Chasing Shadows

More and more lately, I have been noticing the shadows formed when the sun shines through the windows at home. I like the idea of the shadows as a "Still Life" project although they are, of course, constantly moving.



A Little Stressed

I woke up this morning to a bright sunny day. Devon and Cornwall Architecture have requested that as many Public Art pieces as possible should be shot with a blue sky background. I headed off with all my equipment on the trail of the art.

First I headed to the Isambard Brunel Oak Wood Sculpture that sits on Pennycomequick roundabout. Being Sunday I thought that the traffic wouldn't be too bad and that I would be able to get across the road without too much hastle. I did. I felt slightly self conscious standing in the middle of the roundabout and this affected my images. They are not very good. But I do like to re-visit a site several times so that I become familiar with the landscape and have a more creative view of the subject I'm trying to shoot. Today was about experimentation.

I then continued on to the roundabout at North Cross where an 18ft Totempole carved in cedar, stands. This was tricky. I think Nicholas and I may have to take several shots of this from different perspectives as my composition standing in the middle of the roundabout did not work.

I walked to Millbay to photograph the Sculpture of Iron Ingots, stacked into a pile, and painted to resemble "Gold Bullion" and just further on from this are the Decorative Railings with an Inscription.

My last call was Elviras Cafe where a Knitted Breakfast has been cast in Bronze and mounted on the wall.

My day wasn't a success; I arrived back home feeling very tired. Carrying a tripod, cameras and accessories really was very difficult.  Having so much weight to carry really spoiled my enjoyment of the task. In future I think I will have to focus on one Public Art Piece at a time and spend time experimenting with views and perspectives. I was trying to do too much in one day. Also I feel that Nicholas and I will have to go out together if we are to succeed in photographing all 80 pieces. It is a mammoth task.

Later today I took my Medium Format Camera to the Allotment as I felt I needed to return to a landscape I am familiar with. I shot a roll of colour film and then I shot a few images with my digital. My walk earlier in the day had been stressful and disappointing.

Gideon Mendel International Photographer

Gideon Mendel is a photographer who has travelled widely across the globe documenting issues such as HIV Aids and The Climate Change.

He started by showing us black and white images he had taken in 1986 when South Africa was in the midst of change. He is now photographing the same areas again, using colour this time.

His work documenting and photographing the HIV Virus and Aids is now into is 18th year. He has worked along with Charitable Intitutions to highlight the suffering of people with AIDS. Medication is working to help people regain their strength, and live their lives along side their families. In his images he shows the despair and the hope.

He showed us a film of the extreme weather conditions in India, and Australia from where he had just returned. The images painted a pretty grim picture, but there was a significant difference in the images from India where people seemed to have given up, and the images from Australia where there appeared to be more hope and determination. India has a larger population and more poverty so the differences are understandable.

Gideon Mendel appeared very humble in his addres, he is a fascinating photographer to listen too. He has used his skills and talent to make a serious statement about the important issues going on in the world.

With Thanks to www.gideonmendel.com for this image

Mamiya Medium Format Prof 67

I was amazed today when I developed the film I'd shot with my Mamiya Medium Format Camera, the pictures are so clear. I wish I had taken a bit more time to compose my images better. I was so excited about trying the camera out that I shot randomly and forgot everything I've learned! But now that I know how good it can be, I'll  be buying some more film to try it out again very soon. I'm looking forward to shooting my "Author" portraits with this camera.

Here are a two of the images I shot with the Mamiya

WHY?

WAITING

These are two images I shot with my Lubitel Lomo Medium Format Camera

Right in the Middle

Missing No3





First Interview

I interviewed Barbara De Mora today. She is a painter, and has exhibited her work in several countries, so she is my International Artist. I have to transcribe the meeting and then I will post it on here.

Today I used my Mamiya Prof 6 for the first time. It is a monster of a camera, but quite beautiful! I love the bellows on it, and looking through the waist level viewfinder is joyful! I'm going to take the film into college tomorrow and see if I can find the time to develop it. I'm not sure that my first attempt will be successful but I'm looking forward to seeing the results. Even if they are not good it won't matter because I will learn from that.

