Pitching Assignment

Arts Council England



Lottery-funded grants for the arts are for individuals/organisations who use the arts in their work. For activities carried out over a set period which:

• Engage people in England in arts activities.
• Help artists and art organisations in England carry out their work.

This application is for a grant up to £15,000, lasting up to three years. 

What is the application looking for?

1. A concise description of the activity (no more than 100 words).

To photograph and artistically document/exhibit mans' fingerprint on English landscape from an aerial point of view. 

"You should include the main details about the nature 

of your activity, what will happen and who it is aimed 

at."

2. A brief summary of your recent, relevant artistic work, experience and achievements. 

Examples of university project work, how they developed. 

Relevant work experience? (Unsure to include, not relevant to this project?)

The sustainability video created for DMU - definitely to include, relevant subject matter, it benefits others (individual, organisational and the general environment), and was artistic.

"We ask you to provide this summary instead of a 

detailed artistic CV. This paragraph will tell us about 

your artistic track record and your career to date, 

so you should aim to present a clear, concise 

summary of your work."

3. Your proposed artistic activity, and what do you want to achieve by doing it?

To go into detail later, but what to achieve? In the end to create a visually and artistically stimulant exhibition, whilst pinpointing and making aware of the environmental issues constantly going on in the UK, let alone the globe. Possibly creating a video from the stills also, for potential web use - for environmental uses. 

4. Why is this activity important for you artistic development?

Project development and career kickstarter.

5. 5-10 sample stills, giving a flavour of your project.

6. Timetable and budget.

Include budget for:

• Helicopter hire
• Travel costs
• Equipment hire or cost (to buy?)
• Printing of images
• Venue cost/hire for exhibition

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/grants-for-the-arts/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iuthog3S5KU

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/grants-for-the-arts/how-apply/

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/pdf/Gfta_how_to_apply_under_15k.pdf

http://www.sophie-wright.com/PDF/how_to_pitch_your_exhibit.pdf

Pitching Assignment

Initial notes / Idea

What angle to take, based on my current starting project?

My current project is largely based on landscape:
- so, best camera equipment would be large format down to print quality & lens techniques
- large prints for large impact. 

- perhaps take the subject matter from Keith Arnatt/Bryan Schutmaat, human fingerprint on landscape - but apply Minor White's style of estranged angles. 
- "An unnatural angle (from mans' P.O.V) of mans' fingerprint"?

- different points of view. Simply moving the cameras' angle, looking up/down.
- perhaps more extreme, aerial views.

- helicopter hire? costly, but possible if funded (being the point of the grant). need to organise a budget/timetable for that.

- what shots, where, and what is it for? just an art project? to exhibit, yes. 

http://jasonhawkes.com/Themed-Portfolios/Nature/8/
http://jasonhawkes.com/Behind-the-lens/BBC-Interview/1/
http://vimeo.com/jasonhawkes

Research:
- equipment necessary (perhaps not large format as originally planned for landscapes, it is simply impractical)
- helicopter access - prices/times/places/general access
- current artists - e.g Jason Hawkes (as above)
- travel costs
- other services needed

Pitching Assignment

Pitching Assignment



Options:

• 'Untitled' internship
• Arts Council England
• Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival
• Dance4
• Editorial (theoretical)
• Leicestershire & Rutland Police
• Seed Creativity

What suits me most? It's a toss up between: Untitled internship or Arts Council. 

Untitled: are looking for an intern. The pitch asks to choose between the following campaigns to promote, to research the client, mood board reference material, outline of the concept, time schedule and any supporting information of how you would tackle the project. 

• Jewellery Group - Domino
• Leicestershire Business Voice
• Benito Brow Bar

It would be great experience for potential studio hiring or even for freelance work, however my preference of work lies outside the studio.

Arts Council England: to apply for a funding grant. You need to provide:

• Brief and concise description of the activity you are asking for support (no more than 100 words).
• Brief summary of your recent relevant artistic work, experience and achievements. 
• What is your proposed artistic activity, and what do you want to achieve by doing it?
• Why is this activity important for your artistic development?
• Sample work, 5-10 stills. 
• Timetable and budget.

