A-Level Photography allows learners the opportunity to express themselves creatively while exploring ideas and concepts that are personal and meaningful. This is clearly demonstrated across the wonderful work created by this years A-Level cohort. I could not be prouder of the work and achievements made by each member of the Photography group.
Learners often choose issues within society as a means to connect their Photography to an audience. The course consistently challenges them to problem solve and improve both quality and concept as they progress. This ultimately prepares them for both industry and Higher Education.
Industry-standard software and equipment are embedded throughout the course to again support progression, exploring the Creative Cloud Adobe Suite with programs such as Photoshop and Lightroom for image editing, along with InDesign to create their stunning portfolios and project work. To allow for a deeper understanding of photography, learners are encouraged to work with both modern and traditional techniques such as darkroom and Cyanotypes. This 2-year programme builds theoretical and practical knowledge to allow our learners the creative means to express themselves through Photography.
I hope you enjoy exploring the work from this year’s Photography learners.
Simon Morris, A-Level Photography Tutor, Dudley Sixth
A-Level Photography allows learners the opportunity to express themselves creatively while exploring ideas and concepts that are personal and meaningful. This is clearly demonstrated across the wonderful work created by this years A-Level cohort. I could not be prouder of the work and achievements made by each member of the Photography group.
Learners often choose issues within society as a means to connect their Photography to an audience. The course consistently challenges them to problem solve and improve both quality and concept as they progress. This ultimately prepares them for both industry and Higher Education.
Industry-standard software and equipment are embedded throughout the course to again support progression, exploring the Creative Cloud Adobe Suite with programs such as Photoshop and Lightroom for image editing, along with InDesign to create their stunning portfolios and project work. To allow for a deeper understanding of photography, learners are encouraged to work with both modern and traditional techniques such as darkroom and Cyanotypes. This 2-year programme builds theoretical and practical knowledge to allow our learners the creative means to express themselves through Photography.
I hope you enjoy exploring the work from this year’s Photography learners.
Simon Morris, A-Level Photography Tutor, Dudley Sixth
In this project, I explored the portrayal of monochromatic still life photography, examining the differing ways to adjust and manipulate a photograph through compositional techniques.
I had a diverse set of inspiration from the photographers I chose, allowing me to experiment broadly within the darkroom as well as at home, with various mediums and objects. I looked thoroughly at shadow, lighting, placement, texture and detail, identifying how to assemble an image appropriately with my given objects.
I then went on to produce two distinct final images, done in two different styles, all depicting the techniques accumulated within the entire investigation.
Project Title: Every Day (The Life of a Key Worker in the Pandemic)
My investigation combines the principles of Cinematography and Photography to build a narrative exploring the repetitive every day feeling through the national lockdowns.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic being a heavy influence in my work along with the entire country being locked inside their homes. I wanted to investigate every day life and show beauty in the mundane. I followed a key worker and used my developing cinematic style to create a 52-piece narrative titled “Every Day” to show the life of a key worker in the pandemic.
In my project, I explored various avenues within staged photography, exploring a range of photography techniques in attempt to bring awareness to the beauty of objects which we come across on a day-to-day basis.
After a broad range of experimentation, both using traditional and modern, digital techniques, I became heavily influenced by lighting techniques, the use of texture and elevation, in combination with the contemporary style of commercialised photography, using processes such as light painting and image stacking to produce visually engaging images of the highest quality results so that they can be appreciated in the fullest.
My three final outcomes combined a wide range of skills and styles carried forth from previous, successful developments, with the presence of water and wood helping to introduce a greater range of texture to the scene, both stylising it whilst making it more interesting to view, isolating the focus towards the beautiful subject, elevated in the scene.
Throughout my project I have explored the variety and diverse range of an overlooked group of organisms known as the insects. I have been able to show off the detail and microstructures of these insects via the use of extreme macro photography.
As the project developed, so did the quality and unique look of the images, influenced by exploration of different techniques and inspiration from other photographers.
The ability to show off the different structures and details of the insects progressed through the project until I created my final outcomes using thousands of images and a technique using image stacking. This was a series of images, three groups of three, depicting the head the full body and the insect’s finer details.
With the end of my time at Dudley Sixth Form I am now moving onto the University of Falmouth to complete a Marine and Natural History Photography course.
My personal investigation, titled ‘Solitude’, explored the multi-layered nature loneliness, and how we as people can either enjoy being within our own company, or we can suffer from being isolated and alone. Through a varied use of image techniques, and overall, two separate styles, I have been able to convey these different feelings to my audience.
I have used both studio and street photography to communicate these opposing sides of Solitude visually, by experimenting with clear, crisp and contrasted styles to represent the way in which people are happy being by themselves. On the other hand, my use of a murkier, darker approach helped me to convey the struggle that can come with being alone. The grainier the image, the more this idea of negativity was expressed, and the brighter and more contrasted the image, the more this sense of daily life and optimism was conveyed.
As I am finishing college, I am going pursue a career in Photography or the Digital Arts.
My project explores differing mental illnesses and their perception through abstraction and distortion, both from the perspective of people personally affected by mental conditions, and from an outsider’s perception of them. I predominantly experimented with overlaying semi-transparent photographs, projection depicting self-harm and utilising adjusting hues and oversaturation to make colours within the photos uncharacteristically vibrant. Through my heavily edited shoots I have expressed both the stigmatization of mental illness in the media and the effects these illnesses have on a perception’s of both themselves and the world around them.
My final pieces are replicative of how many mental illnesses are often overgeneralized into an amalgamation of symptoms, expressed through the collaged layering of many different dramatized edits.
I am going on to study Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts.
Social media consumes us and affects our lives without us even realising. My project explores how these social media platforms impact young people’s identity. I used cyanotypes and digital editing in order to portray elements of a concealing and revealing nature as well as corruption of identity.
I used both manual and digital techniques throughout the project in order to understand what worked the most successfully in order to present the theme of identity. I then went onto produce six large scale cyanotypes in response to this concept and by having six outcomes this gave me an opportunity to highlight to broad scope of how many young people this affects.
I am going on to study fashion communication and promotion at Manchester Metropolitan University. I am aiming to utilise my photography skills in this course as it is an ongoing passion of mine.
