ASSIGNMENT 1: Critical Review of Practice Assignment Brief: The Critical Review of Practice is a written critical evaluation of your practice, (maximum 2,500 words). You should make reference to other practitioners and visual practices, and the relevant critical contexts and concepts that have informed the making, development and intended consumption of your practice. It will be closely linked to the development and completion of your own photographic work developed within Informing Contexts, and it is likely it will draw on the ongoing critical reflection and contextualisation you have already undertaken in your critical research journal and in your video presentation & peer review. The Critical Review of Practice is intended to confirm and demonstrate that your practice is underpinned from an informed and reflective position, and allows you to locate your photographic work within relevant historical, cultural and professional contexts. It is also designed to expand your thinking and to develop skills in exploring and reflecting on your practice, and the development of a critical self awareness within the broad field of photography / media / visual culture / communication. The Critical Review of Practice should directly reference your Work in Progress Portfolio. It should provide adequate contextualisation of, and reflection on this work. It should be fully illustrated with both your own and others' practice, and professional use of Harvard referencing is expected. Assignment GuidelinesYour Critical Review of Practice submission should be:
My Critical Review of Practice: 
ASSIGNMENT 2: Work In Progress PortfolioAssignment Brief: At the end of the module you will submit a Work In Progress Portfolio (WIPP). Your WIPP will most likely represent a defined stage in your research project, or it may be a discrete project in its own right. Although your WIPP does not necessarily need to be a ‘resolved’ body of work, it should be visually cohesive and demonstrate discernment in terms of your selection, sequencing and overall presentation choices. Your WIPP pdf may be an entirely ‘offline’ document, containing full screen resolution-sized images (c. 4000 px longest edge), and any relevant titles or captions if appropriate. You may wish to explore with other methods of presentation, and have your work considered for assessment in a specific form or context. This might include, but need not be limited by:
My Work in Progress Portfolio:
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Assignment Brief
Task:
In Week 8 you are invited to prepare and upload a 6 - 8 minute video presentation which introduces, critically reflects on and contextualises your photographic practice. You are also asked to provide peer review written feedback to at least three members of the peer group. The aim of this is to encourage you to consolidate your thoughts, for you to test ideas and begin to demonstrate that your practice is underpinned by a critically informed and reflective position. Reviewing peer presentations offers you the chance to identify and share synergies in your practice, ideas and critical approach. It also gives you the opportunity to receive additional interim formative feedback, to support you in the final submission of your Work in Progress Portfolio and your Critical Review of Practice. My Response:
Peer Reviews:
Really interesting Paul, contextualised and referenced well and you took me on a journey, (no pun intended) xx I really enjoyed this, with a good level of context, and I was interested to hear you say how "Barthes words of every photograph are a chilling reminder of human mortality." Are there any other citations you can use from Barthes, or other critical theorists, to locate this, to understand it fully? The ambiguity of "Just 3 Words" is a clever inclusion to your work, not only a precise location to where the image was taken but also plays on the image, as your work, and all photography is capable of representing the physical world with such veracity yet it reveals only an interpreted reality. "Just 3 Words" can be coded or decoded by your audience, the “viewer” – that mysterious single entity that lurks at the back of every practitioners mind - in any way they want, allowing them to move beyond the literal and the descriptive.There is a good amount of experimentation with different formats, and discussion of your process, your visual strategies, so well done there. There are also good references and research to other practitioners to your own work, which is good to see, but its always of benefit to discuss an image(s) that was less successful for you, and why, within your discourse. I've followed your work keenly and yet this still fills in many gaps for me. I love the way you show how your work has evolved, and am amazed at the related practitioners you have discovered and the inspiration you have taken from them. Your images generally convey a sense of peace and tranquillity, but it is good to see the darker side is not forgotten.Your talk of memory morphing over time reminds me of Chris's work. Good job, and thanks for sharing. Gazing at Photographs? FORUM & MODULE SEMINARForum Task Post to the Forum below:
