Tag: Photography

Final Major Project: Project Development, 21st December 2018

Mindfulness and Photography

Recently photography has been tough because I am struggling with mental and physical issues. Whilst doing some research I came across the terms contemplative photography and mindful photography and it made me want to know more about it.

As I feel like I am in a creative fog and haven’t really found what it is I want to do for my FMP that really excites me, I felt there was no harm in having a look at some different subjects. I felt I needed to kick-start my creativity, as I had so much self doubt due to my low mood. I found lots of articles and books but I think what I take from it is as follows.

An individual needs to stop putting pressure on themselves to get a certain picture at a certain place at a certain time, and it is more about stopping for a moment to actually see what is going on around you, and not just looking but seeing, to allow yourself to breathe and not feel pressured, and once you have taken everything in then start taking some images.

Perhaps in a loose way it can be linked to Cartier-Bresson’s Decisive Moment. You have to be able to properly see what it is you are focusing on to really make the connection and decided to commit that moment for eternity in an image.

I had been putting so much pressure on myself to find my subject, to make images of what I thought I should be doing I wasn’t even enjoying any of it. I was just trying to achieve a goal and not doing it successfully because it wasn’t about anything it was of something!!

I read an article with a viewpoint from a counsellor who advised that sometimes it isn’t so much about the photography which is beneficial but also the walk to get to it, the journey to get to the place to get the image is also part of the therapeutic benefits.

So over the next couple of weeks I have decided to try these techniques, and the activities in Zen Camera and the Practice of Contemporary Photography and see where it takes me, and also to read a bit more about the subject as a whole.

References

Karr, A. and Wood, M. (2011). The practice of contemplative photography. Boston, Mass: Shambhala.

Ulrich, D. (2018). Zen Camera. New York. Watson-Guptill

https://ayearwithmycamera.com/blog/mindful-photography-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-do-it

https://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/technique/interviews/photography-saved-my-life-photography-as-therapy-117567

Final Major Project – Project Development Research– 14th November 2018

After yesterdays tutorial I have had time to think about what we discussed. In truth I am not sure that the Rephotography in the way that we discussed is the way that I want to go with my work.

I have been reading deeper in to the photography of dementia and the links that can be made ice as one example.

A person is frozen in time with the memories melting away.

Nicola Onions Photographed flowers in ice, in her Memoriam collection. As the type of links to the disease is so fitting I wondered about also using the ice but in a different way. Having an image in ice and watching it melt away hopefully taking with it some of the ink until there is no more and the memory has gone. The bubbles in the ice would also represent moments of lucidity. I have got the sense that this could turn into something really special if explored further and I have to say has peaked me interest.

I also thought if not using an image then it would be something that reminded me of the person that I have lost.

  • Grandma – Love/Glasses/Brooches
  • Auntie Joyce – Dogs/Birds
  • Uncle Raymond – Three Lions Emblem

References:

https://cargocollective.com/nicolaonions/Memoriam

Final Major Project – Photo North Festival – 10th November 2018

This weekend I went to the Photo North Festival at the Harrogate Convention Centre.

There was several really great exhibitions looking at the social issues of our society. What was really interesting was the Kenny Brown section and the images in the project Cranhill: Images of Place and Memory. Having a similar topic to what I have been considering made it clear what I need to start considering for my own work.

I also had the opportunity to see part of the Invisible Britain Exhibition – it was a buzz seeing the Jenny Lewis image after seeing her at the Falmouth Symposium earlier in the year.

In earlier modules of the MA we covered Jane Hilton and seeing her work All Lit Up in reality it is possible to get up close and see the colours that you cant get full appreciation of from a computer screen.

Well Known Getty Photographer Tom Stoddart had some images on show as part of the Remembrance weekend. It was truly wonderful to get up close to these images and see the beauty of the light. I was also lucky enough to be able to speak to him and discuss his work. I was thrilling to find out he is from my local area and still lives there and he offered me help if I ever needed it with my studies and gave me his contact details. This was truly the highlight of my experience and made it a very worthwhile visit.

This is also an opportunity I intend to follow up.

Final Major Project – Project Development – 5th November 2018

Professor Green was on BBC Breakfast this morning talking about his latest single Photographs. He has started a social media campaign #WishThatITookMorePhotographsOfUs

This was a really interesting interview to me and also researching the concept behind it afterwards. Talking of loss of a family member and how photographs are so important in terms of memory and our feelings towards this.

It made me think of the family members that I have lost both recently and the ones that Alzheimer’s stole from me.

Perhaps this could lead to a new shift in my work and made me think deeper into the concept behind my work.

Things to Explore:

  •  Images and silhouettes of me and grandma – layered over my memories of the places that mean something to me.
  • Working title suggestions
    • Gone but never forgotten – the cruel reality of dementia
    • Stolen Moments
    • The Memory Thief
    • Stolen moments the crimes of the memory thief
    • Stolen Memories
    • Dementia – The Memory Thief
    • Stolen Moments – The Memories Dementia Erased

Final Major Project – 1:2:1 Tutorial with Wendy McMurdo – 31st October 2018

Summary:

FMPP Feedback – 

  • My FMPP was illustrated with a good range of appropriate references.
  • I need to consider how DNA could be visualised/recorded/depicted. How I could harvest my own DNA.
  • Am I incorporating my DNA with my own archival imagery
  • The historical past mentioned in my FMPP is interesting.
  • Perhaps think about working on Typologies.

What I need to do with my work – 

My work is fragmented – I must do more research.

What is my work about? Is it DNA, Identity, Uniqueness (Does this link to ethnicity or is this unlinked?

