Fourth Year, Christmas Assessment

Christmas Assessment starts on Monday, and I've spent the past week or so hanging my works and sorting out smaller finishing touches.  Some pictures of my final set up;

5 x 4" negative scanned, edited and printed digitally to 24 x 30 inches on Photorag Paper;

 Triptych, images printed to 5 x 4" mounted onto aluminium dibond;

 Supporting materials;

 Negative scanned, printed digitally to 5 x 4" onto Hahnemuhle Photorag paper and framed;

I'm very pleased with what I am showing, and spent a lot of time revisiting the order of the images, and the four finals that I chose to show.  I really like the images mounted onto the aluminium dibond, as they appear to 'float' from the wall, with a nice shadow surrounding to naturally frame them.  I got the dibond images printed by a german company, but I don't think the actual print does the images justice, so I am getting a test print done over the Christmas holidays from the company I use in Edinburgh.  I used them to print the large image, and am very pleased with it!

I'm looking forward to feedback, and seeing what the tutors think and have to say about it all.

Untitled

Found this today.

Fourth Year, Week 10

I've been working on my slides for the slide show we have to present to the marking panel before assessment, and found it really useful to clarify what my final works will be.

Three final images, which will be printed to 5 x 4", mounted onto aluminium di-bond, and presented as a triptych.

This image will be printed to 24 x 30" on Photo Rag paper.  In comparison to the above images, it is a lot more cluttered, and so when printed large it has a lot more of an impact.

Finalising things for Christmas assessment has made me think towards my degree show and what it potentially may look like.  At the moment, I'm thinking of having a few very large, high impact images, and a series of smaller, more intimate works, but am not entirely sure yet.  My prints should be here next week, and I am looking forward to seeing what they will look like when they are all presented together!

Over the Christmas holiday I will be taking more photos, and will continue this into next semester.  I'm hoping to spend a lot of time considering the photos as individual images, as a part of a series, and their relation to each other.  This is what informs the viewer of the ideas so I'm hoping to get it totally sorted!  This semester I've spent a lot more time sorting out my photoshop, scanning, and getting the actual image quality up to standard so I'm hoping this will make a nice change.

Fourth Year, Week 9

The past few weeks have been quite slow.  I'm starting to finalise things for Christmas assessment, so been doing a lot of thinking and milling things over, rather than actually making and doing things.  I made a frame last week, which I'm really pleased with, although I am going to make another one, with a larger mount, as right now I think it's too similar to the width of the photograph;

I have also ordered three 5x4" images mounted onto aluminium di-bond, which should be here in about two weeks.  I'm really excited to see them!

Been looking at Gareth McConnells work.  He uses a large format camera to take his photographs...

His 'Meditations' series is by far my favourite;

"According to whether we are in the same place or separated one from the other, I know you twice.  There are two of you.
   When you are away, you are nevertheless present for me.  This presence is multiform: it consists of countless images, passages, meanings, things known, landmarks, yet the whole remains marked by your presence, in that it is diffuse.  It is as if your person becomes a place, your contours horizons.  I live in you then like living in a country.  You are everywhere.  Yet in that country I can never meet you face to face.
   Partir est mourir un peu.  I was very young when I first heard this sentence quoted and it expressed a truth I already knew.  I remember it now because it experience of living in you as if you were a country, the only country in the world where I can never conceivably meet you face to face, this is a little like the experience of living with the memory of the dead.  What I did not know when I was very young was that nothing can take the past away: the past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
   In the country which is you I know your gestures, the intonations of your voice, the shape of every part of your body.  You are not physically less real there, but you are less free.
   What changes when you are there before my eyes is that you become unpredictable.  What you are about to do is unknown to me.  I follow you.  You act.  And with what you do, I fall in love again."

- John Berger, 'And our Faces, my Heart, brief as Photos'

Fourth Year, Week 7

This week was recorded tutorial week, where we are asked to submit a small amount of writing on our work.  I hope this helps people understand what I am trying to achieve, as I still haven't thought of a good way to explain it to people in a nutshell;

 “A beautiful subject can be the object of rueful feelings, because it has aged or decayed or no longer exists. All photographs are Momento Mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to times relentless melt.” - Susan Sontag

This year I am focusing on the ideas of death; loss; the past, present and future; the passage of time; and the dead amongst the living, through photographing within my family home. This stemmed from my dissertation research, where I am focusing on ‘Camera Lucida’ by Barthes.

I am shooting 5x4” large format black and white negatives, and am finding my technical skills with this are developing strongly, providing me with a few potential final images. I am also shooting 5x4” Direct Positive paper, inserted into the camera back, exposed, then removed for development. This produces a completely unique image, which cannot be recreated many times like a conventional negative. The piece of paper that is inserted into the camera is the piece of paper that the viewer is presented with as the image. Interesting ideas lie behind this approach, and it is something I plan to continue with.

