Here is a link to my FMP Critical Review of Practice.
FMP Critical Review of Practice Final Compressed
The concluding statement is perhaps worth noting here.
‘The MA has significantly shifted my practice. First, it has led to new creative approaches. Second, whilst collaboration has always been embedded in our social development work, these engaged processes will figure more overtly in my documentary photography. Third, the MA has generated a desire to further research both the ethics of photography and the Sublime.
And, finally, the MA has opened up the discourse with our Cambodian friends in great depth. The photography and the book have provided punctuation points for both them and me in their previously Unfinished Stories, but the journey is far from over.
We often look at pictures and dissect them, rather than considering them as a whole. The Western tradition is reductionist, with perhaps Barthes’ Punctum being its ultimate manifestation. Eastern traditions encourage us to consider totality, exemplified in this verse from the Dàodé Jīng:
The five colours blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavours dull the taste.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Precious things lead one astray.
Therefore, the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.
He lets go of that and chooses this. (Feng, 1996: Twelve)
I hope that my work invites people to feel, think and not just look’.
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FENG, Gia-Fu & ENGLISH, Jane. 1972. Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching. New York: Vintage Books