Am I able to base this on a project I'm currently starting (in the modules)? But then, these pitches will be judged (if actually submitted) not only based on your idea and if it's good enough, but your past experience/projects to prove you are capable to follow such a potentially large project. And having yet to graduate, I've yet to have the opportunity to prove so for many reasons - low student budget, lack of experience in general due to always being in full time education. So am I able to 'pretend' I'm at a later part in my career? If not, would it lower my marking over this pitch?

This would more so suit my artistic-based work, and also back up my current project work. 

Thoughts on submission ideas (FMP)

Upon reviewing the numerous competitions, the rules/styles and the work of the selected winners/finalists I have decided the best option for myself would be: IdeasTap Photographic Award.

Why? The competition seems to be open to a wider variety of styles. Although the competition says its best submissions follow a story, upon reviewing one previous winner/finalist (Max Downer), his work was is excellent, conceptual, but only loosely shows narrative. My own style tends to avoid much narrative and mainly falls in an artistic/conceptual category. 

It is this that leads me to working towards entering the IdeasTap Photographic Award, specifically the Conceptual category.

Reflections upon Keith Arnatt research (FMP)

I was originally going to run with one of Keith Arnaats' ideas that takes the rubbish out of the tip and into the studio, but when outside I found the complete opposite. A landscape photographers' version of studio is the landscape. In these picturesque settings are specks of imperfection, no thanks to man. The juxtaposition is somewhat visually intriguing, yet it's the light in which it is taken in that also gives the feel of the photograph. Especially in the first image shown here, beams of light peer through the trees and hit this torn piece of bin-bag (alongside the vines) in a way that almost make this image look like a 17th century painting. 

Reflections upon Bryan Schutmaat research

It was a big of a struggle to get to many sites that relate with Bryan Schutmaats' work, in regards to human impact on landscape - which is what I was interested to go off from his series based in Western America. Many area's around the UK tend to aim to preserve the landscape and architecture, although there are still many obvious stamps of human life within preserved area's. I aimed to simply find some sort of intrusion we (man) have in areas you'd hope not to find.

I found, in Salcey Forest, a small, simple, wooden bridge, harmless in it's aesthetic and its nature. But above was hovering a beast of metal construction, seemingly a part of the bridges construction, connected to the trees. It seemed a bit obstructive in its nature, perhaps unnecessary in its setting. A bit of an odd shape also, compared to its surrounding of natural foliage and network of branches; out of nowhere hangs this giant chunk of metal.

Playing along with the intrusion of man on the natural landscape, whilst at the top of the walkway construction I was met with fantastic views of the forest - yet still at just below eye level the barriers of weather-beaten wood were scrawlings of graffiti blocking the view. I thought it a possible aspect to follow, to ruin the standard/usual 'landscape' image with something a little more obtrusive. 

Reflections upon Minor White research

Minor White

One aspect I took from Minor White was a literal one, to simply turn an image on its side to gain another potential perspective. It's something I will hope to try with many of my future findings, since such a simple thing as trying to visualise an image/scene turned 90/180 degrees is something the mind can struggle to do on its own. Turning an image on it side almost creates an entire new photograph, new shapes and tones/graduations, almost something entirely new for our eyes/mind to translate. 

Another aspect was to gain a different perspective whilst taking the photograph, rather than post-production. I wanted to find a view we, as humans, aren't used to seeing. I knew of Salcey Forest (Northamptonshire) that I've previously visited, which has a built up walkway in the forest. It eventually inclines to above treetop level (perhaps 80-100 feet high?), and throughout the walk up you can look down to the thicket. Many of the trees are narrow-trunked so looking you see many stimulating visuals your mind just isn't used to. 

Book Review - Keith Arnatt, I'm a Real Photographer

Keith Arnatt, I'm a Real Photographer


Who/What/When/Where?

