Change of timescale

With the agreement of my tutor, I have extended the timescale for this last assignment. The reason here is that the timescale that I am now working to is very much determined by the artists with whom I am working rather than my own more rigid timescale.While I originally had reservations about changing this timescale, I think now that this will be better suited to the kind of 'soft sell' images that I think this assignment needs. By 'soft sell', I mean that the project brief requires images that convey more of the artist and the contribution that they can make to the space being converted in working studio space..to 'sell' the space to a working artist as well as a local resident who has preconceived ideas of what artists are like ...To do this I need time with artists to come up with the right kind of images.

This revised concept is also suggesting a much longer project  that will outlive assignment five..one focusing on artists and artistic space.

Assignment 5 :What difference a space makes ...and talking to artists

Desktop research into possible images/ locations for my project is leading me in a number of directions...

For example, I'm now wondering whether this assignment might lead to a bigger project 

Recently, I found myself talking to some of artists who use the studios at 'Making Space in Leigh Park. I'd rung the administrator asking if I could have a look at the studios prior to trying to contact the artists who worked there. She invited me to join them at their 'makers' lunch the next day to talk about my project.


Talking to these very friendly and interested artists, answering their questions and listening to their ideas was really stimulating. The concept that we chewed over was how and what the presence of an artist at work can lend to a 'space' and conversely what a 'space' can lend to the artist in their work..whether space,its shape, place and or use impacts on creativity... 

I came away from the lunch having been reminded how powerful it is to be able to talk over ideas, have them challenged and in answering the challenge moving on to develop the idea(s) further. 

I made two useful contacts at Making Space ..artists who are happy for me to return with my camera. 

I also now have promises of help from artists working in the Arches Studios in Southampton which is encouraging..These studios are located within a series of converted storage arches under the Central Bridge in Southampton.See    www.aspacearts.org.uk 

Assignment 5 : Hunting for artists and locations..

Well, I thought that this assignment might be a real challenge and I'm not being proved wrong..I've been out and about looking for possible locations for exterior and interior shots

So two key challenges ...1) arches  2) creative activity within confined space 

Arches 

I've been out and about looking for possible locations for exterior and interior shots...

Looking for how railway and road arches are being used ...

P1004: F8 @ 1/8  18mm  ISO 200

 

P1002: F8 @ 1/1000  24mm  ISO 400

P1005: F8 @ 1/25  26mm  ISO 200

 

P1003: F4 @ 1/200  40mm ISO 100

 

P1006:F8 @ 1/500 24mm ISO 200

                    And how 'heritage' arches are being used





Creative activity
Looking for different kind of artistic work and artists willing to help me out ..i.e. willing for me to take shots of them at their work, ideally within their studio. What I have found are there are a number of artists working away in small studios but tracking them down and making contact is very time consuming...

Reflection on Assignment 4

I think that this assignment has demonstrated to me that it is much easier than I thought to approach complete strangers to ask permission to take their photo outside in the street or on their own territory. I still steered away from using a formal permission form and on reflection, I should have used a form. Having got a number of interesting images, I cannot use them in a publication since I do not have the model's written permission.

I have now devised a permission's form for future use.

I also realise now that I should not feel embarassed in taking my time to compose a shot better. This is going to help with assignment five.

And interestingly,my research for this assignment had a real direct influence on how I approached composing my shots i.e. suggesting different ways of approaching shots to present what was really a straight road in a more interesting fashion e.g. looking down on the road as well as looking up; cropped more closely than I would usually have done to bring more energy in to the frame.

Pierdom....Simon Roberts exhibition in Brighton

A lucky break while researching the seafront arches in Brighton..I discovered that forty photographs from Simon Roberts' Pierdom were being exhibited at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.











I like piers fullstop. I lived by the sea as a child and visiting the pier was what you did in the summer holidays whether at home in Worthing, visiting nearby Brighton or further afield in Blackpool. 

P589

P331

More recently I've looked to these piers for inspiration and a resource for some of my OCA assignments. Surprisingly, or maybe not, I found them tricky subjects at the best of time...



I came across Simon Roberts' his three year project 'Pierdom' earlier this year and I had really liked the images I saw online. How would they look in reality? I wasn't disappointed.

 In a you.tube video ( https://youtu.be/z3gdMYXr4qM ) Roberts talks about returning in the footsteps of Francis Frith, one of the last British Victorian photographers to make a record of the piers around the British coastline. Over a period of three years and using Victorian style equipment i.e. a 5 x 4inch plate camera. he looked for and captured the small narrative in the landscape or the architectural quality of the structure. He commented that using a plate camera is a slow process where you need to think carefully about the composition of the image.The result is some very striking and thoughtful pictures.

Worthing Pier

 

 Although my image below of Roberts Southsea Pier is spoilt by the reflection, I wanted to see how his interpretation varied from mine done last year for a Digital Photographic Practice assignment.

P336

Apart from distance and angle, I much prefer  the way that Roberts image is peopled sparely and in relation to the length of the pier which adds a further dimension somehow..and a much better composition.




                                                                              

I like the abstract quality of this image on the left ...very striking visually ..

while the spare composition above on the left is equally powerful and almost moving in its apparent 'simplicity'.



I came away from this exhibition with strong visual memories of Roberts work and the realization that I should slow down my actual act of taking photographs to think far more about the composition before acting...