My response:  August 1991 More Demi Moore cover I have selected this image that Annie Liebovitz took of seven-months pregnant Demi Moore, wearing only a diamond ring for the front cover of Vanity Fair in 1991. I see this as a positive gaze looking at this image in 2022, but over 30 years ago this image was very controversial. The Los Angeles Times printed “It’s tacky,” says Liz Miller, 23, of Sherman Oaks, who can’t imagine “why anyone would want to display her swollen stomach like that--and why people would want to look at it.” Vanity Fair quickly realised that there would be a backlash for the distribution of the magazine and the issue had to be wrapped in a white envelope with only Moore's eyes visible, with some editions delivered in a brown wrapper evocative of porn magazines. Some stores and newsstands refused to carry the August issue, but in total approximately 100 million people saw the cover. Leibovitz's portrayal of Moore drew a wide spectrum of responses ranging from complaints of sexual objectification to celebrations of the photograph as a symbol of empowerment. Comments on my post: "I think that the confident nature of this image at the time would have made a positive impact to women going through pregnancy, as it presents a voice that comes from an impactful figure, encouraging pregnant women to be seen. I do wonder whether this would be seen as empowering now though, as it presents women with an ideology that isn't a true reflection of the reality of pregnancy, as it creates a language within the beauty industry that defines how a pregnant woman should appear. I do not have children, so my perspective is specific to my own point of view, but I somehow doubt I'd look like Demi Moore if I did ever have children! I think that the beauty industry is getting better at representing diversity, as I've questioned below, but in my opinion there is still work to do. I find it crazy that this was seen as offensive, but that is just my stance! " "I can imagine this image was considered controversial and too bold 30 years ago, but I'm glad somebody at least tried to put a pregnant woman on the front cover of a magazine to show that pregnant women shouldn't feel left out just because they are pregnant. But I do agree with Jessica that this image nowadays can also be seen as an exaggeration of how pregnant women look like. Demi Moore looks very confident and beautiful in her 7 months of pregnancy on that front cover. Being almost 7 months pregnant myself at the moment, I can assure you, to look like Demi Moore is not the reality for everyone. I personally feel pretty miserable with every coming week, and definitely don't feel like I would like to be photographed in my current state. Advertisements with pregnant women in them usually contain pretty happy women, but pregnancy is not all roses. Apart from being happy about the upcoming baby, there are plenty of complex emotions connected with it. I found the following ad which sends to me a positive message because of it's text "we can't smack the lady who asked if you are carrying twins but we can make you deal with almost everything else" - this makes me feel like there's somebody on the other side (the designer of the ad) who actually understands how sensitive pregnant women can get."  Figure 1: MOMMY SHORTS. 2014. Healthy mama campaign [advertisement]. From Mommy Shorts [online]. Available at: https://www.mommyshorts.com/2014/03/healthy.html/comment-page-13 (Links to an external site.) [accessed 18 February 2022]. "I remember when this issue of Vanity Fair was released--and seeing it mostly hidden in a brown wrapper, so that you had to purchase it to see the entire photograph. This image created a loud conversation--many debates and horrified a lot people. But it sold! I remember the issue being sold out quickly... Got a lot of press for the magazine, and for the actress who modeled. Interestingly, I have no memory of Annie Liebovitz as the photographer. I do remember thinking that Demi Moore was brave posing like that...but I did not see the photograph as objectifying her. When I saw the photograph here, my mind remembered it immediately--like it is stored in my memory, which interests me. Thinking about today--what if this photograph was first published in 2022? Would the backlash be similar? " Reflection Reflecting on all my forum and webinar feedback there were some common interpretations of my work referring to nostalgia, calmness, memory and the thought of time passing which all relates to my intention, so it is pleasing to see I am progressing in the right direction for engaging with my audience. I am still finding it difficult to articulate the intent of my photographic practice, both verbally and in written work, but I am hoping that collating my ideas and research for the Critical Review and being able to present this through the Video Presentation and Peer Review will enable me to be able to practice these skills. I have been researching