Social Context / Political Context.

Revealing something hidden

Memory ( this is a major area for my research)

Find my links 

  • Family
  • Memory
  • Dementia Research – Alzheimer’s Society.

Research to follow up:

Look at the Centre for Life – DNA discoveries

Hew Locke – Monuments

Stephen Gill – Best Before End

Mark Quinn – Blood Cubes, DNA, Family Portrait – this could be very important to my current path.

Next Tutorial: 13th November 2018

Final Major Project: Group Critique with Paul Clements 30/10/2018

Similarities with Da Vinci and how he put fingerprints within his work whether intentional or not is a link to my own work. I really enjoyed working with the identity project – it encapsulated my love for abstraction with the love for my home county and my memories.

There was also conversation about the get together of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon at the Colony Club where thumb prints were put on images.

  • The Identity Project Collage

I also presented at this group critique the layering images that I have been working on. These images received a good reception – particularly the ones that featured my relatives – showing some form of existence and this makes the images easier for the viewer to relate to.

A point was that the images of my relatives didn’t necessarily need to be in the original location of where my family were.

St Nicholas's Church and Cramlington Village square
St Nicholas’s Church and Cramlington Village Square.

There were suggestions to certainly email the city library as my location but to also contact the RPS North magazine, to have a feature if possible.

There was also an idea to look at DNA testing to get a profile – to print this out and maybe start inserting that into my imagery.

Research to do:

Graham Smith: North East photographer who had his work misappropriated (look at Granta Magazine, Editions 25,75)

Watch the Andrew Jackson lecture

I hope to develop these ideas to come up with a really great idea.

Final Major Project – Project Development – 10th October 2018

After my tutorial this week and having some time to look at the works of Corinne Vionnet and Idris Khan a couple of the references offered by Wendy. I wondered if a key to my work was collecting all of the images in one go (Like my favoured artists Jung and Lowy) or if it is actually about returning to the subject after a period of time showing actual time passing.

Another thought of mine in connection to the editing process was about having 35 layers – a layer for every year of my life compressed into one image with the base being the original archival image.

The list of sites I’ve been considering is

  1. St Nicholas Church – Achieved
  2. The Old Chapel (Capella’s) – Achieved
  3. Northumberlandia
  4. Angel of the North
  5. Sage and Tyne
  6. Tynemouth Priory
  7. Warkworth Castle
  8. Woodhorn
  9. St Mary’s Lighthouse
  10. Travellers Rest (John the Clerk) – Achieved
  11. Theatre Royal
  12. Castle Keep
  13. Beach Huts
  14. Collingwood’s Statue
  15. Grey’s Monument
  16. Spanish City
  17. Cragside
  18. Seaton Deleval Hall

My working title at the current time – This is me – I am North

Final Major Project – 1:2:1 Tutorial with Wendy McMurdo – 9th October 2018

Summary:

Plan Exhibition for March/April (need 1 clear month at the end for CROP and PDF)

Think of a working title as this will help in the description of my work. what does my project want to say.

I need to talk about my approach and also include descriptions of what I actually want to achieve.

I need to have a visual strategy

Personal Identity and memory is too broad a statement I need to be much more specific.

Show I am not interested in a traditional representation

Rewrite the start of my proposal – my new direction is not that far removed from my other projects – my fingerprint is still macro, I’m still looking at the passage of time – this is just another evolution.

Research to follow-up:

Corinne Vionnet – Photo Opportunities 2005-2017 http://www.corinnevionnet.com/-photo-opportunities.html 

Idris Khan – every… page of the Holy Qur’an 2004 https://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/14-idris-khan/, St Pauls, London 2012, Homage to Bernd Becher 2007

Helen Sear – Beyond the View 2008 http://www.helensear.com/portfolio/beyond-the-view/

Helen Chadwick – Viral Landscapes 1988-1989 https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/9498/viral-landscapes

Heather Dewey-Hagborg – Spirit Molecule 2018 https://deweyhagborg.com/

Next Tutorial: 30th October

Final Major Project – Project Development & 2nd Development Shoot – 4th October 2018

I found some original photographs, or postcards that could be used as the base for my transformations.

This was such a fruitful experience it shows me just how much things have changed in just my lifetime.

I’ve also been rereading about the methods of Jung and Lowy and it has really re-inspired my work and whilst I think that my imagery may be much darker than their work it is certainly something that I want to try out further.

I had 3 locations in mind when leaving to go and do my second development shoot. I was able to achieve these 3 locations  – Initial editing did not quite go to plan but subsequent attempts have been more successful. I have started to wonder whether it is appropriate to bring back the fingerprint.

These are places that all mean something to me and have played a part in the development of my identity. I want to put my stamp on them and the way I find to do this is to wrap the memories in the whorls of my fingerprint entwining the love of my community and embracing it in a single image.

  • Capellas – Cramlington – November 2018
  • The Travellers Rest Cramlington – November 2018
  • St Nicholas’s Church – Cramlington – November 2018

Final Major Project – Project Development – 29th September 2018 – 1st Development Shoot

I researched the shooting techniques of both Stephanie Jung and Ben Lowy and tried to make a similar technique. I then carried out a test shoot and what I plan to do. It worked quite well and it has left me quite excited to the point of planning the time in to go and do some actual shots.

Test Shot 1 29.09.2018

The movement of the pots and items around the garden I think is almost like a time-lapse I have lived in this house since I was brought home from hospital. My Dad has lived in this house from when he was 2 with his family so the archival image shows my family from around 1981/2 but the surroundings of today. I also think it is more effective in the blank and white.

I have layered around 28 images together.