Hull International Photography Festival.

This is the third year of the Hull International Photography Festival.  The event headquarters, the HIP Gallery is based in Princess Quay Shopping Centre, built over the old Princess Dock. Five of the exhibitions were centre here with other venues around the city.

The Travel Photographer of the Year Exhibition 2016

TPOTY began in 2002 when Chris Coe, a professional travel photographer, was becoming increasingly frustrated by the growing attitude amongst image buyers and picture editors towards travel images.  So many photographers were taking great images, but they weren't being used because they didn't conform to the rather predictable pretty pictures which most publications gravitated towards.  Chris went on to set up TPOTY as a foil to this practice in order to celebrate and recognize the breadth of subjects covered by travel photographers and demonstrate the creativity and skills required to take truly outstanding travel images.

The exhibition is on the ground floor of the central atrium of Princess Quay.  Images were displayed on large curved display boards and generally had white borders with a thin black line around.

The competition comprises several categories, some of which are listed below:-
Faces, People, Encounters
The winner of this category was the Australian photographer Mitchell Kasaschevitch.  His winning shot of a Romanian widow preparing pumpkins for the winter particularly attracted me, especially the great concentration on her face.  I thought that the similar colours worked well too with the ladies purple jumper and the orange pumpkins being pleasing to the eye.  I also liked his image of a Romanian shepherd.  He is pictured on a hillside with his sheep with a misty valley behind.  An aperture of f4.5 allowed the face to be sharp to draw in the viewer.
Street Culture/New Talent Portfolio
The winner of this section from China was Zhu Jingyi.  The expression on his image of a Chinese pancake maker was absolutely fantastic; you could feel the heat from the oven into which he was plunging his arm.  I also enjoyed the happy smiling expression on the face of his old man washing beans.  I also enjoyed the commended monochrome image of Malaysian photographer Yi Chan Tang of a man and dog sitting outside a shop in KolKata, India with a bicycle going past which was shown with motion blur.  Carlos Esteves from Portugal had a highly commended image of a woman walking away from the camera down a narrow side street taken through a doorway.
Colours of the World
Canadian Larrie Louie's shot of Tibetan prayer flags was the winning image in this category.  Lighting was subtle and muted and motion blur gives an abstract feel to the shot.
Nature and the Environment
Alessandra Meniconzi's picture of choughs tumbling in the air above a mountainous backdrop was fascinating.  I am assuming they were a flock, but as they were nearly silhouettes they looked as though they had been stuck on or photoshopped in.  Also in this category was and image of a polar bear by Anette Mossbacher from Germany.  I liked the way the bear was small in the image showing it in its habitat.  The turquoise blue colour of the ice was fabulous and always wins me over.  Another image from this section was a close up of an egret by Jianhui Liao from China.  This was an excellent portrait and showed great control of the light.
Overall Travel Photographer of the Year.
The winning images of the competition were both in a different room and also mounted differently.  They were very large prints mounted on aluminium (?) with a slight texture.  They were by Marcel Van Oosten from the Netherlands and taken in the Louisiana mangrove swamps in America.  They were impressive images some of a canoeist in the mangroves, although they were more about the landscape than the canoeist, and a series of a pelican taken from very close with a wide angle lens.

Overall I felt the quality was very high and I enjoyed many of the images that were on show.  There was a detailed caption with each image including technical information.  Accepted in this competition style of exhibition, but do they give too much information and not leave enough for the viewer to question the image.

Ian Macdonald; Smith's Dock
This body of work came about with the announcement of the closure of the Teeside yard by by British Shipbuilders in 1986.  Ian Macdonald and Len Tabner were already collaborating on a book about the Tees estuary which was published in 1989.  Smith's Dock was a major part of the life of the river and of the local landscape.  Macdonald was commissioned by British Shipbuilders to document the closure and the work was produced from August 1986 until the final closure in November 1987.

The images were taken on a 5x7 field camera using glass plates and a heavy wooden tripod.  The images are large black and white prints mounted on cream in either brown wooden or black aluminium frames.  Interestingly the aluminium frames were made by men working on the yard.  There was a mix of frames throughout the exhibition and in my opinion it would have been better to have all of one type of frame together.  It's a pity that they couldn't have all been framed in the aluminium.  Of course it is possible that the two sets (?) of images may have been exhibited separately over the years and only brought together for this exhibition.  Very detailed captions were next to each image and, perhaps gave too much information for the viewer.

Unsettled; Isabelle Pateer
This body of work documents the impact of change on the small Belgian village of Doel near Antwerp.  The village has its roots in medieval times and even has the family house of the painter Rubens, although it is not shown.  Today, though, the village has to make way for the expansion of Antwerp Docks and is scheduled for demolition.  In fact, in 2008 riot police were sent in to persuade the remaining 200 villagers to move out.
Images are large colour prints in grey frames with no border.  I felt that it was a eulogy for a life past and gone.  A sad area and sad, overlooked, people.  All in the name of progress.  As Sarah Maitland says in Gossip from the Forest "Ghosts of a lost way of Life."
I found this a particularly poignant and moving exhibition.

One Carefree Night, Ghetto Prom - Ilvy Njiokiktjien
In the gang-ridden area of Manenberg, Cape Town, schools are forced to close down because it is too dangerous for pupils to walk to them.  Most people in Manenberg never finisg high school because they end up in crime.  The few that do have one thing in mind: their senior prom.  The families of the teenagers save up the whole year to be able to celebrate in style for one carefree night.

I felt that this exhibition portrayed hope in a desperate area.  These young people are determined to celebrate their wonderful achievement against all the odds.

Coming Home - Group Show.
This exhibition brought together the work of 13 photographers from Cleveland College of Art and Design whose work revolved around ideas of home, lifestyle, family, friends and environment.  Each of the photographers revealed a part of themselves through their images.  The photographs show us that not all their journeys are equal or the same, though they all showed that at some point we all think about coming home.  I felt that in some there was a bleakness and sadness to them, which I found unsettling.  One series portrayed intimate glimpses of the life of an elderly person, perhaps an aging relative.

Saturday Girl
This exhibition was full of life and colour.  It was a collection of portraits which explored the many playful and powerful ways we express ourselves.  The photographs were taken in a touring studio throughout the UK during 2016 and on into 2017.  Young women who wish to be identified as a 'Saturday Girl' are invited to be photographed.  This is a project by Dr. Casey Orr, Photographer and Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University School of Art, Architecture and Design.

The images were very large colour prints on matt paper with a narrow white border.  They were simply hung with bulldog clips.

Further Reflections on Assignment 4

Feedback from Peer led Hangout Group and 'Crit' Session at Brighton Study Weekend.

I have shared the work from my last BOW blog post (link here)  with both my Hangout group and fellow students and tutors at the Brighton Study Weekend.  The main points are noted below:-

• The Hangout Group felt that they enjoyed looking at the images and that the idea was compelling and the images evocative.
• It was felt that the final image was structurally different and acted as a punctuation point.  It was good to place it last as it acted as a reflection back into the other images.
• The image with the gate could also be used as a punctuation point.
• It was suggested that I think about how the images affect the narrative (see point made by Clive at Brighton below).
• The less definite paths worked particularly well.
• The images were technically good.
• Although there are no people in the images, there is evidence of humanity.
• One member of the group felt anchored on the path, more so when they led from the middle of the image.
• The ones without tyre marks were possibly more meditative.
• The images reminded one member of the group of the Buddhist cycle of life.
• It was felt that the images invited the viewer to walk into them and along the path.
• There is potential for the viewer to get a great deal out of them.
• Both the Hangout Group and the Brighton group felt that the square format works for uniformity of format (a general point stressed by Clive at Brighton) and distances the work from the picturesque.
• The lack of a horizon reduces the ability to resolve the images in the frame and the viewer needs to enter into a dialogue with the image; they question the viewer.
• It was felt by both the Hangout group and the Brighton group that a couple of the images were taken in sunny conditions rather than the more muted light of the others.
• It was suggested by Clive that I should find ways to pair/group the images to help the narrative and the way they are viewed.
• Both the Hangout Group and the Brighton group felt that the text was still too long and gave too much information.  Clive felt that I needed to remove the more romantic references.
• The general feeling was that only a hint should be given towards folk tales and remove more explicit references.

I was delighted with this feedback and found it both positive and that it gave pointers for further improvement.  On reflection I have further edited the text which I include below, removed the two 'sunnier' images and, having looked for ways of pairing/grouping the images, reordered them.

Walking in Woods

Walking allows me to slow down and fully experience and appreciate the landscape through which I travel.  When walking in woodland, it is easy to lose and find oneself again, to reflect, meditate and to reconnect with the world.  Footpaths disappearing into the distance are seductive, often occurring in literature and fairy tales.  Woods can be places of mystery where the characters become lost and then find their way again.  In woodland, paths often wind and twist and seem to have no purpose except to be followed.  The horizon is limited and paths often disappear round a corner or into a hole in the vegetation leaving the walker to speculate on where they might lead or who they might meet.  

Exhibition Visit. Fitties: Image, Text, Memory in Place

Fitties: Image, Text, Memory in Place

Photographs by Annabel McCourt, Texts by Harriet Tarlo, Paintings by Judith Tucker.

