A Better Day ..

I attended the last Professional Practice Seminar this morning to find out what to expect from the Interview with Jason Shenai next Wednesday. There is a limit on time and we are expected to ensure we explain our projects succinctly and professionally and to show enthusiasm for our work and the future.

We are to hand our Folders to the lecturers who will sit and observe our performance during the interview, to make their assessment.

After the seminar ended I sat in the computer suite all day and worked on the information I will need to put in my Folder.

Elements Required are:-

• Letter of Proposal for Funding
• Cover Letter
• Project Proposal
• Budget
• Business Cards/Postcards
• CD of Image Portfolio of Images
• CVH

Here are some of the Images I have selected

 

 I think there may be too many images from my previous years and I may change some ...hmmm...

First Assessment - Major Project

I am so relieved that the penultimate assessment is over. Professional Practice assessment next week and then that's it. I will have finished four years of study. But I shouldn't celebrate yet ... I still need to prepare for next week.

Today's assessment didn't feel in any way like an assessment, it was more like a chat really. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. Tomorrow the lecturers will scrutonise the visual diaries and all the work and give each student their grades. On Friday the External Examiner will verify that all is fair and right.

I have no idea what my final grade will be. My presentation in January went well, my dissertation I felt was as good as it would ever get, the External Folder is atrocious as I had no time or enthusiasm to make any effort to make it anything other than it was. I know I will get marked down for that. The Major Project itself  I think was good, not great, not dismal, but good enough. My exhibition piece will be marked down because I wasn't able to spend lots of money on a decent paper or a flashy frame. But after today I am feeling that I may well have a chance of passing this. One of the other students told me that the grades from the 1st and 2nd year of the foundation degree are added to this years efforts. If this is true, then that' really good news for me. My first two years grades were high so they would increase the average if I haven't done so well this year

Well, that's all for now. When next week is done, I will be able to concentrate on finding a job, earning some money, writing a blog that has absolutely nothing to do with college or university and doing whatever else I want to do.

Website

I have been working on my Website to try and improve it ... here is a link ....

http://penelopedavies.4ormat.com/listing

The Title ... CALON Y WLAD (HEARTLAND)

I have made a final decision about the title of my Major Project. It is to be called Calon Y Wlad (Heartland). I wanted a Welsh title that gave an overview of the whole project. I feel Calon Y Wlad does  this. I don't want to have individual titles for the images and I don't feel I need to go into any explanation of the work for the viewers. The Project is about my relationship with my home land of Wales, it is a reflection of the emotions I feel and sense, as I photograph the land that is dear to me. The images are deliberately aesthetically beautiful, they are emotive and they are unashamedly nostalgic. The pictures I make reflect my love of the land and the relationship I have with it.

I grew up in Wales; my memories are nostalgic because my childhood was such an idyllic and happy time. Hours, days, even years spent exploring the landscape and all its landmarks are all memories that I cherish. Maybe it is all very sentimental, but I am a sensitive person and the life experience I have had in the past 20 to 30 years have not always been memorable for the right reasons. Coming home for me has been therapeutic, and learning from my past will enable me to move on with my life in a more positive way. Here I can find the contentment I have a longing for.

The photographs that I have shot have not always made me happy because they have brought with them a sense of sadness for what once was, and for something that I will never again be able to rekindle. But the photographs are my way of being grateful for what once was a very happy time in my life. I make no apology for the images I have produced being "nice to look at." In the future I may make work that is completely different from this work, in fact I believe that I will l. But this work reflects the beginning of my home coming and as it is the beauty I see everywhere, the beauty I search for everywhere, then it is only natural that the images I produce are going to be beautiful ... at least to me.

Creative Questions from Diffusion Photo Fest No5

IS THIS STILL A PHOTOGRAPH

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/maurizio_anzeri.htm?section_name=photography

"Ready Mades" ...the concept invented by Marcell DuChamp. These photographs have one layer of the Ready Made but have been added too making them into something else.  In my opinion they are still photographs because a camera has been used to shoot the images. They could also be said to be sculptures, but the fact that they are exhibited like this as images, gives them the name of a photograph. 

Creative Questions from Diffusion Photo Fest No4

SHOULD ART BE BEAUTIFUL

Pastoral monument 6, Dacus Carota, 2012 Helen Sear

There is no given reason why art should be beautiful. It is both in the eye of the artists or in the eye of the viewer as to whether an image is beautiful or not beautiful. 

Personally I enjoy beautiful art and would not have anything in my home hanging on the walls if I did not think that it was beautiful. 

This image is beautiful. The colours are soft and appealing, it is both graceful and elegant at once, the composition is aesthetically pleasing, it is a very easy image to view. It has a Vermeer feel to it; the emotive beauty of an old masters' painting.

But no, there is no reason I can think of that art should be beautiful, it is merely taste and preference. 

Creative Questions from Diffusion Photo Fest No2

WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN

http://annakurpaska.wix.com/photo 

 

To look at these images and wonder what is about to happen, can create a miriad of situations. Anything could be about to happen. Is the man on the ground dead or alive. Did the man standing by the trees kill him or is he just watching the figure in front of him. Is the man near the trees going to help the man lying on the floor, his stance suggests not. He stands with hands behind his back more in contemplation than in action. It does not appear to me that he is about to do anything at all. Quite the contrary in fact, he seems to me that he will just stand there and watch and then turn his back and walk away.

Photographs are ambiguous. It is almost impossible to tell what will actually happen because there are a 1001 possible outcomes. The story can not be fully told from the photograph and so all we can do as the viewer of a photograph is to surmise.

Photographs are interpreted by the viewer's own experiences and ideas. We can be told by the artist what his or her intention was when phtographing this scene, but the viewer can not say for sure what is about to happen, he/she can only make a decision about the outcome from his/her own experiences, conceptions and personal ideas.

Title ...

I haven't been able to settle on a title for my project yet

 ... maybe I should just call the work "Ambiguity"

...open to more than one interpretation .... its a thought ...

A Little Uncertain

I've been working on my Visual Journal and I'm feeling a little uncertain about my project. As I write and add my images, all I feel about the project is that it is full of my own emotion. The landscape is an expression of how I feel, not only about the past and memories, but about how it reflects my emotions on any particular day.

When I look at others' work, they seem to be able to make clear what their project is about. The landscape is itself an ambiguous subject to portray. Everyone has their own ideas, feelings and thoughts about what the landscape means to them.

I have returned home to Wales after many years living in England and the joy for me is being able to immerse myself in familiar territory. The significance of history is never far away, every turn has a castle or a landmark that is vivid in its history and has meaning for me. But to explain in images how the land makes me feel, how its history is embedded in every blade of grass and every tree is almost an impossible task. I wish I had settled on something more solid, a certain era, the myths and legends, a place or the castles. Now the hand in is nearing and I feel less clear about what I am trying to convey than I did at the beginning.

Images shot on Diana F Camera using 120mm Black n White Ilford Delta 400 Film

Everything is a work in progress and maybe this is only the beginning of my journey. It feels that way.

I am concerned about how I am going to explain my project during the assessment, and also if my images are good enough. I am feeling despondent. The picture making process seems to have taken a down turn and the images I have produced lately are not as good as the images I shot nearer the beginning of the work.

Maybe its life itself that has become a stumbling block to my creativity. I feel pressurised to make the work into something that it is not. It is spiritual in nature, it is full of emotion and sensitivity, it is what it is and I cant make it into anything else.

Creative Questions from Diffusion Photo Fest No1

I picked up some postcards at the Diffusion Festival in Cardiff and I thought it would be a good idea to attempt to answer these questions as a way of thinking about my own Major Project or as an informative expression of how I think about art, or indeed how my vision of the world informs my own practice.

WHAT MAKES A FAMILY

Images by Elin Hoyland Courtesy of Diffusion Festival Website

http://www.diffusionfestival.org/experience/

If I think about what makes a family, it is being surrounded by people you love and those who love you. Living together, being together, sharing experiences and being supportive towards eachother.

These two brothers have lived in each others' company all their lives. To me this insinuates that their thoughts and actions will mimick each other. The closeness of their shared lives means that they probably don't have to say much to know how the other will react to any given situation.

This can happen with any two or more people who share their every waking moment together.

This is a difficult question to answer as it is a given that shared lives equals shared experiences equals shared memories.

However, a photograph will not show the individuality of the person being photographed. These two brothers look alike but that does not mean to say that they are actually alike. The confirmation of their likeness can only be described by the fact that they share the same interests and do, it appears, everything together.

So, what makes a family is being together, sharing life day to day, supporting each other and caring for each other.

