Searching for Competitions

http://www.gowales.co.uk/en/Graduate/CaruCymru

My Competition Entry ....

The Spirit of Wales (2013)

Fujifilm Student Awards 2013

Competition theme "The Colour of ...."

I decided to enter my snow sleeping face shot on a Lubitel 166B using Fujichrome Provia 100F 120mm film.

Peter Fraser in the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jun/13/photographer-peter-fraser-best-shot

I find this work interesting. Peter Fraser notices the punctum .... objects of the everyday that shout out to him to photograph.

I very much like the idea of photographing the every day .... capturing what has been left behind .... moments that attract your attention ....

Easter Break Begins ...

It is the first day of our Easter Break. I have a list of things to do before we return to Uni. I need to focus on my personal project, shoot more images, think of a way of exhibiting them ... write a short book .... find meaningful titles or text .... use the Welsh language .... research some history of West
Wales ... search for inspiration from different sources .... I have to find an interest for myself and for the viewers of my work. I also need to start thinking about which images I am going to exhibit in Swansea and in London, and how I am going to exhibit them ...size? layout? how many? etc....

For the Professional Practise Module I need to research funding options, write a proposal and an artist statement. I need business cards, and I need to begin to think about how I am going to submit my professional portfolio. There needs to be a mix of images, not only my current project but other work I have completed ... portraits ... and? I'm not sure, I will have to sift through my files and find the relevant images to add to my portfolio.

My Visual Journal needs to be updated. I have several articles to add to it, and I have printed images to show as large contact prints, I have also found one or two articles that I need to read again as they might inspire my thinking about my current project.

There is much to do and I can't afford to sit idly procrastinating! The trick is to enjoy the process. I am feeling a little weary at present, so today a rest and tomorrow a new lease of life ... I hope!

Critique

We had a crit yesterday afternoon. I don't enjoy these sessions as they always make me feel that I'm not good enough. My work is "aesthetically pleasing" (a comment that felt sarcastic as opposed to complimentary) because I search for the beauty in the landscape and in my surroundings. I am a sensitive soul who has seen and suffered ugliness in life and I search for beauty because it makes me feel joyful and good. I know that the art world prefers reality, gritty reality, and that my work is frowned upon by many who want images to be political, and to reflect the world and society as it is now.

It was said that I need to add something to my images; titles, text, something that would make the concept clearer. I agree with this is some respects. I had asked myself if the images could stand alone or if I needed to add something to them. Obviously I do. But the critique was that I should add something to them that was relevant to today, to make a political statement about how things have changed since I was growing up in the 1960's and 70's.

It is true that there have been times when I have felt frustrated because the owner of the land I've been walking on has asked me politely to leave because I was trespassing. Or the owner has told me that I can walk but that I am not allowed to take photographs. Or I have had to ask for permission to take photographs as I was well aware that I was being watched on CCTV. This does annoy me. Why do the owners have to make restrictions. Of course this is naivety on my part. To me land is free. But of course in reality it is not. Landowners are very territorial and protective of their land. Most of the owners who ask me to leave are not Welsh, they are aliens who have bought land here and want to keep it to themselves. I understand that not everyone is like me. Not everyone cherishes the landscape as I do. Some people, usually the minority, are inconsiderate, they drop litter, they frighten the animals, they steal and destroy. My naivety is my downfall. I see the land as belonging to all, but things are very different now in 2013, than they were in 1968 or 1973......

My art reflects what is inside me. I can only make work that pleases me. This is a result of my past, my childhood, the importance of family, the respect I feel for those generations long gone but never forgotten, and the land where I grew up. It is also an escape from reality. For me, the suffering of the world that surrounds me every day is not something that I want to report, or photograph. I am a photographic artist, not a journalist. This may prove to be my downfall and I may not make any mark on the world with my art. But does that matter? I enjoy being out with my camera, alone with my thoughts, sharing in natures beauty, listening to the spirits of the woods, listening to the birds chirping, being rewarded with the sight of a falcon or an owl or a squirrel. These are the things, that are important to me and that make my life worth living.

I am a spiritual being, I listen to the wind because it speaks to me, I listen to the ebb and flow of the sea, I marvel at the stars in the sky. When I listen and use my intuition I feel that I am rewarded, that nature allows me to share in all its beauty is something that warms me. I feel safe in nature, I don't feel safe around people.

It has not been a particularly good day. I developed two of my films and ruined them; I'm not sure what I did but I think I used too much developer and timed the process wrong. There were potentially a few good images on there and I am pretty devastated.

Film gone wrong .....

Such a waste of film .....

Positive Slide Film eventually returned ....

Last month I shot three slide films and sent them to Ag Photo to process. I've used them several times before and they've always been good, but this time I was getting worried, it took almost a month for them to return these three films.

