Picbod- Conclusion.

When starting picbod I had definite idea as to what I wanted to base my whole project, which was to photograph the body in some kind of form, as portraiture is the genre I usually prefer. However, the lectures and weekly tasks opened my thoughts about what picbod and the themes within it is all about and in the end photographing everything else but the body proved to be a lot more enjoyable and interesting. Being able to explore my project’s idea of human presence within derelict buildings and areas in a location that I feel comfortable with and am using for other personal projects made this project a lot more easier within terms of time keeping and management as I didn’t have to spend the majority of my time scouting areas and spent more time focusing on what I was photographing and how I wanted my work to be perceived by others.

After creating and bringing to life an exhibition at the end of last year, I really enjoyed the setting up my work to be ‘exhibition ready’  side of things as I was able to apply a lot of the concepts and knowledge I had gained previously into this module’s work.

However, there were a lot of complications along the way that did in many ways change things within my project, for example not being able to get as many photographs as I would have liked due to the weather meant that I had more restriction in terms of what I wanted to use in my exhibition. Also picking a location that is relatively expensive to get too and is far away meant that any mistakes created could not be easily changed by going back out and taking photographs again especially in the time frame left that I had given myself. One problem that I do feel created an impacted on my work is that on the day the lens I had been using blurred all the images on the left hand side of the frames. Unfortunately, this only appeared when I viewed the photographs on the computer and by this time it was too late to go back and retake the shot with a different lens. Luckily this isn’t as obvious in the images I selected for my final series. Another problem occurred was the quality of the prints, when getting my images back from the place I ordered my prints from I noticed that there was a very yellowy tone to the black and white images. In some photographs it isn’t that noticeable, on others however it is. If I had more time and money, I would have liked to shoot this series on medium format and print these images on a larger scale.

Final Images.

Here is my final images, they will all be 8×6 and be printed on matte paper as I know from last year when I created a photobook of similar style images that this finish was better suited to the photographs. Also below is a  digital plan of how they will be sequenced in an exhibition. In terms of how I will make them ‘exhibition ready’ I will frame each print in a white frame in the layout as shown below, similar to how the Becher’s work was exhibited in the constructing worlds exhibition as I feel this is the best way to create a less constricting view for the audience. Each picture has it’s own frame, which creates a sense that it is it’s own picture but because there is no obvious breaks constricting the flow of the pictures it creates another image in the series to look at. Due to the how expensive it would be to frame each print separately, I have just framed one to show as an example of what it would like in the end.  Having these layers of pictures within pictures creates a more interesting concept for the viewers to look at without going outside the ‘traditional’ sense of framing and hanging artwork  up in an exhibition. In terms of what context I will provide in the exhibition, I decide that I would only give the title of the project, my name and a link to my blog on a small basic plaque, as I want leave it to the viewers own interpretation of how it relates to what picbod is all about, and if they want to know they can go on to my blog and read all about it.

Digital copy of the final layout for exhibiting.

Sequencing.

After whittling my photographs down to about 69 images changing them all in post production I decided to focus on the sequencing of the pictures which would hopefully not only help me whittle down my selection even more but to come up with a final ‘exhibition ready’ sequence.

I find it a lot easier to sort out photographs by having physical copies of the images and laying the photographs out, firstly I set them into different categories of which are the same subject matters or similar ones, then choose which works better and eventually  edit them down to which images work well together.

When editing down my photogra

phs, I knew I wanted to have a layout similar to Bernd and Hilla Becher’s work in the Constructing worlds exhibition. So when it came to choosing which images to use, I selected the photographs that were best suited to this style over what was the most aesthetically pleasing. When it came to the editing and sequencing process there was a clear divide of two categories of images in my work, one was of the architecture and the other of the objects found in these areas. Rather than mix these groups together I decided to keep these two different ‘mini’ series to create one main large series as shown in the image below. Overall there will be twelve images in my exhibition ready set, however as you can see I still am undecided on two images, so I will get all fourteen images printed out and see which works the best after being printed.

 

Post Production – Images.

When it came to the post production of the images, I did not feel like the photographs needed much doing to them apart from turning the brightness up and down and heightening the contrast slightly.  I also changed the images to black and white to see if this worked better than colour. Admittedly, I preferred the black and white versions more as I felt that it helped pick out different parts of the image and overall making them look a lot sharper. But it also helped fabricate a sense of history to the images and creates an idea of the pictures being ‘timeless’ and not looking like they have been taken in a specific era as I feel that the abandoned buildings and ruins show that themselves and it is not needed to put another time frame on them.

Here is an example of an image before in colour and after in black and white.

I wanted to see if there were any other photographers who used black and white images to create a sense of history to their own images.   Sebastiao Salgado’s Genesis series immediately sprung to mind. Not are only are the photographs simply memorising, they also seem timeless and feel like the landscape images could  have actually been from the day of its genesis. The way in which is does this inspires me greatly as well as the style of his photography.

Sebastio Salgado -Image from his Genesis series.

 

 

Considering the layout and sequence of images.