Photography in Practice

 Photography in Practice is an Assignment we have just been given that involves working with Clients to produce photographs according to their brief. Several Clients came to introduce themselves. They included Attik Dance, Theatre Royal, Records Office, Part-Exchange, The Museum, SW Coast Path, Barbican Theatre and ACD & C (Architectural Centre for Devon and Cornwall).

At the end of the session we were asked to consider our first and second choices, and to give reasons for those choices. Students will then be allocated by our lecturers to the Clients.

My first choice is ACD & C The Architectural Centre. The obvious choice for me would have been The SW Coast Path because of my love of landscape, but I felt that I wanted to challenge myself. The first part of the Architectural brief has strict guidelines about what they want in a photograph, the second part is a more flexible creative guideline. I felt that working towards a strict guideline would give me valuable experience of what it is like to work with a client. I also thought that it would be interesting to discover the 80 Public Art Pieces that lie around Plymouth as I have only seen a very few of these.

Marie Sellars (Project Manager) mentioned the sculpture at Victoria Park in Stoke, by Richard Deacon who won the Turner Prize. I have seen this piece probably 1000 times but I had no idea that it was a work of sculpture created by Richard Deacon. This afternoon I shot some images of it.

I know that there will certainly be a few more surprises along the way and I am looking forward to starting the project.

 Richard Deacon Sculpture, Victoria Pk, Stoke, Plymouth

Anne Hardy - Visiting Lecturer at Plymouth University

Anne Hardy was introduced as an artist who "....uses spaces of the imagination that are grounded in an Urban reality....."

Images Courtesy of www.anne-hardy.co.uk

Detached

Centre

 Incidence

Anne Hardy uses the photograph as a view of a space and how it can depict the occupation of people after it is no longer in use. She said her work is "The Space being more than what you see"

Her work is a construction of found objects and everyday materials which she uses to create a stage that show the spaces of the aftermath of activity or events. The spaces are always devoid of human presence. They are a pictorial history of what has happened in that space.

She said of her art work Detached

 "I often use words that have multiple meaning - the title of one photograph, is both a state of mind and an architectural description. I like the idea that the titles, like the images, can allude to to both a physical and a psychological space"

Anne Hardy creates the stages in her studio and uses a Large Format Camera to photograph the work. She said that one of her greatest inspirations is the author JG Ballard, whose stories inhabit a world of alien places. She combines the real with fiction, developing an image and relating it to the real world.

At first I wasn't sure that I understood what she is trying to convey, but the more I look at her images, the more I understand the space. They remind me a little of Jeff Wall's work, and I find that they also have a mystery and depth that draws the viewer into that space making you look beyond what is there. This is perhaps more obvious in Centre where a door leads you to some stairs, giving the space an extra layer of depth. In Incidence the use of mirrors gives the image a three dimensional aspect. There is a recognition of the objects and of what has taken place in that space in a social historical context. I find her work thought provoking and insightful. I also like her use of words that have more than one meaning.

As I am currently working on my Allotment project looking at the space over a period of twelve months I was interested to hear how Anne Hardy creates scenes of spaces where there is a meaning in the aftermath of the use of that space. Some of the photographs I have shot at the Allotment show activity after the event. This is a space in the Allotment that I photograph every time I visit; there is constant movement of the chair and evidence of human intervention in the plot surrounding the space, as well as nature taking its course in the seasonal changes.



The Kings Speech

Image curtesy of sanfransiscosentinel.com

I went to the cinema this evening to see The Kings Speech. It's a film I would recommend to everyone. A moving and thoughtful depiction of a King plagued with lifelong speech impediment suddenly having to take the throne from his brother David. 

I have never seen Colin Firth acting with such skill and conviction. He has an amazing talent. I am of the opinion now that as an actor, his skills have been suppressed in much of his previous work. I've loved him in Pride and Prejudice and the Bridget Jones films etc, but this is the first time that I have seen him perform with such elegance, and showcase his true worth as an actor. His portrayal of King George VI was nothing less than majestic and mindful.

The film has a rich cast, and the script doesn't let them down. Timothy Spall played a brilliant Churchill and others were equally as gifted. Lionel Logue (the King's Voice Coach ) played his part with a degree of humbleness, humour and style.

