Next Steps

Feedback from FMP1 was generally positive. My next steps need to be moving the work more towards a final outcome. This means putting a great deal of thought not only to the images I am going to use, but also the way in which they are presented. I am still strongly considering the use of light within my work and am keen to test out the ideas of projections and light boxes. I feel these would both afford my work more depth than a print simply would, and as the work is about abstraction and is taking on a more dreamlike appearance, I think the correct use of light to present the work could really heighten this.
I also need to take more images to really hone where it is I'm headed with the work. This has evolved into using defocused images but I am still working on my technique so I decided the strongest path forward would be simply to experiment further and really start to explore the possibilities of this technique.

These images are beginning to blur the boundaries of the photographic medium. - they are almost becoming more painterly in quality than photographic. Some are also starting to reference abstract painting, however, this is not the direction I want to take my work. 

The skyline images are my favourites. They feel like hazy memories and there's definitely a romantic, perhaps almost nostalgic quality about them. However, I think I need to push the work further than this, as that kind of feeling from an image, although I am keen on them, doesn't necessarily achieve much depth. There's also something about the car sequence that I feel appealing - perhaps I could create a whole collection? But I am just not sure why I feel the need to do that. I think it's probably that the cars used look like the could be from a past time - I would naturally guess the seventies as they remind me of photographs my parents have showed me of their cars. So although I am drawn to these images, I do not feel there is enough scope for me to take them forwards - I like them on a personal level, but they are not achieving what I want to achieve, which is a more provocative, intense form of image.

Critical Appraisal

At the start of this semester I knew I wanted to explore the passage of time within a still image and play with how an image is typically read. I did not start with a definitive idea of how I wanted to achieve this, but instead decided to take my work forward through experimenting with images and then evaluating them.

I initially began working with joined images and panoramas, and this process is something that’s remained in my work all the way through. Images created in this way have to be read more thoroughly. Because the eye takes in visual information through scanning around an image, if the image is too large to be scanned in one go, the viewer has to take in each section one piece at a time. This imbues the work with an innate sense of time, not just because it takes longer to view and decode the image, but also because the different parts of the image are not simultaneous, as with a straight photograph. Any figures, objects and general presences within separate sections of the image were not necessarily present at the same time, and this dislocation of space is something I want to continue to the coming semester.

I have never attempted to join my images in a completely smooth manner. The misaligned parts of the images and if you can see any joins is something I didn’t want to deny – these are separate images joined to create an impression of a whole scene, they are not the whole scene. I want the viewer to at least have clues towards the constituent parts – to be able to see the building blocks.

While progressing with my work, I had to make a choice between taking my work down a more formal, constructional route, or a more aesthetic, evocative, narrative based route. I attempted both, and neither felt to be working until I began to understand the use of narrative hints and subtleties. My work’s been best when it has an implication of a narrative – suggestive, not directive. What I’m taking forward from this is that I want to create open narratives. The work has always been about representing a scene in a slightly unreal way, so all I want is the implication of a narrative. The way I enjoy doing this at the moment is by including a small, subtle figure within the image, and trying to avoid making them appear posed. A tiny figure walking through an empty scene has all sorts of implications and raises all sorts of questions. The viewer then has to decode the image in order to construct a narrative.

My work has recently undergone a change in direction. Although still working strongly within all the above principles, I’m now also experimenting with the focus of the images.

A deliberately unfocused image takes on qualities beyond a straight photograph and we are no longer able to read the photograph in the standard way. Because the details are not clear, we have to deconstruct the image and reconstruct it within our own mind to give it a sense of meaning. This means the work can be individual to every viewer and becomes highly subjective. It also becomes more representational and can become as much about the tonal qualities, colours and shapes as the actual subject of the image, and it no longer has a firm rooting in a definitive time or space. The images take on the language of dreams and memory - hazy and on the cusp of recognition but not quite understandable alone. We have to apply our own knowledge and experience around them to create an interpretation.

I used this semester as a chance to explore and extend my ideas, and through this I feel like I’ve developed a strong process and method of working. I feel I’ve created some fairly strong images, as well as a number of things that haven’t been working, and from this I know I can still stretch my work further next semester. As well as creating stronger images, in the coming semester I want to experiment and decide how to best present my work. I intend to try using light boxes, and possibly projections of the images because these have the potential to emphasise the nature of the work and accentuate the dreamlike qualities that are emerging.


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A New Direction

I've followed on the de-focused work and begun to experiment with it. Some are more successful than others but this is the new direction I want to follow. There was something about the work I’d been producing that was feeling less and less like my work. It wasn’t feeling like my ‘style’ was apparent in it, it was getting further and further away from something I’d be proud to claim as mine.

