Below is my email to my tutor to announce my plan for my critical review. I will now start to work on this review for publication in April 2020.
Hi David I hope you are well and had a good break at Christmas and the New Year. I am now ready to leave for my part 2 of my epic trip down South this time I am Assistant Expedition Leader to South Georgia, Falklands and Antarctic peninsular. You obviously didnt have time to respond to my Assignment 3 but not to worry I will be taking all the stuff i need to continue with part four. My critical review will be on Dorothea Langes photo “Towards Los Angeles”, I will be able to see this on my trip to Route 66 in October. However my work will be with you in April when I return. I will get email from time to time so would be grateful to read your thoughts on the work I have completed recently. I also reran Assignment 2 taking your suggestions in to my work. Thanks for your help and guidance. Yours sincerely Michael Green.515037 — My Websites for my Blogs are: https://michaelgreenoca.wordpress.com https://michaelgreenidentityandplace.wordpress.comhttps://michaelgreencandn.wordpress.comhttp://michaelgreenlevel2landscapeblog.photo.blog
The most important thing I have learnt through completing this work is not to cram too much into the assignment. Keep it simple was great advice from my tutor.
He wanted me to discuss a little more of the technicalities in producing this work. I started by making paper which involved using a blender to pulp fibres from wood and old drawing paper until it was a smooth paste. then I placed this onto a frame with fine filter mesh stretched taut. I then let this air dry before lifting the paper with a scalpel. One out of three sheets failed and were re-pulped to form the next batch. I didn’t bleach or stain the paper it came out the colour I wanted. This method produced paper strong enough to survive the rigours of the washing process later.
I used a metal ruler and rough tore the paper to the size I wanted for my Cyanotypes.
For the solutions I mixed two solutions mix A is 10g of Potassium Ferricyanide which is mixed in 100ml of distilled water.
Solution B is 25g of Ferric Ammonium Citrate with 100ml of distilled water.
These two solutions are kept separate in brown bottles in a cool dark place till I want to coat the paper. Kept like this they will keep for several months.
Next when I want to coat my paper with sensitizer I mix equal quantities of the solution in dim light, Taking care to only mix the amount I will need in the clean mixing bottle. When the two solutions are mixed the resulting solution is light sensitive and has an intense yellow colour. (1)I used the recipe from Thames and Hudsons Book Experimental Photography A Handbook of Techniques.
Next I chose my subjects on my walks along the lane at the back of my home. It was always in the back of my mind that I was in the shadow of Pendle Hill and if it were the 1600s I would be in danger of being called a witch and burnt at the stake.
To make the exposure I placed the sensitized paper on top of a card and then placed a clear piece of Perspex on top of the subject securing with bulldog clips to keep everything tight and in place. The exposure time varied from 5 to 20 minutes depending on the strength of the sunlight. I read my tutors comments about striving for continuity and will do more of this in future. However I agree that as this is more organic work I should leave as is.
Finally I placed the exposed paper in a tray to wash the paper however I rinsed each for three minutes in gently running cold water to start the cleaning process. Then I hung them to dry in air, the cyanotypes change as they dry and in fact continue to dry for several weeks after as they react with the air.
Whilst the process is lengthy it is extremely rewarding and I plan to experiment with larger versions and prints in the coming months.
I read the methods to colour match in Photoshop and experimented with them. I am pleased with the results and the finished results are a nearer colour to the original work. I also read and carried out work to frame the work, thinking about how to present it to a viewer.
I think the work needs a starting point to set the scene. However a poster, map and description is just too much. I have narrowed this down to a one page description of why I completed the work.
I have started to read about critical writing and will add sections to my posts in the near future. I also looked at the suggested work by Laurie Snyder and Liz Nicol.
(2)Snyders work is more precise than mine and makes me realise I must use this process more to master it to her high standards. I plan to make some very large prints of full plants in the near future. However I am pleased with this work as an early starting point. (3)Liz Nicols work with Rubber Bands her daughter found dropped by the postman. This word made me think of a future body of using cyanotypes give a feeling of some part of this landscape others effect.
I have reworked my Cyanotypes and have dropped the Poster and the Map to replace them with a brief description of why I made this work. This is presented in the style of a cyanotype although I manipulated an existing cyanotype in Photoshop. I see them now on a white wall in a gallery next to each other in a level straight line so that each image is equal.
