A Really Bad Day at the Office

I don't believe that I have ever felt nearer to packing the whole thing in than I do now.

 I received back my tutor's response to Assignment 3 which is the critical review which was o.k. but I had also include, as required, Parts 1 and 2 of my Major Project. Unfortunately the topic I have chosen does not fit easily into the requirement to split the project into 6 parts. I had raised this with my tutor and she had agreed but offered no real way forward. In this case I had the temerity to send my comments and questions in 4 parts because that was the easiest way to explain what was happening and what advice I wanted. Apparently this was the wrong thing to do as the Course material said that I should submit two parts (perhaps I should have been devious and sent the material in two parts and then subdivided each into two parts.)  I thought that this was petty in the extreme but felt it was a lesson learned.

As I have said before i am really struggling with what is needed and what is the required end result. My tutor did not answer this query but suggested a whole new area of study that I guessed may be of interest to her but had little reference to the core element of the Course which is photography. Her proposal in a nutshell was for me to interview a whole range of people to discover why they did what they did. Not content with this it was also suggested that I discuss with teachers the value, and what the children gained, from dressing up in historical costumes. (My project is photographing re-enactors and other relevant people.) On an average shoot I take approximately 200 photographs probably involving roughly the same number of people. In my opinion if I were to pursue this line I would need a great deal more than 600 hours.

I e-mailed my tutor expressing my concerns and that there was a need for a 'meeting of minds' meaning between the tutor (her) and the student (me). Her response was to ignore that instead suggest I read a book "Context and Narrative". I have actually read it for another Course and it sits on my bookshelf as I type. It has absolutely nothing to do with a failure of relationships between Tutor and Student. (I would recommend it to any photography student as it offers valuable insight into the psychology surrounding the photograph. Context and Narrative. Maria Short 2011 AVA Publishing Lausanne).

In the end I have decided to seek a change of Tutor in the hope that I will get help with the difficulties I am facing.