One of the objectives of this brief was to consider how the work would be displayed and disseminated. In this regard, for me, part of that work was already done, as during the development process it became clear that my images would be seen as home prints, similar to those I remember growing up with. This was done to help visually with the circular narrative, but it also made a very good fit with my concept of ‘memory stirred day-dreams’, Photographs are moments caught in time and similarly day-dreams are memories are too.
For the dissemination then, I needed to decide on how my series would look in a home environment or public space, such as a gallery . There was also more practical things to decide with regard to the prints, such as border size, paper type and cost – the latter especially pertinent as I’m on a very tight budget.
The prints…
As an artisan printing service was out of the question due to cost, I chose a small independent printer who could provide borders and a matt finish paper, suitable for me to write on the borders. I chose an 8mm border, similar to those photographs my Ma has stashed away at home and so i got four sets printed for a reasonable cost. I got four sets printed as I needed to experiment with writing the text and also the layout, plus I needed extras in case mistakes were made with spelling etc.
I started experimenting with colour of ink and the positioning of text on several images so I could get the right visual appeal…
Test 1 – Split positioning with Red ink. Although I had red ink in mind for the text, it didn’t work as I’d imagined and I quickly dismissed the idea.
Test 2 – At a suggestion of a friend I tried using the red ink as a highlighter for the time with the written words in black. This really did not work for me and the whole thing looked messy & distracting.
Test 3 – Discarding the red for just black ink seemed better, but the mixed positioning of the text still seemed a distraction.
Test 4 – Placing the text on the same border looked better, but keeping the time and words separate was still distracting to the eye. Plus as I discovered when holding the stack of photos, my hand partially obscured the time.
Test 5 – using black in with time and words separated by an ellipse, proved to be the least distracting and wasn’t obscured when holding the stack with the left or right hand.
Once I had, what I believed was the best layout on the front text, I checked it with several friends for their opinion and concluded that the layout above (test 5) was indeed the best and least distracting of my placements. In addition, this layout, which when held either by left-handed or right-handed people, the text would not be obscured.
Finally, I needed to write the corresponding words on the back of the image, being careful to use a fine fibre tip pen so as not to indent the image from the back. My handwriting can be kind of scrawly and illegible at times so this process was a matter of being careful and not being to self-conscious of what I was doing. I wanted to write at my normal speed, doing nothing deliberately, as I didn’t want this series to be seen as a carefully contrived and staged set; I wanted the final appearance to be as genuine as the memories that formed the basis of my idea.
The display and dissemination…
As my images are physical prints, for the purpose of this brief, styled similarly to home prints from my youth. The concept of my images being seen on gallery walls was somewhat difficult to envisage without a radical change in my idea of dissemination. My work here would be far better served as a small, tactile installation placed within the home or equally as a small installation in a public exhibition space or gallery – perhaps on coffee table, shelf, window space or perhaps, even on the floor!
I volunteer for Castlefield gallery here in Manchester, documenting some of their various exhibitions. It when I was considering some of the smaller installations and exhibits that I’d documented there, that my idea for dissemination took shape.
Examples of a small installation with in a larger exhibition…
I still wanted my images to feel like these were home pictures, stored as memories and recollections, precious things, yet the type of things we tend to keep in the dark, in a drawer or a box. I thought about my Mum and my Nan – who like most other families are the keepers of family photographs – and the way they store photographs in boxes. Some of which they store in envelopes or wrapped in tissue paper to protect them within old chocolate boxes or a box handily sized for such mementos – I thought this was the perfect way to have my images both stored and displayed.
As time was fast running out at this stage, with less than a week to the dead-line, finding a suitable box proved much more difficult than I imagined – even after checking a couple of flea markets and junk shops I really thought I might have to change tack. However, on explaining my idea to a friend who had access to such things, he promptly came to my rescue offering me a rather old and dusty ink ribbon box and some acid free paper that I could use to line the box! My idea was saved and tea and cakes quickly ensued!
A Columbia Ink ribbon box circa 1950/60’s – The basis for my installation
Now it was a matter of putting everything together. I wanted to do more with the acid free paper, so made a very basic origami envelope/pouch for the photos, and then I took a series of shots as you might see them in a private or public space. See the next post for the final images.
N.B – If I’d had more time, I might have asked the gallery I volunteer for, if I could use one of their spaces to take these shots. However, time was not permitting to do that. Instead, I have taken the shots as I would hope they would be seen anywhere, even in a gallery.
Here are all ten final images that I brought along to the next feedback session, along with the accompanying tag-lines and text. I should note that I had decided that as a precaution, I should number each image, so that if the images in the stack were placed out of order they could easily be re-organised.
One – “Who am I?”
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As I pull back the curtain, this question begs itself once more. Blinking, not really seeing, but knowing the constants – The album sleeve obscured, A favoured shirt, the blinding light; The ties that bind – They’re still here. Past, present, future – Memory, cognition and curiosity – the answer lies there?
Two – Fuzzy-head.
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Oh how I hate you morning, old friend! Nothing new there. – No matter how hard I scrub and preen, I’m resentful to the last and fuzzy still. So take your cold and your cold harsh light and do your very worst – I’ll be back again tomorrow with another hateful glare and an unfocused stare!
Three – “Don’t you dare!”
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A bowl, a book; made for a cook – an admonishing look, something I took; but shouldn’t. Lost in a memory of my Nan, puzzled by this shy but bold child. Don’t you dare? – You betcha! I took that lesson far too much to heart as I grew – and some lessons teach us the wrong things it seems.
Four – Do you see?
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No shade, just light – Do you see (me)? – Are you coming or just going?
Five – Looking within, looking without.
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What’s inside – Half-seen, half-remembered longings and belongings? – I really can’t quite make it all out, too much reflection – introspection!
Six – The need to lie.
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“Cup of tea?” … “Oh that? Just some whimsy I forgot to take down after a party!” (There was never a party and I didn’t forget!)
Seven – Love.
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The lost and the found, the beauty profound, the thorns and the sound… of my falling!
Eight – Sunshine State.
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It was a joke – I’m never that sunny…and nothing is THAT funny!
Nine – Past times – Pastimes.
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It’s all here, all on view – It’s what I do. …It’s not everything, of course!
Ten – Puzzling.
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It’s making all the pieces fit somehow. It’ll makes things clearer, better illuminated don’t you think? Let’s see what tomorrow brings and the question that will inevitably ask itself again…
N.B – With ten being the last image in the series, the next image in the stack is the first image again, bringing the circular narrative back around again!
Feedback session:
Since the last feedback session I had made significant progress on the brief – I had fully developed my series of images to a state I was happy with. In addition I had written the words and contrived a means of dissemination that worked no only as a means of reinforcing the circular nature of the narrative, but in turn had also provided me with a basic mechanism and means of dissemination – that of stack printed images.
My job at the feedback session was to explain the mechanism of dissemination and then lay out the images in a series, and read out the words I’d written for each image. I hoped that this time my narrative would be understood and that my idea would be accepted. I had doubts about image nine ‘Past Times’ and whether it was necessary. So I was hoping to get feedback on that and on the words as a whole, as I wasn’t sure if they were too cryptic, or even if they were helping the narrative or not.
What I had not anticipated was how emotional I became when reading out the words with each image. One of the reasons why I am doing this course is to express myself in ways that I have oppressed for most of my adult life – creativity, emotions and personal growth. So talking about my work here and of myself was more challenging than anticipated. Thankfully my group and tutor were incredible and in other circumstances I would have folded and not have been able to go on. I did it though and I felt oddly stronger for it,hearing the reaction and feedback made me realise I had an idea worthy of the work I’d put in so far and that the direction I had taken was the right one.
Changes…
Comments from the feedback session were mostly positive to praising – the latter making for awkward but genuine thanks on my behalf, taking praise is an odd thing when you are as self-doubting as I am.
There were some things I’d looked for feedback on in particular and some that were not, but were good ideas…
Image nine – Past Times: It was thought this image visually was at odds with the others and in any case didn’t add anything significant to the series, which concurred with my view and so it was dropped from the set.
Number ordering the images: While the group thought that ordering the images wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, numbering them seemed the wrong way to go about it. I suggested maybe dating the images, but then someone suggested that as the images represented a day-night cycle, that perhaps time-stamping them would be better – i.e 08:02a.m – “Who am I?” This idea seemed to fit better and was generally liked and I decided that I would probably adopt this approach.
Border style: The border style and thickness around the images was something I really needed to gain some wider feedback on. When asking about the polaroid-style border, my Tutor immediately pointed out the problem of polaroids in my scenario in that they are a square format image and my images were landscape (7×5). I could convert mine to a square format but all agreed my images would not have worked as well. He suggested a standard border, something that isn’t done in standard prints these days but would have been ubiquitous in the past. As I was presenting a series of images based around a theme of memory etc, this would be a far more contextually appropriate idea and I would still have a border to write the tag-line. I have taken this idea to hear and In respect to this decision I think this was a good choice, as in the back of my mind I wanted to avoid the much hackneyed ‘Instagram’ connotations of doing a series of polaroids. My tutor also suggested a physical hand-in of the brief to add to the digital one. He suggested this as it would give weight to the dissemination and emphasise the circular nature of the idea and narrative.
A much better and positive feedback session then, the final stage was getting the prints done and putting together the final dissemination.
Now that I had my final images – the ones I was happy with for the series. Each image now had a clear and distinct memory or emotion attached to it and the notion of writing words to accompany each image didn’t feel quite so daunting. I haven’t written creatively, probably since my mid-twenties (twenty years past) when I wrote a short fan-fiction story based in the Wheel of Time universe, something I would have liked to have revisited it for the purpose of self-reference, but sadly it is long gone – not withstanding, there were however still anxieties attached to how well I could write for this series of images.
I’ve never considered my self anything more than an indifferent academic. At school I was an average student at best, leaving school at 16 with handful of O’levels and C.S.E’s; as they were called in the early 1980’s. So it’s no wonder I felt no impulse to revisit my lack-lustre interest in writing and scholarly pursuits. When I was asked at the time, to write that short but well-received fan fiction story for an on-line fantasy group I was involved with, I remember the difficulty and anxiety I felt in beginning the story, something akin to how I felt now with writing the words for this series. However, despite the difficulty, once I had begun writing the words the story flowed, I was hopeful the same would happen again. To begin with then, I should explain how I decided on the form of words I would write, this involved a little referencing rather than research…
References…
Most of my creative writing experience stems from my secondary schooling, with the exception of one very bright short-lived occurrence during my mid-twenties. Writing creatively and imaginatively for my images, while still drawing on the memories and feelings evoked by them, felt like a real challenge. I’m not by nature a natural writer – although the blogs I write for this course have brought me the attention of my tutors, as an example of something I excel at. I however, don’t feel this to be true, in so much that It’s not something I count as a skill I have, writing just happens. I write what I experience and feel, just as when I photograph something, it is spurred by what I have experienced as much as what I am experiencing and feeling with regard to the subject. this approach is something I wanted to achieve with this narrative and something I am keen to do with my work as a whole. As far as research goes, I didn’t actively seek out books on creative writing skills or look at other practitioners who used words to add context, other than to give me a reference point, I knew the approach taken by Sophie Calle for her work ‘Exquisite Pain’ was not the right one for me, although I can see how my work and hers share a context – that of catharsis represented by time, experience, memory and emotion. Similarly, when considering how I would write and what form the words should be shaped – poetry, prose or a string of unconnected words suggestive, rather than explanatory, I didn’t seek out authors or writers of such works. Rather, I drew upon my experiences relating to those images to form the basis of those words; it was an instinctual thing. I am an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction novels, it makes up 90% of all the material I read, although I cannot say that it is this, that influences the way I write, though I cannot rule it out. I am not well read in terms of the classics, although I do care to admit to favouring the writings of F.Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby for obvious reasons but also his short The Cut Glass Bowl, which is such a powerful and emotional read. I’ve mentioned the influence of Emily Dickinson’s poetry on previous post and I love the beauty and simplicity of song lyrics – there are some song-writers out there that continue to astound me with their skill in conveying experience and emotion, both blithely and surreptitiously through their words – David Sylvian, Morrissey, kate Bush and Martin Gore all whom I admire greatly for their ability to pen clever, emotive, incisive and self-referential words. if I aim to do anything when I write my words it’s achieve some those same qualities.
When I was thinking about the way I write for the purpose of this part of the project, an interview with the immensely brilliant Jeff Wall came to mind. I remembered reading the interview at a friend-of-a-friend’s on a short trip to London a few years back, but for the life of me I could not remember the exact details or even the name of the magazine. However the joys an internet search have provided…
When asked about where his (jeff Wall) writing ability came from –
“I don’t think I’m a very good writer, but I felt that the ideas were interesting enough to me that they would probably be interesting to other people, and I sort of forced myself to find a way to write. So it’s all been, in a way, circumstantial and accidental, although by now I feel like it’s a part of what I like to do; if I get time, and if I had more time, I would probably write a bit more. Shapiro, David. “Museo Magazine Interview Jeff Wall.”. (http://www.museomagazine.com/JEFF-WALL)
Although, I’m not trying to compare myself for one second to this hugely talented and knowledgeable man, there is something about what he saying that resonates immensely. I would add also, that I tend to write only when i have to, something I should probably reconsider. I lay that firmly at the door of laziness though!
To write the right words…
As my images were going to be printed with maybe a polaroid-style border, upon which words could be written. This essentially would mean a quite small space to write nothing more than solo or maybe a short string of words, nothing that could be conveyed with significance without possibly having my story misconstrued – Solo words would be open to too much interpretation, and a string of unrelated words could confuse. The idea then to have a short line of text on the front border, working as a contextual tag for a longer string of words on the back came to be. Each image would then have a tag-line giving some hint of context, but when the image was then turned over the short piece of text would elaborate further, giving depth to the context and drawing the viewer further into narrative. It was also important that I didn’t lead the reader/viewer by the hand, I wanted the words to be considered, for them to sink in and be reflected upon, perhaps while viewing the image again.
To give you an idea of the process I went through writing the words. I’ll use the first image as an example.
When considering why I chose the below image as both the start and end of my narrative, I decided on something I saw every morning as soon I drew the blinds. These were personal effects, things that represented who I am now, of the things held by memory and the of untapped possibilities that the future held. My first thought when considering what words represent this image, was ‘This is me!’ – the past, the present and the metaphorical future all in one small image. However, the images weren’t really me, just a representation of me, I wanted my images to say more than that, I wanted to convey the question I asked myself every day in one form or another, the question that drives you to discover your depths and potential for understanding, of both yourself and the world around you. A statement wasn’t required but rather a question, and that question was “Who am I?”
All of a sudden something clicked into place not just for that one picture but the narrative as a whole. Not only had I found a tag-line for my first image, but I’d set the context for the narrative as a whole. Anyone picking up my images would immediately know what was being asked of them and also of themselves. ‘Who am I?’ It’s a question we’ve probably asked ourselves at least once in our lives and my hope was that this narrative series might spark that question in others as they view my images and read my words – a kind of emotive feedback if you will.