The scenery and the costumes added to the film's graceful tone; it had a stately pace, it moved from scene to scene seamlessly never stuttering, unlike the King who struggled courageously to overcome his stammer. I was completely engrossed the whole way through, not one minute of the film is wasted, it is filled with thoughtful substance and beautiful prose.

It is a film not to be missed.

Image curtesy of croninfamilychronicles.blogspot.com

"Invisible Man" Cover Photographer David Wala

David Wala won the FujiFilm Student Award in 2008, a conjunction with Penguin Books to provide a cover for the re-issued version of Ralph Ellison's 1952 masterpiece. I found his website and wrote him an email. I was happy to see that he had replied today.

He said that "the image was created on a double glazed window with a stained coaster for the American Flag." I was amazed at his creativity, especially as he said that "he had come up with the idea on Friday night, photographed the cover on Saturday and submitted his entry on Monday."

The theme for the 2011 FujiFilm Student Award is Senses. The brief is to capture what Senses means to me. The deadline for entries is the end of February. I think this would be quite an interesting theme to explore.

Work Based Learning .... FotoNow Lecture .... Exhibitions

I attended the FotoNow lecture and found it an interesting and enlightening hour. Jon and Matt talked about thier experiences taking the Camera Obscura out into the Community. I like the idea of being in touch with people who may not necessarily visit Galleries. As they said Photography is accessible to all, it is a popular culture and an easy creative tool to share art with as many people as possible. They stressed the importance of socially engaging with the public and reaching a wider audience, of taking the gallery out to the people. The Audience is our reason to be pro active; if we are not seeking an audience then why are we creating. Art is lost if it is not shown to others.

As part of my Work Based Leaning Assignment I am photographing the Allotment over a twelve month period, with the intention of Exhibiting my work. I want to take this work out into the Community. There are facitilites at the Allotment site where I hope to be able to share my work with the people whose plots I am photographing. I am also  intending to approach the Council and make requests to Exhibit my work in the Civic Centre, or in other appropriate venues. Listening to Matt and Jon today made me more determined to do this. They inspired me and made me realise that this is the way forward. I am inclined to be shy of sharing my work with others but I know that if I want to be a known and respected photographer, I have to overcome my fears and my lack of confidence.

This afternoon I worked in the Dark Room. Emma has organised an exhbition event on Saturday in conjunction with Art Birthday and I needed to print my image. I am looking at this as an ideal opportunity to take my art into the public arena(!) and my first step in the right direction. The event is being held on the 14th January. When I spoke to Emma today, she was going to speak to the organiser to finalise details. I will find out more tomorrow.

I have missed several photo opportunities today because I did not carry my camera with me. I am not happy with myself as there was so much going on and I could have had so many to choose from. Another lesson learned. It has been a very busy week trying to organise my time to complete the assignment for Friday's deadline and doing everything else. I am exhausted!



An early night, but I am still surrounded by books!







Still Life ..Deadline Friday

I am now coming to the end of the work I have prepared  for the Moving Stills Assignment, which needs to be handed in on Friday. There are a few pieces I still have to complete

• my final reflections and evaluation
• print out another contact sheet of the images I shot on Sunday
• copy my final printed image to CD and ensure I add the Metadata

As I have been working for much of today on this Assignment, and attended the Contextual Lecture this morning, my image is a celebration that my daughter has washed the dishes twice in one week! Believe me this is total joy!

Joy



Ups and Downs ...

I think maybe I shouldn't have done anything today! This morning I wanted to develop my 120 film but when I opened my camera I exposed it. The winder had jammed so the film wasn't fully wound on the reel. Then I borrowed a camera from the ERC to take some Street Shots and they just were not worth a jot, I didn't even bother to save them. This week's instruction for Street Photography Now is " wondering aimlessly..." well as it was raining heavily this afternoon, no-one was "wondering aimlessly!"  I came home later, switched on my computer and deleted all my images. I had completed a "Back-Up" yesterday so I thought that this would be fine. But NO! Now I seem to have lost so many of my images and I don't know how to retrieve them. Apart from a few other mishaps the rest of my day was fine!

I dont have much to choose from for my Daily Image. This is the best I could do today.

