The project idea that one initially has in one’s head, and the end project itself, can often result in being two quite different things. It can even have numerous working titles until a suitable one is eventually settled upon. Just ask anyone who has submitted a book idea to a publisher which has been taken on and seen through to publication. And so it is with my FMP, a long-form piece of work which started with quite strong project ideas back in January 2019 of what I wanted to do. In Week Four of FMP I wrote about its title being Tyme out of Minde, and by Week Thirteen this had become Evidence of Mining. Fast-forward to today, I finally decided on This Unquiet Earth, and whilst the high-level subject-matter remains unchanged, the balance of the project and actual outcome has changed quite significantly during FMP. It’s been an evolutionary process, which is largely, I guess, what FMP is all about. And this process has had me climbing up some very steep learning curves, some I am still encountering now with only two weeks until the deadline for the final submission of my project.

David Hurn once commented, ‘Too many projects dribble on for years because the photographer has not cut it down to the essentials. They do not ask “Where and how will it be used?”‘ (2008:85). And this is most apposite as I am now in my final edit.

InDesign, and its treatment of images, is my current challenge (it seems now to want to automatically over-saturate them) but I’ll find a work-through. The edit down to thirteen core images has been a tough process. I have had to discard some close to my heart in the knowledge that the edit and narrative must be as strong as possible. I’ve re-read the notes I took from Wendy’s FMP briefing to Dogger Cohort on 15/07/20 and reminded myself of these key issues: get the pairing right; think about negative space; ensure there is a nice rhythm to the work; and think creatively about the dissemination options.

Of course all of this is being done against a backdrop of Covid, a second lockdown and hence the inability to shoot anything more for the project. I’m most certainly not using that as an excuse, as we are all faced with these challenges. It’s just that it has impacted the public outcome aspect of the project – albeit temporarily (I hope!), as I really want to press on with exhibition(s) and accompanying larger book in 2021, once we’ve been vaccinated and the world is starting to return to normal. I’m quite sure that post-lockdown, people will want to visit exhibitions and enjoy art in social environments again.

So I’ve been working hard on the FMP PDF. It’s coming along. I can’t say the process has been easy (why should it be?), but hopefully I’ll end up with something I am truly proud of, irrespective of my concerns about the pedestrian nature of my work and the subject-matter I have chosen compared to the other hugely-talented, and frankly significantly more creative, Dogger Cohort students. Copious cups of coffee and Porcupine Tree’s In Absentia album on repeat loop have helped enormously along the way this past week!

I had my final 1:1 supervisory session with Wendy on Wednesday, which was very helpful. She made some very supportive observations about my CRoP (https://nickhodgsonma.home.blog/2020/11/20/week-twenty-one-critical-review-of-practice/) which was a huge confidence boost. She also clarified some questions I had regarding the composition of my FMP PDF (use of supporting images in a mocked-up gallery environment, use and length of feedback, etc), all of which I will now incorporate in the final document submission. 

Here’s one image that isn’t going to make the final cut but I still really like:

Hopewell Heritage Exit. ©Nick Hodgson, 2020.

And finally, I have been asked to keep 10-19th September free in 2021 for my participation in a potential exhibition in Coleford in the Forest of Dean on free mining as part of the nationwide Heritage Open Days initiatives. Great news!

References:

HURN, David. 2008. On being a Photographer – in conversation with Bill Jay. 3rd ed. Anacortes, WA: LensWork Publishing.