Blog of the week: Simon Lewis
This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
I’m grateful to photography tutor Andrea Norrington for pointing out our latest Blog of the Week. Simon Lewis’ learning blog for his People and Place course stands out because of the way you can see clearly how he is combining his research and his decision making. This is particularly evident for assignment four: A sense of place. Take a look.
13 thoughts on “Blog of the week: Simon Lewis”
Leave a Reply
> Next Post Olivia's show
< Previous Post Dogyears
Drawing Department 2023 Assessment Showcase
9 Comments
As Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Drawing Degree I am really pleased to...
Read more
Tutor News – Katrina Whitehead
6 Comments
Some of you will know me as your personal tutor, or you may have...
Read more
Introducing our Interior Design External Examiner, Marianna Velissaropoulou
3 Comments
With assessment events held regularly three times a year, many of you will be...
Read more
Student Stories: Julia McLean
2 Comments
OCA Photography Program Leader Dan Robinson caught up with Julia McLean about her experience...
Read more
It’s a fantastic blog! Really well organised—it looks a dream for assessors. As I start to think about assessment, this reference has come at a really good time for me. I know I need to tidy mine and make the information more easily accessible. My only question is the inclusion of the images from other photographers and magazines. The referenced photographer images are normally quite small and in a ‘contact sheet—is that okay regarding the recent copyright conversations about blogs?
I’m pretty certain it is OK Vicki. Certainly it is easy to find many examples of larger reproductions on the web so the posters of those are far more likely to attract attention that Simon.
In the last review of copyright we made a submission to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills about precisely this issue and they asked us for evidence that it was a real as opposed to theoretical issue. If any student has had copyright issues when blogging small images as part of their learning blog we would like to know. Please email enquiries@oca-uk.com
Simon’s blog is excellent and such a pleasure to read. I don’t want to detract from that at all, just to ask, Gareth, if some clarity can be given regarding copyright and what we can and can’t do, given the recent discussion on the OCA site regarding Bridgeman and copyright issues in general.
A photograph of a photograph is perhaps one way around this.
When I wrote about The Afghan Girl for PWDP, I photographed a spread of portraits from Steve Mac Curry’s book “In the Shadow of Mountains”
http://amanophotoblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/writing-about-a-photograph-the-afghan-girl/
The red outline was done in Photoshop by the way … the book is too precious to mark!
I also made a link from the photo to the book on Amazon – I do not see Phaidon raising any objection to this should it ever come to their attention.
A photo of a photo is a copy – hence an issue for copyright. The question is, as Gareth asked, is it a real issue or just a theoretical one?
I don’t mind people using my images if they’re credited to me and not sold. The last word is the important one, as I’m the one who should profit from my work, if somebody copies it for their own gain I’m going to act.
A student posting a picture on their learning blog isn’t ikely to attract a problem – I’d be flattered that someone thought it worth reproducing as an example …unless it was an example of how not to do it!
If anyone objects just take it down. If you’re really worried then include a link, as AMANO suggests, instead of the image.
For my review of 100 Ideas that Changed Photography by Mary Warner I photographed double page spreads. I didn’t ask permission, but then my copy was a review copy supplied by the publishers in the hope that I’d give a favourable review and publicity, which I feel I did. If I didn’t think much of the book I wouldn’t have sent a review to the OCA.
The publishers won’t prosecute us for copyright issues if we’re openly promomting their book/image to thousands of people. This is the issue I feel; if they gain publicity and we gain nothing (monetary) it isn’t going to be a problem (but don’t quote me in court as a defence). Copyright exists to safeguard commercial interests.
BTW I believe the copyright law in England and Wales started after Hogarth had his engravings copied and sold on London streets – they even tried to sell him one on his own street!
I found this blog really interesting, especially the editing process, as I’m currently working on this assignment. I admire the very thorough research that went into the assignment. I love the pictures, especially the movement you’ve captured in the first 3 images. The shot of the “beautiful people” marching confidently and determinedly along the beach reminded me of Helmut Newton’s “They’re coming” images.
Excellent, thorough and detailed. This has given me new formats in which to reference the work of others, which will be most helpful Thank you, Simon.
A wonderful blog Simon – excellent in every way and a model to follow. I’ll be following you with interest.
An extremely enjoyable and informative blog. It has certainly given me a great deal to think about. I had been very concerned about using images from other photographers, but the comments above have greatly reassured me.
Very interesting blog, Simon. Apart from your works, I like the Research part. Your idea about short summary on each photographer you have looked at is quite effective and it is so wonderfully simple.
This was wonderful to read and couldn’t have come at a better time as I’ve just started P&P myself!
Keep up the good work!
fabulously clear website. In structure its very similar to mine but so much clearer. The style consistency really makes it very elegant……more work to do on mine. Id be interested to kniw if youve created this from scratch…or used a template. I spend too much of my time on website design!