About me...

As part of my portfolio I am also writing an "about me". It will be about the size of one A4 sheet which will be the first page of my portfolio - a lot longer than the about me I've got on this blog! I have been busy writing one for a couple of days and have asked for advice for various people. The image above shows a bit of the text as well as the corrections and alternations my parents have made to it. 

A1 Poster...

This is the newly updated poster! I love it! 

A1 Poster...

Both Tom and I have been playing around with an A1 poster design which we are going to hang on the wall of the exhibition. It will basically explain everyone's work in one go! The poster on the right is designed by Tom At first he didn't have the logo at the top of the poster so I suggested he should add that. I quite like the poster but I wasn't a big fan of having the text in this format. Another thing that was missing was a synopsis of the work. After this one Tom created another poster where he added the same background as the website has and added a little space where we could add a brief synopsis of the work. It looked a lot better although the layout of the text was still done in the same way. I thought I'd quickly make a poster (only A4 size to get the point across) to show Tom a different layout. 

The poster I created is quite different from Tom's creation. I thought it was important to have our logo at the top of the page. Laura and Tom argued that the logo didn't have to be as obvious because people will know where they are! I did agree with this at first but after thinking about it for a minute I realised that some people might have a stroll along Highland Road and pop in to see the exhibition without having a clue what it is about! The first paragraph shows the synopsis of the work. It's a very brief explanation about the work and doesn't go into much detail. This is followed by 9 boxes where we can each have our own text. I liked the fact that Tom added the website and email to his poster so we decided to keep that. 

In the end we decided to go with Tom's header of the poster and my layout to have a bit of both worlds. Tom is now busy creating this poster so I will post it when he's done! 

Business cards...

Business cards are an important way of promoting ourselves in a quick and easy manner. They are almost like small leaflets but can easily fit in someone wallet. In a lecture about CV writing, my group and I started talking about business cards and whether we wanted to have them at our event, what quality the cards should be and what information has to be on them. 

The picture to the right shows the front and back of 4 business cards I got hold of. The first one is mine, the second one belongs to the group 14 metres square, the fourth one is Laura's and the last one is Tom's. All of them are very different from one another and all have their positives and negatives. 

I'll start with my business card. Obviously I am going to be quite biased about my card as I have created it myself. I feel that it states all the important information and having a photograph on there shows what kind of photographer I am. I decided to have a plain backside because I didn't want to repeat any information. The main focus is the front. I got mine printed for free at Vistaprint so the paper quality is optimum. It is printed on card paper and is slightly smaller in size than professionally printed business cards. Although since mine were free, I am very happy with what I have received. 

The second business cards has the same paper quality to mine, although I am not sure where they got theirs printed. Again it is a very simple design and has all the important information on the front, other than the website. They did make use of the back side of it. They decided to put the website on the back as well as a QR code so people could easily access the website. I think this is quite handy because they haven't got an easy domain name.

The third business card by Laura has a similar layout to mine, very simple and easy to understand. Her paper is a lot better quality though, it is very thick and has a matt finish. I really like the paper quality, but I suppose you get what you pay for! Since I got mine for free, I couldn't expect a finish like hers. 

Lastly are Tom's business cards. They also have a really nice quality to them, although they aren't my favourite business cards. It all comes down to personal taste and I am not a big fan of his layout. I do think that he has included all the important information like his website, email and phone number. On the back he has added his phone number again and a QR code so people with a smart phone can easily access his website.

Since all of these business cards are so different from one another I do feel like I have learnt something. We haven't been taught anything about how to create a business card or anything similar so creating these is completely down to a creative mind. It also shows different uses for business cards. Mine, Laura's and Tom's are all about our own photography, 14 metres squared is a business card for an exhibition. Looking at the business cards has also shown what different types of layouts and qualities are available. I decided to go for the cheapest option of business cards because I will never make any profit from business cards. Spending over £30 on these cards is quite a lot of money when you haven't got any kind of income from your work. I do think that once I am earning money from my photographs, I am more likely to order better quality business cards but for now I think I'll stick with free ones! 

Sneak peak 2...

