Predannack Shoot

For my five picture story project I visited Predannack Airfield for a guided tour of the place and to witness some of the work that still is in operation there. I took my 5D so that I would have digital photographs as backups but to take my five picture story images I brought along a Minnolta SLR camera and a 24mm lens. So that I could take the wide shots of the landscape with black and white 35mm film that I intended to for my project. 

Above are some of the digital shots I took during the day as backups. I am happy with a few of them however I don't think they can give the same sense of history and consistency that I was able to achieve with my analogue photographs.

In the end I used one roll of HP5 for this shoot and really considered the photographs I was taking as I wouldn't have been able to change the roll of film during the day as we were walking around the location in the bright sunlight. Overall I am pretty pleased with my photographs considering I have very little experience with film photography. I also think I have taken photographs that encompass what happens at Predannack today and what is still there. 

The only issue I am having now is the editing of my photographs down to five pictures. I definitely think I want one shot of the flight deck training fire test, an interior and exterior of a retired aircraft and I definitely want a shot of the Barnes Wallis ramp and the air control tower. So I will be taking my favourite photographs that I am deciding between to the next crit, to discuss them with tutors and other students. 

Chloe Dewe Mathews: Shot at Dawn

Chloe Dewe Matthews is a British documentary photographer whose work I came across online a few weeks ago. I took a particular interest in her Shot at Dawn series as she presents her subject matter of something that has happened in the past in the kind of way I would like to present my subejct matter of hauntings for my self directed assignment. 

Shot at Dawn is a body of work consisting of twenty three images that show locations at which British, French and Belgian soldiers were executed between 1914 and 1918 for cowardice and desertion. The photographs were taken as close to the exact time of day and year as the actual executions in each location as possible, and as most executions took place at dawn this provided Dewe Matthews with the title of the series. 

Due to the images being shot so early in the morning there is a really fitting eeriness given to the sites in the photographs which today look to be very ordinary unassuming places. There is a real potency to these landscape photographs in looking at these today forgotten sites as they raise awareness of a subject matter that is very often neglected when discussing the first world war. These hundreds of soldiers shot by their own side were often teenage volunteers who had signed up to fight in a war they really couldn’t have anticipated the severity of. These haunting photographs provide a moving memorial of the fate of these people. 

Dewe Matthews puts us very much in her shoes as a photographer in arriving somewhere a hundred years after an event has happened. In witnessing the landscape that has witnessed this event we are able to see exactly what these soldiers saw the day of their execution. There is something incredibly moving about being able to put yourself in their shoes in this way, knowing that they were just young people who could no longer cope in one of the most horrific wars. To me this series seeks to give us a connection to an event that happened a century ago, to be aware of the relationship we have with our landscape and to not assume we have an innocence towards it. 

This series also seeks to question the British national conscience in how we feel about how the British army chose to discipline soldiers in this way which has been rather ignored in contrast to what happened on the front lines. At the time of their execution these people were branded as degenerates who were best forgotten, and now there is a real feeling of unease in how death did not meet them abruptly on the battlefield and instead from the people leading them who were on their side. We are also now aware that at least some of the soldiers will have been suffering from mental illnesses caused by the warfare. Which there wasn’t recognition or understanding of at that time and that if they had acted like that today they would be treated very differently. 

The captioning for this series I feel is what gives it such potency as these calm figureless landscape photographs are met with a chilling record of the location, time, date and names of people killed on that morning of an execution that took place in that location. The subject matter for this series is so serious and as a British person it is really haunting to know that British soldiers around my age were treated like this just for not being able to cope in such a horrible war. 

The way these landscapes are so empty and many are overgrown really communicates that this is something that the countries involved would rather forget. And that killing these people didn't achieve anything. 

In terms of my own less literal subject matter, looking at this series has made me think more about how I can capture in some way an element of the event that apparently has happened in each of the my locations I will be photographing. As in Dewe Matthews' project she has captured the time of day they occurred at as well, which will be difficult for me as I am unable to drive to the places I want to photograph. Instead I think taking all the photographs at the same time of day may give it a better consistency that I am looking for. I don't want to make too many aesthetic decisions that will overcomplicate how people read the subject matter but I definitely don't want to take the photographs at night. I think that taking my photographs around midday will give my subject matter clarity in a way that does not look at though I am trying to add anything to it. 

Amy Romer: The Dark Figure

 

British documentary photographer Amy Romer's latest body of work is a project that explores modern slavery in the UK. I took a real interest in this series after she gave a guest lecture to us a month or so ago. As like the photographs I have been taking an interest in by other photographers in my research, she does not show her subject matter for this series in a literal way and instead photographs the places where these events occur. 

Her series is called The Dark Figure which refers to the estimation that there are 13,000 slaves in the UK today by the Home Office. In this series Romer has visited and photographed locations where cases of modern slavery have been reported. These square landscape photographs with their haunting captions detailing cases of modern slavery creates an incredibly powerful series that makes you realise that these horrible crimes are happening a lot closer to home then you think. 

