We were given feedback last week about our objects out of contexts shoots, and someone mentioned that I could use images of my location looking through the lens of the glasses. I've scanned the glasses in order to make a clearer edit of the images and will blur out what's not in the frame.
I like these images a lot but they feel very flat and uninspired to me, I'm not a fan of editing work this much. I liked and appreciate the idea but in practice I feel it made interesting pictures boring and fake. I won't be trying something like this again in the project but I'm glad I did give it a go.
The next series of images were taken by my Olympus film camera, I'm really pleased with how these came out as I haven't worked with film for a while. I love the vintage mood film creates within a photograph without trying to sound too pretentious. Of course some images were nowhere near the quality I wanted them to be, but this course has given me a lot more understanding regarding aperture, ISO and shutter speed.
I really like the images I have made in regards to the journey to the location, maybe I could look at other aspects of the journey, like the train ride to it rather than just from the station by foot. I feel I have made interesting and aesthetically pleasing photographs, and am actually fairly proud of the work. I'm not used to using a film camera so this was great practice for me!
As part of our project Matthew asked us to take an object out from our location and photograph it within a different context, preferably one with a blank background. You may remember these glasses from the location:
To take them out of context I've made an impromptu studio within my room, here are the final images from this shoot:
Richard Misrach
To start the session off we watched an interview with Misrach (video title: Corbis Interviews Richard Misrach at 2013). There was a lot to take in from this interview and it was difficult to write down everything so here are the main points, I've also included the video for you to watch.
In 1998 he kept a journal of what he was seeing of the toxic environment in Nevada (Cancer Alley), and in 2009/2010 a museum wanted him to revisit the commission.
He made a book in three days - no text in it at all. The text within the images are read as poetry.
This is one of the images from his series of work "The Beach" which was inspired by the events of 9/11.
The lone figure in the sea mirrors those jumping from the towers, escaping the flames inside. He produced
this work after seeing cliff divers jump into the sea.
Joel Sternfeld "On This Site"
Landscape in Memoriam
I feel like these images are incredibly relevant to my work as they show gritty areas that perhaps need a little bit of love and care. The top image doesn't show this but the area that I chose does have nice houses/ a community centre so I felt like Sternfeld was also relevant for showing the other side. The last image really amuses me as the billboard in the background reads "It's the Nature of Our Business" with an idyllic landscape when the reality shows a baron, industrial site; on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
Jeff Wall
We also watched a video where Jeff Wall is interviewed, I couldn't really hear a lot of what he was saying:
Landscapes are truthful
Utilised the lightbox for aesthetic, saw them often in airports
Viewers witness a performance
There was always a grotesque quality from the beginning of his work
He always wanted to be a painter, is this why he often replicates paintings??
"A Sudden Gust of Wind" 1993, inspired by Hokusai's painting (below)
There was a lot of litter in the area, but I feel that this photograph shows the mixture of rubbish and nature. I also like how there are a lot of warm colours; like the bronze leaf, the red Stella logo and the gold can top.
I picked these up from the location in order to take them out of context, perhaps in the studio
This exhibition was really interesting, and made me think a lot about this sensitive subject. Although I really don't agree with hunting for sport (even in Britain where the wildlife isn't under so much threat of extinction) I was not actually aware that this sort of hunting is extremely beneficial to the local community. Licences are only given out when there is a problem animal affecting the wildlife or people in a town, hunters pay for this licence, kill the animal and then take what trophy they want; the towns/village people are then able to eat or sell the meat that is left.
National Media Museum
Looking at the history of media was actually incredibly interesting, the fact that it's an interactive museum also made it fun! The old cameras made me envious of previous generations and I wish someone would make DSLR cameras look like the cameras from the 50s. I also wish someone would put an LCD screen in a bubble tv (maybe they have?), there's something so cool about the vintage look of things.