a wide range of material to make sure my work is critically, visually and contextually informed and have looked at a mixture of photographic theorists, practitioners, artists and psychologists including John Szarkowski, Roland Barthes, Stephen Shore, Paul Gaffney, Ori Gersht, Paul Nash , Chrystel Lebas, Donald Winnicott, Liz Wells, John Berger, Jesse Alexander, Idris Khan, Stephanie Jung and John Taylor. I have found that by reviewing and consolidating both my own work and the research undertaken that I have been able to reflect on my photographic practice as work has progressed. This is helping to consolidate my ideas into a cohesive body of work. I have found that it is better for me to explore ideas extensively, then discard those I don’t feel are not as cohesive to retain a stronger core of successful work. I have not fully decided yet the context in which my work would be viewed but would ideally like to see it printed and exhibited. The strengths so far have been with the images I have taken using pinhole cameras, infrared, and Intentional Camera Movement. I have explored constructed landscapes through mirroring and then layering images but although these have produced striking and mesmerising results, these do seem rather contrived and not cohesive with the rest of the body of work. I now feel I need to develop the pinhole photography further to incorporate more of these within my portfolio. Photos from week 5:Whose Meaning Is it Anyway? FORUM & MODULE SEMINAR Post to the Forum:
This was an advertisement in 2013 for a drive safe campaign created by The Frontier Post to help create awareness for road accidents. I experienced the dominant reading that was the intended purpose of this advert.  The semiotics here are cleverly used to create illusion. Initially, you see the shape of a gun, with the text showing that a life is taken every 25 seconds. Once the viewer comprehends that the shape of a gun is a set of car keys with the relationship between this image and the statement showing that car accidents are a cause of death, it makes the statistics evident that safer driving is the issue. Forum Task Roland Barthes (1977) argues: The birth of the Reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author (Barthes, 1977: 148) Post to the Forum below:
 Comments from my peers: I believe they're trees and a path, but maybe they're not. The photo leaves me with nostalgia, calmness and an unquenchable thirst for clarity, like a half-forgotten memory of a place eroded with time. If I were to take a stab at your intention, I would say it was to resemble a feeling of a memory of a place. Wistful, nostalgic, conjours the idea of memory and things lost. Almost "hiraeth" - the bittersweet knowledge you can't revisit a place. (Sorry to actual Welsh speakers - this is my understanding of a word that can't be translated.) I can see trees, with a lot of noise. More blur on the left t han the right, which would be consistent with a long exposure whilst going round a curve. It looks like a track in front with snow or vegetation down the middle and sides. On closer inspection it looks like vegetation. as you can see fronds at the end. It might be infrared, or having heard you chat more likely pin-hole. The view, more blurred at the bottom, has an indexical linkage to the view one might expect if one fainted and collapsed. In an earlier week we were taught 'E. H. Gombrich ... states that illusionistic images are not those derived from nature but, instead, are those which have been so made that under certain conditions they will confirm certain hypotheses which one would formulate, and find confirmed, when looking at the original scene.' Which is interesting because I doubt if I saw the original scene I would even think of the view as I collapsed I can only guess at your intent but my guess would be you are showing us the forest holds secrets. Your blurred shot definitely leaves questions unanswered as to what we are seeing. A pin sharp, perfectly lit, shot might delude us that there is nothing left to discover if we walked down the line of sight. This image is great. I love the haze static type quality that seems to overlay what I assume to be trees in nature, I sense that the bottom is a shadow, or my eyes, make it out to be a shadow, but the more I look at it, it resembles a face like a portly man with a fu manchu, and trees growing out of his head. Webinar In your webinar this week you are asked to consider the intent and authorship of your own practice and how you construct your work for a presumed audience and context. You will reflect on your peers' interpretations of your photograph and consider how you might adapt your photographic practice (visually / technically / conceptually) as a response to this feedback. After the Webinar
Reflect:
