showcase edition 5 2010

8/14/2019 Showcase Edition 5 2010

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SHO WCA SEOpen College o the Arts

2010 No. 5

Who’s who at OCA

The Freeman View 2

OCA student: Judith Bach

3

OCA student:Dewald Botha

4 & 5

OCA tutor:Robert Enoch

6 & 7

Inside

Oten there is an urge to travel to get your next great shot. Training your gaze will enable you to identiy new perspectives in mundane situations.

Apple Store, © Michael Freeman.

Success by degrees

More students than ever are studying degrees in photography with OCA.

Read more about us and our students inside.



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Showcaseis published by the Open College o

the Arts.

Open College of the Arts

The Michael Young Arts Centre,Redbrook Business Park

Wilthorpe Road, Barnsley S75 1JN

Telephone: 01226 730495

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.oca-uk.com

Registered charity no: 327446

Company limited by guarantee no:

2125674

OCA welcomes contributions to

Showcase but reserves the right

to edit materials at its discretion. Views and opinions expressed in

Showcase are not necessarily those

o OCA, nor does the inclusion o

an item, insert or advertisement

constitute a recommendation.

To amend your contact details or to

give eedback – please contact Dee

Whitmore, Marketing and Events,

on 01226 704364 or

email: [email protected]

Jade Lees

Jade has been with the OCA since April 2007. She is a

member o the academic services team and project managesthe ormal assessment events. As well as working at the OCA,

Jade is currently in her rst year o studying a criminology and

sociology degree at Sheeld Hallam University.

Jade enjoys shopping, socialising and going to the gym.

Dee Whitmore

Dee joined the Open College o the Arts in October 2007 as part o the nance team.

However, it was soon realised that her natural charm (read cheek!) could be better employed

in the marketing department. She is now Head o Fullment

and Marketing services, line manager or the Student Service

team, Showcase editor and the H & S manager. Dee is currently

studying or her Proessional Certicate in Marketing and is a

rm believer in lie long learning.

Dee enjoys motorcycling, archaeology, weight training, reading

(historical action and sword & sorcery ction) and has recently

discovered the joy and empowerment in Belly Dancing.

Who’s who at OCA

The Freeman View The Open College o the Arts has had a long-running

relationship with the photographer and author Michael

Freeman; since the OCA’s Art o Photography course was

rst opened to enrolments 20 years ago. This relationship

took another step orward with the launch last year o

thereemanview.com – Michael’s blog, produced by OCA.

The site was launched with a view to, as Michael puts it

“ present a view of photography by photographers, which may

sound obvious enough, but in a world where photography

has become a near-universal activity, its meaning has become

somewhat scrambled.”

The Freeman View has grown rapidly in popularity over the

course o the past year, thanks to an enthralling succession o

Michael’s observations, techniques and one-to-one interviews

with photographers around the world. You can nd the blogat www.thefreemanview.com - we look orward to reading

your comments!



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I am ty six years old, married with grown

up children and grandchildren. I work

ull time as an oce manager in a busy

NHS GP surgery. I have always enjoyed

photography but with the purchase o

my rst digital SLR camera became eager

to learn more than the basics. Hence I

enrolled with the Open College o the

Arts and have been studying with them

or nearly two years. I completed The Art

o Photography level one course last year

and have just commenced on my second

course: People and Place.

The fexibility oered by the college ts

perectly into my sometimes hectic liestyle. The tutor support and coursework are

invaluable, they provide the perect ramework to progress urther.

The college has an ethos that age should not be an obstacle to

urther education, a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. I hope

to eventually gain a Creative Arts degree, and eel gaining new

knowledge should be a lielong process. As I progressed through

my rst course I ound mysel looking at my surroundings with a

dierent eye, and tried to incorporate this into my photography.

‘Strong’ is an image taken as part o my rst assignment, I

wanted the light and acial expression o my model to add to

the menacing tone. I chose a emale as traditional gender roles

are rapidly changing in our society and wanted to refect on this.

‘How’s it look?’ is an image taken as part o

a project creating a photographic narrative,

very much infuenced by Martin Parr’s style

o photography, and submitted as part o my nal assessment.

Working through the course work you are

encouraged to look at other photographers

work and how they create their personal

style, which is something the courses aim

to help you achieve. The OCA website has

orums and enables contact with other

students and an opportunity to view and

comment on their portolios. I have so much

more to learn and with the help o the Open

College hope to continue or a long time

with my studies.

Student: Judith Bach

How’s it look!

Strong by Judith Bach

How’s it look? by Judith Bach



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Growing up in South Arica, around age nine, a compact 110

Kodak Pocket Instamatic was my very rst camera. Many cameras,

and many countries later, I’m now shooting or my second course

at OCA with a Canon EOS400D.

Five years ago I jumped or a career change, and let our years

in the UK behind to become an English teacher. Three years

ago, I moved to China, and another wonderul world o culture

and colour opened itsel, but something still hindered me rom

capturing what I saw.

The DPP course made me question every aspect o ‘what’, ‘why’

and ‘how’ I did things, and helped me to work out a new path

towards capturing and processing what I see through the view

nder. Now I learn to see everyday lie in a new way: colours,

textures, orm, light, shadows and so much more.

I was travelling in Laos recently, and walked past a temple where

novice monks were laughing and shouting, washing bright orange

robes. The moment (and colour and light) was just perect.

