CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: PHOTOGRAPHY ESSAY BRIEF 1.

LO1 A growing understanding of critical ideas regarding perception, meaning, and communication. LO2 A growing appreciation of the application and operation of concepts of visual communication to both historical and contemporary practice particularly in photography. LO3 A developing knowledge of theoretical cultural ideas and perspectives and their importance in both historical and contemporary practice LO4 Developing essential academic skills to support, explore, and expand concepts, support critical analysis, the understanding and development of ideas and their expression in verbal and written form.

Your task You have been given 4 essay titles. You should select one as the subject for your written work They are questions relevant to the ideas you have been exploring this term and provide a starting point. You should use this to direct your independent research to understand the issues and ideas raised by the question you select, and build arguments and discussions that debate your chosen questions supported by your research material.

The four titles are,,,, Happy Families: Family portraits tell us very little about the individual family, far more about what society believes the ideal family should be. Discuss and debate this statement with reference to one photographic image from the 19th century and one from a contemporary photographer (work produced in the last 30 years).

In what ways can photographic images of the American West be regarded as expressions of spiritual belief. Discuss with reference to the works of at least two photographers or painters.

Why is photography so powerful and so problematic in relation to the idea of representation? Discuss either using examples of portrait photography or photojournalism.

How can the gaze construct our relationship to an image and convey meaning. Discuss in relation to the painting Las Meninas by Velasquez and Thomas Struths Museo del Prado and Audience/ Hermitage series.

THE ESSAY MUST BE 1500 WORDS LONG WITH VISUAL EXAMPLES, APPROPRIATE REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY. REFERENCING AND BIBLIOGRAPHY MUST FOLLOW UCA ACADEMIC CONVENTIONS BY USING THE HARVARD SYSTEM OF REFERENCING SEE STUDY GUIDES FOR INSTRUCTIONS. IT MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY THROUGH TURNITIN (SEE MYUCA FOR GUIDANCE)
THIS ESSAY CONTRIBUTES 30% TOWARDS THE OVERALL MARK FOR THIS UNIT.

DATE FOR HANDING IN WORK: MONDAY 7TH JANUARY BY 12 MIDDAY

FAILURE TO SUBMIT WORK CAN LEAD TO FAILURE OF THIS UNIT AND MAY JEOPARDISE PROGRESSION ON THE COURSE. IF YOU ARE HAVING DIFFICULTIES TALK TO YOUR TUTORS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO ASK FOR ADDITIONAL SUPPORT OR APPLY FOR EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT.

Essay project timeline Briefing: Wed 24th October. Supporting workshops Wed 24th October Friday 2nd November Select your essay topic and have conducted preliminary research. Monday 12th November You should have the outline of your essay structure and arguments Hand in 7th January.

ESSAY PARTICULARS *Make sure you answer the question! *Make sure you adhere to the word count as you will be penalised for going significantly under or over. *Always reference your sources when quoting. This is essential. Use Harvard style of referencing.

*At the end of your essay produce a bibliography; a list of all the books you have read to produce the essay (even if you havent quoted from them). This is essential. Neither footnotes / endnotes nor bibliography count towards the final word count. *Be aware of plagiarism please refer to smyUCA for guidance on this issue. When using pictures make sure you include their producer (artist / photographer), their title and their date. If they are of a specific material or size, include this also (i.e., marble, 24 foot high etc.). Also make sure it is clear to what pictures you are referring to in the text when using images in your essay. It may be useful to label them numerically, i.e. fig.1. (If doing this, also be sure to still include photographer, title, date with the image itself)

FINAL TIPS: Always have a good starting point: If given a choice of questions, try and choose the one that either speaks to you or that you think presents the real challenge (i.e. gets you worked up about the issues). If asked to write on a subject of your choice pick a topic that you really want to cover, not one that you think is relevant but a little dull. Dont be afraid of the obscure and the personal they are always more rewarding Always do the research: Trying to write a presentation or essay on the night before deadline is a recipe for stress ulcers and heart attacks. Any essay is always 90% research with 10% of the time spent writing up the research into an essay. (This is obviously an exaggeration time should be left to write and rewrite the piece!) Always PLAN the research: A very simple point, but if you can structure the research well, the essay can easily mirror it, thus telling the story of your research (the interesting bits at least). Think about opposing positions, about non-agreeing photographers / writers, about using many different sources that you can pull together into a grand plan, an argument that takes us through the story of the research. Always use an introduction and a conclusion: