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For the presentation on an artist which we chose to research and present in front of the class was Rieneke Dijsktra and specifically her work 'Beach Portraits'. This award winning work was outstandingly recognised by many top practitioners. I think that everyone in the group had a fair amount of knowledge on her work, they seemed to be interested and it was actually a joy to present her work, it powerful imagery. I missed the meeting for us to meet and discuss the research and what not, but I made sure I spoke through messenger and knew what I had to do and where I should direct my research. I was presenting the 3/4th topic (How does ‘beach portraits’ compare to Dijkstra’s other work?)
I looked into her work extensively using photo books, theory books and articles, seeing her work from many point of views allowed me to conclude a definitive presentation speech. I picked up on the various platforms she creates on, using multimedia for a lot of work, but also the level of intellect she is creating on, she is suggesting very deep archetypes in her work such as the beach portrait image, "The Birth of Venus is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli probably made in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown. The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy." Her beach portraits are mentioned to be reconstructions of this painting, well at least hinting to it, and I believe this is true, she is linking the progression of the image of the woman, during the maturity stage in life. Doing this she directly creates these beautiful images in which the image of beauty transcends the subjects. This really stands out to me though, whist looking back through the images I had chosen for the book, I realised a perspective of certain photographic styles, including Reineke Dijkstra when looking at the beach portraits I had uncovered of my family hence the Front cover of the book is one similar to her 'Beach Portraits series', But what it was is that I recognised beauty in the images my family had kept under our beds and in the loft etc, they are very powerful and, I basically used this book as a channel to allow the power of photography become recognised as a reflection on ourselves as individuals, as family and as a society.
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10"x8" Fibre prints (Ilford Multigrade Fibre Base, Classic paper, 10x8). Nothing compares to the chemical output of a photograph. The quality is in the negative, if shot well; the negative is big enough (in this case, I want detail and sharpness), exposed correctly (thick); (good tonal range) allowing for exposure times to be controlled over a relatively consistant rate, then this opens up the possibilities of making a beautiful photograph after it is taken. When shooting the streets and the peripheries of Wycombe, I had in mind what the final output is going to be, a minimum of 75cm on the longest side print of an image, with quality and detail in mind, I would only shoot f/16 and above using the Mamiya 7ii. Making sure what ever i'm shooting will yield the quality and sharpness for a big print, the choice of camera is important also, 6cmx7cm negatives means a lot of detail. The Mamiya glass is fuching crystal clear. This is one day of darkroom printing. 6 x FB, 10" x 8". First of all I printed a contact sheet of the roll I was selecting an image from. The contact sheet was created on Ilford 10"x8" RC Matte, 40 seconds on grade 5 and 30 second on grade 0, Dev, 2 mins, stop 30 seconds and fix for 10, 1 hour wash, and a day to dry. From the contact sheet I can see the overall exposure is good, there are a wide range of tones and shapes. The first print batch I attempted was using, Ilford Warm Tone, 12"x16" FB. these were going to be big prints and hard to get perfect. I set my boundaries too high for this session. But I tested the paper and image using split grade and timed intervals. The warm tone Fibre has a slower sensitivity to light than standard RC allowing for more time to control the print, I worked out the border and cropping, the times were going to be long enlarging at this size (roughly 11"x14" inside of 12"x16"); about 140 seconds on grade 5 and 90 second on grade 0 with 2 stops taken back on the lens from wide open. I managed to create 3 successful prints that I was happy with, after drying and flattening I decided to print the portfolio part of the project on 10"x8" fibre and make the final print on 12"x16" and scan that to get enlarged to the 75cm x50cm print for exhibition.  I got George and Will to look through the images I created whilst being away from them for a week. They were straight on the edit and loved the subject matter and my understanding of the landscape. First of all we started by identifying the extremely good ones from first glance, the images that make you look, and look again. The second thing to do was to identify the visual narrative, and this was obvious, its my account of the place(s) I grew up, a journey or a path I'd take or places that usually are rambling with social activity or allegorical moments that look beyond the physical landscape. All taken using the same camera; format and film etc, same camera height (eye level) and on similar weather conditions. This meant that the image quality was consistant optically, the 6x7 negatives are big and yield a lot of detail, using the same film means that I'll achieve consistant exposure and physical quality easing printing complexions, the same camera height means that the horizon lines up on most landscape shots taken in landscape orientation, I did not use a tripod which I now regret, I thought, its sunny enough to handhold for each image, but for this high quality output for print im potentially working at I need a tripod and the smallest aperture possible. most images were F/11 F/16 and some F/22 but I need F/22 on all in the future and tripod for stabilisation. I can see potential from these images.  