Deborah Barker (In Paradiso), Ingrid Weyland (Topographies of Fragility), Helen Sear, Dafna Talmor. Out of these the work of Ingrid Weyland particularly resonated with me as through the materiality of the printed image she highlight’s the violent damage caused to nature by manipulating and distorting her photographed landscapes. I can see this as a medium I could use within my research project looking at Time, Memory and Mortality as using the scrunched-up images within the landscape acts as a visual metaphor for ‘that which has been’ and represents mortality.  Ingrid Weyland - Topographies of Fragility I, 2019 Reflection Guidance
What are your action points? Where are you going next? Reflection: I feel this week my intent has been strengthened and I have now found my ‘voice’ of looking at Time, Memory and Mortality reflecting my own experiences. I think this has given me my ‘Why?’. I now intend to stick with Intentional Camera Movement to give a focus and cohesion to my work, but will refine my work by using different strategies with exposure times, infrared, pinhole photography and layering to explore the subtle differences in the resulting images and the feelings they are likely to evoke in the viewer. A summary of the independent research I have undertaken this week is below: Movement: Gerhard Richter - https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/paintings/photo-paintings/landscapes-14/?&categoryid=14&p=1&sp=32 Movement through layering: Idris Khan - https://www.saatchigallery.com/artist/idris_khan Stephanie Jung - http://www.stephaniejung-photography.com/nature#0 Trees: “Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.” ― Hermann Hesse,Wandering Tacita Dean - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dean-majesty-t12805 Constructed landscapes: Sonja Braas - https://www.sonjabraas.com/you-are-here Gustav Willeit - https://www.guworld.com/_plata/index.html Ingrid Weyland - https://www.artsy.net/artist/ingrid-weyland/works-for-sale How Photography Impacts the Psychology of Attention and Visual Processing: https://www.popneuro.com/neuromarketing-blog/neuroscience-photography-psychology-memory-attention-contrast-symmetry-vision-perception Movement, Layering and trees are all an important part of my current work, although I am growing more interested in exploring the idea of constructed landscapes and will consider this as a future direction. Photos from week 4Subjective Realities? FORUM & WEBINARForum Task: Susan Sontag (1977) makes the observation: "In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects" (Sontag, 1977: 6) Post to the forum below:
My response: I am interested in the work of Ori Gersht as his career his work is concerned with the relationships between history, memory, and landscape, which resonates with my own recent ideas and work for my research project. This photograph from the ‘Liquidation’ (2005) series adopts a poetic, metaphorical approach to exploring the difficulties of visually representing conflict and violent events experienced by his family living in Poland during the German occupation in WW2. Gersht’s compositions often reference the landscapes of German Romanticism, with the work of Caspar David Friedrich being particularly pertinent to this series. Gersht achieves a painterly fluidity through long-exposures, sometimes taken while moving, and often overexposes his film images to achieve a liquefied effect. In doing this, he muddles the landscape’s legibility and the photographs faithfulness to reality. Although his work is rooted deeply in his family history, the images themselves call into question the ability of photography and human memory to reflect our histories accurately.  I have been exploring my own past through walks or derives in my surrounding area. I am reminded of Barthes words of every photograph being a chilling reminder of human mortality and have tried to capture this feeling of time passing and the memory of ‘having been there’ in the style of Gersht using movement and long exposure. The green tinge of Gersht’s image has given an ethereal, almost twilight aesthetic to his image, probably through using tungsten film in daylight, whereas I have used an infrared filter to help with the long exposure I needed and to give a colder, wintery feel to reflect the feeling of mortality in my photograph. In your tutor webinar you are asked to consider the way(s) you 'make' or 'construct' photographs and identify and evaluate the visual choices you have made. You will reflect on your peers' interpretations of your work and consider how you might adapt your photographic practice (visually / technically / conceptually) in response. Prepare for your Webinar
 I have also been exploring focus stacking to get a real sense of depth to an image, which was inspired by the work of Edward Burtynsky who also adopts this technique. The idea is still of time and memory, but to make the images more immersive. It is hard to achieve this when viewed on screen, but I feel would look better as a large print. 
Reflection Guidance
four ways, in terms of flatness, frame, time and focus. ‘They define the picture’s depictive content and structure. They form the basis of a photograph’s visual grammar’. I have attempted to show more of a reality feel to my landscape photographs by using focus stacking to add more depth to the images.