(1)Gomez, Anthonini Minniti, and Lunganella Bendandi. Experimental Photography. London: Thames and Hudson, 2015.
David Bates essay (Bates, 2010) “The memory of photography” discusses lots of different aspects of memory aides from the written word on a notepad to the way we use technology to help us store memories. We tend to mimic our body parts to enhance our bodys functions, we mimic the eye with glasses or cameras and our ears with ear trumpets and hearing aids. Recent technology that allows us to store the vast numbers of images are hard disks and memory chips which mimic part of our brains function.
He catogorizes this in two way Natural Memory the brains natural capacity to remember and artificial memory any device developed to aide our memory.
This could be a page in a notepad about which he says “In that case the surface upon which the note is preserved the pocket-book or sheet of paper, is as it were a materialized portion of my mnemic apparatus, which I otherwise carry about with me invisibly. I have only to bear in mind the place where this “memory” has been deposited and I can then “reproduce” it at any time I like, with the certainty that it will have remained unaltered and so have escaped the possible distortions to which it might have been subjected in my actual memory.” (Freud, 1925).
Throughout the essay he references Freud and his ideas around childhood memories effecting us throughout our lives. But he starts with Freuds ideas around the way humans try to improve on their body parts saying (Freud, 1925) “With every tool man [sic] is perfecting his own organs”. Using motors to enhance muscles lenses to improve sight and hearing devices to analyse sounds differently.
Talking about the cultures that employ photography Freud wonders how using these memory aides will effect our Phsychy “
Derida wonders if our internal memory (Brain) will be short circuited by all the new technology. (4)”Because of the upheavals in progress affected the very structures of the psychic apparatus, for example in their spatial architecture and in their economy of speed, in their spacing and of temporalization, it would be a question no longer of simple continuous progress in representation, in the representative value of the model, but rather of an entirely different logic.”
Once we create these technologies and begin to store images on them then a new problem arises. Just putting images on a hard drive creates an archive it is then up to us how organised this archive becomes. How do we organize? It has always been the most difficult part of photography for me. Derrida wonders (Derrida, 1995) “If these external sources are matched by the inside memory” or how we can make the two match in the future.
When we archive things we create Libraries, Museums and Galleries this creates a new issue. We must be careful how and what we show or we will influence our viewers thoughts.
Le Goff argues (Le Goff, 1992)Commemoration finds new means: coins, medals, postage stamps multiply. From about the middle of the nineteenth century, a new wave of statuary, a new civilization of inscriptions (monuments, street signs, commemorative plaques on the houses of famous people) floods Europe.
He then thinks about our family albums and says “The portrait gallery has become democratic, and each family has in the person of its head, its official portrait-maker. To photograph one’s children is to make oneself the historiographer of their childhood, and to create for them, as a sort of inheritance, the image of what they have been . . .
We can apply this thought to all manner of photography be it public, state, scientific or from any social group. We are creating archives of what has been then deciding how it is shown and therefore remembered.
Bates then discusses Mnemic memories and looks at one photo imparticular this photo is by Fox Talbot and is of Trafalgar Square being constructed Bates states it appears in a book he remembers called (Talbot, 1844) “The Pencil of Nature”. He chose it as it shows Le Goffs principle of memorializing people and incidents and the photograph itself being a memory device. He links it to a childhood memory of living in Portsmouth and visiting Nelsons flagship victory. It is interesting to learn later that the photograph doesn’t appear in the book at all.
On my recent visit to Port Stanley I walked to the memorial for the naval battle in world war one. I remembered it from my time there in 1982. As I walked along I had a memory of a photo of the marines lying on the ground having surrendered. I took a snapshot and was amazed to find how accurately my mind had positioned the shot not seen for thirty years. My memory knew I was in the right place.
On a subsequent visit the Gorse had been on fire and whilst destroying part of the house just visible the greatest danger was from exploding ordinance left by an Argentinian anti aircraft gun where the gorse now grows. Once more man makes a mess and doesn’t cleanup after they have finished.
Marines laid in the road in Port Stanley a photo from memory.Para troopers guard Argentinian prisoners outside the Gin Shop (2020)Prisoners march past the Globe Tavern (2002)Globe Hotel with tanks and debri of war (2020).Armoured car parked in front of church 1982 photo on 2020 revisit.
Works Cited.
Bates, David. “The memory of photography.” Photographies 3:2, 2010: 243-257,.
Derida, Jaques. Archive Fever A Freudian Impression. Chicago and London: Chicago and London Press, 1995.
Freud, Siegmund. “The Mystic Writing Pad.” 1925: 429.
Goff, Jaques Le. History and Memory. London: Oxford, 1992.
Talbot, William Fox. The Pencil of Nature. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1844..
When we moved to our new home three years ago we wanted to find a local Public House to have a meal. We found the Black Lane Ends on trip advisor which had just changed its name from The Hare and hounds.
When I looked online for hostelries in our area I noticed mention of a murder at the pub, I decided to do some research to find out about the story.
In 1862 Betty Moore left her husband Walker and moved into the pub to work for her cousin. After six weeks Walker went to the pub to plead with her to return home when she didn’t he slit her throat and she bled to death yards from where I ate a meal.
Walker was sentenced to death and his executioner was to be one William Calcraft who used the “Short Drop” method of execution. This meant minutes of agony strangling to death.
Calcrafts Journal. (1875).
On August 30th 1863 the sentence was carried out but the rope snapped so Moore was returned to his cell. He requested a visit to the toilet where he drowned himself in the cistern.
So robbing the public of the spectacle of a public hanging, which Calcraft would prolong to give a better spectacle. Even riding the backs of the dying to finish them off.
Charles Dickens was instrumental in having public hangings abolished on the strength of these performances.
My research went from internet where I found out the story, to Colne Library where I read newspaper accounts. Then Calcraft`s journal led me to Charles Dickens who attended several of his executions. These were confirmed at the British Library.
I think a photo project of the details still in the landscape would support the story well. They would fit still today as our government talks of stronger sentences for those found guilty of violent crimes.
Work Cited
advisor, Trip. 2013. (accessed 2015).
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge. London: Museum of Published Literature, 1859..
Library, British. “Journal of William Calvert.” 1875
Library, Colne. “Newspaper Archive.” Colne Herald. Colne, August 13, 1863
I have admired the World Wildlife Fund (2020) in the last few years for its subtle intelligent advertising. Which both informs and gets us to question our behaviours. The photo shown below makes you go cold, with a gun pointing at a child. However some people are prepared to pay large sums of money to shoot the offspring of animals. This must be questioned! Imagine this is yours, is four words that get you to really search your soul.
World Wildlife Fund. Imagin this is yours Ad campaign (2020).
A more subtle use of landscape was used by the national railway to encourage us to travel by train to parts of our country. It shows the perfect ideal of an English country scene. The one the soldiers were sold to protect during two world wars. All open spaces and rolling hills with clean farmers working the land. Again four words “See Britain by Train” clearly states what they want you to do the poster shows you what awaits.
Yorkshire advert from British Railways. (Russell).
My third choice is a clever mock up using a white carrier bag. It looks like an under/over shot of an iceberg, on second look it is a carrier bag in the sea. This picture is clever as it employs the correct proportions in showing us the ice. It was used to great effect by the National Geographic along with the title “Planet or Plastic”, this title states we have a choice. The article gave evidence to help us choose planet.
Carrier bag as iceberg used by National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic magazine cover. (Natioanal Geographic Magazine).
In my picture I want to get the message over about the plastic we discard into the sea. I took a photo of the sea in the style of Hokusai a Japanese painter who painted landscapes of Mount Fuji with seascapes. I will add plastic litter being thrown from the sea by the wave. My words will be like the adverts above, only three words, Save, Our Seas. This will be in black and yellow lettering and the capital letters will spell SOS. This is intentional as it is the recognized message for distress at sea.
David Campany wrote an essay entitled “Safety in numbness”. In it he talks about Hot and Cold images. Hot images are the images captured recording the event and cold images are images that capture the aftermath of the event. Comparing the moving image to the still image Campany states “It is not that a still image naturally say a thousand words, rather that a thousand words can be said about it”.
He says that the moving image when accomapanied by a freeze frame has more power. Cinema uses this to emphasize the power of a memory. He warns us that documentary photography shys away from this type of “Cold” photography as it hints at stillness whereas the “Hot” photo of an event shows the event and its movement and emotion.