Once I had my tag-line the rest fell into place pretty quickly, the need to explain the nature of the question in relation to the image and the objects and attached emotion within. I’ve never written poetry but I think this is what transpired…
The right words…
Here then is the finished first image – The front of image tag-line will be hand-written on the border, with the accompanying words which will be on the reverse of the printed photograph.
“Who am I?” – As I pull back the curtain, the question itself, begs once more – Blinking, but not really seeing, knowing the constants – The album sleeve obscured, a favoured shirt, the blinding light; The ties that bind, they’re still here. Past, present, future – Memory, cognition, and curiosity – the answer lies there?
I won’t go into detail on the formation of the other images, although needless to say a similar process occurred with each of the other images. The next post will detail each of the images I took to the feedback session with the accompanying text, I will also detail some small changes that were made to the series as a result of the feedback.
Although I had decided on my ten or so final images for the narrative, I didn’t feel happy with the look and feel of the images. I tend to favour a strong contrast with deep shadows and very strong blacks and in my work and it’s probably why I really appreciate black & white photography so much – the work of Vivian Maier just sings to me in this regard. I have for those reasons, for the most part favoured working in black & white up until recently, finding the lack of colour beneficial in focusing the attention on certain aspects of my images, plus there is a certain emotive quality that I just couldn’t seem to attain using colour – whether that was my lack of skill or just my perception is a moot point. Recently I’ve had a change of heart and started experimenting with colour, resisting the urge to convert everything to monochrome, the experiments have started to pay off and am enjoying the challenge, and so this new challenge in finding a suitable look and feel for my series presented itself.
The final selection with my original edit – hard contrast, sharpness – Not exactly dream-like.
Self reference…
As I wanted my images to reflect a sense of being elsewhere, such as when you are caught in a thousand-yard stare or a day-dream, I needed to avoid some cliché’s – blurry or soft focus effects, vignetting or sepia toning. I decided to take a look at another small series I had done earlier in the summer, entitled ‘Things Around My Friends House’. An experiment of sorts, images of my friends various personal effects in and around his house – things that for me which had sparked an nostalgic response of one kind or another. I’d wanted to see if I could replicate the emotions/feelings that afternoon evoked in a series of images; I think I partially succeeded, I’d wanted to achieve the same late afternoon feel, slightly dusty, lazy feeling that pervaded that afternoon at my friends. The images when decanted though, didn’t quite have the same quality – I think sometimes with photographs what’s missing is the sense of being in a space and the sense of feeling the environment as much as seeing it – What’s was interesting to me was trying to bring that or the mere suggestion of that into my images. Through a little experimentation, raising the contrast and reducing colour saturation I eventually found something close to what I wanted. You can see the results below, so judge for yourself if I succeeded or not and whether you get the same nostalgia…
Things Around My friend’s House – For myself the series evidenced a nostalgic, memory inducing dusty afternoon, evoking scents of beeswax and the lazy droning of small insects. For the full set click the link below… (http://www.flickr.com/photos/left4dead2/sets/72157635489566803/)
I tried recreating a similar look and feel with my new series images, but it was clear this wasn’t the right approach. I needed to create something more dreamlike without any of the previously mentioned cliché’s. So far I hadn’t sought any outside influence to this process, just relaying on gut feeling rather than seeking another opinion or looking at other practitioners work for inspiration. I decided that one more experiment was needed before I called in outside help from books and the internet!
Third time’s the charm?
For the next edit I decided to try and give the images an opaque feel, by reducing the highlights and taking some of the vibrancy out of the images I was left with something approaching what I was looking for. I could have left it at this point, however, there was still a nagging feeling that it wasn’t right, it wasn’t close enough to evoke the sense of other-where I was looking for.
Final series – With an attempt at an opaque feel.
It was also apparent that the images weren’t that significantly different to the original set to have made much of a difference, I clearly needed to change tack and some inspiration and research was needed.
Inspiration and a little research…
My first port of call was Art photography Now but nothing shone out as inspiring, so I turned to my huge ‘Year in Photography’ book. So, with the massive tome Book balanced on my knees, cup of tea at hand, I browsed for a good hour or so, but not necessarily for anything useful for this work! How easy it is to get distracted!
Eventually a couple of images provided the seed of an idea; colour and it’s use to create the feel, for which I was looking…
Chris Steel-Perkins’ ‘Near Shiraito Falls’ a beautiful image for various reasons, but in this case it was the colours that intrigued me The second and third images from Jonas bendiksen’s ‘Qikiktarjuang’ taken from a series taken in Canada in 2004 were stunningly haunting and dream-like, while still being rooted firmly in reality. Besides their obvious skills and for this purpose overlooking the context of the work, it was clear that both of these practitioners showed extraordinary control over colour, I was transfixed, wondering how I might achieve something similar.