Henllan Amgoed Primary School (1965 - 1971)

Tegfynnydd Gate looks down on my village of Llanfallteg (i)

Henallan Amgoed Shcool Fence where we used to wait for the bus home

Tegfynnydd Gate looks down on my village of Llanfallteg (ii)

Early Morning Amroth

Pendine Sands Half and Half .... accidentally winding the film on half a frame 

Laurghne Estuary  (i)

Laurghne Estuary (ii)

Sun Rise Wisemans Brige

 Somewhere between Amroth and Pendine

I'm using black and white images for my project, but as I've looked more at the black and white and less at the colour, now I'm beginning to think I may use the colour. We have a crit tomorrow so I need to print some of my colour images to show the lecturers and get some feedback about them.

Visit to Orile Bach Gallery

After a busy morning scanning my negatives at Uni, I headed over to Oriel Bach Gallery to invigilate our exhibition for an hour or so. Maybe four people came in during the time I was there. It was very quiet, but the weekend is the time for most visitors.

It does look very professional and we have had some good feedback about our work. It would be such a coo if someone were to buy my images, but I've never actually sold anything. Good comments are welcome but to sell something would be the icing on the cake!

Mobile Images shot today at Oriel Bach Gallery, Mumbles, Gower

I spoke to the volunteer while I was at Oriel Bach, the feedback we received for our conduct on the opening night was that we were clean, polite and courteous and very professional.

Personal Project Thoughts

I have reached a stage in my Personal Project and wondering whether to divert a little. I have shot several films both colour and black and white that I am happy with. I'm not sure if shooting any further images is necessary as I think I have enough now. My images have a narrative that tells the story of my relationship with the landscape of my ancestral home of Wales, they are painterly, expressionistic, soft and timeless. I could shoot more and try to improve on what I have, but I'm really not sure that this is necessary.

My concern now is are they enough? Is there something I could add to them to make the narrative clearer for a wider audience? Do they stand alone as images? What could I add to them to enhance them?

I'm thinking about script, writing from old texts, poetry, or bible. My brother has a large old bible that has been passed down from generation to generation. Maybe I should photograph this and layer it on to one or two of my images. Or maybe photograph it to add to the series of images. I have letters from my mother, and letters that my mother wrote to my grand father. These could be another source to add to the narrative.

I have also been recommended a book People of the Black Mountains by Raymond Williams. I think I should buy this and read it, it may give me the inspiration I need right now.

I also need to visit some galleries. I would like to spend a day in London as there are so many exhibitions there that are of interest to me. I may book a rail ticket ....

The exhibitions take place in May (Swansea) and June (London). Once we return from our Easter Break these will very quickly be upon us. I have started working on my Visual Journal again, but I've come to a halt as I need that inspiration that I'm searching for. I have plenty of writing and artist research in the journal, but not enough of my own images. I will rectify this is the next week and have some images printed.

A Day Off ...Well Almost...

Today I needed a day out to myself. The past few weeks have been filled with dissertation writing, and preparations for the External Exhibition. All very stressful and time consuming. As well as being focused on those two projects, there were, of course, still lectures, meetings, seminars and crits to attend. Its been pretty full on. I was feeling exhausted.

I decided that today I would have a relaxing morning listening to music, catching up with emails to friends and having a lie in! This afternoon I drove over to Pembrey Country Park and Cefn Sidan Sands for a whole afternoon of picture making. I did shoot some with my Diana for my personal project, but my main aim was to relax and use my 35mm Camera to explore Extravagance.

I am doing a small collaboration with a Fashion Student from Swansea Met. She has asked for volunteers to help her create a website where she will display 35mm film images. She has given me a brief, and that brief is to be creative with the word Extravagance and to depict it in any way I choose. She has taken the briefs from the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection of Fashion but is not telling us anything except the word itself.

I haven't yet decided what to photograph, I am going to make a word page of synonyms of extravagance, and in the meantime, like today, just use my intuition to photograph anything that I sense conveys extravagance.

I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon, the sun was shinning, the wind was cold and fresh; I felt free and liberated from the past weeks of stress.

Opening Night of be(longing) Exhibition

Standing tall and proud at the beginning of the evening with my images from 

Nature and Nurture (2013)

 (I have another name in mind so this may change before we get to London in June)

be(longing) Exhibition Night

Oriel Bach Gallery, The Mumbles, Swansea, West Wales on 13th March 2013

The evening was a sedate affair with wine and beer for all those who attended. People began arriving before 7.30pm but we were ready for them... well almost! Everyone's work looked amazing, the work looks so different when it is framed and hung well. Although the Oriel Bach is a small gallery, our work was curated well and made good use of the space available to us. All 15 of the group had ample room to display their art; the work flowed well with each piece complimenting the next. It was well thought out. There is also enough room so that the artists' images may be viewed on its own merit. 

The preparations had been very stressful leading up to the opening night. I am very glad that it all came together in the end and we all felt that the night was a success.

