'..Overwhelming..'

Here’s a few shots from my exhibiton last week-

‘When work feels Overwhelming, remember you are going to die..’
A group exhibition of 15 third year Fine Artists. (Nov 2010)

Talk about a hectic experience! Found it rather rewarding to work with others to put on a show in sucha short timescale.. good practice for my end of year show in June, got a measure of just how much there is to think about setting up an exhibition! Was good to test some things..

Year 3..

 ..is a whirlwind already! Battling my way through a to-do list longer than my arm..
But i'm loving it and for the first time in ages feel i'm on the right track.

So what i'm up to..well, time constraints forced me to re-think my whole practice.. so i've gone cameraless!
I am interested in mundane spaces and finding fresh ways of presenting them to an audience. I originally wanted to produces montages of these locations shot in various creative ways, with my homemade cameras, each distorted image drawing details from those it was displayed with to build up a new perspective. However, development of these tests would have taken too long.. I was advised to look at the ideas and questions that drove my work forward and 'answer' them in a new way, problem solving I guess!

It prompted me to think about the ambiance and impression of a space. A landscape doesnt neccesarily have to have a reconisable form, which links back to my previous shoots.

I decided to use the ordinary urban environment to create imagery. Working with ambiant light I worked what I found on location into the photographic paper, physically marking the light sensative emulsion. I then, in the darkroom, allowed these textures to control where the chemicals shifted and settles to photographically paint my landscapes. Ultimately giving the spaces used an abstract impresson. Direct landscapes. This involvement in the process is important to me, however there is a great element of anticipation and excitement when involving nature in this way..

Here's a selection of my favourite so far..

Check out what Ive been up to over the summer..

here.

Solargraphy

The element of time has run throught this body of work, alongside viewing our surroundings in a different way. Alongside the pieces below I have also been tryign my hand at Solargraphy, inspired by Justin Quinell, an artist I have admired since I took part in a workshop with him a few years ago in College.

Solargraphs are a fascinating type of photo created in homemade pinhole cameras. They are ultra long exposures which capture the movement of the sun across the sky each day..showing trails which we obviously could never see with the human eye. Created on B&W photographic paper they are developed without the use of chemicals (which would destroy the exposure) but instead with a scanner..it blows my mind that the resulting images are coloured! I love the way this is a manual process but a direct physical print is never be created..

The first of these images show my intitial tests of two weeks in Somerset (to check my pinhole size)

The image on the left shows the suntrail of afternoons, where the trend was cloudier weather, shown by the break in the trails..and right shows the clearer mornings. This visual narrative is quite interesting..



These second images are another set of exposures, this time 3 weeks in Bournemouth.. I wanted to test how the curve of the paper in my homemade cams changed the distortion on the image depending on its orientation..I decidedly prefer the landscape image. The colour difference between this and the first set is curious..maybe the light pollution in Bournemouth compared to back home in Somerset has something to do with it.. I liked this compositon so have set up another 2 cameras which have been exposing for 4 months so far..once I move back I will process these, I hope they show more detail..excited! I'l obviously post the results up here!


This final piece was an exposure from the roof of my house..I set up the camera so that the sun's route would fall directly above, the shape created is wonderful, although I cant quite work out why it has this specific form! I'm also unsure what the marks in the centre of the image are?!

Taking it Public..

As my intention was to 'spread the obscura love' I took my obscura box to two very central areas of Bournemouth town and invited members of the public to get inside and experience the world in this way for themselves..it was definately recieved very positively and it felt really great to explain my ideas and the physics of the piece to an audience. In Victorian times parks often had a camera obscura for leasure purposes and I feel what I was doing was quite reminiscent of those times and goes to show would still not be outdated int he present as many people were interested! I enjoyed the fact that my structure had given a memory/emotion to those on the day, making art & science very accessible..

I took a few 360degree shots of the areas in which I set up the box as a visual record of the occassions. I am really pleased with the aesthetics of these.. but will improve their quality when I make a few changes to the structure of my portable obscura!



[Click images to view larger..]

Obscura Box

I was quite inspired by the spectacle of living within my camera obscura room, however I wanted to still share this feeling with an audience in an alternative way to the timelapse test, a more direct experience. So I decided to make my obscura room more mobile..

The construction below is my first attempt at this.. I wanted to be able to record the images inside the box so each side has a pinhole to allow the image to be formed and a space for my lens to capture the inside of the box..all these have light proofing flaps inside and out.


Depending on the orientation, the smaller ends of the box produce quite messy images..I need to work on the design a little, firstly spray painting the lining to allow the texture the image forms on to be less of a distraction. I also need to do this to the light proof flaps so they blend more successfully. I also need a way of stopping light creeping under the bottom of my structure but for this experimentation stage I am quite pleased, particulatly when the image is cropped [as intended] below..

What I found particularly interesting is the image created when more than one of my pinholes were left open.. I can create scenes which would not be visible with the human eye, natural double exposures!

Bedroom Obscura..

The effect at sunset in the obscura room was sublime..


