified way is a constant battle.

As a practical exploration of my essay I am unsure how successful the project was. I don't think I really explored my question very much within the work I made throughout the project, in that I didn't make a body of work that addressed the issue of the truth claim of reportage very specifically. I did carry out a reportage project and with that I can question the truth claim, but perhaps I should have approached the project and practical with more of a focus on the question I was supposedly exploring. Also, the project itself was very limited, consisting only of the trip to Faslane. Had I been more proactive and productive I could have made more work outside of the trip about the same topic, giving the project a more varied and rich response.