Of course, my images weren’t even contextually similar, but I loved the limited palettes that both sets of images used, there was of course detail, but a lot of it was vague rather than pin-sharp. There was almost an impressionistic quality to the images and the palettes used, and this is where my considerations turned to the impressionist painters – notably Claude Monet and the post-impressionist painter Van Gogh, both had the ability to evoke a sense of place in an almost day-dream like quality. Van Gogh’s painting ‘Cottages at Cordeville’ with it’s strict palette and bold strokes convey a odd softness and distortion while Monet’s ‘Impression, soleil levant’ 1872 & Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt, Winter Effect (1880) stand out for the limited use of colour and the ethereal quality the painting conveys.
Van Gogh’s painting ‘Cottages at Cordeville’ (1890)
Claude Monet – ‘Impression, soleil levant’ 1872
Claude Monet – ‘Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt, Winter Effect’ (1880)
Revisiting an old idea…
The seed of an idea involving colour was now fully formed, but I wanted to revisit an earlier project I had worked on for part of my Photo Skills modules, where I’d wanted to mimic the colour palette of a particular brand I was trying to emulate and incorporate for the portrait I had taken…
I’d needed a way of creating a link between the manual and the portrait (for the purpose of an advertisement) other than just adding a logo or including the manual in the image etc. The answer was to use the colours from the manual to tie the two together. During this late part of the development for this assignment I discovered a technique called a ‘cross process’ and it was this I used to tied everything together.
The final photoskills assignment image. using a cross process to bring the manual and the image together.
I decided to take a look at the cross process I’d created from that assignment to see if I could modify it in some way for my purposes. As it turned out with a little re-jigging of the contrast levels and the colours used, it was a good move.
The finished edit…
Final edit – Cross process – One of the final images with the adjusted contrast and cross process.
Finished edit cross process – The full set with the adjusted edit and cross process. The series now feels finished as far as aesthetic and feel are concerned.
I don’t know if I would have come to the decision of using colour in this way, if it hadn’t been for considering other practitioner’s and influence’s work, but in this case it certainly helped. The images now feel close to how I had originally imagined they would be> I now have to include the text, which is now written and in the next post I will go through some ideas I had in relation to how it came about.
The decision to hold off on writing the words in favour of finishing my series of images felt the right thing to do and that once my series was complete with the right aesthetic, the words would come naturally. The only thing left to do then, was decide on the manner in which my words would be linked to the images.
The original images :
When I originally took the shots for the first part of the assignment, I made a sample set for the presentation (four shots) but in addition to that I also had enough to make a larger series – some of which would be included in the final set; including the image I chose as my starting and ending image. I did some basic editing preferring a high contrast in this case…
The initial test series I put together – I had subconsciously got a morning-to-evening cycle going on here, something I decided to keep for the final set. The aesthetic however was wrong, the dark shadows and heavy contrast wasn’t working for what I wanted to achieve – a feeling of being lost in a day-dream or a moment of self-reflection.
It was clear even then that the set wasn’t complete and that I would need to take some more shots, especially since I knew at this point what I wanted to achieve. The presentation had clarified my mind that this was something I wanted to do, was important to me and there was a story worth telling. Looking at the editing, it was also clear that some shots needed to be re-shot as the angles were poor – I quite like angles where the view is restricted, however some just were not well framed or shot. Something else I needed to address was the final look and feel of the images, If you’ve read any of my previous thoughts on photo manipulation and editing, you’ll know I’m not keen on adjusting too much in a photograph, I prefer things to be as honest as possible, therefore I wanted to be careful in not changing things too much, so things didn’t look contrived and ‘too perfect’. For me good framing, lighting and contrast are key to achieving exactly that. It would be fair to say that Photoshop is not my friend in this regard, preferring Lightroom for it’s easy to use image development suite especially as all I would be doing is making adjustments to the light and the dark, contrast and brightness etc.
Additional shoot…
As my test series was taken on a bright sunny day I had to wait for similar circumstances before I could take further images and retake the shots I wasn’t happy with. Fortunately, the weather here in Manchester has been unseasonably kind, so I didn’t have long to wait. This time, rather than being somewhat random with what I shot I moved carefully about places in the house where objects and items had trapped me with their memories, being careful to not forget to include the walls that were the glue to this narrative. I also made sure that I took shots at appropriate times of the day to again re-reinforce a sense of morning to evening progression. I think I ended up with around a further 50 extra images, far too many for my series but at least I could pick and choose the ones that best fit my idea and represented the emotional state each of these visual memories. After some careful sifting, I had my final 10 or so images, most images that I had rejected were just images taken from slightly different angles that din’t quite work for my purposes. However there were a few that I would have like to include in the final set, mostly because of their significance, but I removed them due to them not adding anything to the series – in fact those images just made the set meandering and bloated.
A few of the images I rejected from the series. For various reasons they would have detracted from my intent or just made the series bloated. They do have the reflective quality I was looking for and I think at least two of them I will re-purpose for something else I have in mind.
Final selection?
Now that I had selected a final series of images, my mind turned to the aesthetic of the set. For the purpose of getting the right images for the final selection I had used a high contrast aesthetic, and as much as I like this look and feel generally speaking, it was clear that this was not something I wanted for this set.