What is particularly stirring about these photographs for a person who is from the UK to view is that all these places either are or look so familiar to us. The architecture and landscape in the UK does not vary that much so there is a real sense of emotional conflict for a viewer in viewing something so stirring that aesthetically presents us with the suburbs and landscapes we see all the time and yet these horrible things are happening or have happened within them. 

These photographs like some of the other documentary images I have looked at so far feel very quiet, almost to suggest the lack of witnesses or how we ignore and don't focus on these sinister things happening under our noses. The silence created by the lack of people in these photographs makes you question how safe we actually are and it really makes you consider how we view these seemingly ordinary places. 

This project isn't as quiet as it seems however and once you begin to read the captions whist looking at the photographs the series grows more insistent in making you aware that human trafficking isn't limited to a type of person or industry and that this problem exists everywhere. It makes you question why individually we are ignorant of this problem, which makes for an incredibly evocative series and really makes you confront and except that this problem exists. 

In terms of how looking this series can influence my own work it has really shown me just how powerful captioning can be and looking at the ways the photographers I have looked at have captioned their images is something I have been taking a lot of note of. In Romer's work I really like that the date of the event is put first which I think is something that makes these images really impactful because it makes you realise just how much of a contemporary issue modern slavery is.

I am now almost certain that I will shoot colour film for my SDA project and focus on landscapes as I love the effect of the inexplicit images I have been looking at, where the subject matter is left to be discovered fully in the captioning of the photograph. I also love the richness of colour and texture of colour film which I have never used before so I think this project will be a great chance to try it out over a longer period of time. Which I think will allow me to link well the different stories of hauntings I would like to capture. 

Mark Power: The Shipping Forecast

The next photographer I have looked at as part of my research for my self directed project is Mark Power and in particular I took an interest in his Shipping Forecast series of photographs, which were published in a photo book of the same title in 1996. This series of black and white film photographs are taken of the 31 places along the UK coastline that the BBC shipping forecast covers. Power's photographs of beaches and coastal life captures postwar British life and a huge part of the culture of these places as the weather forecast affects the livelihoods of the people who live there. 

His photographs of these places are captioned with the forecast for the area on the day the photograph was taken. I have included the captions with the photographs above because they are really important to this series and is what gives context to these photographs. The forecast clearly links the people of these places to a real sense of what it is to be British, which really romanticises the British Isles. I do feel that these photographs are a really interesting series of social documentary images that communicate an aspect of British culture in a unique way.

The way power composes space in his photographs I feel communicates how much force nature has over these communities and the lack of people in the photographs also suggests the control these forecasts have, over how these people live their daily lives. The use of shadows and the way clouds are often looming in his photographs also gives a haunting quality to these images as though these moments of calm are under threat. 

Many of his landscape photographs remind me of romantic paintings with their symmetrical nature and stillness, making the viewer reflect whilst reading the caption in these silent spaces Power has created. There is something poetic about the nature of the shipping forecast and visualised with these landscapes to me makes these scenes feel spiritual. What we read about in the captions is out of human control, and instead is presented as a higher force.

In many ways my subject matter could be considered a higher force and these atmospheric images have given me a lot more to think about in how I can present subject matter of this nature. The way I photograph a place if I choose to shoot landscapes and still life will very much effect how a viewer reads and receives the caption's description of the hauntings. 

Paul Graham: Troubled Land

In exploring other documentary work which I have been doing by looking at photo books in the library, I came across Paul Graham's Troubled Land: Social Landscape of Northern Ireland. I have decided to discuss his work as his approach to his subject matter I find particularly inspiring. 

Paul Graham is a British fine art and documentary photographer. His Troubled Land series was made up of landscape and still life photographs taken in Ireland during the war. They are devoid of people and illustrate a cultural and geopolitical typography at that time. What interests me so much about this series is that they are war photographs that do not show a full frontal war as their literal subject matter. Instead they show the social landscape of communities classed as war zones. 

In his landscape photographs in particular the horizon line is usually halfway up the photograph meaning a lot of the image is made up of the sky. Which I think really adds a sense of calmness to his images as though they are giving the audience space to breath and are a token of reflection. Graham's photographs in this series are made up of layers of social meanings and really make the viewer ask questions about why he has chosen to photograph certain places and still life. Giving an introspective quality to his photographs for a viewer to experience. They merge the context of the war with this aesthetic consideration Graham has taken which makes for a really thought provoking series of images. 

I like this element in his work because I don't always think photographs should provide all the answers for a viewer or be overtly literal in their subject matter. The more metaphorical and psychological nature to Graham's work I think is what makes his photographs so interesting for a viewer. I also think the formality of how he presents his landscapes is really effective and this consistency in the horizon and leading lines etc has given me lots more to think about aesthetically in creating multiple images for a series. 