This day I went out on a walk to Christmas Common/ Aston Rowant, the hills that are situated on the edge of the Chiltern Hills looking out towards Didcot and Oxford. This land is known to have been formed 60million years ago from the aftershocks and movements of the techtonic plates that created the Himalayas. This land gives way to chalky meadows and extremely diverse woodlands, this hill had rare orchids and shrubs in the ground waiting to come up next spring. I came across two men cutting some trees, down the hill a bit, I had my camera in my hand and they knew what I was doing, but one guy came up to speak to me as I got close and was really chill. 'lovely day aint it' he said, and it certainly was, full sun and a perfect subject for my project, they also had a fire in the middle to burn the cuttings. I talked him through my journey of photographing the landscape in my local area and a bit into some theory as he was interested and I asked if he wanted to add to it, he agreed and I took his shot, just when his college finished cutting the trees behind he walked up and I fired. The man on the left of the frame I spoke to, A fire in the middle of the frame which is hard to see and his college on the right. Perfect timing and framing for me, the story tell me so much. To this end of my roll of 120 and the end of a long walk with my family, the men said 'well thats lunch time for us' and I was just really happy to get some meaningful and quality work, and also have an amazing day out with my family. Brilliant. I got to explore my landscape, meet people who manage it, learn the history of the land, see the remains left on maps and with my own eyes and have my family experience it too. :)   So this day I camped in the woods in Studley Green, between Stokenchurch and West Wycombe. Me and my mate love camping and I used the opportunity to photograph. The first two images of a tarp set up in amongst the ferns and trees early in the morning is compelling to me. In frame the natural wilderness; as opposed to the urban images I have taken leading up to these, touches each edge, this part of the country underneath my feet is composed of chalk and clay, opening up the possibilities for what we know as rare chalky meadows which provide habitat and nutrients for rare orchids and various species of small shrubs and trees, but also certain insects and birds occupy these areas. The Red kite was re-introduced within a couple miles of these locations, a bird seen all around, searching for wildlife. What really fascinates me when looking at these images, is the imprint I and my friend had visually on the landscape whilst camp was set up, within all of the wilderness there lies a sold block of grey, muted and boring, we have hidden ourselves from nature, or at least the full wrath of the weather. But that was our structure, our house for the night, it kept all of our belongings in and everything we needed to stay alive and occupied, a knife and food and a way of starting a fire for example. These images and moments show how simple we can live when we take ourselves out of the extreme social situations within the urban landscape. I did not mess the roll up, the other images are towards another project on this roll. This was a beautiful morning, silent, early mist at the air field on a Monday morning I believe. The relics still mark the land here, a German fighter plane rests in the bushes, once what would have been used to try and kill us, now watches over snd is rusting away. Booker Airfield is one of the busiest private airfield in the UK. What I love about the negs of these images, is the tones created by the subtle mist in the air, the mist softens the light and this creates a very diffused scene, There is still blacks in the lower of the frame and there is still whites in the sky but the subtleness of the overall image is lovely. Reminiscent. Here are some of my oldest family image dating back to 1913. 1922 and an unknown one which depicts the little girl in the studio. The last image was taken a few months ago at an airfield with my mum. What I love about these old family documents, they tell us something very important about how people communicated, visually and literally. So the postcard image of the woman nicely dressing in a formal hat, posed with a balcony in the background, is obviously well taken and would be a contact print of a 5x4 image taken in a studio, probably in London. On the back is a postcard template and a Wimbledon stamp. The writing reads Dear Elsie, just a pic of myself to wish you many happy remains of the day. Love to all. mabs? To me I see this way of representation a sign of comfort within the family circle, also a symbolic representation of the subjects power, saying 'This is a pic of myself', so the viewer can see her and connect, the writing helps anchor the image to a sensitive narrative, one of openness and honesty, This document was obviously communication between two people, Elsie and Mabs. And this shines through in context. What I absolutely love about the last image on here of my mother is that, it communicates something very important to me and i'm sure to her also. She is always rushing around, to do something, whether that is do the school run, go to work at 7am or go shopping early, she is onit! The most competent person I know and I think I will ever know, she is the manager of a garden centre and my boss at work too. Everything is kept in order because she cares, she has a wide knowledge of thing. So I photograph her when she is busy, when she is rushing around and when we have a lot of things to be getting on with. I use the camera as tool to create moments of pause, of clarity, of reflection, by capturing photographs my mum can look at her self still and calm, and whole, when she may actually need to. When we age and get old,    Having a sense of identity, to create a representation of reality, through the use of the photograph or a painting is to create a sense of security, a reaffirmation of (in this case) purpose/ belonging subjectively and more largely through the lens of society as a whole/ The British Image. What it means to be me/you/to be here. A representation of what it is like to actually experience these places or to know these people.