Voluntary Word with Camper Obsura at Cardiff Diffusion Festival

It was great to see Matt and John  my lecturers from Plymouth College of Art, and play a small part with them showcasing the Camper Obscura at the Diffusion Festival in Cardiff.

The response to the Camper was enthusiastic, and it always has that "Wow" factor when people realise that they are seeing a 360 Degree view of the surrounding area.

Camper was parked up in the middle of the city at The Hayes, where there was plenty of interest to keep everyone busy all day.

After the public have sat inside and taken in the delights Camper has to offer, they are then photographed with an old Polaroid camera so that there is a record of everyone''s visit. Matt and John now have thousands of portraits having toured many cities, towns and festivals in the past three years.

Here are a few images I shot of the day's events.

Diffusion Festival Cardiff

Some Mobile pictures I shot today of the Exhibitions, the Buildings and Cardiff ....

The Old Library, The Hayes, Cardiff

St David's Hall, The Hayes, Cardiff

St David's Hall, The Hayes

Reflecting on my Major Project

As the project has developed it has become clear that for the work to be of interest to a wider audience, there has to be an element of a collective history of the land conveyed in the images. I have found some interesting information on social website with regard to landmarks of an historical nature. But this has come a little late in the project as I do not have the time to visit and photograph these sites neither do I have the financial resources to fund the journeys I would need to  make to do this.  

The images that I have already produced are of an emotive nature. The work is centered around my senses, as opposed to any social or political references. The work is an expression of my sense of spiritual awareness of the land. It is my senses that bring the land to life for me. I sense its heartbeat, the events of the past, battles fought, struggles endured and nature preserved by both natural phenomena, and the intervention of the peoples of the the land.

It is true that on several occasions I have felt frustration, frustration that the land owners of the 21st Century are possessive of their "bought" land. My experience is that they regard the photographer as an intruder and someone to be weary of. It may be naivety that I do not understand the need to be possessive, the land for me belongs to all regardless of whether it has been "bought" or not. I don't mean that I don't understand their need to protect their land, their animals and their crops, but that as a photographer I wish that they would understand that it is out of respect for the land that I choose to make pictures of the land. 

Maybe it is because I grew up in the 1960's and 70's that this naivety remains with me. As a child I was allowed to roam anywhere and everywhere. The constraints I face now are alien to me, and this is something that I am unable to shake off. 

Tourist areas such as castles, have been closed to the public over the winter months, and although I have been to several and photographed them, it has been at a distance. I have been unable to experience the spiritual nature that shows itself to me when I am truly engulfed, not only the ground and the stone, but the whole history and atmosphere of the site.

When I am allowed to drink in the atmosphere, to immerse myself in the whole being of the place, the collective memories that I sense within the walls, come into play.  I feel able to capture the essence of that place through my instincts and intuition, which result in expressionistic and ethereal images. 

Using the Diana F plastic camera has been a challenge. Attempting to capture the expressionistic images that I have wanted has not been an easy task. It has allowed me to relinquish control of the picture making process but it has been difficult to find the right artistic exposure and the creative end product. There has been a lot of guess work involved. I have attempted to use a light meter, but this has just been a waste of time. My instincts have been more successful and remembering that I wanted to relinquish control, my instinct has served me well for most of the time. 

There is an element of darkness to my images. This reflects the way I feel about the Welsh people. In my opinion there is a general sense of negativity, and a dark humour that I have experienced in my own family, as well as in the general psyche of the Welsh people. The humour and the darkness can be read in many songs and poetry by Welsh writers, Dylan Thomas, being the most famous of them.

The history of Wales is shrouded in myth and legend. Fact and myth entwined together is especially prevalent in its early history. Stories that have been passed down from one generation to the next with little historical fact being actually written down.  Researchers of Welsh history have, over the past century pieced together as much fact as it has been possible to do. The darkness I spoke of can also signify this clouded version of the truth about Welsh history. It is somewhat ambiguous, imbued in mystery, a concoction of fact and fiction. 

It is then no wonder that my own images of the Welsh landscape are a little ambiguous because of the nature of the traditions of our history, the lack of known facts both about the land itself and also about my own family whose history has not yet been unfolded. 

The project began as a personal exploration of my relationship with the land of my fathers, but for a wider audience to appreciate what I am trying to do, I have had to try and develop it into a work that is a narrative for the collective. It is not an historical document, but a personal narrative of how I see a land that is imbued and enriched in its collective memory of a rich and vivid history in myth and legend.