Knight Frank & Rutley

I thought I'd give you guys another sneak peak as to what I will be exhibiting. As you have read from the first sneak peak, it's got something to do with an old Nunnery that has been converted into apartments. I thought I'd just give you a bit more history of the place! 

The Nunnery was originally called St Peters Covent and started up in 1861 in London. The Sisterhood started with just two Sisters who cared for patients who were discharged from a hospital but who needed more care than the hospital could provide for them. As the convent became more popular there was an issue of space so they moved to St Peters Home in Kilburn. This was where they stayed until 1944. In 1944, however, the convent was damaged by a flying bomb and a spacious convalescent home, which was built in Woking in 1883, became the community's main centre. The community of St Peter moved out during the late 1980s. The convent had become too large for their needs and too expensive to maintain. They relocated to a smaller location to the south of the main building and they occupy this new convent today. 

Postcard of the Convent

For 10 years the convent was empty and was threatened to be demolished, but since it was a grade 2 listed building it couldn't be knocked down. In the mid 1990s the convent was bought by Macleod & Macleod, a small housing developer specialising in the renovation of old properties. They redesigned the convent into flats and houses while still maintaining the same style of architecture. The current residents took possession of the place between 1995 and 1996. 

Portfolio...

As part of this unit as well as our own gallery, we have to make a portfolio. I have a portfolio which I used at the University interviews but that is definitely not up to date. I created that portfolio during the end of 2009 but obviously I have taken lots of pictures since then and instead of adding them to the end, I thought it would be a good idea to create a new portfolio. 

I wanted to have specific themes in my portfolio rather than having all the photos in a row without any real organization, so the first thing I had to tackle was which photos I wanted to use. I spent about an hour going through all the photographs I have and deciding whether they were worth putting in a portfolio. I came across a lot of photos that I really liked but never thought about putting it in a portfolio. In the end I managed to break it down into these 11 themes: Abstract, Borders, Commercial, Fashion/People, Fine Art, Interior/exterior, Music, Nature, Travel and Wildlife. 

The next thing I had to look at was how I wanted to present the images. Do I want one image per page or a few images per page? Since I am working with so many images, I decided it would be a lot better if I put a few images on one page, although have a few that take up a whole page. As you can see from the image on the right, I have a lot of pictures. It starts off with the first picture I have taken (at the age of 11), and then it starts going into all of the themes. I am not sure if this is the order I want to display my images in, but this is the general idea behind it. 

I have made all of these pages myself in Photoshop. The reason I created it this way instead of using templates is because the templates cropped the images in quite odd ways and there were specific layouts you had to choose from instead of making your own. For example, page 30 has square images. If I wanted to put this into a template the format would be changed into a rectangular shape. I managed to get 36 pages (one page is cropped off). The first page shall have a short explanation about who I am and what I am hoping to be. 

I am going to get these images printed in A4 and put them in a nice looking binder. This way I can add and get rid of images if I want to. If I were to get a book printed, it wouldn't give me any control over the images once I have taken more photos. I haven't gotten the images printed yet as I want a few more opinions. As I mentioned before, I am not sure whether this is the order I want the images to be in, but I will always be able to change that afterwards. 

The reason we want to have our portfolios at the exhibition is because for a lot of people, including me, the images we are hanging up on the wall don't represent the type of photography we do. This way people are able to look at all the different types of photography I am interested in and not just what's on the wall.

Christian Boltanski...

'When I make a large show, I often try to have a beginning and an end, because emotion comes from time. But it's a different kind of time than theatre or cinema. I mean, when you read a book, you have, say, a young girl who is happy on one page, and you turn the page and now she is dying. That quality of emotion comes when you have some kind of a shock.When I make a picture, I try to create different kinds of space, and even different kinds of shock, to have a beginning and to have a sweep of emotion. My work is a little like theatre, but it's also always so different. I'm like a musician, I can play my work and I can play my work better, or worse, depending on the place where I am showing. It's theatre without text, without spectacle. What I wish to do is something between theatre and installation.' (www.tate.org.uk).