Final Dissertation Submission Deadline today

It is such a relief to say that I have completed my dissertation and that I handed it in at 2.30pm today. As I neared the end of my writing, I felt that I was actually beginning to enjoy it, and understand the theory. I have done the best I could, and I am quite proud of my achievement. Eight thousand words is no mean feat. Reading theory that takes time to digest and understand, knowing how to structure an essay of that length is something of an art, and finding appropriate quotes to emphasise a point, or continue an argument, takes time, concentration and some determination.

My dissertation title is "The Role of Vision in Landscape Photography Today." I used Descartes theory of linear perspective as the basis of my argument, discussed other theories, and explored the work of artists and photographers to discuss the role of vision in traditional and contemporary painting and photography, past and present.

Here is my final paragraph of the dissertation, it is a precis of the whole ....

Visual perception today has developed from the traditional view of the colonial and the real, into meaningful narratives that capture the imagination. Traditional photographers extolled the virtues of the landscape as a place with a view, but the role of vision in landscape photography today, is an emerging intimate relationship between land and artist. 

Crit with John Paul

I attended the crit session today with John Paul. I have been meaning to attend since we returned from the Christmas Break, but the dissertation had taken priority over everything else, so this was my first opportunity. I was keen to show him the prints that I had chosen for the be(longing) exhibition that starts of March 13th at Oriel Bach Gallery. I have asked several of my lecturers to cast an eye over my work, to reassure me that my images are conveying the narrative that I want them to convey. I have had some positive feedback.

John Paul made some helpful suggestions and we talked about the different qualities of paper that are available to me to print on, and the sequence of my images and other advice that was useful.

I will have to make more time available to go to these sessions as I do find them very helpful.

Lecture The Sublime Landscape

Lecturer: Richard Page

Richard's lecture today began with a clip from Apocalypse Now (Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando 1979). It was an example of a sublime landscape; a frightening, dark and impenetrable place. A landscape under destruction. The Jungle viewed during a time of was as a frightening place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkrhkUeDCdQ

One way of describing the sublime is to say that it is on the edge between sanity and madness. The characters in the film begin as sane people but time spent in the jungle during this war time has meddled with their minds until they have become mad with the threat and fear of what they see and experience.

David Bate's "Notes on Beauty and Landscape" (from Shifting Horizons ed by Wells. L et al) describe the sublime as having an aura of danger. Avalanches and huge water falls like the Niagara Falls can make us as individuals, feel threatened. This is nature as something to be feared as opposed to being colonised.

Edmund Burke (1729 -1797) wrote a book called "Delightful Horror"

Delight at that time in history meant something different to what we understand the word to mean today. When this book was written delight meant horror, the meaning has changed, to us it means pleasurable.

Some people enjoy an aspect of danger, an activity like bunji jumping is a kind of delightful horror. It has an element of danger, and yet to some it is exciting and thrilling.

PICTURESQUE - control, accuracy, the world in order
SUBLIME - subversive irrationality

Each of us has an element of madness within us. For example many can stand on the edge of a cliff and wonder what it would be like to fly or jump off. There is a temptation within us to want to find out for ourselves what it would be like to be at the edge of death. But most people do not succumb to this madness, they behave in a rational way, knowing that if indeed they were to jump off the edge of the cliff, they would die. This madness or irrationality is something we all keep hidden within ourselves. It is undoubtedly a part of us. It is the controlled element of our being that allows us to behave rationally.

The idea of being as one with nature is a sentimental idea, a fantasy. You can only know nature if you step over the edge, over the threshold of the invisible. It is but a fantasy to think about jumping off the edge of the cliff. We are only dabbling with irrationality in that moment.


David Casper Friedrich's painting "The Monk by the Sea" (1809) is a picture of obscurity, showing the mist and nothingness.There is a small figure who stands alone, but is not in control of anything. Nature is uncontrollable.

Another painting "The Wanderer above the Sea of Mist" (1818) appears to be a man from the city who has reached a place where he can go no further. He stands on a precipice. There appears to be a sense of culture (i.e.the man) and nature embodied by rigidity. The man looks into a mad landscape.

There is an arrogance attached to man that he believes he can colonise the world. But nature cares nothing about man's control, and cares nothing for us. We care about nature but this is not reciprocated. Nature continues to behave in any way it deems... natural phenomenon occur all the time and there is nothing that man can do about it. (Examples avalanche, tsunami, lightning strikes, tornadoes, floods etc etc)

We were shown a photograph of Joseph Kissinger jumping from space and then a video of a man who did this again only last year in 2012.

Other Reading Suggestions
Simon Norfolk "For most of it I have no words" (1998)
Emmet Gowin "Changing the Earth" (2003)

With Thanks to

http://www.openeye.org.uk/archive-exhibition/simon-norfolk-for-most-of-it-i-have-no-words/

for this image

To end returning to Apocalypse Now... The Sublime .... looks alien to us, the landscaped changed, bombed, becomes harder for us to recognise.