Campany discusses three stages of photography 1. Good reportage photographers followed the action in the 1920s to the 1960s. 2. 1960s and 1970s portable video cameras the images were still caught at the point of action but could be punctuated with still images perhaps of the aftermath. 3. 1970s onward changes in media have led to Journalists showing the aftermath more than the event.
In the early days the event was photographed and then censored later so control was in the hands of officials. Then in the second period Photojournalist had more freedom to show the event. Finally in the 3rd period media technology primarily the internet allowed so much freedom that the censors restricted access to the event encouraging this aftermath photography further. “Today it rare that a still image breaks the news”.
The Vietnam War is quoted as the last photographic war being messy and chaotic both making for interesting photographic situations. Journalists were allowed in to the thick of the fighting and although censored they got many images out that told the story of the war. The Gulf War on the other hand was different the images shown were from satelites Journalists were excluded. Showing the aftermath of battle such as “Shell shocked Iraqi troops” or burnt out vehicles on the Basra road. The former allowed the photographer in on the action the latter kept them on the outside.
He claims that a third of photos are video stills so the role of the photographer has become blurred in the arena of news. This all influenced how Joel Meyetoritz approached his work with 9/11 he had started influenced by Henri Cartier Bresson and his “Decisive Moment”. For this project he went back to a camera made in 1942 which demanded a slower approach with more thought.
Part of the appeal of slowing down is the depiction of detail, recording with a patience not allowed in the heat of the action. They are a new kind of Pure in which we are shown how the events have effected people. Using large scenes, closer details and portraits the mood of the aftermath of the event is recorded and shown to the viewer. This gives the photo longevity where the “Hot” photo is emotional but its effect is fleeting.
We are then warned of the danger of this “Late” photography, it can make us just see the beauty of the images and make us reject the original meaning of the image Campany likens it to “A Vampire rejecting Garlic”.
I read this and thought of all the images I have seen in my life there is a clear line in the late 70s when the still image became trapped on the coffee table in the supplements of newspapers and the books we glance through. It must be my aim to elevate my photography to new levels to tell the stories I see.
Part Two.
In this second part of the exercise I have looked at Joel Meyerowitzs work Aftermath. I will discuss how the images make me feel and how they compare to my memories of the news images of the day.
What do I see? I see three types of photography the big scene, the detail and the portraits of people. They have one thing in common they are all considered and you can see time has been spent recording these images.
The photographer must have spent time walking around the scene planning his shots and getting to know the people working on this tragic site. The big scenes are well lit and look almost like film sets when compared to the on the day newshots which were mainly moving images captured on poor quality video cameras so the quality of the image is very different.
The details have been considered to almost punctuate the story. To take us back to the images burnt into our memories no matter what you felt about this day.
The portraits are mainly shot showing the care they took on the site whilst shot from below to give each image power. This shows the care and thought that was taken to record the work going on on the site.
The lighting is perfect and whilst it isn’t studio lighting it is considered and adds to the feeling of the shot shown to us the viewer. They are a different approach to showing us the “Late photograph of an event”.
I have a personal collection of postcards from places I have visited but chose to complete an internet search for postcards of the town I live in Skipton. I did this so I could make an evaluation of what is shown of an ordinary northern market town and then think about my experience of living in it.
Postcards of Skipton.
They all show celebrated places within the town, places that draw visitors in to the town to enjoy a visit. Be it the Parish Church, the War memorial, Canal, Castle or the High Street.
The majority show the streets empty or nearly empty of both people and traffic. Some show a few people going about normal business. These people are well dressed prosperous but small within the frame, the main thing is to show a cohesive space being well used.
The one that is different is the postcard showing fair day in Skipton High Street. It is a coloured/painted photo of a scene full of people enjoying a fair. Livestock is on offer and people again well dressed are buying the livestock or at least judging it. This card celebrates the cohesive nature of the society.
All show tree and plants in full bloom giving the impression of a leafy town full of bloom. They also show blue skies mottled with cumulus clouds. Some of these look manipulated.
My experience of the place is that it is like the postcards for a quarter of the year. The rest of the time it is a Northern market town with its share of terraced housing lining the hills. These are worthy of a postcard themselves. The Mills, Canal and Farm Market are working places that all produced pollution in the past but would be worthy of a collection of postcards to show the nature of our town. All have fine interesting people making their livelihoods these would make a superb study to show the soul of this place.