I recently nished a challenging project on a sel-chosen theme –

neon lights – and captured a Chinese sign that processed nicely

into monochrome. Experimenting on an image to make it yours,

Student: Dewald Botha

Learning to questioneverything



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like a shopping street scene I captured over Christmas, becomes

second nature in the learning process. The possibilities become

endless.

The best thing about studying in a fexible way, is there are other

students just ahead, already nished, or just behind you, in the

same courses. You may not meet other students ace to ace, but

on the active online orums we support each other with advice and

ideas, and even the little riendly push now and then.

One o the main reasons I chose OCA was that your nationality and

location has no importance, and I wanted a recognised qualication

rom a UK institution.

Doing the distance learning course at OCA is or sure a case o

‘what you put in, you will get out’, but once you start questioning

your ways and thoughts, it’s almost impossible to stop exploring.

I see mysel nishing the degree, and getting into reelance travel,

ood and documentary photography, exploring less travelled places

throughout the world.

Radial Neon High Contrast - opposite page

Mono and Colour Walking Street - Top

Lao Robes - Above

All images © Dewald Botha, OCA

Photography student



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GD: Robert, what intrigues me is the range o your work. Your

film work is clearly social documentary yet your photographic

work is sometimes abstract. What are the underlying links that

you see?

RE: Well the rst thing to say is that I didn’t have a traditional

photographic training. I came to it through studying ne art and

then going to lm school in Prague. Art school was a creative

playground in many ways. I started painting with light, using

my gure in the early photographs. But I needed to conront

subject matter more directly and so I went on to make ‘Search’

photographs using a documentary approach. This started with a

dream-like series o pictures o the areas o my youth (schools and

homes) and then developed into a fowing scroll o images look-

ing at the meaning and interconnectedness o objects. I didn’t

set out to make social documentaries; the church asked me to

make a video about poverty in Hemel, and I documented people’s

experience o poverty.

GD: Hertordshire is not exactly a location one associates with

poverty...

RE: Poverty is everywhere and it’s oten hidden. What is shock-

ing is how easily someone can become homeless. With this lm,

I just tried to let people speak or themselves, no voice over, no

‘presenter’. Film allows you to explore not just people’s problems,

but how they make sense o their lives. How they nd meaning in

their lives, and that or me is the link. Art or me is a big journey

– it’s not about making a career – it’s about nding meaning in

lie and in this sense it’s oten spiritual. Every artist has to make

art that does what he or she needs it to do. It’s probably the most

liberated orm o endeavour.

Tutor: Robert Enoch

Life through a lensRobert Enoch, OCA tutor talks to Gareth Dent

about his work, his development and teaching



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GD: How do you think studying at Art School infuenced your

photography?

RE: Art School was important because it gave me the opportunity

or broad experimentation – understanding techniques and orms.

I was very interested in the interace between photography, lm

and painting. Every photo I made then was less than 1/30th o

a second - I loved the energy and mystery o longer exposures. I

was always trying to pierce the void. And it was this psychological

density that characterizes my early work.

GD: And your more recent work?

RE: I have worked with painted negatives, using a colour dark-

room. I paint on acetate and then enlarge the negative. I’m in-

terested in the idea o the mark/trace - the simplest evidence

o one’s existence - almost as i one could take a single daub o

Cezanne’s brush. Oten I make art with only a ew clues to thepossible meaning o the idea. You have to be prepared to take

leaps o aith with creativity, that’s the adventure o art really.

Realizing ideas is realizing the sel. But o course, the sel is never

alone, that’s the nature o art – the bridge between the deepest

part o the artist with the deepest part o other people.

GD: And advice to OCA photography students?

RE: One o the crucial things they need to learn as students is that

in order to nd your own voice you need to be able to make pho-

tographs that mean something to you on a level which is beyond

the photogenic – beauty is something you have to eel deeply. You

have to ask yoursel, what do I really love and nd the means to

express it. I you do that the technical skills will come. You need

to enjoy it – photograph things that you love not things that you

think will make a “good photograph”. Look at Nan Goldin’s work,

there’s a boldness, an honesty to it. That’s the good thing about

the Art o Photography course, it helps you learn how to see. One

o the best things or me is seeing students develop, it is the major

satisaction in being a tutor.



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Photography

workshops

for more details

call 0800 731 2116

Photography Workshops in partnership with City and Islington College

The OCA is pleased to announce that City and Islington College are running three photography workshops in

London later this year which have been designed to complement OCA photography courses.

Creative Studio Photography (2 days, 15 and 16 April 2010) This workshop will be o particular interest to students on or considering the course Art o Photography and will

give students an in-depth experience o use o studio lighting or creative still lie subjects.

London Location & Architecture (4 days, 26-29 July 2010)

This workshop will be o particular interest to students on or considering the courses People and Place and Pho-

tography 2: Landscape and will give students an in-depth experience o using a variety o camera ormats and

tilt-shit lenses.

Studio Portraiture (4 days, 2-5 August 2010)

This course will be o interest to a wide range o OCA photography students. It will provide an opportunity to

develop portraiture skills using a ull scale studio and studio fash.

The standard price or City and Islington Photography Workshops is £300 or two days and £600 or our days,

but we have negotiated a discount or OCA students o £50 on the two day course and £100 on the our day

courses. The college is conveniently located just north o central London. It may be possible to rent student ac-

commodation or the summer courses.

For urther inormation and an enrolment orm please email Terry Sims at City and Islington College direct.

( [email protected] )

showcase edition 5 2010

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