Assignment Five Submission

A few days ago I submitted my final assignment, #Five, to my tutor. This was a momentous event. My last assignment on my photography degree course with the OCA.

The main thrust of this assignment was to set out my plans for presentation of Lifting the Curtain. I defined the scope of this work in a paper I submitted for assignment four:

1. Consider and evaluate possible modes of presentation. This should include (but not be restricted to) the following:

Photographic prints with caption cards
Image/text panels presented as photographic prints
Posters incorporating image and text
Postcards incorporating image and text
Prints with image and text on alternative substrates, e.g. newspaper, textiles and such like
Video
Book (in physical form) E-‐Book
Internet site
Lecture format

2. Research and evaluate possible venues (both physical and virtual) for showing the work. Venues to be considered should include (but not restricted to) the following:

Group exhibitions and open competitions Magazines (both physical and on-‐line)
Toynbee Hall (a charitable mission still in business today which was the original location of Charles Booth and his team in 1889)
Small galleries/cafes in Whitechapel and Spitalfields
The Idea Store Whitechapel – the borough’s flagship library, learning and information service
Shops in Spitalfields as distribution outlets for a book Dedicated website for online show
Distribution of book/E-‐Book via dedicated website with link to Toynbee Hall/Idea Store websites
Link with London School of Economics website (LSE maintain Charles Booth online database)
Exhibition in conjunction with London School of Economics Booth Archive (on-‐line)

3. Develop strategy for presentation

This will bring together my conclusions on modes of presentations and possible venues and take the form of a plan for taking the work into the public domain. This will include proposals on how I would promote the show in whatever form it takes e.g. exhibition, book, website and so on, along with estimates of costs and timescales.

4. Produce a ‘Pro Forma’ presentation for Assessment Submission to OCA

This will illustrate how the work will be presented and will include final versions of the presentation materials, e.g. prints, video, a book, website etc. What I present will depend upon the outcome of my research. In the event my proposed strategy for presentation includes a physical exhibition, I will also produce a plan of how the space would be laid out and details of supporting materials, e g. catalogue, posters and so on, and if at all possible photographs/video of the actual installation (this is a long shot but something worth aiming for).

My strategy for presenting the work is designed to fit with the concept and echoes the way in which Booth published his work. It takes the form of a hardback book and a display of image/text diptychs in an exhibition. Both these forms allow juxtaposition of image and text and can be designed so as to encourage the active and thoughtful engagement of the viewer/reader.

Lifting the Curtain - Exhibition Diptych 60x80 cm Installation Mock-up

Lifting the Curtain – Exhibition Diptych 60×80 cm Installation Mock-up

Lifting the Curtain - Exhibition Maquette (80x60 cm photographs with 10x8 inch framed texts)

Lifting the Curtain – Exhibition Maquette (80×60 cm photographs with 10×8 inch framed texts)

Lifting the Curtain – Book Format

Throughout his survey Booth and his team used Toynbee Hall Settlement in Spitalfields, East London as their headquarters. Toynbee Hall is still going strong today and its vision remains ‘To eradicate all forms of poverty’. My plan is to link the presentation of my work to a fundraising effort for Toynbee Hall through sales of the book and exhibition prints. I would pay for the printing and book production and any funds raised would go to the Toynbee Hall charitable foundation. Toynbee Hall has agreed to work with me on this and have now written a foreword to the book (at the time of submission of the assignment they had yet to confirm the text of this). I have been very clear with them that using my work to as a fundraiser is in both their interests and mine. I hope to raise money for them and at the same time promote my work. The book also contains maps and text references printed with the permission of the London School of Economics Library where the Booth archive is maintained.

Lifting the Curtain – FOREWORD by Toynbee Hall

I aim to publish the book in advance of my proposed exhibition. Splitting the book launch and exhibition will enable me to promote my work over an extended timeframe. Copies of the book should be available for sale from April onwards. I would hope to stage the exhibition at a venue close to Toynbee Hall in Spitalfields, as part of the East London International Photography Festival, PhotoMonth 2015, which takes place in the autumn. This would enable me to benefit from the publicity for the festival and potentially reach out to a larger audience than would be possible if I were to go it alone. Promotion of both the book and the exhibition will be by direct email to personal contacts, through social media, and via press releases and a poster campaign.

My full submission to my tutor can be seen by clicking the pdf link below:

Lifting the Curtain Presentation Strategy

I also gave my tutor a set of digital prints to A2 size — these show the diptychs with image and text in approximate proportion of unframed prints. This is the form I plan to present the majority of the prints for assessment. In addition for assessment I will submit four full size prints and mounted text boxes (80×60 cm photographs with 10×8 inch mounted texts).

Lifting the Curtain - Diptych Print Wentworth Street ©Keith Greenough 2014

The final part of my submission for Lifting the Curtain was a pdf form of the latest version of the book. This has since been updated to include the Toynbee Hall Foreword. I will post a final version to this blog once I have had feedback from my tutor.

I also represented my statement and images for my portraits of landscape photographers. This work is now titled Landscape Portraits. This project is still work in progress and I plan to continue with it once I have completed my submission for assessment. As a next stage I will be investigating how I might add further contextual information in support of the portraits in the form of other images and text. The background statement can be seen by clicking the installation photograph below: