Reflections on Part 2 of the Course Notes

Reading through the course notes for Part 2: Chance prompted me to think back through my own Body of Work up to and Including Assignment 3.  We are asked to consider whether our work is taking on a direction of its own and are we prepared to go with it or whether we are resisting a certain direction due to effort, closed mind or other reasons.  When I think back to Assignments 1 and 2 and my original plans for Assignment 3 my work is nowhere where I expected it to be at this stage.  In Assignment 1 I explored several different options: Intimate Landscapes inspired by the work of Eliot Porter, Flowers in an Industrial Setting, Industry within the Landscape, A Walk with Psychogeography along the Lincolnshire Coast and The Water Rail Way - a project inspired by psychogeography and personal journeys.

 By the time I came to Assignment 2 all of these had largely gone by the board.  My tutor felt that by basing my work on the photography of one artist (Eliot Porter) was to go down one narrow line of inquiry too early and close off other options.  It was also felt that the psychogeography work along the Lincolnshire coast was too similar to a project from PWDP.  With this in mind, I favoured the Water Rail Way but decided to focus on the River Witham itself which flows parallel to the Way.  This led me to a fascination with the sacredness of the river and to investigate the large number of abbeys in the Witham Valley.  My original idea for Assignment 3 was to walk from Lincoln Cathedral along the Viking Way Long Distance Footpath to my home village of Woodhall Spa visiting and photographing all of the Abbeys along the way.  Through discussion with my colleagues at our fortnightly 'hangout' sessions I changed direction again.  I was asked "Why walk?" to which I didn't have an immediate answer.  Having time to reflect on this and researching the work of artists and photographers whose work centred on walking I came to realise that the answer was obvious: walking is what I do and have always done.  I walked everywhere as a child and came to love walking for its own sake, especially mountain walking and spent many holidays walking in mountains both in the UK and the Alps and Pyrenees.  I have found it to be a meditative experience which allows me to slow down and fully experience the landscape I travel through.  Through consulting with my tutor I also decided to leave out the abbey aspect and focus on the walking itself.  My one regret is that I didn't come to this realisation earlier and walk the length of the River Witham for Assignment 2.

 In order to continue my work into Assignment 4 I intend to continue walking, but also place an emphasis on the question of wilderness as this is what I am exploring in my Contextual Studies extended written project.  However, I have thought that I knew where I was going before, so who knows where my investigations will lead me.  Interestingly, when I look back to Assignment 1, I note that in Assignment 3 I took many 'Intimate Landscapes' so Eliot Porter's inspiration is still there.  For Assignment 4 I plan on looking at Wilderness areas within Lincolnshire, especially 'Edgelands Landscapes', which will bring me back to looking at industrial landscapes and how nature has reclaimed post industrial settings slowly returning the land to a new type of wilderness. Perhaps my work is returning to my starting points?

As far as making 'mistakes' are concerned I would like to think that I would capitalise on it as Paul Graham and Alec Soth did in their work.  I am reminded of the 'accidental' work of photographer Gideon Mendel who spoke at a discussion at The Hepworth, Wakefield, that I attended.  He had been photographing flood damage and portraits of the people whose homes had been flooded when he dropped his Rollieflex film camera into the water.  Although it dried out the resulting corrosion produced some interesting effects that he liked and kept as part of his work.  In a similar way photographers have been known to use outdated film stock for the effect it produces.

Although I shall be going out with some objective in mind when I continue with my body of work, I hope that I shall be open to all opportunities, whether they occur naturally or are suggested to me by others.  Discussion with my tutor has elicited the response that I still need to take the photography deeper and continue to bring out my personal voice by taking a radically experimental approach, questioning the way I am representing the landscape at a very deep level in order to reach some kind of resolution by the end of the course.  So there is the challenge.  At the moment I am not sure how to achieve this, but I hope that by keeping an open mind and continued reflection a way forward will emerge.

Rydal Falls: The Ultimate in Picturesque?

Back in March, whilst in the Lake District I was keen to visit Rydal Mount and the Lower Rydal Falls, as this must be one of the 'Holy of Holies' of the Romantic Picturesque.  Today it is possible to walk past the house and look down from a bridge over the river onto 'The Grot' and Rydal Lower Falls.  In 1668, though, when 'The Grot' was built this bridge did not exist and the falls could not be seen from this spot.  The Grot, a grade II listed building, was built specifically to view the falls from its window.  In 1668 it was not possible to see the falls  except through the window, when the building was entered.  It became famous as part of the Picturesque movement as an example of a wild and rugged scene to inspire dramatic landscape painting.  The building was restored between 2005 and 2007 and is now as it was 350 years ago.  It is now possible to view the falls as Wordsworth, Gilpin and many other 18th and 19th century tourists have done.  Not only were they told what to look at, but how to look at it.  For all that, it is interesting and the falls spectacular, although it is much more satisfying to get out on the hills and find some spectacular falls for oneself.