Defocusing an image allows it to start using the language of memory, and of dreams. It creates an impression of a scene, and possibly some recognisable features (a streetlight, a bridge) but the direct context of the place/subject is stripped away. A timeless/placeless feeling becomes to be apparent – the images become unspecific, undirective. They become impressionistic, and shapes, colours and tone become ever more important. Although they still may allude to things, the narrative of the image becomes far more open and doesn’t necessarily go further than a suggestion, a hint towards something.

This is possibly my favorite so far. There could be a slight contradiction between the image and the intent. I want to explore the sense of time and narrative within an image through defamiliarisation. However, this is shot at the market, and although it’s not quite the market most people know, it’s recognisable. I felt it was worth working with despite this, mainly because of the colours and the structures. There’s a carnivalesque feel to the image, but this is combined with a certain sense of threat as this is a place that’s known for its hustle and bustle, but it’s night and the place is deserted except for the single figure. This figure enables the viewer to begin constructing narratives, but its ambiguity leaves the narrative open. The lack of focus and distorted perspective help to present the place in an unfamiliar way, and, interestingly, the part of the image that appears to have the most distorted perspective (the left side of the centre stall) is actually contained in one photograph.

I feel this image is working to a certain degree as well. It feels placeless to me; it could be in a different city, a different country. There is a figure in this image but between the focus and the way the light fell, she’s lost the dark patch on the right. But if on a close inspection someone wonders if that could be a person, could that be enough in itself? Even though the image isn’t supposed to be focused, it doesn’t feel quite right. I’m not sure at this stage if it needs to be slightly sharper, or perhaps even less – this is something I’m going to have to learn through practice.









This image felt like it should work, and may have had potential but on reflection it’s got a long way to go. It’s too busy to work as a defocused image. I tried separating the images and leaving gaps to see if that would improve it. I think the idea of having disconnected, defocused images could work, but it’s really not there yet. This has drawn my attention to the end right image – it’s working quite well on its own, and I think this could be down to its composition. The suggestion of figures in the left two images is quite an interesting feature, and something to bear in mind.










The rest of these images aren’t really working, but there's things I can take from them. It's looking like figures will have to be well lit, I think the images are going to need plenty of space in them and the tonal qualities and colours within a scene are more important than ever;

These are a couple of single images I felt were working on some level;

These images are obviously a bit out of keeping with this new direction, but the images have a vibrant quality to them with it's really nice, and the short depth of field is good practice for the other things I'm doing. Also, in it tutorial it was pointed out to me that these are actually quite reminiscent of the images above, especially the circular shapes of the lego, and the circular shapes of the lights.

Something that came up in tutorial was how I might present my work in the degree show. Displaying the image/images using a projector or a lightbox might work pretty well - it would illuminate the use of light within the images, and possibly give more impact to the unfocused nature of the work. This is obviously something that'll need playing with to see if it's going to work or not.

I'm edging more towards playing with light sources than a projector - if an image is projected, it never wholly exists within the physical world. Although this might be an interesting idea, I definitely want to have a little play with lights.

Research

With a switch towards more representational, unfocused images, Uta Barth is an obvious artist to look at.
Her work challenges the borders of photography, and evokes the language of memory. Her images appear alien, yet strangely familiar. We can recognise shapes and features within them, but as these are not clearly defined, it's up to use to reconstruct the work and interpret it in our own individual way.
Her work becomes about the act of looking and the way in which we see, as much as what's contained within the images themselves. They evoke a more base, emotional response than an intellectual one, we react to the image, rather than try to understand it.
These principles are what I want to incorporate into my work - this suggestivity and subjectivity. I want to create impressions of scenes, and allude to narratives and ideas rather than dictate them.

I discovered Slinkachu's work over Christmas. It revolves around "little hand painted people left in London to fend for themselves." I think it's fantastic, but it's not the main part of his work that I'm interested in with relation to my work, but the backgrounds. When photographing these people at very close range, the background is out of focus, but beautiful. Obviously this is not the key part to the image, but I really like the effect, and think it's another good example of the kind of direction I might be headed.

I've recently discovered Idris Khan's work. He works with amalgamated images to create something new. The image on the left is constructed from Bernd and Hilla Becher's series of gas cylinders. Despite being constructed from photographs, his work almost appears more painterly in its appearance. This stretching of the boundaries of the photographic medium is something I'm becoming increasingly interested in, and this is an exciting approach to creating work.

I really like Astrid Kruse Jensen's work. They appear almost like dreams - a small moment that raises more questions than it can provide answers to. Her work "explores the passage between reality and imagination, and the constant clash between nature and the artificial." The images are suggestive, and although features are recognisable, they don't appear to be anchored within the 'real' world.

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