Identity articulates the geographic. The image is a statement of what was seen. We know the photographic vision is highly constructed. Nonetheless, photography significantly contributes to our sense of knowledge, perception and experience, and to (trans)forming our feelings about our relation to history, and geography and, by extension, to a sense of ourselves. Liz Wells, Land Matters. Pg. 56. bottom. three chapters to the book. start with old family images, then transition into my documents of family. last chapter should be the future of the document. contact sheets at the end of the book, with scans of books, albums and covers of the documents used in the book. evidence it all at the end. this will add another layer of interest and will show with the contacts; how the photographer shoots and thinks and sees, also it shows how the edit has been put together and what is determined to be good or, right for the context of the edit; a good print or message. the structure of a family is something every child should have, a structure that directs the individual but also allows for as much freedom for them to explore and to ask questions. Print all images selected from archives and from shooting over summer in the darkroom (5”x7”). Scan new images and add to folder of family pics. Get family images off the internet and from social media, and compare the power, emotion, aesthetic, how it is viewed… on a screen rather than in a book, or an actual chemical print. Even through this will be a digitally constructed and printed book. Photography reinvents history. these images are collected from my family albums and images stored in the loft and under beds or in boxes under the houses my family own. Creating and mapping out my family image in terms of the historical document and British photography as a way of expressing ourselves, a way of remembering and a way of seeing. Find paintings and significant works that express thought and artistic movements in landscape photography and science- biology and make reference to them in the afterword of the book, in relation to the modern images of my mum and family figures. What they really represent. The generals in the army, that high order sense of being, allow it to shine through, and abstract the family image into the model of disposability within culture. Put the book together now! use Walsh and Price to help sequence the images into a high order abstraction of the family image. The book will start with my earliest family photos, as if they are paintings, analysed as paintings. It will progress through the war then turning into modern day. This first part of the book will allow the viewer to meet people who they have never met, historical documents of British human experience. The narrative will start to show the disposability of the image, and the family image in general. This will raise questions of what the family image looks like today in general, a topic many many people will feel deep down. But also will question deeply the reason for these historical documents, their role compared to the image of today shows a nature of disposability, as I pick up on the painterly process of creating them. With the acquisition of digital social media platforms, we view our selves through these simulated representations, which can only be de coded or viewed with certain programmes and digital media.
What Im trying to say is the black and white or colour image that has painterly aesthetics and connotations, that is made for a book or to be archived, holds more meaning within documentary photography and within the nexus of history within the image as language. It is the process and time and place that opens the door for information to be written into the background of images, the physical encoding of light onto film. The temperature of the air, the steadiness of the photographers hand. The limited number of shots. The consideration and composition of where the sun falls in frame. The way a documentary photographer reads the landscape in front of them is through the language of semiology. John Berger was a Semiologist. I also want to represent a scary side to the project, with these photos on facebook, and being viewed from an environment that is disposable and tends to get lost or forgotten, I want to say that is void of meaning and is historically a bad move… we need to keep representing our experience authentically and physically, literally paintings on the walls and documents that last hundreds of years for generations to come. Because we have a massive responsibility as an individual, as a couple, a friendship group, a family, a town, a city, a nation. The entire human experience. On every level we need to preserve this nature. If we are looking at ourselves as disposable nonsense then really what does that mean? Some quotes.
It is important to perceive photography as a selection and interpretation of the world in two respects. First, from a point of view of the photographer who selects and interprets a scene or incident in the process of encoding an image. Second, from the perspective of a viewer who interprets (reads) the photograph in the process of decoding. This orientation views the photographic communication as an active process of interpretation, by both the creator and the viewer. This would also appear to be the view of John Berger. Every image embodies a way of seeing. Even a photograph. For photographs are not, as is often assumed, a mechanical record. Every time we look at a photograph, we are aware, however slightly, of the photographer selecting that sight from the infinity of other possible sights. Clive Scott- The Spoken Image, Page 23. Statement Of Intent.