Here is the selection of images I chose for the final series. Taken in time time order to keep the sense of progression throughout a day, each image means something pertinent to me and as whole relates to the overarching question “who am I?”. Once the words are written and incorporated the narrative should be clear. The circular nature of the narrative won’t become apparent until the images are printed and viewed as a stack, as explained in a previous post.
With another feedback approaching I wanted more than my final series to take with me , I was aiming at a final concept and aesthetic, something that represented as close as possible the idea and narrative I had in mind. Any feedback I gleaned from the session would hopefully be for helping my choose a mode dissemination rather than a suggestion of a complete start from scratch. I was confident that I was on the right track though, In addition to considering the aesthetic I wanted to achieve I had begun to write down a few words for each image, it was a somewhat ad-hoc approach but I knew what each image represented, putting that meaning into words that was both compelling and succinct was proving difficult though, as you can see from some of the scrawlings I made…
Some of the words I had written down as I was considering each image for the final set. I had a clear idea of the meaning of each image, but putting in down in such a way as to be compelling, thoughtful and incisive, was no easy ask. (Excuse the mobile pic, my walls are not really that grubby!)
…In my next post I intend to show the final aesthetic and some of the ones I rejected.
I’ve always viewed photography as a way of seeing and understanding without the need for words, even before I began studying the subject academically I was aware that photographic images had the power to relate far more than words ever could, from advertisements to my mother’s collection of family photographs , carefully catalogued in boxes by year and event, every emotion, grace & stigma on display for all to see (if you look carefully). Of course, not all images tell the truth (deliberately so) and not all images tell us all we need to know in order for us to understand, so words and text have the potential to make up the shortfall. For myself, I had always believed that words were not essential – especially in my own work, text merely acted as a distraction or a means to ‘lead’ the viewer in a particular direction, it took something away rather than added. So, when considering adding words or text to this piece of work, a question arose – “Which is more important, the image or the text? In believing that text was the way to drive my narrative forward, would I end up relegating my images to secondary visual cues? I decided that I needed to consider what other practitioners/artists who use words in their work had done, to understand their reasons for doing so and ultimately to see if their work was stronger because of that?
I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a keen researcher of other practitioners work, not because I want to remain ignorant of what’s going on out there, but because, for me, there is a temptation to see my own work in a lesser light when viewing someone else’s practice. In addition, there is the danger that I might subconsciously absorb some element of that practitioners style or practice into my own; Something I want to avoid if at all possible. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a gallery visit or appreciate a body of work, because despite all else, I love art, in all it’s forms, it’s a very personal thing. So it’s safe to say I’m not entirely ignorant of what’s going around me – I just tend to be selective. Indeed I have my favourites who I can obsess on, fascinated by their work practice and visual language – Vivian Meier and Paul Graham in particular intrigue me – Meier who kept her life’s work hidden and private is something for me I greatly admire and Graham’s view that there is that there is something compelling in every moment, not just the decisive moment, should we decide to see it; something I agree with wholeheartedly.
Anyway, I digress slightly, the point I wanted to make was that sitting down and studying every practitioner and critical review is not something I generally do or for that matter, find easy. However there are two books I do refer to often, that I have found invaluable both in informing me and also as a places that act as a springboard to further research.
I was already aware that Paul Graham was quite often influenced by what he read – Shimmer of possibilities a work of stuttering sequences and open narratives, dipping into ‘life’s flow’ – was inspired by the short stories of Chekhov. For my purposes, I needed a practitioner that had used words as an active part of their work. In Art Photography Now I rediscovered Sophie Calle (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sophie-calle-2692) and her work ‘Exquisite Pain’ (see below) A beautifully emotive work, describing a painful relationship breakdown through a series of images taken on a trip to the far east. The accompanying text reads like several diary entries punctuated by time-stamped images counting down to the ‘Exquisite Pain’. The resulting work resulting is somewhat voyeuristic, the artist clearly de-constructing, at least partially, the wall between what is private and what is public . Although I liked the way the work was disseminated (see the images below), I felt that this kind of approach for my work would be too involved for the time I had, also I didn’t think large tracts of my thoughts would be beneficial to the work, too much emphasis on the words when I wanted a balance between the two. I did feel that the very private pain inherent in the work, was clearly manifested by the text – something that would not have been clear without the text being there. I was certain that the addition of text was the right way to go, just not in this way.
Sophie Calle – Exquisite Pain.
Sophie Calle – Exquisite Pain 1984/1999 Exhibition view at Rotonde1, Luxembourg, 2007
Poet…
As my series of images were going to be printed – I didn’t have a clear idea at this stage the form they were going to take other than maybe polaroids, as it’s something I remember from youth. I also remember how notes were often written on the borders, denoting people or the events captured within. I thought this would be a good method of dissemination, but with the limited space provided by borders I was looking at single word or very short pieces of writing. Single words were a great idea, but words like solo images can often have dual meanings, I needed something more. My thoughts turned to other forms of written word that were often short and concise – poems, song lyrics which often had short poem-like structures. I have to say I’m not a massive poetry fan. My reading is generally towards the factual or the fantasy/sci-fi end of the spectrum.