Keith Arnatt (1930-2008), British conceptual artist and photographer. 
The book displays photographs from his career spanning across 1974-2002, coinciding with the exhibition I'm A Real Photographer at The Photographers' Gallery in London, 28th June - 26th August 2007 - reflecting on the lifetime achievements of Keith Arnatt. 
Written by David Hurth & Clare Grafik
Published 2007 by Chris Boot.

Concept - Connected ideas, references, narrative, personal?

Originally a painter in the 1950's, he gained recognition in the 1960's as a conceptual artist before he even picked up a camera. Although now with his photographs, many are often left confused as to what his artistic intention was. And for that we must revert our thoughts back to conceptualism.



Structure - line, shape, form, texture, colour, balance, unity, emphasis, rhythm

The book is structured into three sections, a body of photographs sandwiched between two bodies of text at each end written by David Hurn and Clare Grafik. The texts are presented on slightly lower quality paper of a sickly, yellow colour. There are also photographs printed within these sections yet of a lower quality also, giving the impression - intentionally or not - that these images were of low importance or popularity at the time of their release. It may also have been an intentional jab towards the ongoing standard of constraints an artist must uphold to be considered fashionable. 

The photographs are ordered chronologically from Arnatt's collection, beginning with the first series of pictures he completed after transitioning to the title of 'photographer'. It features portraits of tourists visiting close to his home, exploring the conventions of being photographed. Soon after he created another series Walking the Dog (1976-1979), Arnatt was becoming fascinated on how the camera affects people, turning their gaze to the photographer and holding a formal pose. 

Soon Arnatt's fascination turned, in the 1980's, to landscape and the human affects on it. He played with our idea of beauty and our expectations of the 'landscape image', photographing area's of usual beauty yet with obvious human stamp. It seems that this 'human stamp' worked as a transition to his future series of images exhibiting photographs of Howler's Hill rubbish tip, near his home. It focuses on his continual obsession with photographic transformation, specifically here how the 'expressive qualities' of decomposing rubbish shows through a photograph. This series was followed by Pictures from a Rubbish Tip (1988-1989), a more photogenic collection featuring the same subject at hand yet photographed in warm evening light; instantly transforming these photographs into what may seem to be historic oil-paintings of the Baroque period. Both surreal and beautiful. 

Keith Arnatt began to photograph bits of rubbish from the tip in a studio environment, changing their position and presentation to become sculptural objects. These series play on the juxtaposition between the style of the image and the object displayed. 

In capturing the everyday and elevating it he shows the photographic world that everything can be photographed, as he told Hurn "I like to photograph the things that everyone else thinks are not worth photographing"

Meaning - point of view, message, metaphor, symbolism

Attune with many conceptual artists, Arnatt preferred to exhibit process and idea rather than product, fleeing from the constraints of the gallery system. He worked with obscurity, intrigued by how photography could transform everyday objects. 

Historical/Theoretical context 

During the 60's and 70's many of his paintings were exhibited at prestigious venues - the Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art. Though coming the 80's and 90's his direction changed and he welcomed the medium of photography, also becoming a teacher in the field. However, many failed to appreciate why a successful conceptual artist would take such a step backwards in the art world, where photography was yet to be truly considered a medium through which "real art" (hence "I'm a real artist") could be vented; and so many of these prestigious venues refused to exhibit his photography work, which were publicly unfashionable towards the Tate at the time. At the point in time when there was a gap between the art and photographic world, Keith Arnatt fell into it during his photographic transition, and it can be considered a reason why he and his works are more valued today.

Minor White

Minor White


It's not for what it is, but for what else it is.


Who/What/When/Where?

An American photographer (July 1908 - June 1976), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned a degree in botany with a minor in English, yet his first strides of creativity were with poetry. Upon creating a collective sequence of 100 sonnets, his photography career started after moving to Portland, Oregon, joining the Oregon Camera Club and completing assignments from the Works Progress Administration. 

It was after his military service Minor White moved to New York City, spending two years studying aesthetics and art history at Columbia University. It was here his involvement with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston and Ansel Adams came into play, developing his own style under the influence of these fellow photographers. 


