Topic 1: PHOTOGRAPHY, THE SHAPESHIFTER

Human 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:

• An introduction to yourself / where you are on the MA award / what modules you have already undertaken
• A short statement (maximum 150 words) that outlines the intent of your work / where your photographic practice is now
• Illustrate this with examples of your work
• Demonstrate how you are contextualising / informing your work with regard to other visual / critical material
• Outline your plans for further development of your practice within Informing Contexts
• Give feedback / comment on at least three other posts

​My response

human_choices_v4.pdf
File Size:	454 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

Feedback: 1 - 1 TUTORIALS
​
Practically Prepare

• Look at your tutor's availability on the Informing Contexts Calendar and sign up promptly to secure a meeting.
• Familiarise yourself with the assignment requirements and learning outcomes.
• Ensure your critical research journal is up to date to aid the discussion.
• Prepare a PDF of all work you would like to discuss.
• Make a list of any specific questions / areas of advice you need from your tutor.
• Provide a short written statement (100-200 words) which encapsulates the planned intent of your work, and a reflective / consolidatory update on how the specific visual strategies you utilise to achieve this will be developed.

Think About

• Reflect on your previous module feedback.
• How do you critically articulate the intent of your photographic practice (visually / in writing)?
• How is your photographic practice critically, visually and contextually informed?
• How do you reflect on your photographic practice (editing / sequencing / research etc) in order to progress it (consider successful and less successful work)?
• How are you developing this into a cohesive body of work?
• What are your strengths at this point?
• What areas do you need to develop?
• Consider the context in which your work should be viewed. Why?

My preparation
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:

• Using a combined pinhole camera/ developing tank (Pinsta camera kickstarter project (https://www.pinstacamera.com) so I can take and develop images on location, utilising water from streams etc for the developing etc.
• Infrared – I am interested in the spectrum beyond what the human eye can see
• Motion sensor cameras – Inspired by Stephen Gill’s ‘Night Procession’ series and following on from my overnight pinhole images
• Alternative processes, including calotypes, cyanotypes and cafenol
  
• I am also considering moving to medium format for my digital work so that final images can be printed larger and be more detailed as I would like them to be immersive.
• Recording the sounds of the countryside to play alongside images to enhance the viewing experience

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):

• Consider whether or not any photographic 'characteristics' are important to your own practice

 
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’.
 

• Identify any approaches / practices / practitioners that specifically resonated with you

 
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.
 

• Outline / summarise your independent research (eg interviews or reviews of relevant practice / reading)

 
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.
 

• Evaluate the development of your own photographic practice to date

 
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.
 

• Reflect on the peer / tutor feedback received on your current / future practice

 
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