At the end of last year I visited the Barbican to see the exhibition- Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age, which consisted of work from 18 artists such as Walker Evans, Hiroshi Sugimoto. The exhibitions aims were to “…look beyond the medium’s ability to simply document the built world and explore the power of photography to reveal wider truths about society.” It also showcased a collection of Bernd and Hilla Becher work. This particular section of the exhibition stood out to me the most because of it’s layout and sequencing. Like most of the Becher’s pieces, the images were placed in groups of the different structures. They were all placed in white frames which allowed the work to flow well through one another, rather than cutting the viewers off and seeing each print separately it made allowed the prints to become one big image.

 

In relation to my own work, I feel like this layout and framing of the photographs would work incredibly well as I feel that I cannot exhibit just one image.For the audience to get a true understanding of my work,  I feel that I need to show a number of photographs in a simple sequence like the Becher’s work in the image above.  The next step in getting my work ‘exhibition ready’ is to edit down my pictures to create a smaller series of strong images. I will also be able to see what images work well along side one another and what doesn’t.

Further Development- Photographs

I planned to go up to County Durham for four days to explore the area looking for these remote places and derelict buildings in the rural area of the Durham Dales. Luckily I was able to get a sufficient amount of images before the snow started to fall heavily. Because of the Dales being such a remote area, I was able to take the time to focus the solely on finding the different buildings and ruins and concentrate on how I was going represent my ideas through this set of photographs.

Unfortunately I decided against using the mamiya RB67 as I was unable to get the camera and its equipment up with me and back in time to return it to the media loan shop. So all these photographs are taken on a digital camera. While looking at different bodies of work, I could see references and elements of the new topographics style within each artists work. This could have been for the simple fact that the main focuses were of man made buildings and the structures.  But this new topographics style really influenced me in the way I wanted to photograph the buildings.

I also focused on the surrounding elements of each areas which showed  different human and animal presence for example, gun shells, technical tracks, animal bones and old pieces of metal scrap from the old mining buildings. As I think these objects are important segments of the whole project.

Underneath is a contact sheet of the original images. I decided to take in the photographs in colour as I was still unsure as to how I wanted to use colour in the series, I plan to change them to black and white to see what looks aesthetically better and what ties in with my project more.

Whilst taking the images, I felt that the series should be framed when exhibiting as I feel this would tie in with the ‘traditional’ style of photography I have produced.

 

Jason Vaughn – Hide.

Jason Vaughn’s hide project is a series of images based on deer stands  in Wisconsin. It started off as a commentary on Wisconsin’s hunting tradition. He used the deer stands as a metaphor for the changing values in the sport. However, the whole meaning behind the project changed when he was diagnosed cancer at the age of 32 and had a three-month-old baby.  He began talking to the hunters about the tradition of hunting through their families. Most described the deer huts as something that was permanent that could be passed to the next generation, especially to son’s who would inherit their land. These thoughts surrounding the idea of relationships and bonds with their son’s resonated with him strongly. The hunters also wanted to get the message across that hunting to them was not all about the violence but it was more about being one with nature and to spend time with their families at the huts.  Vaughn wanted to capture all these aspects within this series. If it hadn’t been for the events that had happened in his own personal life, the whole project would have been just a series of documentary style series, there wouldn’t have been so much meaning within the photographs themselves. Without knowing the background behind hide, as a viewer you still get a sense of meaning from the photographs such the connotations that suggest there is more than meets the eye. With the context of the subject matter, it steers it self away from the controversial aspects of what the deer huts are used for and shows them as something else that represents the ideas of a close knit family and the huts become something like a tree house instead.

Similar, to William Christenberry’s work I’d previously looked at, Hide reminds me very much of the new topographics. The way in which he has stylised the huts would be how I would see the topographics movement to look like today. For example, Other’s work in these movements were very utilitarian and focused solely on the architecture, Where as Vaughn utilises the space surrounding the subject within his work showing the connection between nature and human without having an actual human present in the frame.

Alongside thinking about the way in which to take my photographs, Jason Vaughn’s series has made me think about the way in which I use context within my series whilst exhibition. Do I give a personal message about the project like Vaughn on his website? or only give the audience a snippet of the context like the title to leave it to the audience’s imagination?

 

 

All information relating to what the project is about is sourced from – www.jasonvaughnart.com

Artist Research – William Christenberry.

Having already looked at deer beds by Katherine Wolkoff and Lick Creek Line by Ron Jude, someone suggested I look at William Christenberry’s work.

William Christenberry is a photographer, painter and sculptor who works with personal and somewhat mythical themes growing out of his childhood experiences in Hale County, Alabama. He uses material to create his work that speak about the place of his childhood. during his career he began making annual visitis to Hale County each summer to explore and make photographs. On one occasion in 1973, Walker Evans, who had encouraged Christenberry to take his photographs seriously, accompanied him.