"You know the Lessons of Darkness is very Catholic. It’s a special mass, I think there are three masses three days before the Sanctus Friday, the Friday before Easter. This mass begins at five o’clock in the afternoon, and in the beginning, when you arrive, you have daylight: and coming out, when it’s finished, it’s dark. At the end of the mass they switch off all the candles and lights: people go slowly into the darkness. The music for this special mass is called “The Sense of Darkness” because it’s going into sadness in the darkness. If my show works, it must work a little like that. At the beginning of the installation, there is some light and the more you walk, the more it’s dark and the more it’s sad. The last room, the archive room, is very, very sad. It’s a very little room with 400 people inside. Here are all the photos I use and reuse in my life, my archive" (www.bombsite.com). 

I think the way Boltanski has set up this exhibition is very unique. The idea of having a start and an end to it is quite a clever way to think about how to put an exhibition together. Like Boltanski says, " I often try to have a beginning and an end, because emotion comes from time", he wants to almost create a film through his work. There has to be a story line when it comes to displaying your work. You don't want to have 10 photos that have no connection or don't portray a story, you want viewers to be able to move from one photo to the next and understanding your work. This concept relates back to my work. If you only see one photograph from the series, it wouldn't have any kind of meaning. You need to see all of the images together in order to understand what I am trying to portray. 

Sophie Ristelhueber...

from: www.blancpain-artcontemporain.ch

 Sophie Ristelhueber is a very well known war photographer. She looks at the aftermath of a war although she has a very different approach to it than most war photographers. She takes photographs from the sky so that there is no reference to scale any more. It almost makes it seem as though she is taking photographs of animal traces. Her photographs appear to be very calm while at the same time commenting on the catastrophe that has happened below. "For more than 20 years, Sophie Ristelhueber has been working on the notion of the territory and its history, by paying special attention to ruins and the traces left by man in places devastated by war. She focuses on revealing events and the marks of history, both on bodies and on landscapes." (http://www.guardian.co.uk)

From: www.flickr.com by xpunklovex

As you can see from the image on the left, Ristelhuebers' photographs were printed off on a very large scale and lots of them. It again emphasizes the idea that you cannot reference what the scale of the photographs could be. If you had no idea what kind of photographs she takes, you wouldn't think that they were the remains of a war landscape! "Often playing with an ambiguity of scale in her installations, Ristelhueber’s work confounds traditional photographic genres. She unsentimentally draws attention to the scars and traces we leave behind, addressing the essence of our human existence" (www.photonet.org.uk). "Ristelhueber hangs the large prints in an expansive grid that at first reads as a beautiful abstract field, then reveals itself to be a reconstitution of the battlefield on the gallery wall." (www.moma.org). 

28 millimetres project - JR...

JR is absolutely amazing. "JR owns the biggest art gallery in the world. He exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are not the museum visitors. His work mixes Art and Act, talks about commitment, freedom, identity and limit." (http://jr-art.net/). In the video above, JR explains how his project 28 millimetres started and how it has progressed over time. 

From: www.guardian.co.uk

I think JR is the most creative artist around. Who would have thought of displaying their work on a train or as a rooftop? The photographs he exhibits aren't about him, they are about the people he photographs. The photographs he has taken of the women in Kenya are about the women and their role in the society. "He embarked for a long international trip for "Women", a project in which he underlines the dignity of women who are often the targets of conflicts. Of course, it didn't change the world, but sometimes a single laugher in an unexpected place makes you dream that it could." (http://jr-art.net/).

"As he remains anonymous and doesn't explain his huge full frame portraits of people making faces, JR leaves the space empty for an encounter between the subject/protagonist and the passer-by/interpreter. This is what JR is working on. Raising questions..." (http://jr-art.net/). "JR's anonymity is crucial to the integrity of his work: this is an artist who prides himself on operating under the radar, on creating dazzling installations in unexpected places through the force of his personality and vision. 'The fact that I stay anonymous means I can exhibit wherever I want,' he explains with a broad grin, a plate of microwaved lamb tagine balanced precariously on his knees. 'No one knows my name, so it's easy for me to travel." (www.guardian.co.uk)

Advertising...

