I've finished Uni!

From a year doing a Foundation course to my three year BA degree, my time at Portsmouth has come to an end.
Who's going to give me a job then?

My presentation went much better than expected, so I'm pretty confident.
I'm probably going to end up with a 2:1 anyway, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of a decent grade.

Tom's Visit.

For those of you who don't know me or read this regularly, my friend Tom took the time to visit me this weekend. We went out on Friday night but the weekend was otherwise a quiet one. It was nice that he gelled well with my housemates, although he already knows Moon and Chris from school anyway.
But I showed him Guildhall and we danced, then I showed him Gunwharf and the seafront the following day and yesterday my Mum and sister came down for a visit and we went for lunch at Mozzarella Joe's. It was nice to see him as I haven't seen him since my 21st. Anyway, I haven't got much else to say so I may as well showcase some photographs instead.

Hi.

I should be able to take some nice photographs this weekend because my friend Tom is town and I have an excuse to go out in the (hopefully there will be) sun and be by the sea.
I got a replacement 18-105mm lens, so I'm happy to be back to having a mid-range lens again, but I haven't taken any particularly exciting photos yet.




At the moment my life is quite unexciting, I am absent of a boyfriend while he studies for his final exams and I'm basically sat here twiddling my thumbs. I'm really looking forward to the proper holidays where I get to go out and do things.

We started setting up the space for the exhibition on Monday, it was a bit hit and miss due to the amount of people. I mean, it seems unfair to only have 8-10 people doing all the work but you don't need 42 people doing everything either. I'm poking my nose in tomorrow and hopefully I'll have the chance to help out more. On Monday, I only really painted the base coats on two boards before going home.

I had the practice run for my Viva on Tuesday, which went much better than expected, it only needs a few tweaks, but I'm sure it will be fine on the day, I'm not as worried about passing as I was before.

In between being bored as hell and writing up notes for my Viva, I've been applying for a few jobs as well as signing up to LinkedIn and various other 'job sites'. I feel like it might be a bit futile but at least I'm doing something and attempting to make a move towards getting a job.
I was emailed this evening about maybe doing Malden Fortnight again, which would be nice. Although once again I have to duck 'n' dive out of the last weekend because of course, that's when my graduation weekend falls, although they coped fine without me last year. Even though I would say the best events are probably that weekend, my graduation obviously comes first.

Here is a link to the Facebook event for my upcoming exhibition, 'Vernissage'. I have seen the catalogue and it looks ten fold better than last years. I'm showing the clothes project because 'Where are your parents from?' has some 'soft' images that I'm pretty gutted about.
Vernissage Tumblr — a website is in the works and that looks pretty sweet too so watch this space. Speaking of which, I am now the owner of my dot.com again, it's currently linked to a Tumblr, but I'll be working on a more official website once I've got over the stress of thinking about my Viva.

Must-haves.

Must-haves (2011)
A series created as part of the Self-Led brief in the third year of BA (Hons) Photography at the University of Portsmouth. The project attempts to address the problems surrounding the acceptance of fashion consumerism and the absurd logic that is often used to justify purchases. These items of clothing go unworn at the back of wardrobes or at the bottom of draws.
Ruth Johnston; www.ruthjohnstonphotography.com
+44 (0) 7795465749
Flickr set

"It was in the sale and compared to the original price, it was a bargain. The hood broke quite soon after I bought it and I have been meaning to sew it back together, but I just haven't. It is so warm though and I can quite easily fix it so it's not really worth getting rid of it."

"These have been too big for me for a while and I don't ever wear them, but what if the chance to do some painting comes up?"

"My mum brought this back for me from Hong Kong. There is just something about it that I really hate. She never lets me get rid of anything though."

"I don't think you could just wear this. It's quite classy and feels like the kind of outfit that you need to wear to an event, to make an entrance. Unfortunately, I don't have anything special events to attend at the moment."

"This thing! I was doing some internet shopping and this jumpsuit was delivered by mistake. It was refunded and I was told to return it, but I didn't. I know that I am never going to wear it so I thought I could sell it, but I probably won't ever do that either."

"I dreamt about this dress for such a long time. My boyfriend bought it for me for our first anniversary. I love it, but I got paint on it. No one will notice it but I can't bring myself to wear it, because of what it means, I can't throw it away but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do anything else with it."

© Ruth Johnston 2011.

Because everyone else seems to be doing it.

Oh, how I can't wait to get my replacement 18-105mm lens, it will make everything so much easier to have a mid-range lens again. This was taken on my phone and because my prints are big and I don't have very much floor space, the layout is pretty pants, but it doesn't matter, I'll put a great one of them up at the exhibition.

My next post will be of all the images, but anyway, tomorrow is the deadline for my last ever University project, crazy stuff. It feels like only yesterday that I was practically weeping as my Mum dropped me off in halls...

I'm not really sure what to do with myself, I mean there's still Viva to go, but I know the half-Chinese project practically inside out, I just need to rehearse.

Text and Display.

So all I have left to do is to write about how my work is going to be displayed and the advice that I was given regarding text panels. I'm a bit gutted that I only got the final advice about text 5 days before the deadline so I can't get the 'proper' ones done in time, but I think I've printed and mounted these ones well enough that it won't matter. I wouldn't say that they're perfect for the exhibition, which is why I've sent them off to be printed and mounted at The Print Space, but they're adequate for the project hand-in.

Example display

I'm preparing my work for my Viva, which means re-printing my text panels for the Half-Chinese project and trimming them down. I don't think I'll bother re-mounting the images as I'm not showing the A3 versions anyway, which is apparently bad of me but I don't think it makes much difference and the images are of higher quality when they're smaller because I messed up the way I edited and processed them.

In other news, Topshop are allowing me to return a bag without a receipt because it broke for no reason after only a week of me owning it. They are doing this because I tweeted about how ripped off I felt, I'm quite amazed that they got back to me, something like that would never have happened five years ago, technology is great. I'm a bit sad because I liked the bag and it's out of stock online and was the last one in the shop because of this I either get my money back or an exchange for another bag up to the same price. Despite their high prices, it is nice to know that Topshop place their customer service and satisfaction in high regard.

ALSO, I am in the process of helping establish a Portsmouth Student Union Media NUJ Chapel (that's going to be a long acronym). I'm quite looking forward to getting involved, I have also managed to possibly do a fashion photoshoot for the University newspaper.

Hello, neglected blog.

I don't really have anything interesting to show or write about lately. I have a few photos on my camera that I should upload to my computer but I've been a bit lazy. Now my computer is back up in my room I should have an easier time of getting things done.

I've got a few jobs to hunt for and an exhibition to get planning.
I handed in my second-to-last University assignment this morning, strange. I celebrated by very possibly getting food poisoning from a chicken burger and shopping. I'm not shopping again for a while, it's weird to have money again. I have so many nice things now, I just need somewhere to go.

My feedback from NUJ was quite good, it was the first time I've had feedback from something that didn't comment on my lack of confidence, so it was a nice feeling. I think it was because I enjoyed the whole experience so much, basically all the feedback I got was positive, so I'm really pleased with myself.

My final images with the prospective text are up on Flickr - which I'm going to start using more - if you want to take a look. I've really got to try and keep this up to date because once everything is finished I'm not sure what else I will have to do or whether I will be able to enjoy visual media as freely as I have been, so this is a good way to keep in sync.

I'm not really sure what else to say, like I said, not many things have been happening in my life. I will post nice stuff soon.