His work mainly consists of the vernacular buildings of the American south – wooden churches, shacks, houses, storefronts. The motivations behind his collections of work are things such as his family history and the importance of it to him, and the deep attachment he has to the places where he photographs, which are clearly shown through his repetition of going back to the same spots. Like my own work, Christenberry’s work shows no human figures but it is everything inside the photograph that creates this sense of attachment and presence of something that was once there before.

In terms of style, every photographic is very minimalistic, the layouts of each image are almost identical, reiterating the move of repetition in his work.  This layout and style reminds me a lot of the topographic movement and the likes of Bernd and Hills Becher’s work.  Using colour film creates this sense of the pictures being a time capsule of that era, you can quite clearly see the images are taken with the 60’s and 70’s era. This is something I need to think and consider about in terms of my work, by using colour, will it represent the time the image was taken in or will using black and white images create more connotations of the history of the buildings as we usually associate black and white photographs with history and the past.

Picbod- What is next?

I really enjoyed each weekly task in different ways. At first I felt more interested in creating the mechanical montages and felt like this was the root I wanted to take for my ‘exhibition ready’ photographic piece. But after completing the last two tasks and thinking about the discussions surrounding both themes of relationships and the body, I feel like these are a lot more interesting for not only my self but for my audience. Although I really felt like my idea of looking at my own relationship and attachment to a specific place where I grew up, I feel like there is not much more to expand on apart from the quality of the photographs and I feel like it links with the series I produced for my last module too much.

Therefore I have finally decided on following up on my idea for week five’s task – The body; Forms, Functions and interactions. Rather than focusing on the physical body, I aim to produce a series of images which will look into the absence of human presence in a area. Like the image I produced for task five, I’d like to focus on the buildings in this area rather than the landscape. There are many questions that I need think about whilst doing my research and producing my actual images, some of which are, what location to base my project upon? what format to shoot on? and how will I present my final images?

In relation to the location. I want to use the same location that I had used in the image I created for task five, which is the Durham Dales. I also used these areas as my main locations for my photo book – Rural Life in the North East last year. The Durham Dales  consist primarily of a series of high exposed moorlands, hills and mountains, and is County Durham’s least populous area. Knowing this area pretty well, I will save myself a lot of time by not having to scout the areas for abandoned buildings and remote areas as I would have had to do with an unknown area. Similarly to before, the only real problem I face with the location is the weather. The snow falls very heavily in this area so obviously at this time of the year it is extremely difficult to reach and there is no certainty of what the weather will be like. Hopefully, If I plan my journey well, I will be able to get a few chances to reach these areas.

In terms of what format to use for this project. I would like to use medium format as I feel this will help create the photographs I want to create rather than on 35mm. If I do use medium format, I will use a mamiya RB67 rather than the franka solida I as it will just generally produce a better quality image. However, I do plan on taking digital images as well as a backup for the simple fact that I will not have enough time to go back up to this location to take more images.

And in relation to how I am currently thinking of presenting my work, I still dont have a 100% certain idea of how I will exhibit this work and don’t think I really will until I produce actual images. However, I do feel like a more traditional style of presenting will be best suited to this project as it seems like the images will be of a traditional sense.

Picbod- The Body; Forms, Functions and Interactions.

For our last weekly task of this module we were asked to photographically consider how you are corporeally connected and/or disconnected with the spaces you conduct your life in. You may wish to examine the structure of the body and how it is distorted to serve certain roles or you may think about the time and locations in which the body shapes the environments it has found itself occupying.

One artist and their body of work we were suggested to look at was Deer Beds by Katherine Wolkoff . Deer Beds is a series of images that captures images of tramplings deer makes in tall grassy areas to make temporary beds for themselves. It is interesting to see how Wolkoff managed to capture something so ephemeral without the actual deer there. The small hints of evidence that there has been some recent presence for example the flattened down weeds and grass show create a ghostly almost eerie sense of feeling that something was there recently.

The thought of not actually having to photograph the body really appealed to me at the time as I was still interested on photographing the physical environment around us than an actual person. Taking inspiration from Katherine Wolkoff’s Deer bed series I wanted to explore the idea of human presence within the landscape. I took some photographs over the summer in connection with a personal project I am currently working on at the minute and after having previously looking at Don Jude’s -lick creek line series as well as Deer beds, I felt these images would work well in my concept idea.

I wanted to focus on the human presence left behind in rural areas. In the North East of England around the dales and moor areas, many people go hunting in these places during the hunting seasons. As these are incredibly remote areas, there is no pubs or restaurants for the hunters to go for a rest and feed. So there are these little huts scattered around the places where people can eat their food and take a break from hunting etc. I find the concept of these little huts rather interesting and how they  don’t seem to be owned by anyone and are simply left abandoned for the majority of the year. They merge in with the area’s landscape as there are so many different abandoned buildings in the dales and moors it is not such a uncommon thing to see. Down below is the image I produced for this weeks task.

 If I had known about this task when I had took this picture, I would have photographed things surrounding this hut to create a small series as I had just taken these images after hunting season so there were a few things such as plastic bags, cigarette buds and rabbit bones lying around near which show the suggestion of some human presence had recently been there.