Still Life Challenge

Today I have been setting up a small studio at home and practising my Still Life skills. Nothing is as easy as it looks! Now that I have completed my research for our assignment, I have found contemporary photographers whose work I really like and espouse. However, they have probably honed their skills over several years, and I feel as though I really am at the very beginning of my development. It takes time to gather objects that reflect the self and have some meaning attached to them, choose colours that photograph well together, form an aesthetically pleasing composition and then photograph the scene in a creative manner... and lots more! There is also the concept of why these objects should be put together, or the idea behind the creation of the Still Life. For the purpose of todays' shoot I gathered objects that do, for me, have meaning attached to them in the form of memories, but other than that I will have to look at the images and "see" what it was about these particular objects that made me put them together. Or maybe I shouldn't intellectualise everything and leave some things to instinct and intuition and the pure enjoyment of doing something creative.

I did enjoy the process and I also realise that to spend just one day shooting Still Life is only a start to the creative process. The photographers' whose work I have studied have reached a "knowing" which directs their creations.

I was mainly using natural window light to shoot my Still Life today, and for part of the afternoon I chased the shadows around the house when I noticed how beautiful the patterns were. Later I used a model light with a softbox and reflector to try and compose some good lighting effects, but by this time I was tired and my creative impulses were waning!

Here are some of the results of my day. My images are influenced by Veronica Bailey, Andy Goldsworthy, Rosy Martin, Sarah Lynch and Uta Barth.

Chasing Shadows

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

I finished reading Invisible Man last night. Its a brilliant book, a really well written and thought provoking novel. The main character is naive and gullible, while at the same time being an intelligent, articulate and vulnerable man.

The story is of a human being sucked into a web of deceipt by people who use him as a vehicle for their own ends. It is at times harrowing and violent. I found some parts very difficult to read. But it is also very moving and realistic; there is humour and frailty mixed in with the dark and dangerous, there is some compassion though not nearly enough, but this tale is of an hour in our history when compassion for humanity was thin on the ground.

I felt completely empathetic with the main character; the story unfolded for me as it did for him. I knew as little as he did, I trusted the other characters as he did, I suspected nothing, and only had my moments of doubt as he had his moments of doubt. When he realised how the people he had looked up too for all of his life, had used and abused him, I felt completely devastated. But his recognition of the truth as it really was, was a turning point for both the fictional character and for myself as the reader. In the end, he realises that the only person who can help him is himself. That he is the controller of his own destiny and that only he can make decisions about his own life. This resonated with me on many levels and I took away from this book the knowledge that there are only a very few people whom you can truly trust.  His strength at the end was a symbol of hope.

For my Book Cover ideas, I will re-read parts of the story and dip into it to find my inspiration, but there is more research I need to carry out before moving on any further with the assignment. Now I will play with ideas, work on my sketch book and see what happens.

Tavistock was very quiet today and I was disappointed with the photographs I shot. I was quite amused though that I was drawn to the Fruit and Vegetable Stall! It seems "You can take the woman out of  nature, but you cant take nature out of woman!"



A line from a Christmas Carol ... An Image

This is the image I have chosen for my Christmas Project. I have asked for a little help from my friends as to which Christmas Carol Line I can use ... I will add this later. (added at 9.30pm)

We Three Kings

Chorus Lines

Westward Leading Still Proceeding

Guide us to Thy Perfect Light

BOOK COVER

I have ordered some books from Amazon.co.uk today as part of my research for the Book Cover Assignment. I'm interested in finding out more about the American Civil Rights Movement, and Penguin have a few Modern Classics about this subject. I also spoke to Eileen today; she did quite a lot of research on this subject for one of her assignments last year, so she is going to bring me some information on Monday which will be great.

I have read books on Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and know a little about of the struggles and hostilities that occured during the Civil Unrest, but my knowledge is basic. I want to have a better understanding of the conflict that people faced to gain equality and freedom to live a decent life.  It is a subject that touches me and one that I feel still has great importance today.

A Sign of Activity

I walked to the Allotment today as I hadn't taken any photographs since before Christmas. I was surprised to see so many changes, the soil has been turned, tools and implements had been moved, objects in different places... this is why I have chosen todays image. The gloves, for me, told the story. It felt surreal; the gloves seemingly having appeared from nowhere. 