Concept - Connected ideas/references/personal  /  Meaning - point of view/message/metaphor/symbolism

Stieglitz's idea of 'equivalents' was a crucial role to Minor White's style, complimenting his interest in psychology.  The theory is where images represent something other than the subject that is photographed, which very much resonated with White's poetic nature. White's own 'equivalents' were often of doorways, water, the sky, peeling walls; objects usually considered mundane. Yet aesthetically, the quality of the light and the way in which they were photographed made them differ. One of his images, Beginnings (Frosted Window), 1962, is an image of frost crystals on glass. However the objects within the frame are of secondary importance, leaving the formal and structural elements of the image to stir sentiment and emotional connection to the viewer, and the photographer. It's this recognitive 'atmosphere' that is the mirror to something else inside the viewer. 

Minor White's description of a photographer, one who "... recognised an object or series of forms that, when photographed, would yield and image with specific suggestive powers that can direct the viewer into a specific and known feeling, state, or place within himself."


Structure - line, shape, form, texture, colour, balance, rhythm 

Minor White was particular in how he wanted his photographs to be experienced, and to 'direct' the viewer he used a number of methods: creating symbols to represent emotions, accompanied his images with text, or placed his images in sequence. 

Many of his images are of vivid, harsh textures and patterns, incomprehensible to real meaning at first glance. (Perhaps linked, psychologically, to the Rorschach test?). Real contemporary feel, with the aesthetic link to abstraction. A radical example is his image Surf, Vertical (San Mateo, California), 1947. Simply an overhead view of the ocean turned sideways to emphasise the abstractive qualities. 

"Sometimes the complaint against ambiguous photographs is stated, "Art must never be a glorified Rorschach test!"Suggestibility is part of the foundations of human nature... The theory of  Equivalence is a way for the photographer to deal with human suggestibility in a conscious and responsible way. It seems to me that to think of painting or photography as some degree of suggestibility is the very gate to the perennial trend in art. We must observe, of course, that a gate is not quite the same as a garden."
Equivalence: The Perennial Trend
Minor White, PSA Journal, Vol. 29, No. 7, pp. 17-21, 1963

Minor White emphasised that the personal process to photography, its link to our own subjectivity, infused a sense of creativity to the use of land as art. The juxtaposition of art to our own psyche. 

Historical/Theoretical context - comparative to historical or contemporary practitioners/situation

Not only is it that abstract work, very much like many of Minor White's photographs, is subjective to the perception driven by the viewer, but then more abstract a photograph is the more reliant we are on the viewer to create meaning to it. His/her imagination, life experiences, state of mind - all these things play a crucial role to what each individual may perceive. 


The abstractive pieces of "Equivalence" rely on imagination, and different perceptions more than likely came about, however Minor White was not fond of all viewers:

"And we observe that all to often the persons who cry "Sick, sick, sick" have no imagination. Or, for reasons obscure to them, they deliberately blind themselves to visual experiences that might disturb their basic insecurity. Consequently the full range of photographic possibilities of communication-evocation is a closed world to them."
Equivalence: The Perennial Trend
Minor White, PSA Journal, Vol. 29, No. 7, pp. 17-21, 1963

To continue with the receptivity of Minor White's audience, it seems to carry a potential harzard. "Without a capacity to see in rocks some glimmer of essential form, as Weston did, or in clouds some hint of universal life fore, as Stieglitz did, one cannot understand White's pictures." Current culture greatly affects an audience, especially one adjusted to icons of culture, rather than poetic nature and spirit. 









http://www.sixfoot6.com/words/essays/minorwhite.htm
http://jnevins.com/whitereading.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/30/arts/photography-view-minor-white-s-quest-for-symbolic-significance.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Aperture Research

Finalist/Winners 2014, research:

Amy Elkins

The series stems from her explorations of the issues that surround capital punishment, and the participation in exchanging letters with inmates on death-row. The series is mainly made up of a number of mug-shots of men and women who have been executed, though the image is constructed through words, the final words of that prisoner. A graphical presentation, its effect both abstractive and formal  - rendering their fate concrete. Very chilling. 