We have been working alongside the other groups in order to send a formal letter to schools around the Portsmouth area to see whether they want to get involved with our exhibitions. Emma (from "The Big Picture") has emphasized how it would be an excellent learning experience for Fine Art and Photography students to see what they would be up to at Portsmouth University. She has added the name of each exhibition, the date and time and the locations. Hopefully the schools will be interested and come to our exhibition! 

Meeting...

We had another meeting today discussing what still needs to be done. We have only got 3 weeks left until our opening day so we need to make sure we start finalising everything! The first thing we talked about was the idea of having another bake sale. I feel it is important for us to raise more money as we have all spent quite a bit of money out of our own pockets. We decided to have the bake sale on Tuesday the 22nd of November. I know Tuesdays are always quite busy so hopefully we'll end up making more money than we did last Friday! We are taking money out of the money we raised last week to buy new cake materials. Since the cookies and the brownies were so popular and the cup cakes didn't do very well we made a new list of things to bake including Welsh cakes and Oreo Cake and Rice Crispy treats as well as a big batch of cookies and brownies and a few cupcakes. Tomorrow Hannah, Kate and I going to Asda to buy baking materials.

The next thing we had to discuss was the venue. Yesterday a few people from the group went to Ultraviolet to measure up whether everyone could hang up their work in the sizes they wanted. Luckily most of us have quite small prints so aren't taking up too much space. In the end we realised that although the venue is quite small, there is more than enough wall space for all of us to put up our work! 

We also discussed the idea of getting a A1 sized poster to hang up in the exhibition which would have a short explanation of everyone's work as well as show their blog and website. Since a lot of different things need to be put on the poster, there is a word limit for our explanation of the work of 60 words. You never actually realise how little that is until you start explaining the work. In the end I managed to get it down to 61! The image to the right is a general idea of what the poster is going to look like. However I think we should change bits of it around - at the moment I'm concerned with the fact that it doesn't quite relate back to our exhibition. I suggested to Tom (who is making the poster) that we should have our logo at the top and "documentary practices - Territories" a lot smaller underneath the logo. Then have a short summery of the brief and then go into everyone's separate summaries. Another thing about the poster is that we don't really have any sponsors, we have been given free things and discounts but I wouldn't say that they were sponsors. I just thought these were some important things to consider. 

Our meeting was followed by a 30 min tutorial with Stella. She explained to us that it is important for us to have a price list for the books and for our photos. A member of the group mentioned that if we have prices next to our photos on the wall it'll seem like people are coming to a shop instead of a gallery so we decided it would be a good idea to have a short list of prices in our portfolios. I haven't thought about prices quite yet, but I do know that I will have to make a profit. The only way to make an accurate price list is if I first write down all the money I have spent on getting the photos printed and mounted and how much it has cost to print the books. Once I've got that I will have to decide how much of a profit I want to make. In the end the most important thing is not to over charge. I am not a famous photographer yet, so I can't start asking for ridiculous amounts! 

Social Networking...

The most important way of getting the word out about our exhibition is through social networking sites. I am in charge of both Facebook and Twitter and have been updating both pages on a regular basis. Because of the word limit of Twitter, it has been a bit more difficult to tweet. Therefore, the posts on Facebook and Twitter aren't exactly the same. In the end this is probably better because if someone follows us both on Facebook and Twitter they don't want to be reading everything twice! 

The posts on Facebook are a bit longer and a bit friendlier. I prefer Facebook to Twitter because Facebook gives people a chance to comment back on what I have said - it seems a lot more personal. I am slowly going through the list of blogs so that our followers stay interested in following us. I am almost through the whole list of blogs so when I finish that I will start posting people's personal websites. I need to make sure I keep updating both sites on a regular basis because we don't want people to lose interest! 

At the moment we have 30 people that have "liked" us on Facebook and we have 29 followers. 

Tyran Hawthorn...

Tyran Hawthorn is a student on my course and he had an exhibition in Eldon. The opening night was on Halloween, October 31st, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to see what a gallery opening night should be like. As you walk in you are immediately greeted by a set of A2 images. There is text alongside the images which explains the reason behind the exhibition. Everything is very spacious and in a white cube style exhibition. As you walk further there is a large buffet of delicious looking snacks and drinks. As you can tell from the photo there were quite a few people there. 