In terms of my ideas for my current project, Troubled Land has allowed me to consider further how I can present my subject matter of hauntings, which is harder to photograph literally. I am really drawn to photographing landscapes for my series to show where these stories of hauntings took place. However I need to work out the ways I can caption the photographs and provide a consistency aesthetically to them like Graham has done and the feelings that are evoked from his images. I do like the idea of my photographs being more inexplicit to focus on social experience and psychology rather then being dominated overtly in subject matter by the people who claim to have experienced these hauntings. 

Five Picture Story Idea + Simon Norfolk Afghanistan: Chronotopia

I have decided that for my five picture story my subject matter will be the Predannack Air Field at Helston here in Cornwall. As I have got a place on a field trip there and after doing some research feel it will be a really interesting subject matter to record using film which I would like to use for this project. I have been reading about the history of the air field and think that recording how it is used to day will make for a really interesting five picture story. 

As part of my research for these five picture story projects I have been looking at documentary photography. The first photographer I would like to look at in depth is Simon Norfolk, in particular his Afghanistan Chronotopia series. 

Simon Norfolk is a Nigerian landscape photographer from Lagos whose work mainly focuses on the nature of battlefields and conflict zones in their various forms. The war in Afghanistan has been going on for nearly 30 years now and because of this the landscape has been very much changed by the conflicts over this long period of time. This 12 picture series is one chapter in a continuous project Norfolk has been creating which attempts to understand how war and the need to fight war has shaped our world. The project also explores how daily life is influenced by military conflict through the technology we use and films we watch for example.

I took a particular interest in Afghanistan: Chronotopia, because of the way Norfolk uses landscape photography and takes influence from romantic paintings of ruins, to document this unique landscape that now looks to be post apocalyptic with these visible layers of damage and ruin. To get the kind of rich yellow light we see in these photographs that is alike to that of paintings by Constable and Turner he would get up at dawn to photograph these landscapes. What is so potent about these photographs is that they show that the natural landscape can tell us stories and just how much war shapes and designs not our society but also our landscape. 

I find these photographs deeply haunting in the way they lack any actual human presence and that the only remains of these attacks are the technology and weapons such as unexploded bombs and abandoned tanks rather than there being any traces of those killed fighting in this war zone. It just further communicates how inhuman wars actually are, and that in order to study wars you have to study ruins.

The word 'chronotype' refers to a landscape that displays layers of time. The chronotopia of Afghanistan acts like a shattered reflection of the landscape's past. The ruins show old civilisations and what has been lost over the years. Norfolk's photographs in this series show us a landscape now devoid of these civilisations and life, instead they have the ruins of their past and the weaponry of war.

In the way war shapes this landscape I think it will be interesting to show how stories such as hauntings add social meanings to the places they have occurred in. This project has given me a lot more to consider for both my five picture story and my self directed project in how I can use landscape photography to tell a story and how much aesthetic considerations such as the time of day a photograph is taken at can change the entire feeling of an image.

SDA Brief and Initial Ideas

Taking single pictures is easy. Telling a story through the intelligent edit, layout and construction of a series of images is an integral part of becoming a successful press and editorial photographer. Using your knowledge of the building blocks of editorial photography you are now being asked to complete a number of assignments with strict restrictions on the number of pictures that can be submitted for assessment and getting used to producing quality work within short deadlines. These two assignments are an opportunity to find stories and subjects you are interested in and passionate about. Through weekly tutorials and critiques you will become aware of the editing process and story construction. 

For the next brief we have been tasked with creating two sets of five picture stories. The first being a more focused five picture story and the second a self directed assignment that should sustain you throughout the semester as you explore the subject matter and how you want to photograph it. 

For my self directed project below is a list of some my current ideas for subject areas...

Arts

- Artists, studios, arts education in Cornwall

- Dance studios, circus companies

Nature/Conservation

- Gardens of Cornwall

- Conservation projects

Cornish Culture

- Producers of Cornish Food

- Fishing Industry

- Sports

- Ship Wrecking

Paranormal

- Ghosts

- UFOs

- Spiritualism

I have taken a particular interest in the more paranormal subject areas that I could explore with my work and have spent a great deal of time researching these possibilities so far. I have looked into different groups that investigate the paranormal in Cornwall and those who have claimed to have seen UFOs and it isn't taking me anywhere. I contacted the people who arrange a paranormal meet up in Truro however they told me they already have two photographers for the event. So I have decided to leave that subject matter for now.

I also like the idea of doing a project on arts organisations in Cornwall however I feel that is a subject matter I would like to dedicate a lot more time and energy to than I am able to do with this brief. The same goes for a project on local food producers in Cornwall, spiritualist churches in Cornwall and conservation projects.

Instead I want to explore finding a way to create a picture story still about the paranormal in Cornwall but instead of UFO phenomena I want to look at hauntings as I have found loads of statements about hauntings across Cornwall. I want to find a way to join different stories up to create a study of claims of paranormal sightings to investigate patterns or the kinds of places where hauntings tend to occur. To explore the psycho geography of hauntings in Cornwall.