In our 10/10 session with fellow students, I have received good feedback again, with ‘other worldly’ and ‘horror’ both being mentioned as to how my images have been decoded by them. I am pleased with this response as I do not expect the viewer to share my code but would rather the images invoked their own memories and thoughts. Moving forwards: What are your action points? Where are you going next? I will now work at refining my long exposure/ infrared images and build a series ready for my next 10/10 meeting. I also intend to start printing out photos to put up and ‘live with’ to start planning sequencing and editing. As secondary projects I will continue exploring focus stacking and start to create constructed landscapes in Photoshop. Photos from week 3:Topic 2: Joel Snyder & Neil Walsh Allen (1975): INDEPENDENT READING Think About:
I disagree with Andre Bazin theory that photography is an illusion by a mechanical reproduction in the making of which man plays no part. Man very much plays a part in the ‘mechanical’ process to control the outcome of the image. I also disagree with Arnheim’s theory that photographs have “an authenticity from which painting is barred by birth”, as since the invention of photography images have been subject to manipulation so authenticity can always be questionable. Arnheim also states that photographs lack the “formal position” and “expressive freedom” from which the “private visions” of the painter possess. Again, through the control of techniques, processes and materials the photographer has almost unlimited expressive freedom, and even control of the formal position through the use of the focal length of the camera optics.
Photography is a unique medium and as quoted by the director of the Department of photography at MoMa is a “different kind of art” unrelated to traditional types but closely related to perception.
Photography does share conventions with painting because artists made use of camera and lens as an aid to render perspective and detail for several hundred years before Fox Talbot was able to fix the camera image to make what we know today as a photograph. Arnhem questions “authenticity correctness and truth”, these conventions can also be questioned in painting, film, writing, poetry and theatre where there is room for manipulation in representation. Forum Task Mary Price (1994) argues: "The camera may be thought of as comparable to the eye. The difference is that the camera is not more than an eye. It does not think. Any connection with judging, choosing, arranging, including, excluding, and snapping has to be with the photographer" (Price, 1994: 4) Post to the forum below:
 This was my first attempt at exploring the concept of time and light, leaving a pinhole camera overnight for a 21-hour exposure. Unable to visualise the result was challenging, due to not being able to accurately gauge exposure or composition, but I thought the resulting image was successful as it has captured detail in the foreground while still maintaining almost ghostlike image of the tree as it fades towards the brighter sky. The composition shows a pleasing balance of the formal elements.
 This result was less successful as was exposed for a shorter time resulting in an underexposed image. The foreground is dark and lacks detail or interest to draw the viewer in to the image. There is too much foreground which upsets the balance of the image, leaving the trees looking too cropped.
 Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World, 1918 The ragged stumps were all that remained of the Polygon Wood in Ypres Salient in 1917, which was recorded by Paul Nash in his painting ‘We are making a New World’. It is a haunting image that shows the destruction man has wreaked on this woodland and leaves you thinking that if this kind of mechanised warfare can do this to sturdy trees, what has it done to the men who were fighting here. Today I see this as a metaphor for deforestation and the resulting environmental impact.  Chrystel Lebas, Abyss, Untitled n.16, 2006 To record the forest at night is a nearly impossible task. The photographs of Chrystel Lebas were taken during twilight, when light is still present outside the confined space of the forest, and darkness has already spread under the trees. She uses long exposures so the camera can record the barely visible forms of the forest at night, making visible to the viewer's eye what would otherwise be shrouded in darkness.
I am going to continue exploring the use of light and time through both long exposure pinhole photography, infrared photography to explore the spectrum beyond what the eye can see and the use of movement to visualise the passing of time within the image. Webinar In the tutor webinar you will take it in turns to present your work, articulate your ideas, and receive feedback and comments from both your tutor and your peers. You will be asked to:
I am investigating our relationship with the countryside and the effect our surroundings have on how we feel and behave. There are physical and mental health benefits of walking, being in the countryside and taking photographs and taking photographs and I have been looking at the impact that immersing yourself in photography and the countryside can have on your mental health through finding your voice at different points in time.