Tyran was also there himself to answer any questions people may have had and of course for a nice chat. His exhibition dealt with his disease: 

"This is an awareness raising exhibition and fundraising charity event for research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, an incurable and terminal disease which causes the decay of muscles and difficulties with breathing and movement.

Tyran Hawthorn uses surreal and experimental photographic images to illustrate his mixed emotions of anger at his condition, juxtaposed with his enjoyment of heavy metal music, horror movies and escapist dreams from everyday life.

This fascinating genre of art that features objects rich in morbid symbolism such as skulls, rotting food, and wilting flowers, which are used in order to produce in the viewer's mind an acute awareness of the brevity of life and the inevitability of death.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy otherwise known as (DMD), is a devastating genetic muscle wasting disease which is caused by a missing protein. People sadly infected with this, witness their muscles degenerating throughout their entire lives and eventually leading to paralysis and early death. Families struggle to cope with the diagnosis and day to day management of this condition for which there is no cure, and the only hope for families lies in new treatments that can slow or stop DMD in its tracks.

The majority of the proceedings of my exhibition will be going to a charity known as Action Duchenne. This charity is the only National Charity that exclusively funds research for a cure and promotes campaigns for better medical care for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The essential work that Action Duchenne do is priceless, and I can only hope that my exhibition will take us one step closer to a cure.

When you first get diagnosed with Duchenne, you feel as if you are covered in a shadow of overwhelming emotion as you are given no hope by the doctors. As the arrow of time ticks on, you begin to realise that it is not all 'doom and gloom'. Due to medical advances, you are given a longer life expectancy and with the fight for a cure harder than ever there could be a bright light in sight before the pearly gates. The following statement relates well with this series of work; 'It would seem that photography begins in darkness and death, but ends in light and vision'. 'Disability does not mean inability'. This is my exhibition, this is my work; this is me." (text from his website). 

Tyran also had printed quite a few leaflets for his exhibition which we scattered throughout all of Eldon. They were double sided and printed on card. It had his photos on it at well as all the important information. He also had a link for his website to find more information. All in all I found it a very interesting exhibition. He combined both photographical work with a box of the mouldy fruit he photographed which made the exhibition very interesting and unique. 

Bake Sale...

The bake sale was really enjoyable, I don't think I have ever baked this much in my life! Kate, Adam, Tom, Hannah and Laura were in one house making lots of cakes and cookies and I was at my house making cakes and brownies. I started baking Thursday evening and finished Friday morning so that the cakes would be as fresh as possible. 

We started selling cakes at 12, although it was very quiet at Eldon. We kind of saw this coming because Fridays are usually very empty. The majority of people that walked past us however did buy some cakes. We handed out leaflets to everyone, both of our exhibition and the pub quiz and had a chat with some people about what it is that we were doing. Everyone was very interested and I think we'll be seeing some of them at our exhibition! We managed to get rid of all of our 500 leaflets!

Halfway through the day another student came up to us with an octopus cake and donated it to us. She was there giving it away for free but when she saw we were trying to raise money she just gave it to us! This really helped us because a lot of people walking past stopped and looked to look at the cake. We actually sold the octopus cake near the end of the day for  £5. In the end we managed to make a very impressive £51.07. However, we'd have to take away £11.84 because that is the money Adam spent on more cake materials, so we made £39.22. That's already 40% of the leaflet money back! 

We are thinking of having another bake sale on the 22nd of November at another cafe within the University. This cafe is more central of the site and is surrounded by a lot of other University buildings. We are hoping to gain more money here than we had at the previous bake sale. Both bake sales together should reimburse the money of the leaflets. 

Leaflets...

The order for the leaflets when through on Monday the 7th of November and I was told it would take 3 to 5 days for the leaflets to be printed and it would take another couple of days for the delivery. Thus, I was expecting the leaflets at the end of this week or start of next, but to my surprise I received them on Wednesday! As you can imagine I am incredibly pleased. 

That day, my assistant (boyfriend) and I spent hours sorting all the leaflets into handy piles. I have written out a whole plan as to how we should distribute them (above) so that in the end we would only have 300 leaflets left which we could do anything with. 

