“Freeze, thaw, flood: the great climatic cycles that carved the topography of the northern hemisphere, and which continue to shape the idea of winter that lies deep in our cultural imagination” – Richard Hamblyn from The River, Winter. Jem Southam.
“To make sense of what I am suggesting it is necessary to reject the notion of time that began in Europe during the 18thC and is closely linked with the positivism and linear accountability of modern capitalism: the notion that a single time, which is unliniear, regular, abstract and irreversible, carries everything. All other cultures have proposed a coexistence of various times surrounded in some way by the timeless.” – John Berger. Forest, Jitka Hanzlova
“Every one of the crossing energies operating in a forest had its own time-scale. From the ant to the oak tree” – John Berger
Grief
It’s been a while since I’ve used a camera for anything expressive. I have been exploring other media for a while now, mostly ceramics but some printmaking. No project, just play and experimentation and learning techniques. The truth is I have been struggling to find a way to take on the issues I want to address, the huge issues of environmental disaster that our world is facing. When I was a child, I was told this was the greatest time to be alive. What a fucking lie.
Some of us are all too aware of what is going on. Greta Thunburg tells us to “act as if your house is on fire. Because it is .” And yet the hell continues on.
I am making changes in my personal life. Buying mostly second hand clothes, cutting down on plastic (I still have a way to go with this, food packaging being the hardest to get around), composting food waste, planting bee friendly seeds and organic bulbs, boycotting, petitioning, feeling like I’m completely trapped in a society where it’s almost impossible to feed and house myself without contributing to the destruction of our environment. I feel angry, and hopeless, and scared and also still hopeful – but I know the situation is dire.
I watched the film Albatross recently. Everyone needs to see it. We know about the plastic problem but seeing just a tiny glimpse of the reality of that problem, even just contained to one small family of birds…. heartbreaking. I watched and I cried. I cried and I cried and I was hit by so much grief.
And I thought I have to do something.
But I am really not sure how.
So I thought more about the film, how just one story could represent a thousand stories and bring attention to the much wider issue.
I’m thinking of starting close to home. My garden in fact. And hedgehogs.
Pembrokshire
It’s been a while since i’ve done any serious photography but i have been very busy learning pottery. I needed something really tactile and it is very grounding working with a material from the earth.
Going back to being a total beginner at something is both exciting because i can create and experiment with little expectation, to intimidating as i have to stop myself from thinking that it will be years before i can produce anything that might be worthy of showing.
The thing im finding with ceramics is that pottery tends to be viewed very much as a craft, and im finding that in the art world, craft tends to be looked down upon. Where once there were lessons in “art & crafts” now art is usually paired with design. Most designs are mass producable. I was beginning to feel that outside of Japan, functional ceramics just arn’t valued… So thank you Pembrokshire!
I saw some incredible pieces at the Narberth Pottery, all at very affordable prices. I was also surprised at how much pottery cropped up in souvinier shops, art shops and local galleries as well as an antiques shop in Narberth having a fantastic selection. Suddenly i didn’t feel so alone!
I found some nice rocks down on the beach which i have used to imprint into stoneware clay.
cof
mde
cof
cof
I have also developed a little love for coracles after seeing them at Carew castle.
Some of you may know that I’ve started working with clay again this year after a long time away from the medium. I was lucky enough to be able to do an AS in ceramics at college but it’s been a long time since then so I’m enjoying playing around with a tactile medium again. Sometimes I just want to express something that doesn’t fit with photography. I also have some ideas to combine the two.
As clay comes from the earth it feels fitting to use it to make work about the earth.
As someone who cares deeply about the environment I intend to create work about my concerns for the vast amount of plastic man is creating.
I have started a working on a project of “fossilized” plastic objects.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/06/qa-will-fossil-record-preserve-your-computer
Photoblock 2017
I wanted to say a huge thank you to all my Kickstarter backers who helped make my exhibition at this years Photomasters a success.
I am also extremely grateful to Georgina from The Old Truman Brewery who gives recent MA graduates this opportunity to exhibit alongside top photographers. That is the magic of Photoblock – being able to see award winning images from the AOP and RPS exhibitions next door stapled paper zines from Zines of the World.
Photoblock celebrates the different styles of photography and i was happy to see Tif Hunter again this year with his beautiful tintypes. It was also wonderful to hear he won in the open award single image category. With so many developments in digital photography, it’s exciting to see photographers working with antique processes being recognized.
You can see the AOP winning images here. https://www.the-aop.org/image/news/post/2017/10/13/the-guardian-association-of-photographers-awards-in-pictures
Another highlight of Photoblock was Giles Duley’s talk on his exhibition “I Can Only Tell You What My Eyes See.” Giles images are extremely moving and powerful but what i love loved most about this exhibition was the inclusion of artworks from child victims of war. Among their images of sadness, there was hope, optimism and resilience, themes that Giles portrays in his photographs so well. Giles commented on how charities often claim they are “giving people a voice” but knows that we should do away with this notion. These people already have a voice. His work is helping those voices to be heard.
I regret not attending The Supper Club, a dinner for 100 guests with home made Syrian food which Giles described as “a guided tour of the exhibition by myself, and as we eat – talks, music, a celebration of arts and debates on action that can be taken. Every night, a slightly different mix.” I will also say that the food smelt incredible and the tables looked truly beautiful. https://icanonlytellyouwhatmyeyessee.com/2017/09/08/details/
I also fell in love with Tommy Clarke’s aerial images of Iceland. I am often told that my Polaroid Manipulations remind people of aerial photos so its no surprise i loved these images. I think he is one of the few photographers whose work i would love to purchase if my budget would stretch that far! https://tommyclarke.co.uk/artworks/categories/21/
Once again a huge thank you to John Rovira, Hervé All, Thomas Bull, Tim Houldsworth, Seb Brix, Emily Sewell, Chris Tompkins, Leah Lee, Rose James, Keith Colbert and James Rogerson for your support.
New Polaroid Manipulations
New images – I will be displaying some of these at this years Photomasters exhibition in October.
Lumen Prints
I am wondering how i missed out on making lumen prints for all this time. What a great way to use up old or fogged photo paper. I created these at home using a piece of board, a sheet of glass and 2 bull
dog clips to create a frame, then some dead flowers i had kept and some fogged paper.
Both of these exposures were somewhere around the 45minute mark.
To create a lumen prints simply take a sheet of unexposed photopaper, layout your subject in the dark (dim light should be fine too) and take outside to expose. When happy, bring it back inside and scan it. I don’t have a working scanner at home so i stored mine in a lightproof bag until i was ready to scan.
I see a lot of lumen prints of plants and flowers – clearly inspired by John Herschel. I suspect more interesting images will be produced with more experimental subjects.
Thoughts on Photography, Ideas, Works in Progress 