British photographic history - Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history
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13 years ago
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Now my degree is finished and done with, I'm faced with the difficulties of finding inspiration for new work.
My interest remains with the use of photography in the construction of place (and to a lesser exent identity); "place" being a location given meaning by experience and reflection.
To quote Edward Relph “Places are sensed in a chiaroscuro of setting, landscape, ritual, routine, other people, personal experience, care and concern for home and the context of other places”.
Photography's relationship to "place" was may be eloquently expressed by the Susan Sontag quote, "The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own." This seems largely correct, though it fails to take into account the subjectivity and experience of different viewers.
Tourist photography while doggedly persuing the sublime and the picturesque markedly fails to suggest the availability of any other form of experience. A starting point to any further investigation on my part could be to look further at the "Seaside Surrealism" of Paul Nash.
So let's post an image from this summers travels.
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Overton Bridge
Holt
Holt
Overton
This is how the exhibition looked on the wall
The images were made in such a formal way to ensure there would be a horizontal line dividing the picture in two. When displayed this line would also lead the eye from on image to the next.This is in part to reflect the river both separating and dividing locations along the River Dee.
The imagery documents land use, as such most, if not all of the locations displayed exist and look the way they do, as a result of the River Dee.
Holt
Holt
Overton
This is how the exhibition looked on the wall
The images were made in such a formal way to ensure there would be a horizontal line dividing the picture in two. When displayed this line would also lead the eye from on image to the next.This is in part to reflect the river both separating and dividing locations along the River Dee.
The imagery documents land use, as such most, if not all of the locations displayed exist and look the way they do, as a result of the River Dee.
My Degree show is over, so what was it about?
Well this is the artists statement, written by myself with the assistence of Rodger Brown at Staffordshire University.
This work celebrates and questions how a Welsh Identity is produced and nurtured by people living at the eastern edge of North Wales and England.
This is a body of documentary photography made along the lower and middle stretches of the River Dee in North East Wales. The Dee forms part of the border between England and Wales. The narrative shows a series of exclusively Welsh locations over a distance of some 30 miles from start to finish.
The work is partly an autobiographical response to the photographer?s own experiences of these places and partly a consideration of the historical significance and cultural influence of the River Dee on its surroundings. In each photograph the land use is shaped and constructed by the River.
Landscape is both scenery and lived in; as such it can be considered a product of the relationship between vision and experience. The work plays on the contrasts and tensions found between the experience of ?place? and the observations of scenery.
The River Dee is more than just a line on a map. The River both connects and separates communities and in places along its length defines the political border between England and Wales. The River represents a boundary that begins to define a distinctive Welsh cultural identity.
By showing how the land is used the photographs document the labours and experiences of people over time. In doing so they reveal relationships and meanings in land use that we can share. Their interpretation raises important questions about our understanding of landscape and how the landscape presents itself to us.
Well this is the artists statement, written by myself with the assistence of Rodger Brown at Staffordshire University.
This work celebrates and questions how a Welsh Identity is produced and nurtured by people living at the eastern edge of North Wales and England.
This is a body of documentary photography made along the lower and middle stretches of the River Dee in North East Wales. The Dee forms part of the border between England and Wales. The narrative shows a series of exclusively Welsh locations over a distance of some 30 miles from start to finish.
The work is partly an autobiographical response to the photographer?s own experiences of these places and partly a consideration of the historical significance and cultural influence of the River Dee on its surroundings. In each photograph the land use is shaped and constructed by the River.
Landscape is both scenery and lived in; as such it can be considered a product of the relationship between vision and experience. The work plays on the contrasts and tensions found between the experience of ?place? and the observations of scenery.
The River Dee is more than just a line on a map. The River both connects and separates communities and in places along its length defines the political border between England and Wales. The River represents a boundary that begins to define a distinctive Welsh cultural identity.
By showing how the land is used the photographs document the labours and experiences of people over time. In doing so they reveal relationships and meanings in land use that we can share. Their interpretation raises important questions about our understanding of landscape and how the landscape presents itself to us.
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