towards a more interesting tomorrow

This is going to be the last post about things that have already happened. From now onwards all future posts will be dealing with things of the present and those to come.

But before this drastic forward propulsion takes place I just want to finish up what I started and give some insight into the culmination of my undergraduate studies. Hints have been dropped as to what my final piece of work was and how it was shown but as to now these have allusions have been more discreet than they would be in an ideal world.

One that was not so subtle was the fact that I made a book for my final project. Unfortunately we have no images of this as it was stolen. This is a shame as it was the final thing that I submitted and was in essence the focus of my final project notes on blankness. However the kind people at the University of Westminster have allowed me to make another one so it will live again. Once completed it will be subject to a more in depth post.

I was keen that the project not be confined to the book alone. Rather i wanted to expand into other areas and see how the images would function under different circumstances. In this regard i was particularly keen that there be some sort of web presence for the work. So I made a website and this can be viewed here: notesonblankness.com

My web design skills are pretty basic but making the website was an extremely satisfying experience. This is not to say it was not tinged with frustration. In fact tinged would be an understatement. If you had seen my mental state after a weekend in front of the laptop, with no human contact, trying to work out the javascript to make the line drawings disappear you would have agreed. But nevertheless web design offers a fantastically accessible platform upon which to be creative. With a very small amount of money, and a little time spent learning some code, anyone can make their own bespoke website. Not only that the creative possibilities are broad and easily accessible to many people.

As well as being functional I also felt that the website was in keeping with the conceptual aims of the project. In each image we are shown a place where information would appear but this is left blank. This caused to me to think about how we gain information and the processes by which it comes to us. The internet is probably the biggest source of information ever produced and one used by millions. So to put these images amoungst that chaotic situation seemed entirely appropriate. I hope they act as quiet reflective space within the turbulent world of cyber space.

This interest in expanding the core investigation of my work was continued in my degree show. I wanted to display the work in a way that emphasised the presence of the photograph and also the fact that it was a physical construction in a gallery. To achieve the first aim the three images that I showed were on placed on lightboxes. In a purely visual way the lightboxes work well as they illuminate the white space at the centre of the frame and act as even more of a focal point. But also they suggest that something is behind the photograph. They help emphasise the surface of the image and as such the presence of the photograph.

The physical presence of the photograph, and the idea of a space existing beyond or around the image, is further articulated by placing the lightboxes on the stands. I wanted the viewer to move around the work, look at it from various angles and generally not assume a static position in front of each lightbox. This may sound a little trivial but I really wanted to display my work in a way that was slightly more invigorating than the way photography is often displayed at such shows.

Typically the images will be wall mounted and the viewer will move from one to the next almost as if they were on a conveyor belt. Now there is nothing wrong with this and in many cases this is a perfectly suitable way to show. But I felt this would not be best suited to the inquisitive nature of my project. So hopefully by encouraging the viewer to move around the images we have a physical manifestation of the exploratory tone contained in the work.

The last point to mention is that the colour scheme (grey stands with white boxes) was an intentional attempt to encourage greater dialogue with the surrounding space. It was intended to be a sort of reduction of the gallery into a single work. So we have grey floor and white walls represented in the work. It is a bit literal possibly and maybe most people will not pick up on it but hopefully it will extend the work and make it feel incorporated into the space.

Finally much love and respect to everyone who has helped me over the last 4 years. All those who were involved in projects, came to shows or just showed love at any time. Thank you all and hopefully bigger and better things will going on soon xx

RE-wind

Well it has been a while since the last post (which seems to be a theme to how these things start in recent months) and this is a fact that has been nagging away at the back of my mind for some time. The first half of the year saw regular posts and i think i was giving a pretty good ball by ball account of what was going on in the land of academia. But post dissertation this all dropped off. What was expected to be a relatively quiet few months turn into an all out workathon and this meant that something had to give. Unfortunately the blog was the first thing that did.

Admittedly i did rear my head up above the parapet, albeit briefly, to inform the world of the terrible book theft that took place at my degree show (a fact now confirmed by the non-appearance of said book). But that aside things have been quiet. However i am planning to put things right over the next few months and give a few insights into how everything came together and how i got to the point where i had a book at a degree show and 3 lightboxes.

To begin if i think i'll elaborate on some of things that i hinted at in the previous post. To start with was the excitement of having one of my images shown in photoworks. It may have only have been one image in the back to advertise the degree show but nonetheless it is always exciting to see your work in print. Also every such occurrence comes with the hope that someone may see your work and offer your some amazing opportunity that will lead to future success and ambition fulfillment. Unfortunately this did not happen in the case we are discussing but the hope alone can often be enough to encourage you and give the morale a boost.

The image used in the advert was one that was taken quite a while ago and has even been discussed on these pages. It is the image that helped clarify my whole concept and in many ways was the foundation upon which the rest of the project would be based. But if you had seen the final book then this image would not have found in any of the pages.

This brings us on to one of the difficult parts of producing any body of work: editing. This is roughly how the process should go:

- think of idea
- shoot loads of images
- evaluate images
- discard ones that are not successful
- repeat until you have a wonderfully coherent body of work

Simple enough and in many instances this works just fine. You shoot an image that, while related to the project, just does not quite work. This can be good as when you see the direction you do not want the work to go in your original convictions are all the stronger. For example this image was one i shot that i was pleased with and felt made for an intriguing encounter. But formally and conceptually it was too out of keeping with the rest of work that it had to get cut.

So it was not too difficult to take this image out. Who knows it may appear at later a date in another piece of work. But the image in the advert was a much tougher case. Formally and conceptually the photograph was much more in keeping with the overall tone of the project. Once you add in the sentimental connection i felt for it then getting rid of it became that much harder.

But in the end it had to go and here's why: the image is simply too exotic. The idea of having a projection screen on a beach is something quite unusual. This is not a situation people would encounter in day to day life so it comes across as odd and out of the ordinary. In contrast all the other images in the project appear relatively mundane. Most of them give the impression that they are simple documentary shots of scenes that i have found and recorded. In somes cases this is true but in others a high level of construction and post-production has taken place. But regardless the overall feel of the work is one of quiet observation.

This is important to the work as it makes the act of taking the photograph less important than the act of looking at it. I wanted to focus the viewer on exploring the image and the relationship that we have with it. How do we address the photograph? what does it tell us? how do we derive information from it? It is always possible to ask these questions of any image but when you are presented with some outlandish scene they get suppressed underneath an overriding curiosity of how the situation came to be. So even though the image conforms to many of the key features of the project ultimately it struck the wrong note.

Having said all this it works superbly as an individual image. The harsh juxtaposition of the beach and screen makes for an image that grabs the attention. In the context of a magazine advert this is ideal as it will draw the reader in and promote the show it is part of. But for my book it was just not right.

All this reveal how important context is to the photograph. Images, indeed anything, never exist in isolation but rather are in a continual dialogue with their surroundings. It is up to us to not only consider the image but where it will be displayed and to which audience. By doing this and taking into account all the various factors the overall success of any piece will be greatly enhanced. Hopefully this will mean that we get to explore the broader context in which the work appears. But this exploration should be done with the art and take the form of a diverse conversation that will hopefully continue indefinitely.