"Her second series, Black is the Day, Black is the Night, expands her exploration of these topics. Elkins has exchanged letters with prisoners on death row, and she intersperses those letters with images created in an effort to capture the interior landscapes evoked in these correspondences: imagined seascapes; recreations of items described by prisoners; a prison lunch tray purchased on eBay. She creates color portraits of inmates by pixelating and obscuring their faces according to the amount of time each individual has been locked away. As viewers, we are invited to puzzle over an assortment of clues, including reenactments, exhibits submitted for our considerations, partial evidence, and statements both leading and misleading. The work is elegiac and provocative, asking the viewer to engage above and beyond a simple, cursory viewing of these images."

http://www.aperture.org/portfolio-prize/2014-winners/winner-amy-elkins/

Upon continual research into the winners/finalists of the Aperture Portfolio Prize, many of the selected work do follow this documentary series theme still. Perhaps including edited/created images still, but they follow real-world stories. My own style follows a more conceptual/artistic route, so I shall likely avoid following submission to this competition.

IdeasTap research

IdeasTap Photographic Award (23-30)

http://www.ideastap.com/Opportunities/Brief/db612472-ddfb-4d96-9852-9ebc00b16758#Overview

The award is open to UK-based photographers ages 16-30 (two separate age groups). It holds three categories:

• Photojournalism
• Environmental photography
• Conceptual Art

Two overall winners are chosen (one from each age group), winning £5,000. 12 shortlisters are selected, two from each category in each age group. Each shortlisted receives a mentoring session with a Magnum Photographer, £60 of Blurb book vouchers and £150 to have their pictures printed; their photographs will be framed and included in an exhibition at IdeasTap HQ, The Woolyard. 

Each applicant must submit five photographs, no more no less. They're looking for creative and striking photographs that demonstrate photographic skill and understanding. The photos must demonstrate your ability to tell a story with your images. 

I would likely enter the Conceptual Art category, being the area where I hold most creativity. 

Researching winners/finalists:

http://www.ideastap.com/IdeasMag/all-articles/Photographic-Award-Finalists

Max Downer

The Presence of Absence/Aesthetics of Order

Submitted to the conceptual category. Little is written about his work, but the series is of man-made landscapes in an apocalyptic manner/atmosphere. The scenes are uninhabited, vast and eerie. 

Looking over the series and seeing that work such as this was selected above others, leads me to believe IdeasTap is a competition better suited to my area of work. Many of the winners works were documentary based but conceptual work is not overlooked within this competition.

My only question is with the need to follow a story with my images. Much of my work tends not to follow any narrative, more so rather a conception. Max Downer's work, in my opinion, follows little story on its own, however still managed to gain major recognition in the competition. 

Burn Magazine research

Burn Magazine

Emerging Photographer Fund

$15,000 overall awarded to emerging photographers through the Magnum Foundation.

The grant is designed to support continuation of photographer's personal project. The body of work may be:

• Journalistic
• Personal/artistic

The primary intent is to support emerging photographers who will become the icons of tomorrow.

Previous winners/finalists:

Alejandro Chaskielberg

The High Tide

http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/05/alejandro-chaskielberg-the-high-tide-epf-finalist/

This series created fictional scenarios with real people and situations. Here he explores the limits of documentary photography, using technical processes to transform natural perception of light/colours/spaces. He uses long exposures on moonlit nights, with an unknown source of flood light - the combination creates some unknown timelessness - the image looks dreamlike, blurs due to long exposure mixed with a strangely lit scene. 

The photographers overall intention is to work in the border between reality and fiction. 

The series is semi-documentary and semi-conceptual - rules are made to be broken.

Many of the winners/finalists work is documentary based - creating series/photo essays  - even if conceptual also. My goal is slightly more concentrated to be based upon the lives of people, therefore I will unlikely apply for this competition.