Installation Concept

Following discussions with Kartini, Andrew, and Barry, I now feel an installation comprising multiple elements will enhance the project and create that sense of childhood landscape.

The aim of the project now seeks to create a space which the viewer can walk into and perhaps be reminded of his/her own childhood, through the use of projection, photography, collage and flower press art.

I initially thought of projecting the sky up to the ceiling, but am now considering the idea of producing 4 large (A0) panels with photographs of the sky and placing them face downwards on the ceiling. The projection could then consist of a landscape scene serving as a backdrop on one or two walls (?).

I would also like to gather aspects of nature, which accompany the memory and photograph, such as grass, twigs or flowers. These are important elements of the project, as I spent many hours staring at organic objects, mainly through boredom! I may add them to a kind of glass construct, which will have to be bespoke.

I do not wish to include video due to it not fitting in with the installation as a scene which almost would be like walking into a landscape. In order to get round the video aspect, I could shoot a burst of stills, which can then displayed as a set, showing the movement.

I hope that the exhibit will in some way take viewers back to their own childhood.

Child Perception of Landscape

To approach this question, I took a series of images which aimed to make me feel 'small' and equally that of the viewer looking at them. Some are better than others I feel at conveying a sense of looking at what appears 'large' again:

The first picture represented how I felt... That the world, be it the ocean or forests seemed endless, vast and at times to infinity, as I couldn't figure out where it ended...

Quotations and Thoughts...

We do not remember days; we remember moments.


Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory. (Sir Francis Bacon)


We both know what memories can bring / They bring diamonds and rust. (Joan Baez)


When you have made a good painting, don't do another like it, but remember the process, what you did, what you were thinking and feeling. (Darby Bannard)


By the time I was sixteen, I'd come to realize that the purpose of my life as an artist was to re-member what I had, by the age of five, dis-membered. And from that point on, never forget. (Che Baraka)


Memory is the greatest of artists, and effaces from your mind what is unnecessary. (Maurice Baring).


There are moments when I can wander through my childhood's landscape, through rooms long ago, remember how they were furnished, where the pictures hung on the walls, the way the light fell. It's like a film - little scraps of a film, which I set running and which I can reconstruct to the last detail - except their smell. (Ingmar Bergman)


My landscapes are non-specific, evoking a mood rather than a particular place, so that viewers are reminded of their own memories, dreams and nostalgia for locations. (Victoria Block).


Perhaps I am doomed to retrace my steps under the illusion that I am exploring, doomed to try and learn what I should simply recognize, learning a mere fraction of what I have forgotten. (Andre Breton).


Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again. (Willa Cather).


It is very well to copy what one sees; it's much better to draw what one has retained in one's memory. It is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory. (Edgar Degas).


I go to work as others rush to see their mistresses, and when I leave, I take back with me to my solitude, or in the midst of the distractions that I pursue, a charming memory that does not in the least resemble the troubled pleasure of lovers. (Eugene Delacroix).


There's a lot of landscape I never would have described if I hadn't been homesick. The impulse was nostalgia. (Joan Didion).


These quotations have helped to focus on what memory means to us... How do we convey the memory to the viewer, or indeed do we need to, as it is my memory; a memory which I am sharing, is that enough?

Edited..

Edited images (sample)

1st photoshoot

I made some work, which is not particularly usable for anything, but it gave me a chance to familiarise myself with the scene, which I have not returned to since my dad's death, so it was quite emotional for me.

In trying to incorporate these expressive feelings in my work proved difficult, as how does an image convey feelings associated with childhood memories.

I do recall viewing the landscape differently, focusing on one thing as opposed to the whole landscape. Below are a sample of images taken (unedited):

Proposal Feedback

Following the feedback from my proposal, I have retrieved some poetry and journal entries which accompanied trips to Lynmouth, Devon during my childhood. The project focuses more on reproducing feelings I had from my childhood, when presented with the aesthetic beauties of the landscape, which my Father sought to convey through his encouragement of the 'Arts', himself a painter and sculptor.