Between Instagram and the Photobook: The Democracy of Photography. Discussion at the Hepworth, Wakefield

I decided to attend this chaired discussion at the Hepworth, Wakefield, after seeing it advertised when I attended the Martin Parr exhibition in March.  The panel was chaired by Tom Dukes, curator at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool.  On the panel were Bex Day, Bruno Ceschel and Gideon Mendel.  Each member of the panel spoke about themselves and their work and this was followed by a discussion chaired by Tom Dukes.

Bex Day
Bex Day is a photographer and photo editor of the biannual photo magazine PYLOT.  PYLOT magazine specialises in all-analogue fashion and photography content, aiming to pioneer a modern approach in a digitally saturated world.  According to its website it has a philosophy of no beauty re-touching.
Bex explained that she found printed matter the most exciting form of image.  Although, important, she feels that images on social media are temporary and should lead to print.  She feels that social media is a double edged sword: encourages laziness, but enables photographers to become known.  She wouldn't have been where she was without it.  Today, she said, everybody considers themselves a photographer and many think that the number of followers they have is more important than the work itself.  She still finds social media, particularly Instagram, vital to her work.  Both Bex, herself and PYLOT magazine have Instagram pages.  She argued that although technology has advanced, people's brains lag behind and are unable to cope with the proliferation of images on social media.  She is a supporter of self-publishing, whether by social media or printed photobook.  Publishing a photobook, she argued, is not going to make money, but it is worth doing for its own artistic value.

Bruno Ceschel
Bruno Ceschel is a writer, curator and lecturer at the University of the Arts, London and ECAL.  His background is in traditional publishing and he is the founder of Self Publish Be Happy an organisation that supports and promotes the work of emerging photographers.  Both he and Self Publish Be Happy have an Instagram presence.  SPBH has used both Facebook and Tumblr in the past but has now moved onto Instagram.  He says that there has been an explosion of photobooks during the early years of the 21st century because of technological changes.  Accessibility is a key factor and it is now easier to publicize and distribute and a community has built around this.  A good photobook is one where the pictures, design and the object itself stand out.  The most common mistake is when people try to produce something for which they don't have the required design and technical production skills.  The trick is to keep it simple.  

Gideon Mendel
Gideon Mendel is originally from South Africa.  He works with social issues of a global concern and his projects are often long-term commitments.  Since 2007 he has been working on his Drowning World project; this is is personal response to the problem of climate change.  Although steeped in traditional analogue photography using rollieflex film cameras, he now also uses digital and like the other two panelists, has an Instagram account.  He admits to being book phobic and says that he is not good at slowing down and completing things; he is always moving on to the the next project.  In his Drowning World project he has worked in 13 countries world wide.  We were shown heartrending images of distraught people standing in water in their flooded homes.  He feels that digital is fine for landscape work but it doesn't work for him with the portraiture of his Drowning World subjects as the camera was in front of his face and acted as a barrier between himself and the subject.  With his Rollieflex TLR it was held at waist level.  He dropped his Rollieflex in the water in Haiti, dried it out and continued using it, but soon corrosion began to affect the images.  He liked the very interesting results.  He really enjoys using Instagram and tries to post one meaningful photograph per day.

During the open discussion Tom Dukes suggested that with Instagram (and other social media?) we can say that we are all authors.  Bruno responded by arguing that a print is a totem of the photographic experience.  He is resistant to the fact that everything has to be judged on a monetary value; it is more important to make work for its own sake.  Self publishing is a way of sharing that experience.  Instagram and photography is just a type of language.  Bex felt that it is important to have a community of like-minded people to share work.  Although PYLOT encourages the print and analogue photography, without digital and Instagram it would not exist.  They wouldn't use perfectly retouched images.

A question from the audience centred on the problem of people stealing other's work from the internet.  The general concensus from the panel was that this did not worry them if they posted material on social media.  Gideon argued that we have to decide what we are going to give away for free in order to promote our work and create an audience.  It was not a worry to Bex.  Bruno felt that copyright was not a problem, but future accessibility to images locked up in computers is more of an issue.  He argued that in 50 years the visual language of today will disappear.  There was a consensus that it was important to keep work as prints or in photobooks to ensure longevity of access.

Tom asked the panel about the abundance of imagery.  Bruno suggested that it made visual language very homogenous.  When asked he said that he published 70% of the work sent to SPBH, but most people knew what they stood for.  He said that there are so many images around nowadays that people tended to have a 'visual shower' every day.  A member of the audience stressed the need for self-editing and only publish on Instagram or in photobooks our very best work.  Bex agreed that that was the point of the photobook. i.e more considered work.  Gideon agreed that there was a great deal of mediocre work on social media.  He finished the session by arguing that we should edit and then print our best work.

All in all and excellent afternoon and well worth the trip.

Body of Work Assignment 3: Final Submission

 For this assignment I decided to walk from Lincoln cathedral along the Viking Way long distance footpath to my childhood village of Woodhall spa visiting all of the abbeys on the east bank on the way.  The original idea for this walk was the high concentration of abbeys in the Witham Valley, but I soon realised that the real inspiration was the walk itself.