Reply...

I received a reply from my head teacher today saying:

Thank you for sharing your exciting news. What an amazing opportunity and a huge learning curve. You should be very proud of yourself. I will share it with all the staff and put it in the parent bulletin.
Look forward to seeing you if you are passing through.
All the best, Ms. H

Pub Quiz...

We have a time and date! The pub quiz will be held on the 23rd of November and it starts at 19.30. We are hoping to get as many students at the pub as we can so we are already promoting it like crazy. We have written about it on our website as well as all of our individual blogs. We have made a facebook event and have spoken about it on twitter and our facebook page. And to top it all off we are mentioning it in our statuses as well. People must be going crazy seeing all the posts!

Tom and Hannah have been working on getting a leaflet design. Together they must have made about 10 leaflets but in the end we all decided on the one below. Tom will be printing these leaflets himself so we won't have to order anymore leaflets. We will start to distribute them at the cake sale but will also hand them out at University buildings. My mum has given me a bottle of wine which we can use as a prize, along with the subway vouchers Kate was able to get. Hopefully our online presence and our leaflets will be enough for students to help us out! 

Email...

I have emailed my former principal and art teacher and asked whether they could help promote our event. This is the message I included:

As part of my photography course this year we are required to set up and curate our own exhibition. We have to start off with finding our own venue and have to do everything including finding sponsorship and advertising our exhibition. As an ex-student, I thought it would be a great opportunity for students who are interested in art and photography to come to my exhibition and see what I have been up to since the IB has finished.

I have attached a leaflet to inform you when and where my exhibition will be held. It would be great to see some familiar faces and to get some support from the people that have helped me get to where I am. If you could please forward this to teachers and students. For more information please visit my blog (http://elainedevries.blogspot.com/ ) which carefully explains every step that I have taken in order to get the exhibition up and running.

I wanted it to be quite formal although at the same time I wanted to explain that I am here because of their help. Hopefully they will be able to come to the exhibition as it will be great to see some familiar faces. 

Advertising...

With less than a month away until our opening night, we've got a lot of advertising to do. The leaflets have all been ordered and paid for so should arrive end of this week or start of next week. Once we have them we are going to decide who is going to distribute where and how many everyone is going to get.

Our bake sale is this Friday and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I have received 1 box of brownie mix which makes 64 brownies, 2 "fairy cakes" which make 12 each, 2 lemon cupcake boxes which make about 12 each. Adam has bought some more things including a strawberry cupcake mix which makes 36, a cookie mix for 16 cookies, and a chocolate fudge cupcake mix which makes 9. He also bought 200 napkins and all together this came to about £8. All we still need to get is milk, eggs, vegetable oil and butter. I have already got vegetable oil at mine as well as butter so I'll need about 400 ml of milk and 6 eggs. We will be baking in two houses, mine and Adams. I have got two ovens so I offered to do some baking. We are starting Thursday evening after our lecture and finishing Friday morning so they will be nice and fresh and hopefully still warm. 

I have also received some large plastic plates where we can present our treats on for a nice presentation, I also have about 4 baking trays so I can prepare everything in one go. We will have more than enough to sell at the bake sale, and personally I wouldn't mind if we had a few leftovers...

We have printed off a few leaflets for the bake sale and have been distributing them around Eldon, the Library and a few more University buildings. Since we haven't received our leaflets yet, we will be distributing the postcards I ordered from vista print. The post cards have the same image on them as the leaflets will have, but they are slightly smaller. This way people can take these with them and hopefully come and join us on the 8th! 

Next door...

Unfortunately, I got a call today explaining that the people who are interested in renting the space next door to our gallery want to have it by the end of this month. This means we will not be able to use it any more. It is a bit of a downfall because Ultraviolet is incredibly small. We are now looking into whether it is possible to get a gazebo outside of our gallery and serve some teas and cakes outside perhaps. We just need to get more creative.

Some more positive news though is that we have received our vista print order! Everything looks fantastic, better quality than I expected it would be. I might order some more things from vista print to promote myself. I have also ordered the leaflets, so the order will be processed over the weekend and I will hear more about it on Monday!