Emily Dickinson – an American poet who’s very private life resulted in her being somewhat of a recluse, maintaining friendships remotely via correspondence – ‘something I find mirrored my own life.’
It has to be said though, that some of the works of Emily Dickinson (above) – an American poet who’s very private life resulted in her being somewhat of a recluse, maintaining friendships remotely via correspondence (something I find mirrored my own life) touch me profoundly. I would say that she has a huge influence on the writing that I have begun to undertake both on this work and another. The following poem is a favourite and if I could convey even a fraction of the emotion that these words convey in my work I will be extremely happy.
I Should Not Dare – Emily Dickinson
I Should not dare to leave my friend, Because—because if he should die While I was gone, and I—too late— Should reach the heart that wanted me;
If I should disappoint the eyes That hunted, hunted so, to see, And could not bear to shut until They “noticed” me—they noticed me;
If I should stab the patient faith So sure I ’d come—so sure I ’d come, It listening, listening, went to sleep Telling my tardy name,—
My heart would wish it broke before, Since breaking then, since breaking then, Were useless as next morning’s sun, Where midnight frosts had lain!
Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.
Singer-songwriter/musician…
Another influence over the years is the work of David Sylvian – formerly of the 80’s band Japan. His words and music have always provided a point of reference when my emotional footing was awry. His music can be an acquired taste – sometimes melodic at others jarring, self-referential and reflective and quite often downright dour but always beautiful in some way. What this says about me and my intentions towards work, well I should perhaps leave that last sentence to sink in!
There’s a particular song by Sylvian that perfectly exemplifies his ability to connect emotionally, and again provides inspiration for this work I am undertaking…
A Fire in the Forest – David Sylvian (Blemish 2003)
There is always sunshine Above the grey sky I will try to find it Yes, I will try
My mind has been wandering I hardly noticed It’s running on its own steam I let it go Oh here comes my childhood A penny for your secrets It’s standing in the window Not out here where it belongs
There’s a fire in the forest It’s taking down some trees When things are overwhelming I let them be I would like to see you It’s lovely to see you Come and take me somewhere Come take me out
There is always sunshine Far above the grey sky I know that I will find it Yes, I will try
David Sylvian – Cover image from the The Wire Magazine (08/01/13)
David Sylvian – As seen on the 1982 album cover of Tin Drum by Japan (Incidentally, this is the image you get a partial view of on the starting/ending image of my series.)
Like Emily Dickinson’s work there is an emotional connection, a sense of experiencing in that emotion that just shines and it’s this quality that I wish to convey with my words. I always set out to try and capture something I have a connection with, even if it’s just something that just triggers a memory or a feeling. My hope is to be able to convey, like the above artists, the private nature of memory and emotion and in turn, revealing my ‘self’ while provoking a similar self-reflection from my audience.
It was at this point of my research, where I started to think about where I should look next for inspiration, that I realised that I knew how I wanted my words to be structured, that I just needed clarification on what I didn’t want rather than what I did, further research would have be counter-intuitive at this point. What I really needed now, was to develop the images further, where I could look at each image with the emotion and memory in mind, that way both would be truer to my intention in the final work. With finished images I would write the words that I felt reflected each image’s meaning; knowing the structure and scope of the words would then dictate the dissemination, something I felt was instinctual as much as creative.
In my next post I will show the further work on my series of images – including the final selection and aesthetic and from there, how the words came to be.
With the idea of using text to convey the emotional/reflective aspect of my narrative and drive the ‘story’ forward, now firmly in mind. I needed some time to consider how I was going to do this and how I was going to make the circular narrative work visually. I decided to take some time to do a little thinking about how I could include the text in a way that didn’t distract or detract from my images, in addition I wanted to look at other practitioners who had included text with their work to see if I could maybe emulate or re-purpose an idea to fit my work; although I’d prefer to contrive something that was mine and fit with my idea and style.
Seeing as I knew I was going to include text; just not the how. I thought it might be better to first consider how the circular nature of the narrative could be executed – combining text and images in a way that worked fluidly in a visual sense; Something my audience would ‘get’ as soon as they engaged with the work. For me, the best thing to do was to keep an open mind and just have a look to see what else was out there, maybe an idea would come to me! Oddly, one of the first things I encountered when I typed ‘ photographic circular narrative’ into ‘Google Images’ gave me an idea almost immediately – although not because of the visual device that had been used…
This photographic circular narrative by Tom John Rose (http://tomjohnrose.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/circular-narrative-debrief/), while being both beautifully shot and edited, to me perfectly conveyed the nature of a circular narrative, but in addition it could be read from different starting points. It’s a brilliant idea both well crafted and conceived.
The image (above) by Tom John Rose really impressed, not only for it’s crafting but also the way he had displayed the circular nature of the visual narrative; it was simple and elegant, something I wanted to achieve with my own. As i considered this clever ‘two-dimensional’ narrative, an idea came to mind, one that would accord with my idea of memory/ introspection and emotional connection – A stack of old polaroid photos. What would I do with such a stack if i picked them up? I’d start thumbing through them – the top photo is viewed and then placed on the bottom in order to view the next, and so on through all the images, until…You came back to the one that was originally on top; and there, just like that I had my idea! – A 3-dimensional device that reinforces the circular narrative; you begin at the start and you return to the start -simple and elegant.
