I'm feeling a touch guilty in that it has been about 2 months since I have updated my blog (rather remiss of me). It's not that I haven't been doing any work - more to the contrary, I have been slaving away at my 'day job' in addition to completing a major essay for my masters degree and finalising the work for assignment 3 of my OCA course. Now that I have written that down I feel 'cleansed' - it's rather cathartic this blogging process!Anyway, I received the feedback a few days ago for my OCA assignment and was (once again) delighted with the positive comments. It always helps to spurn me onto my next 'installment' and as time is getting quite precious at the moment, it was a boost I really needed. This particular assignment was really hard work as it involved not only taking photographs, but also an in-depth essay (of which I concentrated on the work of Martin Parr) and a theoretical study. I must say that whilst I enjoyed the challenge of writing about the creative process and investigating the work of prominent photographers, I was incredibly glad to 'get it out of the way' so that I could use my time to complete my photographic project. Ultimately, it is taking photographs that fires me up, not just talking about them.
Upon the advice of my tutor (and based upon the thoughts that I was having anyway), I have decided to refine my major project even further. The project had started out as a very 'open-ended' study of workers, which was later refined to focus upon workers in uniform. I have taken this a stage further to now concentrate specifically on those wearing camouflage uniform (or DPM - Disrupted Pattern Material - as the military define it). At the moment I will be concentrating on the British DPM uniform, but it leads to an idea for the future exploring the different DPM patterns worn by different nations (and the reasons behind the various constructions/patterns). Aside from the day-to-day wearing of the uniform, I want to concentrate on particular situations where it is mandated (and necessary) that the DPM uniform is worn. I have already taken images of the RAF Regiment on Pre-Deployment Training for Afghanistan and of the Royal Gurkha Regiment (see image above) during their 'downtime' on Operations in Kandahar (the latter of which will be submitted as part of Assignment 4). I will be taking some images of airmen training on a fitness assault course (which will form the second part of the Assignment 4 submission), and I intend to do some photographic studies of snipers training 'in the field' and of medics training for Afghanistan. There are some real challenges ahead, but the continued focus of the study has really helped to define its boundaries and has helped me to concentrate my efforts further.
