I have one of my final images, but did not start working on the second image early enough to enable me to experiment. As the second image is a self - portrait and I had unfortunately not been able to find a long Cable Shutter Release until last Friday, I feel a little rushed. One of my friends who is studying an MA at the Art College had helped me with two films but as he uses Digital and hasn't had much experience with Film, the images weren't good enough to use. If i had wanted silhouettes, they would have been fine. This is in no way his fault. I was grateful for a helping hand and learned a lot about the composition I wanted, the poses I should take, the conrolled lighting I would have to use, and it also reminded me of something I already knew, that I work better alone. I can focus completely on the task in hand. Working alone gives me a better opportunity to concentrate on the mood I want to create.
Finding a 20ft Cable Release was a wonderful find, the only problem I had was hiding the cable from the camera and only being able to use one hand for effect. I will only know if everything came together when I collect my negatives on Wednesday afternoon. Having the Calbe Release will help me in the future because my work seems to be heading towards self - portraiture as a means of finding my identity as an Artist. My work is personal. Conceptually I am looking at Ancestry, Belonging, Recognition, Longing, Isolation and Loneliness along with an array of other ideas that come to mind while I m working. My work is concentrated on the landscape and the home. I am fascinted and inspired by the painter Johannes Vermeer; his lighting effects are both elegant and exquisite in my eyes. I am also drawn to the window and especially to north ambient light. I have looked at his paintings time and again and always see something new in them.
Many of the Artists I have researched have been inspired by Vermeer's work, Uta Barth, Tom Hunter and Erina Brotherus. All have a "painterly" style of photography that I am drawn too. The concept of Uta Barth's work is in the act of seeing and of looking. She encourages the viewers of her work to see what is not there. Every day life holds more than what we think we see. So much of what is around us, we miss, we take for granted or we simple dont see anything at all.
Elina Brotherus "The New Painting" series has soothing horizons and mounatin landscapes inspired by the German painter Caspar David Fredrick (1774 - 1840) that conveys the idea that the landscape has to be given time. The landscape is a feeling that can be internalised. (Quote from Elina Brotherus(2005) text by Susanna Pettersson).
Brotherus likes to work "close to home" as do I. I also like to look out of the window and sit in contemplation, and I love the ambient light that brings the outside, inside. Sometimes I will enter a room at home and gasp at the beauty that the light brings into the room. I don't feel that I need to go far from home to search for a photograph as it is often the weather conditions that draw me to a scene as well as the early morning and evening light.
I love the landscape and so I do visit the countryside and coastline near our city; but for the two projects I am working on at present, one is based on a longing to "go home" to Wales and the sense of loneliness and isolation I feel living away from my family; and the other relates to my fascination with Ancestry and objects of memory, namely "the photograph."
I'm enjoying the Second Year of the Degree very much as we are being encouraged to find our niche as photographers and artists. I am trying to put some depth into my work, to give it meaning both to myself and to the viewer.
Dartmoor (Image for FD201 "Longing")
Digital Image shot At Home experimenting with light and poses for FD201 "Longing")
No comments:
Post a Comment