I have found my work has progressed from taking photographs which simply ‘document’ what I am seeing, to images which display more of an ethereal look which is more representative of how I am feeling and reflects my own inner landscape. I have titled my photographs using What3Words locations, where in the relationship between the photograph and words, the photograph begs for an interpretation, and the words usually supply it, adding a further dimension to the images themselves for the viewer to interpret to inform their own response to my work.
The webinar will encourage you to consider how you represent the world and identify / evaluate your 'human choices' (Berger, 1974). Prepare for your Webinar
Spending time in nature has also been found to improve creativity! The Japanese term Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing involves consciously connecting with the forest surroundings by engaging all five senses. Smelling the air and the musty scent of damp soil; listening to the bird song and the wind in the branches; looking around you at the form of trees, the patterns in the bark and the light streaming through the canopy; touching the bark of trees, the damp moss and feeling the warmth of the sun as it breaks through the leaves; and tasting the freshness in the air.
I have tried to represent the feelings that being in immersed in nature invokes by trying to make the images ethereal to reflect my own ‘inner landscape’. I have used techniques such as pinhole photography, ‘tree portraits’ where I have heavily edited the images to make the trees more ‘sculptural’ in appearance, infrared where the chlorophyll in plants reflects the infrared light rendering them lighter in colour, and movement to show the passing of time within an image.
All the techniques have been successful, although certain images within that have been more successful than others. Ansel Adams wrote of ‘visualisation’ as one of the four steps in the creation of a photograph, but with all the techniques I have been exploring I can visualise the feeling I want to bring into the final image but cannot visualise the outcome as the techniques are unpredictable.
While on my derives and immersing myself in the countryside I am constantly looking around me and certain subjects just seem to ‘reach out and grab me’. I then decide which technique will best fit that subject.
Walking in the woods - Yoshifumi Miyazaki, Capturing Mindfulness – Matthew Johnstone, The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle, Paul Gaffney – We make the path by walking, Jem Southam, Flora Mary Bartlett, Guy Debord, Beth Moon, Chrystel Lebas, Chris Friel, Stephen Gill, Paul Nash and Jesse Alexander.
I think I’m ok, I just need to see through the mist and find my ‘voice’. Reflection Guidance In your critical research journal (CRJ):
I think that Barthes is implying that the importance of the authentication, or reality of the image is more important than how the image is represented. I think this is dependent on the context in which the photograph is intended to be viewed, for example photojournalism versus fine art.
My own work represents rather than authenticates, as I want to show my surroundings as I see or feel them, so I use camera and editing techniques to manipulate my images for this purpose, although it could be argued that this process authenticates the images as now the images are viewed as my visualisation.
Ori Gersht (liquidation), Charles Sanders Peirce characteristics of signs, Barthes, Patricia Townsend, Thomas Demand.
I have read Photography, Vision, and Representation by Joel Snyder and Neil Walsh Allen as this was the essential reading from this week. From the additional resources I have also read Barthes ‘That-has-been’, I watched the video of Thomas Demand ‘Presidency’ and read chapter 6, Ectoplasm from Each Wild Idea : Writing, Photography, History by Geoffrey Batchen, an RPS magazine article on Edward Burtansky. I’ve just received the book Walking in the woods by Yoshifumi Miyazaki and have ordered Informal Beauty: The Photographs of Paul Nash by Simon Grant.
I have continued exploring the concept of light and time through infrared photography, intentional camera movement and also experimenting with focus stacking to add more depth to the image.