Using a physical stack of images as a way of display and dissemination. This will also act as an extra device to reinforce the circular nature of the narrative.
As a part of the assignment brief was to consider the display and dissemination of this work, I had inadvertently contrived a means for this purpose too. My idea, working more as a small visual installation within a gallery space, rather than a series hung upon a wall – although I think the later could be also achieved using a similar method to the one brilliantly demonstrated by the above image of Tom John Rose.
I could have have looked and considered further for ideas in terms of display and dissemination, but this idea just seemed right for this particular work, especially considering the memory/nostalgia and reflective quality I wanted to achieve. I was excited and nervous to see how this would now work (or maybe not) with the inclusion of text, but first I needed some points of reference – prose and texts I like personally and I also needed a clear idea how other practitioners had utilised text, poetry or prose within their photographic work. My next post will elaborate on these points further.
Shortly after the feedback session, we were asked to provide a short synopsis of our narrative as a way of framing the idea and context of our narrative. After, the disappointing presentation feedback and armed with the possibility that adding text to my idea, as such the synopsis did indeed help frame my narrative idea and things became clearer as to how I was going to execute the concept successfully.
Circular Narrative – Synopsis
Who am I? This question will be the starting point for my narrative and immediately places the context of my images as visual ‘clues’ that lead to a possible answer.
The images, which have a reflective quality to them, would not have the same significance to the viewer as they do to me, beyond any obvious visual cue. For this purpose I intend to include some words, or longer pieces of text to accompany the images. I do this as a means to drive the narrative and provide context for the images. The images are my attempt to capture ‘lost moments’, those times you lose yourself when navel-gazing or day-dreaming, where upon you ‘wake’ to find yourself staring at the object that enchanted you. These objects have significance as memory-markers, keys to events both small and significant in my life and it is these keys that will help unlock the question.
So what of the wall that is the keyword? Well, in my images they are the ever present backdrop and canvas for those objects and effects, the walls make up my home and home is just another extension of the self – a place to dwell, a place to feel safe and be oneself. Unconsciously, we decorate our homes with our ‘selves’ all the time, with objects and effects that have significance or meaning, we reveal ourselves to others subliminally this way.
The end of my series will finish where it began, but this time at the end of the day, reflecting on the new one to come and the question that will inevitably asks itself. Who am I
On my next post I will continue to reflect on the development on my images and the addition of the text I will include, I will also write about some of the influences that helped me get to this point – from other practitioners and my personal influences.
Although the presentation went well and all three sets were well reasonably well received. The one image I had chosen and the set it belonged to seemed to perplex my group and my tutor somewhat. They didn’t see the potential for the narrative as I had laid it out in the presentation – the images on their own and in the small set were not obvious enough to impart a story, I had overlooked something vital; context. As the objects in my images had some personal connection or meaning to me, I had forgotten that my audience wouldn’t have this connection and as such I needed a device to provide the context they were missing. The images alone did not, in themselves tell a story, even if they were placed in a particular order they still would not tell a story, not mine at least.
On reflection, The four basic edit Images used in my presentation, really do not do my idea justice, or for that matter give any hint of the narrative I wanted to convey.
Suggestions and questions…
In order to develop my idea so it was fit for purpose, several suggestion were made, including one urging me to consider using one of the other sets, as they offered an easier opportunity (visually) to tell a story. My tutor backed this idea up by suggesting that ‘simple is best’ – I had considered this idea prior to putting my presentation together – the idea of doing a 360 of a fence perimeter, a detached house, or a fountain etc. However, I didn’t feel that this was particularly challenging nor interesting for that matter, I wanted a piece of work that meant something, to me and to others perhaps. I was doing this course to challenge myself and my abilities rather than cruise to an easy but unspectacular result – the easy option was not going to be available to me here. So I held to my conviction that this was the best set and the best starting image for my narrative, I felt connected to it and had a story to tell, I would therefore persevere with this image and set.
Another suggestion, a possible solution…
We took a break after the session and I left feeling somewhat deflated and disappointed, I was sure I had a sound idea but on hearing everyone’s thoughts it was clear I had not thought about my idea enough or how I was conveying it. The only person who really got it was myself and that’s a very small audience! I needed a device, a means to communicate to my audience what I was trying to say with my set and ultimately my story – How do I convey the context that I have with these images, to those who don’t? This was my crux. I went outside to get some air and clear my thoughts and met with another peer in my group and my tutor who were discussing the session. The tutor must have seen my glum disposition and suggested that they would never suggest anyone drop an idea they felt a connection to and that I should persist with the idea, at least explore the possibilities. He then made a suggestion that having words or text with a set of images can sometimes provide much needed context or weight to an image or set, and that it was something I should at least consider; and so I did.
This suggestion of incorporating words or text, now forms an integral part of my circular narrative and in the next few posts I will elaborate more on how I will include it and begin to show what I have planned.
Areas of Photographic Practice A 
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