Reflections On The Real will be connected through the theme ‘Close To Home’. When reflecting on the real, which is often, (to see a clearer reflection/ more ordered/ updated version of my experience.) I find that being close to home where I have grown up and where I can assign a high level of meaning to the world, the place/s which bring back memories, the places in which I can see myself, the people; are the best places to get the clearest reflection of I and also others. When I think of reality, the experience I am, the people I know, the places that I have seen and been to and not to forget skills and desires that take my interest; that which is familiar. Family, friends (loved ones) are at the top of my structure of meaning. This is because mum, dad, uncle, auntie, brother, sister, grandparents, cousins etc etc, all birthed me into the world, each person showed something different whether they intended to or not, at an age in which I was a blank canvas for ‘potential’ to be brought into the world to be just like them, articulate, creative and competent and to one day also have a family of my own with a solid job. At least. As a society, as matured individuals we learn from reality through the image, the documents we create of our experiences and leave behind, the family photographs, the images of our friends and the places we have run through and laughed and cried. these images don't only add to a family, but a larger more chaotic in one sense but also a more powerfully structured image of society, of a country or humanity in its entirety. These documents definitely capture something very real, they show us something very sensitive about our lives. I feel in a way they capture the loss of reality (the fleeting moment), they hold still reality in time and form and allow you to meet people from the 20th centry who you have never met or to see things which may have been washed away with time etc. I intend to look back through my family photographs from my mothers side and from my fathers side, and to create an abstraction of the family image in context of contemporary documentary photography including combinations of sequencing historical images from my family archive and my own practise up to today in a sketch book style photo book. I have been looking at loads of photo books recently, old and new, and have found some amazing works to indulge in. I intend to learn from the sequencing and representational methods what the family image looks like today within documentary photography. I also intend to learn how to sequence complex, varied multi-medium imagery into a very well thought out, high quality book in which which focuses down so that the book doesn't only speak about my family image but is open to interpretation enough to speak to the viewer directly about theirs or the family image in general. A book which is touching something at the core of meaning in reality for everyone. I will have the documents on Friday 6th October and will start ordering them and looking at sequencing as soon as I can. I have been looking at loads of photo books recently, old and new, and have found some amazing works to indulge in. My thoughts on the actual point of the book, is to simplify/ abstract reality to this. ‘with all this digital visualisation of the mis representation of the image of ourselves, of political views, of cultural occurrences within social media and the distribution of the image throughout media, It is the historical document that solidifies/ holds together the reality of the photographer as photojournalist.’ In your response you will choose one of the following themes to explore (from Tate Modern’s first ever exhibition devoted to photography; Cruel + Tender in 2003):
Comparison and Classification Close to Home Industry and Consumerism Caught in the Lens Close to home: Real. Reality, can be broken down into two categories; Objective, Subjective- Left side of brain, Right side of brain, Conscious, Unconscious… Objective reality it that which is supported by science, for the past 500 years we have been looking at the world through the paradigm of science of law. Constants and Rules, are the governing factors we have focused our social perimeters on, the discovery of science opened the possibility for people to research in ways that were never thought of previously, to examine what the world is made up of at a more complex and on a smaller scale throughout time. My reality- The reality I know is what is familiar to me, the things I know and what I choose to interact with in the world. My mother is a very predominant image in my reality, she brought me into this chaos and I'm here to order it with photography. sketchbook on family inspiration; My Family, Friends, Tutors and those strangers you encounter whilst photographing. Henri Cartier-Bresson. Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. Robert adams. Richard mosse. Bruce Davidson. simon Northolk. Chris Kilip. R\obert Clayton. John Myers. Fay Godwin. Simon Roberts. Richard Bellingham. Nan Golding. Francesca woodman. Jim Goldberg. A lot of people inspire me. Reflections on the real… Close to home, Family, friends, show the intense relationship of being at home, the beauty in the ordinary. the balance of lightness and darkness, day and night, sat around or on it. its about rewarding yourself with something to remember something to look at with friends and family to bring back the memory of that time. when looking at old photographs though, you look back at reality that has been lost, an old you, the you you used to be. Loved ones may have died and they are captured in spirit in the representation of the photograph. So I went through thousands of images and pulled out the ones that represented the family or a person, whilst considering certain compositional elements In the background I also had to look through all my negatives going all the way back to the beginning of my career (5 years) just to only pull out 4 or 5 that I'd actually use fro the book. I wanted the negatives so I can print them on black and white paper and create the positives, to create the archive, to add to the family albums in effect. I selected recent images and a few old ones of my mother, father, grandparents and sister and printed to a similar size as the postcards that were sent when the chemical print was the only option, they were printed on 5"x7" Barclay black and white paper. I printed for 3 days and made around 45 prints, copies.    Here is a nice wod of prints I produced for the project, the just need scanning and ordering for the book.  This is where the project really stared to shape, looking at maps from the 1880's, I noticed locations that I know really well that revealed what used to be present there just over one hundred years ago. Using the maps I could see how the town has been designed, during the industrial era, with tones of furniture making factories and terrace housing to accommodate the factory workers, the housing which is still prevalent in the town. The maps also reveal way, way older histories and topographies that used to be present on the land, for example, the Rye park shows a roman villa and settlement that used to be there, dating back 2000 years, the new topographic that replaces this ancient location is a leisure facility, a swimming pool covering an intricate mosaic a piece of art. These simple facts of how the landscape has changed, been covered over and re-imagined fascinates me, how to read this change using maps and to evidence it using photographs seems like what i'm doing. Documenting... re-imagining in a way the history, the physical landscape and the social engagement with the land. A landscape Architect student showed me this website that the university pays for, so they can use maps that date back to the early 1800's. The maps reveal ancient ruins of Roman Villas, Iron Age settlements, burial sites, stone monuments, and caves. The maps also reveal the town plans in the urban areas too, which reveal how the housing and the towns were planned out in relation to an industrial landscape during the mid 1800's. The maps can be used to find ruins or old buildings and marked down, tracked down and photographed/ re-photographed, this re-photography can be used to re-invent history, or to re-imagine history. You could also use them to study the change in the landscape, wether thats in the countryside of in an urban setting, see what gets covered over and what is looked after, listed buildings for example.  "Historic Digimap delivers historical Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain. The Collection is licensed from Landmark Information Group for UK Higher and Further Education."