Cemre suggested that I needed to connect the reader/ viewer to the process, making me realise I need to show my story/ feelings alongside my images. One of my fellow students suggested (re)- reading Patricia Townsend from the Tallis list (‘Between Inner and Outer Worlds’). Photos from week 2Human Choices? PEER FORUM Forum Task Your preparation task for Informing Contexts was to reflect on your current practice and the 'human choices' you have made. As John Berger (1974) comments: "Photographs bear witness to a human choice being exercised in a given situation. A photograph is a result of the photographer's decision that it is worth recording that this particular event or this particular object has been seen" (Berger, 1974 in Trachtenberg, 1980: 292)Post to the forum below:
Feedback: 1 - 1 TUTORIALS Practically Prepare
The feedback session for the first assessment was very positive but mentioned that I was lacking a clear sense of direction. Jesse really liked my use of What3words and has suggested reading Robert Macfarlane – Landmarks, Rebecca Solnit - Field Guide to Getting Lost, Wanderlust and Tim Dee - Four Fields to inform my work during this module. I feel I am lacking a clear ‘voice’ within my work, but I seem to keep coming back to the basics of exploring light and time. Further planned techniques include:
My project started as a response to bereavement and lockdown where I started to realise the physical and mental health benefits of walking, being in the countryside and taking photographs. Reading Walking in the woods - Yoshifumi Miyazaki, Capturing Mindfulness – Matthew Johnstone and The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle all supported this theory. I have been looking at the impact that immersing yourself in photography and the countryside can have on your mental health and have started collaborating with Dr Sandy Walker who is a mental health specialist. One of her main research interests is in using the arts in healthcare. (https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/persons/sandy-walker). We are exploring how my images can be used to help others and so I guess this would be the context in how my work would be viewed. Where Are You Now? REFLECTION Reflection Guidance In your critical research journal (CRJ):
The photographic ‘characteristics’ defined by Szarkowski are important to my practice, in particular ‘Time’, although personally I think he has missed the important characteristic of ‘Light’ which I feel is the most important factor when creating an image. I also feel that Composition incorporates the characteristics of ‘The thing itself’, ‘The detail’, ‘The frame’ and ‘The vantage point’.
Szarkowski says ‘There is in fact no such thing as an instantaneous photograph. All photographs are time exposures of shorter or longer duration, and each describes a discrete parcel of time. This time is always the present’. This resonates in my current practice, in particular my recent experiments with long exposure pinhole images. I was also interested in Stephen Shore’s comment in ‘How to see the photograph’ about how you should ‘Fill the pictures with attention’. I liked the concept behind his ‘American Surfaces’ of photographing ‘how we see’, but also was inspired by his approach to ‘Uncommon places’ where his work was more detailed to make a more complex picture, or ‘small world’ for the viewer to explore, so thy can see what the world looks like with heightened awareness.
I have been re-visiting the work of Chrystel Lebas, I have watched the video of the ‘Among the trees’ exhibition at the Hayward gallery, I have looked at the work of Paul Nash and ordered the book ‘Informal beauty’ on his photographic work, I have read the article ‘The photographic Device as a Wating Machine’ by Mauricio Lissovsky, and I have ordered the books Robert Macfarlane – Landmarks (arrived today) and Walking in the Woods - Yoshifumi Miyazaki.
My own photographic practice has consisted of daily derives taking digital images with a 50mm (equivalent lens), looking at how we see. I have continued exploring light and time through long exposure pinhole images and also exposing paper negatives in an early 20th C Kodak 3a folding pocket camera (not sure on the why here yet…), plus I have started exploring the use of an infrared filter to capture the light outside of the spectrum of what the human eye can see. I have also experimented with ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) by taking long exposure in camera composite images whilst continuing to walk, with some images combined with Infrared.
My feedback from Paul Clements was very positive. I had already sent him an outline of my current practice to which he had responded with some suggested reading (see independent research above), so we discussed this in more depth. He was pleased that I was considering the ‘Why’ in my work but said not to worry as this will come with time as my practice develops. He also likes my ‘What3words’ titles, so I will be continuing with this approach. Moving forwards: What are your action points? Where are you going next? I have had a busy and productive week, so need to stop and reflect on what I have done before planning the next stage, but I am keen to revisit the work of Beth Moon looking at Oak trees and trying to capture their winter ‘nakedness’ through treating them as if they were portrait sitters. I would also like to try infrared on them but feel this would be more appropriate in the spring when they have foliage again. Photos from week 1 |
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