To develop the idea a little further I wanted to try and share the experience with a viewer by some means. This ended up as another type of timelapse, as its a technique I wished to work with further. The video below is my initial experiment trying to capture the sunset within the bedroom obscura. As the light levels at this time are relatively low each exposure had to be 30seconds..plus my camera then took a further 30 to record the image. This piece is over an hours worth of shooting believe it or not! I intend to re-do this to get a much longer piece over a few hours, ideally sunrise to sunset..but I need an external battery source and a day I can afford to dedicate! (or some sneaky software??) Sadly the days turned grey for a while, but one day i'l get back to this!

So where next?

My work has become very much about the processes associated with image making and viweing the surroundings. I was at a bit of a loose end at this point so decided to go back to the roots once again (as pinhole, the most stripped back form of photography, was my initial inspiration).
I liked the ideas of distrotion and an alternative way of looking that had crept into my work so decided to really play with the idea of the surreal but real..

With this I started to explore Camera Obscuras..
Ive always had the idea of 'Hidden Photo's' on the backburner..maybe I can elaborate on this by moving in this direction.

Inspired by Abelardo Morell's work in hotel rooms I decided to create an obscura room in my own personal space..


The physics of this blew my mind! The experience of viewing the world in this way is so surreal and dreamlike. I feel the images can't ever get this across to a viewer, they are just a record of the experience..portraying this to an audience might be my next step?

Drive by Lights Fly

Following this theme of giving a journey, or period of time a form I decided to look at alternative ways of portraying the same one taken before. Instead of creating an abstract photo I decided to try a completely new avenue, timelapse.

The film is made up of 400ish shots, 1second exposures, every 2seconds..when played in sequence you get this.. I felt it helps to contextualise the previous photos (when displayed together) by showing the journey in a more direct form but still using the same predominant media of photography. Which again links into my project working with various techniques to change the way we are viewing our surroundings, a fresh take.

[Watch in much better quality here]

Despite the battle between pc/mac I love timelapse and its an area I wish to experiment further with within my project..

Giving a Journey a Form

I enjoyed experimenting with light trails but felt they were too sterile. Ive set out to view the world in an alternative way and as this project as a whole is a Journey through photography I decided to test ways of giving physical journeys a form to help show this. I again used my lens distortion technique to keep a flow through my work. The circular form not only changes the appearance of the light trails we are used to but brings focus to the pieces. The circular shape itself portays a never ending path which is also quite inkeeping. Each photo in this series shows a particular stage of a journey I take very often in Bournemouth, when displayed as a set they show it as a whole.





EDIT.. the piece below shows how i'd display the set..

Developing my lens additions..

I wanted to expand on my Lens additions tests..

Alongside my degree I have been trying to build a name for myself as a photographer through various means of displaying my work online. I had been part of deviantART.com for a long time but had neglected the account so decided to get this up and running again with new work. Its a struggle to gain attention in a world where photography has become so accessible to the masses, what with the prices of DSLR's crashing on the highstreet. Being part of this art community again I realised there are certain themes and styles of photography that are desirable to so many and thus gain many views etc.

I personally feel this 'indie' photography lacks something, I think it is the excessive use of post processing I see on so many images to create what many see as the 'perfect' photograph. I cant help but crave for people to want to take the perfect shot with the camera in their hand, not rely on a computer to lie over an image. I decided I wanted to take these generic scenes that are loved by so many and shoot them using my lens distortions which in turn 'edits' the photo during the process of capturing it. Producing a unique aesthetic which breaks convention but could still be viewed as beautiful, enhancing the mundane..

This last shot is my personal favourite of this series..

FAIL

It was at this point in my project I got back a third failed roll of film from inside a homemade camera.. This time my pinhole was a tad too big producing out of focus images..twas a shame as i'd bee far more experimental this time and thought about shoots that would accentuate the properties of pinhole..but alas the nature of pinhole and its unpredictablity had me this time!

I don't want to give up on film just yet but as i'm working to deadlines I think it needs to take a backseat for now.. (and its costing me precious cash!)

I'm going to look into buying pre drilled pinholes I recon..

Alternative views..

Another idea was to allow the audience to view the world with a different perspective, my initial idea was to intervene physically with the photographic process by adding certain textures to my lens. I still want the subject/location to be recognisable but want to refresh it.

Since re-joining DeviantArt I notice the same themes and compositions are often repeated countless times within 'popular' photography and many rely on extensive use of editing software to create a successful image. I still use these programmes, usually for minor enhancements to contrast/saturation however I disagree with the airbrush nation we now live in. There is an obvious desire for perfection however I cant help but feel it is almost a lie for this all to be achieved purely in the post processing. The quest to take the perfect photo feels like its slowly becoming lost. The following images are my initial attempts at manually abstracting an image without the use of tools my computer has to offer. To create an interesting piece without the need to distort and retouch, instead do this whilst composing and taking the shots..








These images are primarily texture based, I want to contextualise this idea further by taking into consideration my subjects and locations in a bigger way..