In component one, the themes we explored were 'Face Value' and 'Constructed Landscapes'.
For 'Face Value' I wasn't really comfortable with my work, and didn't really enjoy the work as I didn't like my pictures. However, some things within 'Face Value' I loved, for example, the lighting workshop I loved because the pictures I took and the pictures the other people took of me were amazing! The workshop was really helpful as I understood more about lights and how to set them up. Near the end of 'Face Value' when I had to make my own final piece I started to love my work because I found it interesting working with 'Photopea' and printing my images and coming up with new ideas for my work. So I really love my final piece for 'Face value' and I have clearly shown all my steps and it was really helpful that way because then I knew exactly what I was doing. My initial idea of laying the images out was really simple but then after a few experiments I figured out something which was new, developed and really good. Therefore, near the end of 'Face Value' I understood more about photography and how to work on my own and take risks. The feeling I had when we started 'Face value' and when we ended were two completely different feelings because at the start I wasn't really sure how to work with my pictures and now that I think of it if I redid my images from the start of 'Face value' now they would be much better. So, I learnt from 'Face value' that it is good to take risks, and explore with my work. In the end I came to a conclusion and took really good photos of myself inspired by Vivian Maier and edited my images nicely. So, for this I used photopea to edit my photos and then placed them onto a mount board and I tried giving it a 3D effect by putting wooden block pieces underneath it. For face value my main habit of mind was persistence, because as I wasn't comfortable at first, I kept going and trying my best and in the end I started loving it. In terms of keeping record of my work, I wrote out the steps of my work and how I did it in order to keep in mind for next time or for someone else that wants to try it for what to do. As far as I know, I think I did pretty well near the end of this as I started loving what I was doing and found the perfect artist I was inspired by. Overall, I am pleased with my final outcome because it represents me and how I handled the theme of 'Face Value'.
Another concept we looked at in Component one was 'Constructed Landscapes', I really loved this because this was my type of photography. I love taking photos of buildings, the sky etcc. So I really loved this. For me, this was much easier and comfortable doing because one I had an idea now of what photography expects and what my teacher expects and two in terms of the actual theme I loved because I have lots of pictures of the sky, buildings etc and I was able to use them and experiment with them. The artist I looked at was Jiro Takamatsu. I liked his work because it was different, unique and something new. Therefore, using my photos I did a contrast of black and white and colour and took photos of my photos inspired by Takamatsu. I then made final pieces. Using three photos in colour and then three in black and white to do a contrast and something a bit different from Takamatsu but also being inspired by him. For this, the habits of mind I exercised the most was imaginative, because at first I had no idea of what I could do for my final outcome, however, I went with the flow and managed to make 3 outcomes and to be honest they are pretty good, however, if I had more time I would maybe try make another outcome but something different. The thing I found most difficult was knowing what to take pictures of, I was really confused about what I wanted to achieve for this but then I got there in the end. For this work, I used photopea too and then I made my piece using the edited images. I used a wood block again to make a 3D effect and to give it a bit of volume to show the contrast nicely.
Overall, I learnt a lot in Component one and gradually learnt a lot and started enjoying working independently as I saw what I could do on my own and how confident I was exploring and taking risks.