Why walk apart from the fact that I enjoy walking and have always walked for pleasure since childhood?  Like both Hamish Fulton and Paul Gaffney I have long found walking (and running and cycling) to be a meditative experience, particularly in mountain landscapes.  When walking in mountains, especially when on my own, I have a very strong sensation that I never want to come down.  Walking allows me to slow down and fully experience and appreciate the landscape that I travel through.  It not only provides exercise and improves health, it nourishes the mind, providing spiritual refreshment through contact with nature.  The natural world has always been important to me and during my walk I delighted in my observations: the buzzards wheeling in the air and calling over Kirkstead Abbey and Long Wood, the tiny goldcrest, the UK's smallest bird searching for food, the first coltsfoot in flower and early frogspawn in a small pond and the marsh harrier hunting over the river.  The Viking Way passes around and through several of the Lincolnshire Limewoods, relics of our post-glacial primeval wilderness.  This walk was undertaken at the end of winter when the natural world was just 'waking up' and the woods were quiet, but in a few weeks the colours will lose their subtle browns and bronzes and become a riot of colour and sound from flowers, insects and bird song.  As I approached Woodhall  the more the paths, woods and fields became familiar.  In my childhood I knew where to find every animal, plant and bird's nest.

 Understanding and interpreting the landscape stimulates enjoyment and imagination, the abbeys that I visited being a case in point.  Every landscape represents a story through time, including the layered history of human activity and contact with nature described by Simon Schama in Landscape and Memory.  Walking is very definitely a very special experience and while taking the photographs for this part of my body of work it enabled me to meditate on the memories and myths of past ages that the land and people hold as Simon Schama describes.

The work has been edited into three subsets: Wider landscapes and wider views of paths, Close-ups of paths and, finally,  Intimate Landscapes.  The first set begins

with wider landscapes to set the scene, the first being of the River Witham with Lincoln Cathedral in the background, where it all began.  In this section the images move on to wider views of the paths along which I walked, both helping to set the scene and also to point towards the importance of walking.  The second set concentrates much more on the paths travelled and, hopefully, draws the viewer's attention to them, whether large or small.  The final set features much more intimate landscapes where I examine the land I am passing through in much more detail; I have really slowed down the pace of things here and dwell on the deep experience and appreciation of the minutiae of the landscape.

Set 1

 Set 2

Set 3

Research and Bibliography for Assignment 3

I have researched three photographer artists while researching this part of my body of work: Richard Long, Hamish Fulton and Paul Gaffney and links to the relevant blogs are indicated.  All three base their work on walking. Richard Long began his work by photographing his walks, often the 'footpath' that he had created by walking back and forth along it. Some of my images of actually paths were taken because of that inspiration.  Long has since expanded his work to include sculpture both in the land, which he photographs, and in the studio/gallery and also the use of text.  Unlike Long who alters the landscapes he passes through, Fulton treads softly and leaves no indication of his passing.  Like Long, however, Fulton began with photography, but gradually text has taken over more and more.  His aim was to engage with the land and nature and he feels that walking is a meditative experience.  He says that a walk has a life of its own and does not need to be materialized into an artwork.  He also says that and artwork may be purchased but a walk cannot be sold.  Unlike Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, contemporary photographer Paul Gaffney still relies totally on his photography.  In fact, he chooses not to add text to his images as he feels that it would distract the viewer from the photograph and he argues that lack of caption adds mystery to the pictures.

Liz Wells (2011) reminds us that in the early years of photography, the photographer would travel on foot to reach his desired location, but during the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st car, ownership has become widespread, rail travel is faster and we have cheap air travel.  Travel has become associated with speed of access.  She argues that walking is different, with a slower pace and an increased experience of the environment.  Walking, she points out, is a reflective experience and all of the senses are brought to bear.  She suggests that walking is a whole body experience and integrates the sensual and the cerebral.  Walking is also sequential.

References and Bibliography

Bowditch, T and Rochowski, N. (2016) Paul Gaffney Global Archive Photography Available from: http://globalarchivephotography.com/project/paul-gaffney/  [Accessed 23.2.16]

Deakin, R. (2007) Wildwood, A Journey Through Trees 2nd Edition London Penguin Books Ltd

Gaffney, P. 92016) Paul Gaffney [online] Available from: http://www.paulgaffneyphotography.com/About [Accessed 23.2.16]

MacFarlane, R. (2013) The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. London. Penguin

Padley, G. (2013) We Make the Path by Walking by Paul Gaffney. British Journal of Photography [online]. Available from: http://www.bjp-online.com/2013/11/we-make-the-path-by-walking-by-paul-gaffney-book-review/ [Accessed 23.2.16]

Parkin, T. (2010) Chris Friel On Landscape [online] Available from: https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2010/12/featured-photographer-chris-friel/ Accessed [10.2.16]

Pavord.A. (2016) Landskipping: Painters, Ploughmen and Places. London. Bloomsbury 

Turner Contemporary (2012) Hamish Fulton: Walk  [online] Available from: https://www.turnercontemporary.org/media/documents/Hamish-Fulton-background-resource.pdf [Accessed 21.02.16]

Schama, S. (1995) Landscape and Memory London, Harper Collins

Shepherd, N. 2011. The Living Mountain London, Canongate Books

Wells, L. (2011) Land Matters: Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity. London, I.B.Tauris