There were no humans present at the Allotment, but as I walked around the space, I was imagining a hive of activity taking place. Intuitively this image spoke to me ... I too feel that I am having a rush of energy and actively engaging with my work and with life itself. The New Year has brought with it a welcome change.

Photographer Uta Barth

Being

UTA BARTH

I have borrowed STILLED  Contemporary Still Life Photography by Women from the college library. In it I have found several Photographers whom I had not heard of, and several whose work I would like to know more about. One of these photographers is Uta Barth. Her photography is about the act of seeing. She removes any sign of a subject from her images choosing to encourage the viewer to think about what he or she is actually "seeing," when there is in fact, seemingly very little to see. She almost commands the viewer to notice the absence of a subject.

The images are simple; she does conform to the traditional compositional rules of photography, but the lighting is exquisite and there is an elegance to the ambience of her images.

Barth draws our attention to the fact that when there is a subject in a photograph, that this is what we notice; the subject serves as a part of ourselves (we as photographers or artists); the object being an extension of ourselves. We seldom see the whole picture. We take for granted that there is a background or a foreground around the subject, and notice it only as a place that houses the subjects. But Barth is trying to convey that the world around us is not just a background, but that everything in the world, including the background, is as important as the subject. The photograph for her is the background.

I see a great beauty in Uta Barth's photographs. I like the spatial qualities, the quietness that emptiness brings with it. The lighting is so effective that when I see her work, I can feel the light as if I am standing in the picutre.  For me, her photographs are warm and womb like. The background is always there, but when we stop to look at it, it holds an important narrative of its own.

The image that I chose for today, Being, is probably influenced on finding Barth's work. The Buddhist Philosophy is about being in the moment, enjoying the act of living in the now. I am not a Buddhist but I do agree with, and like some of their teachings. I think that Barth's work is part of this philosophy, she is reminding us that every part of our lives is important and that we shouldn't miss any of the details. My image has an object, and that object is an extension of me.

When I photograph the landscape I try and create a meditative effect and I don't always focus on a subject but I'm not sure that I had realised this until I saw Barth's work. In the work I'm doing in the Allotment, the subject is an important part of the images because I am trying to convey the human intervention in a green space in the city. But next time I visit the Allotment, I think I will try to shoot images that only have a small part in focus and see what happens.

The following three images are sourced from beautyinphotography.blogspot.com

Uta Barth's Ground Series

Seeing is forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees

Title of Robert Irwing Biography

Originally a line from a Zen text.

Update on Progress ...

WORK BASED LEARNING

I have emailed Wendy (from the Allotment) today to ask if we can meet for an interview and a portrait shot.

My first entry for the Street Photography Now has been uploaded to flickr and I am now searching for an image for this week's entry. The Instruction is "Show us the Aftermath" I have not yet shot an image which I am happy would reflect this. I will try again tomorrow.

I'm finding Street Photography quite difficult to capture; having done some research on line and bought the book by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, I realise that patience is very necessary to capture that elusive shot. I think too that there must be some luck involved in finding an "unusual" image. I must admit that I am getting a bit frustrated that I'm not "seeing" the "uncommon," the strange," the "unexpected," the curious".....but maybe in time when I am more practised in the art of Street Photography that I will start to notice more of this!

I received the Brief for the Summer Poster Competition today from the Marketing Dept at College. The deadline is 5pm on February 12th, so there isn't much time to find inspiration for this. It will involve research, and as I have so much to do, I'm not sure that I will manage to fullfill the brief in time ... but I will give it a go.

STILL LIFE

I am slowly making progress with this Assignment and I am enjoying the process. I'm not sure that it will be a great success but it has been a steep learning curve. Never again will I leave my research and sketch book work so late.

COVER STORY

I am now reading my second Penguin Modern Classic Invisible Man; I am completely spellbound. I have completed some research about the author Ralph Ellison, and found a model for my Portrait. It is the story of Racism in America during the 1950's and 60's; a harrowing tale told in an unsentimental style. The main character, a young orator, is drawn into collaboration with the sympathetic white man ,which is now beginning to cause discontent within the communities in Harlem where he makes speeches. At this juncture the main character is beginning to realise that he may be being "played" but to what extent I am yet to find out.

Panier Market Cafe, Plymouth