The presentation of my images is something I am currently considering. I am unsure whether or not to adopt a very traditional approach, or devise one that has the potential to inform viewers of more ideas behind the work. To experiment with this, I have been painting liquid light onto textiles collected from my Grandmothers house, which I find acts as a good way to portray the domestic ideas lying behind the work, although I am concerned that visually it will become overwhelming for the viewer, and that it becomes a bit too ‘cute’ and ‘homely’. I have had limited access to the Flextight Scanner this semester, as it needs repaired. A soon as possible, I plan to get my negatives scanned and experiment with ways in which I can present them more traditionally, for example, by framing them. The scale of the images and the order in which they are placed will play a big role in how they and received by viewers, and this is something I am currently considering very carefully.

How the images are printed will have a strong influence on how the viewer receives them, which is something I am currently exploring. In previous years, I have printed onto Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper, a paper with a very high cotton content, which creates very very rich darks, and an excellent tonal range. I am planning to get sample images printed in Hahnemuhle, in various sizes, to see what works best. I am also considering other methods of printing, such as 'C-type' prints.

I have been looking at various photographers exploring family, relationships, the home, the family within the home, loss, and death; Sally Mann, Richard Billingham, Thomas Ruff, Marjolaine Ryley, Diane Arbus, Christian Boltanski and Nobuyoshi Araki. Photographers I have looked at in previous years include Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, Colin Gray, Larry Sultan, William Eggleston, Andres Serrano, Francesca Woodman, and Joanna Kane.

After my tutorial with my tutor this week I've decided to continue looking into digital printing, over liquid light, as I think everything was getting a bit too cute, and want the images to be images in their own right, rather than 'things' printed onto textiles.

I've spent most of this week scanning and editing my images on photoshop, as the scanner got fixed.  Here are some images I am very pleased with;

Fourth Year, Week 5

So this week started off with a group tutorial which I found really helpful.  I mentioned that I was considering how to present my works, more traditionally, or thinking of more imaginative ways, and someone in the group suggested fabric... So I have spent the week playing around with liquid light!  First onto paper, then onto fabric (white cotton), at the moment these are just contact prints, but I will be enlarging larger images once I get the hang of it!  It's reading week at the moment (writing this a little late...) and so I have been collecting some fabrics, bed linens, table cloths, napkins, hankies, etc., that were taken from my grans house to print onto when I get back in the studio!  Also considering scale - not sure if I want these big or small yet...  Personally, I prefer the actual photographs smaller, but I'm still not sure about the emulsion pictures.

The image on the right was my first attempt, painting the liquid light straight on onto acrylic painting paper from the bottle.  I didn't watch the wash timing very closely, hence why the emulsion is all crackled around the edges - it started to lift off when I removed it from the wash.  The image on the left is the same emulsion on the same paper, diluted 1 part emulsion to 2 parts water.  Apparently meant to give a more even coating, but I suspect this is only if you buy really swank water colour paper!

Another image with the emulsion straight form the bottle onto the paper, washed for the correct amount of time.  I think I will need to use a more absorbent paper (water colour paper) rather than acrylic to get a more even coating

....And following on from a reasonable success on paper, I applied it to cotton! Two coats, with the cotton mounted onto boards.  I'm really pleased with how these turned out, although the emulsion is slight fogged as you can see from the grey tone.  I'm ordering some brand new stuff (the stuff I'm using right now is very very old) so hopefully that will allow for very brilliant whites.

This week I am slowly drowning in applications and dissertation, so it will be nice to get back to the studio making things again next week!  I will be enlarging to 10 x 8" on cotton... when I've got that sorted, I'll start making some more final pieces (hopefully within two or three weeks)

Fourth Year, Week Three

Time is flying by!  Can't believe its the end of week 3 already.  Been working in the dark rooms a lot this week, as the Flextight neg scanner is broken and wont be fixed for another few weeks.  Some pictures of what I've been upto over the past week;

A collection of all my contact prints.  I really like the top row of images, although am going to reshoot the second in from the right with a smaller aperture, as it has a really soft focus, and the film is fogged.

Over view of prints, 10 x 8" and 16 x 20"

 Contact prints mounted into a black mask to allow for a large border.  I really like these!

10 x 8" prints, top two are on Ilford Multigrade Deluxe RC Paper, bottom two are Ilford Warm Tone FB paper.  In the photo you cant see much difference, but when seeing them in real life they look like different photographs.

 16 x 20" images on Kentmere RC Pearl paper;

And a general overview of my studio wall.  Images on here include works my Marjolaine Ryley, Thomas Ruff, Richard Billingham, Sally Mann, and a few quotes from Nobuyoshi Araki.

I hope the images give you an idea as to what I'm actually doing, as right now, I cant think of a way that describes it very well!  Off home this week end to shoot some more Ilford HP5+ negs, and some Harman Direct positive paper images.