Historic Digimap offers the following map images, the originals of which were published between 1846 and 1996:
Expand on the British Geography. how it has been scapped and by who and when.
Historical natural land and the human constructed landscape. Urban and Rural. High Wycombe.  Accessed; https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uniofglos/detail.action?docID=1968918&query=Wells%2C+Liz#
20/11/18.  Edmund clark.
Negative Publicity. Created in collaboration with counterterrorism investigator Crofton Black Negative Publicity (2011 – 2016) comprises photographs and documents that confront the nature of contemporary warfare and the invisible mechanisms of state control. From George W. Bush’s 2001 declaration of the ‘war on terror,’ until 2008, an unknown number of people disappeared into a network of secret prisons organised by the US Central Intelligence Agency – transfers without legal process, otherwise known as extraordinary rendition. No public record was kept as these prisoners were shuttled all over the globe. Some were eventually sent to Guantánamo Bay or released, while others remain unaccounted for. The paper trail assembled in this volume shows these activities via the weak points of business accountability: invoices, documents of incorporation, and billing reconciliations produced by the small-town American businesses enlisted in prisoner transportation. In conjunction with photographs of former detention sites, detainees’ homes, companies and government locations this work recreates the network that links CIA ‘black sites,’ and evokes ideas of opacity, surface, and testimony in relation to this process: a system hidden in plain sight. Simon Roberts. Karen knorr; Connoisseurs- A critical view of High class gallery space, british architecture and Country Life 1983 - 1985 Paul Nash- Post WW1 Landscape painter. + WW2. 759.2 NAS Master Of The Image. Eric Revellio- Chalk hills. his perspective is looking down, uses the lines in the landscape to lead the eye. The balance of lightness and darkness. Fay Godwin . The Drovers. black and white landscape. 778.936 GOD / 779.092 GOD Landscape Photographs. Landmarks ISBN - 1-899235-73-6. Nice quote; “It is tempting to read a photograph. Not from left to right or from top to bottom exactly, but to find within the composition a meaning or even a story, of which the photograph is the concluding detail, the clinching moment. It is still further tempting to equate photography with a more specific kind of writing - poetry. The practice and language of both art forms appear to support a connection. Modern poems are very often ‘snapshots’, captured and offered for public examination. they are ‘slices’ of life’, ‘Instants’, bearing the suggestion of a larger concern. Many revolve around a central image, a visual image more often than not. From around the same time as the science of photography was discovered, poetry has been moving away from linear and chronological treatments of it’s subjects, towards more instantaneous executions of subject and form. In fact the size and shape of most contemporary poems could be snuggly housed within the average Kodak print.” Fay Godwin - Landmarks. Pg.10. Robert Clayton; Estate p. John Myers; middle england.- 779.092 MYE Library number. PAUL BARKER- The Freedoms of Suburbia. - 307.76 BAR Library number. Robert adams. seascapes. Jonnathan meads- theory on landscape and architecture. The new English Landscape. Jason Orton. Ken Worpole. Photography: A Critical Introduction- Liz Wells- Wells, L (ed.) 2015, Photography: a Critical Introduction, Routledge, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [20 November 2018]. Land Matters- Liz Wells. Perspectives On Place- Theory And Practise In Landscape Photography- J.A.P Alexander. Faust A Tragedy- JOHANN WOLFGANG GEOTHE |
