LO1 - 1.1 Analyse the stages and activities within the creative process
We advocate that, as a practitioner in Photography, it's essential that you continuously look to learn about the world around you - engaging with subjects that deal with the Human Condition, to get a sense of what this means, look at the work of the Magnum Photographers. Photographers tend to be people that know about what's happening, they're interested in issues, they question what they see around them, not just with the camera but with their innate inquisitiveness - always on a quest for knowledge always digging for the truth and the facts.
It's this questioning that underpins what it is to be a photographer and this is why we engage with the process of researching. The more we research, looking at examples of quality contemporary and historical photography, the greater our own potential to create high-quality work of our own. This desire to learn, question and analyse underpins the creative process. Creativity is borne out of knowledge.
The term creative process is a broad and flexible description that explains a series of stages involved in the production of art-work including photography. If you type 'Creative process' in Google Images, you'll be presented with an array of images that depict different models of the creative process. If you look at a range of them, you'll see that they generally follow a similar format with the same type of stages with slightly different labels/names.
The image above is an illustration of 'Our process' that we advocate you adopt once you reach the stage where you're working on projects that you propose and execute. In the short term you'll be practicing with this approach exploring how to implement it and use it to develop high quality outcomes.
Our process involves...
(1). Producing written research accompanied with associated images. The written content needs to be analytical.
(2). Following the research you need to produce a Post Research Reflection where you reflect on the research and make sense of it in terms of how you'll use it to inform and kick-start your own work.
(3). A plan that explores and identifies any problems that my arise with ideas about what you'll do to address and deal with the problems.
(4). Your first practical response to the research - This should include contact sheets, two or more pages of work showing the best of your images, with annotations and screen grabs that show any Photoshop work that is produced in conjunction with the work.
(5). A detailed reflection - analysing what's been achieved and learned through producing the images and doing any post-production work. There should be a detailed examination of the work in terms of how your idea is coming together and what you need to do to improve the work and develop or experiment with it further. You should also discuss the work in terms of its operational context... what kind of image is it, how could it be used, where would it be seen. Also critically appraise the work in terms of whether it is fit for purpose at this stage? What more needs to be done at the next stage?
(6) Stages 3, 4 and 5 need to repeated over a minimum of 2 more stages working to improve or be more creative with your project.
(7). Final evaluation (Reflective) looking at the work in detail and whether it is fit for purpose, whether you completed what you intended to do, what you learned, the impact of the learning on future projects and the value of the learning and the images in terms of supporting the development of your portfolio.
What you need to do... copy some of the different variations of these images that illustrate the processes and analyse them in terms of how they could be used and whether they make sense to you in terms of producing a big project that would be developed over several stages incorporating experimentation and the gradual improvement and refining to produce a final outcome. Examine and explain each of the stages and what's involved - how do they impact on the project by way of forcing improvements. Pay particular attention to our process. Also look at those that are presented in a linear manner.
Use the criteria reference number as part of the heading/title for this section of your work... LO1 - 1.1 Analyse the stages and activities within the creative process
LO1 - 1.2 Explore creative processes within the context of the creative industries
Pick two Operational contexts and describe/explain/analyse how the creative process can be applied to those scenarios. Question whether they can be applied to other operational contexts. The 2 most obvious scenarios are...
(1). Art Photography production
(2). Speculative editorial Photography
What you need to do... Again, using images of the process along with explanations and analysis, explain how would this come together at each stage, who and what would be involved, what would need to be done, how would that look as it comes together, what time scales might be involved
Use the criteria reference number as part of the heading/title for this section of your work... LO1 - 1.2 Explore creative processes within the context of the creative industries