I did not, at that time, possess the artistic capabilities of my father or sister, who is also a Fine Artist. I appear to have spent a lot of my time lying down, and viewing the landscape from a lower vantage point. Often, I would gaze at single elements of the landscape, such as the sky, or water, as opposed to taking in the entire vista of what lay before me.

I printed images I have taken previously and placed them on the floor in front of my 4 year old daughter to observe what she then did with the images. despite not having received any formal training in art, she separated sections of nature into thirds, e.g. sky and or/sun at the top, sea/grass in the middle and a third image at the bottom. With this in mind, I now seek to convey this method of viewing a landscape through the eyes of a child, or indeed myself, by shooting fragments of the landscape from a low vantage point, so that the viewer also feels smaller when looking at the image.

An example of this is shown below:

Preparation Images - Location Texas

First Photoshoot

I spent a week in Texas, but struggled to find a location to match the project outlined in my proposal. I did, however, take the opportunity to practice taking images, despite the likelihood of them not being used.

I have spent some time researching what pictorialism meant in the 19th century.Stieglitz pioneered the movement but photographers like Steichen and Emerson made significant contributions to this field also, among others. Steichen postulated that the eye focuses on the subject, producing a sharper plane of view, which results in the remaining vision being softly focused in comparison and having a more 'dreamy' feel. This naturalistic style of photography was later denounced as many photographer's who went on to adopt this method, produced out-of-focus, blurred images.

The process of producing a pictorial image is not, therefore, an easy task. It is this process which I wish to interrogate and endeavour to achieve. A narrow depth of field is one option, but this will ultimately lose much of the detail of the overall landscape, as too much will make the image background appear unrecognisable and too little will result in a well focused image overall.

Striking the balance will therefore be difficult, I have discovered. This is by no means the only problem facing me, as composition, choice of subject, mood, lighting and form all contribute towards creating 'pictorial' art.

Is photography art? Much debate has centered on this topic for 120 years or more, one which I am currently researching in my dissertation.

I have also found that there is a danger that the image resembles a postcard picture perfect style image, which loses the whole point of what the project is trying to achieve.

Define what Pictorial means to me..

They also manifest what Emerson regarded as the essence of photography — its
ability to present a naturalistic image, from life. To him, that meant
replicating the way the eye registers a scene, with the object of chief
attention in sharpest focus and the rest more softly defined.

Sharply focused with softly defined edges. The light is also important. These are the areas I wish to explore and interrogate in my own work.

Poetry

"Man must become refined when he is constantly living before such exquisite pictures... Nature is the great refiner, the poor man's poet and painter."

Readings

I have started to read Newhall's Aperture Monograph on P. H. Emerson. The images follow on from the work of Stieglitz, incorporating a more contemporary version of pictorial photography.

What is it that makes these pictorial? Is the pictorialism a subjective viewpoint. Are we forced to consider them this way, because we have read so or are there distinguishing characteristics which make the image pictorial?

His image entitled "Gathering Water Lillies" circa 1880s is special in terms of the water reflections and the light. The faces are important in this image, as the focus of light was not concentrated on the figures. This image still has the appearance of being a landscape and does have a 'soft' quality about the composition, much like Stieglitz, but what ,akes it pictorial?

My aim is to create a pictorial landscape image by trying out different methods at different lights and times of day, month and seasons. There is the possibility that only one good image may come of this.

Preparation for shoot 1

The first shoot will be on Friday 15th October in Devon.

I will be using both digital and analogue with filters to maximise the dynamic range present as a digital camera may not suffice.

The digital camera will be a useful aid in metering and ascertaining exposure times needed with filters used. The camera also has a HD video which may be used to record footage and/or sound which may be included with the images at the final exhibition.

I have taken advice from Steve Godfrey about this method as he has some experience himself in this field but not with 10 stop filters. I have been using these for the last two years on digital, so they are familiar to me, but not yet with analogue. I also will shoot monochrome and colour as the golden hour, prior to and following the sunset is the time I will be filming and solely using monochrome may inhibit the variation of light at the scene.

Jurassic Coast and North Devon coastal landscapes