In the Country

Christmas holidays and an opportunity to play. Any work I did back at home over Christmas was going to be a bit of a new take on things, going from working in the city at night to the Suffolk countryside during the day (we don’t have many streetlights.) Also, I had easy access to DSLR, so had a great opportunity to make the quality switch to RAW files.
I tried some panorama-style shots of buildings to test whether this is where I should take things back to. I’ve realised it’s not. Although the building shots were possibly the key turning point so far, I feel I’ve taken it as far as I want to. Although there are some nice parts to some of these images, continuing working in this way just isn’t exciting anymore.
This could be likened to Roland Barthes’ ideas of studium and punctum. These images do have a studium – they hold a surface interest, there are some nice qualities about them – but there’s no punctum. They’re static images, there’s nothing there that grabs me and holds my interest. When I stop looking at the image, it doesn’t stay with me.

I think this image could be a turning point:

It was born out of play, but there’s something about it that’s got me excited about the work again. I know it has its flaws, mainly that the clear joins between the separate photos contradict the dream-like, unfocused qualities of the image. Also, the washed out blue of the sky in the far left image would’ve been lovely if it had continued all the way through, but the sun was sitting low in the sky and causing me a few issues.
Because the image is not clearly focused, the viewer has to deconstruct the visual clues within the image and reconstruct it within their mind to create their own interpretation and impression of it. The lack of sharp detail give the image a timeless/placeless quality, which means each viewer can reach an individual reading of it.
I think this style is something I definitely need to follow up and experiment further. I haven’t really worked with intentionally defocused images before, but I feel this path could have real potential.

Here's some single images that, although not directly relevant, every little counts;

Figures and Narratives

These images are an attempt at introducing figures to the scenes in order to create a narrative. I decided to reuse places I’ve already been to, so I could focus more on the person than the location.

Generally, the images aren't working; the figure is too self-conscious and self-aware. She is aware of her nature of a subject, and dominates a number of the images. These things go against the ideas behind the work, and the direction I should have been headed. I realised the potential of tiny, subtle figures in previous images, I seem to have reverted back to experiment-mode and just played with incorporating a figure, and finding ways to intentionally include a subtle actually proved harder to replicate since I was aware of what I was attempting. However, it’s not all bad, there are small parts in the images that hint to what does work successfully.
On top of this, I’m starting to find that everything I try that’s not working feels like it’s bringing me closer to something that does.

The ones in this location are working best; they have stuck much closer to the idea of more subtle figures. I also captured a man walking towards my figure (above) and this idea, considered at an earlier stage, does appear to work. I’ve retried multiple figures but this detracts from the repetition of structural elements within the images. I also feel it ruins the way in which I would want the audience to construct a narrative – if I’m going to follow the more narrative based route than the formal constructional one, I would want to create an open, suggestive narrative, rather than directional. I feel the use of a repeated figure could be too directional to the audience and be seen to be implying a meaning, rather than leaving the space for the audience to create their own.

The other thing these images raised for me was the use of shadow; in some images the shadow is clearly cut off, while in others there is a shadow without a figure to cast it. This could be an interesting thing to play with, but I’m not convinced it fits with the way I’d like to take my work forward.

The issue at this point is I’m finding myself less sure of how I do want to take my work forward. I have not yet tried bringing in surreal qualities to the images. I think it could work very successfully but it doesn't feel like my work. It's obviously important to challenge yourself and the way in which you work, but I also feel it's important to stay true to your own style, and big men in bunny suits just isn't the kind of thing I do.
Although I was excited about this direction initially, I’m beginning to feel as if it may have peaked too early, or perhaps I’m just taking it in the wrong direction.


To combat this, I’ve got a list of things I can try;

play more with subtle figures

new locations

try daylight

try landscape

try the surreal

try different people and combinations of people

use a high quality camera and keep the images in better quality