The Humberston Fitties is a century old colony of about 300 chalets, huts and cabins on former salt marsh (fitties) on the Lincolnshire coast south of Cleethorpes.  This exhibition is inspired by this particular and unique location, as well as by memories of those who have stayed on the Fitties over the years.  The exhibition emerges from Project Fitties, a collaboration between these three artists to realise a cross-disciplinary project.  The artists invited people to contribute postcards of their memories and also conducted interviews in order to deepen their picture of the Fitties past and present.

Some of the images and texts show the Fitties in the context of the esturial marsh and beach land surrounding the site, while other, more intimate pohotographs, paintings and poems evoke the past and present, exteriors and half-hidden interiors of the holiday chalets and the relationship between people and place.  In the ground floor exhibition space (part of the Discovery Centre cafe) are large-scale striking paintings, open form poems and a series of black and white photographs entitled The Closed Season.  Upstairs, the artists get closer to the people of the Fitties.  There is a large memory map occupying the whole of one wall with personal memories written on postcards, intimate paintings of individual dwellings, portraits photographs and found texts created  from the names of chalets and from spoken and written words by individual.

This is a part of my local area to which I am continually attracted for walking, bird watching and photography.  I found this exhibition particularly evocative and was inspired by the juxtaposition of text and image.

Continuing Thoughts on Assignment 4

Since yesterday I have made a further edit on the footpath images and include them below.  The unedited set can be found in the previous blog at this link.  I have also had an initial attempt at writing the text that might accompany the images.  I am conscious that it shouldn't be too long or answer too many questions.  I would also like it to be quite emotive.

Walking in Woods

Walking allows me to slow down and fully experience and appreciate the landscape through which I travel; to be a ‘human being’, rather than a ‘human doing’.  It not only provides exercise and improves health; it nourishes the mind, providing spiritual refreshment through contact with nature, allowing for the study of the appearance of things.  When walking in woodland, it is easy to lose and find oneself again, to reflect, meditate and absorb the natural world around; it allows me to reconnect with the world.  Woods, especially beech woods are often likened to cathedrals, which are also places of calm and contemplation.

Footpaths disappearing into the distance are seductive.  They, along with the ‘forest’  occur in literature and fairy tales.  Woods are often places of mystery where the characters become lost such as the Wildwood in The Wind in the Willows, Mirkwood and Fanghorn in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and The Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter.  In woodland paths often wind and twist and seem to have no purpose except to be followed.  The horizon is limited and paths often disappear round a corner or into a hole in the vegetation leaving the walker to speculate on where they lead.  Sometimes they may lead to unexpected things or glades and clearings, places of meeting, but with no one to meet.  Sometimes they just disappear to leave the walker with no alternative but to retrace their steps.

As Bilbo Baggins says in The Hobbit ‘The Road (path) goes ever on.')

Yet more thoughts on Assignment 4.

Following a very interesting telephone conversation with my BOW tutor a couple of days ago I have been rethinking my work for assignment 4 yet again.  Assignment 3 had been about walking and I wanted to continue that theme into assignment 4 this time through woodland.  Initially, although I had included images of footpaths disappearing into the distance I had focused on romantically idealized close up images of natural phenomena that I encountered on my walks defaulting to my 'Eliot Porter' style.  When I presented these images to my peer led hangout group the work was, not unnaturally severely criticized, one member of the group expressing shock that I had abandoned the footpath work.  Having reflected on this I went out and looked for less comfortable, more edgy and darker images to balance the idealized ones and perhaps work with them in pairs.  I had also, at this stage converted all images to square format in order to achieve some uniformity as they were a mix of horizontal and portrait format.

 My tutor, like my peer colleague who I had shocked by abandoning the footpaths felt that this should be the way forward as it was walking that was my focus.  He also liked the square format, not only for the uniformity, but it distanced the work from the picturesque somewhat as it moves away from the golden ratio.  He also mentioned the 'Black Square' of Kazimir Malevitch.  Referring to the images that I had already used on the blog Rob liked the fact that there was a calmness to them and he was particularly attracted to the subtle muted lighting.  He liked one or two images that seemed to have 'holes' at the end of the path and they allowed the viewer to question what was through it.  I also feel the same way when the path disappears round a bend or through some undergrowth - it allows the viewer to ask where the path leads; there is no resolution to the image.  He felt that the images would suit a print presentation and he felt that I should avoid leading the viewer on a walk through the woods - no narrative in the series.

I decide to look back through the many images that I collected while working on this body of work and was surprised at how many 'disappearing paths' I had.  I am obviously seduced by paths disappearing into the distance.  I have gathered all of these images together and edited them down to a possible 30 that I would need to edit down further to between 10 and 15.  The next stage is to print these images (included below) onto plain paper to help with the editing process.