GCSE GUIDE

GCSEGUIDE

By Kathryn McGuire

When picking a GCSE or an A-Level subject, particularly Art, it can seem scary as if you’re going into it blind. I know I can relate to this experience, but as an A-Level Photography student (and a former GCSE Photography student), I wanted to answer some of these questions and uncertainties, and discuss both the A-level and GCSE courses from a student's perspective. For this first edition of the Art Newsletter, I will only be discussing Photography, but the subjects are not that different, so you can still take advice from this even if you choose Graphic Communications or Fine Art instead. In both GCSE and A-Level, once you get a new project title, the first line of action is to make a mindmap of all your initial thoughts and ideas; next, you look online and on the websites recommended in the Handbook1 for inspiration. This inspiration can be in any form — paintings, sculptures, sketches, videos, photography — anything that interests you

and/or connects to the project title (do not leave anything out, a good inspiration board will go so far when you start your project). Then you can take some of the artists from your inspiration and research them further, looking at their collections, sketches/ideas, interviews they have done, and so forth. The next step is to plan your photo shoot, as after doing initial ideas, inspiration boards and artist research, you should at least have some ideas on what you could do for the project; write out your first idea, and do some sketches of what it may look like. Maybe even jot down an issue you want to explore (racism, global warming, bullying etc.), though this may not be relevant to every photo shoot. When taking your photos, my first piece of advice (and most likely your teacher’s advice) is to take way more photos than you’re expected to. This ensures that you have fully explored your photo shoot and that you have recorded every possible angle, position, object, background, idea, formal element etc (Formal elements are the ‘parts’ or elements that make up an artwork: colour, space, pattern, line, form, shape, composition, texture, and tone). My next piece of advice is to take bad photos (yes, you read that correctly), as without taking photos that you don’t like or you think are embarrassing, you will never grow to your highest potential. Taking ‘bad’ photos allows you to identify what it is exactly you do not like and learn from past mistakes and experiences. It also allows you to see your progress throughout the two years, otherwise what is the point in having perfect photos at the start? Where will you go from there if you have already reached the top? The next (and often the last) part of a project is the critical analysis and reflection, and this is what most students are anxious about when starting their first photography course. But once you get started, it is not that difficult to do, and you improve your analysis skills drastically over the two years. There are so many ways to go and things to talk about, but here are some suggestions of what you may write about: why did you take these photos? What formal elements are most interesting here, and why? How could you improve this photo shoot/specific photo? Are the colours working with or against each other? How may the viewer interpret this, and how did you interpret it? There are so many different projects that you could have over the two years and within these, your freedom, personal style and interests are incredibly important in developing your work as an artist. You may be particularly interested in a range of styles (abstract, portrait, landscape, underwater, cluttered, minimalistic etc.) and have the opportunity to explore all of them. Some of the project titles you may encounter are Architecture, Narrative, Environment and Abstract. You can also do more with your photos such as ripping them up and rearranging them, creating a flipbook, spray painting over them, combining them in photoshop, painting over them, burning the edges and so many other exciting options. Whatever you decide to pick in your GCSEs and A-Levels, whether or not that includes Photography, I wish you the best of luck and I hope this has helped you to get a clearer idea of the course and make a more informed decision.