The postcards I found are attractive to the brief visitors who have visited fleetingly by coach for the day or passed through on their way to days walking in the day. They don’t show the soul of the place.
Graham Cross says of Friths postcards from Egypt “Francis Frith’s images of Egypt, for example, for all their concern with foreign lands, retain the perspective of an Englishman looking out over the land.”
This statement applies to the postcards Frith produced of Egypt. They follow a formula. All are shown from the perspective of a tourist an outsider. They celebrate the fact that you visited this place. They show it factually, as a record of what is there.
People are only used as a reference of scale. Like the postcards of Skipton they could have been made interesting if the photographer had got involved with the people and shown how they related to the shown objects.
All are like painting from the Grand Tour gentleman took to broaden their horizons. Taken from above or using perspective to draw the eye across the vista. All are good pictures but lack depth and only invite a fleeting glance. They could have been much improved if the recorder had got involved with the landscape and shown some of the details or the effect tourism had on it.
When I went to the Pyramids I thought the interesting scene was if you turned around to see Burger King and KFC. Certainly not how Frith wanted us to see the Pyramids.
In 2020 we have been in a state of lockdown I looked at Whitby on a webcam the first Sunday of lockdown. Then I looked at other places around the world and every place was devoid of people, I had never seen any of these place like this. The captured photos reminded me of postcards. So I have tried to make the images into postcards.
When I think of a picturesque painting I see a calming scene one which shows gentle curves with smooth water or perhaps a gently running river. Trees will be somewhere in my picture but they will be in their prime unruffled in bloom. (1)John Constables Haywain is a perfect example of what I would have in mind.
Having read (2)”Landscape and Englishness” by David Matless I realise that I have been pre-programmed to have these visions in my head. This vision of the picturesque was implanted in both the world wars to give the combatants something to strive to return to. The cartoon showing William Smith returning from the war is a great example of the kind of work used to get men to question this idea on their return from the war.
(3)William Smith returns from the war.
I don’t think about picturesque photos being of urban areas or god forbid industrial areas. But why not? they are part of our picturesque landscape. Artists have captured great images of both the urban and industrial areas of our cities. (4)Peter Mitchell traveled around my home town of Leeds and took photos of the change coming to the city. Recording the old and the new with a none judgemental eye. His work is an important document of the city and whilst not my initial idea of picturesque, it is stunning.
Sandwich shop in Leeds Phone box in East Leeds.Quarry Hill Flats being demolished.
All of these photos are challenging but are picturesque. I have focused on them because they are the opposite of what I would have thought of when I began this course.
They work so well because they are challenging like the face of an elderly person with all the wrinkles and lines. These lines make the portrait more interesting. Likewise the derelict nature of the sites photographed make them picturesque.
I will challenge my work going further into this course to show images which challenge whilst being great pictures.
Bibliography
(1)Constable, John. “The Haywain.” National Gallery. 1800. London, 1745.
(2)Ellis, William. “William Smith comes home from the war.” Punch Magazine. England and the Octopus. London, 1928.
(3)Matless, David. Landscape and Englishness. London: Beakton Books, 1998.
After completing my research and experiencing the end of our trip witnessing the indifference the place we were inhabiting showed to mankind I want to show the following things.
1. The many states of the sea.
2. The ease in which nature inhabits this space.
3. The indifference I feel this space shows to mankind.
This space becomes a place when someone or something passes through and briefly becomes part of its existence. Humans have technology that they rely on, This technology soon becomes useless when we over rely on it.
Helen Keller said “Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings.” (1903) We have GPS, EPIRB, Immersion suits not to mention ships and aircraft however when the elements want to take us they will.
When a wilderness takes us we use terms such as “Evil” or “Violent”. After my experience I think the best way to describe the conditions we encountered is indifference, it has no emotion it just is.
It seems strange now that I had been researching Peter Breugel the Elders painting “Landscape with the fall of Icarus”. (Breugel) A painting depicting the way humans show indifference to the suffering of others and how no matter what technologies we employ (Wings) we cannot master the elements we encounter.
The paintings I have researched show the sea in its different states and use it to embroider the story they are depicting.
Picasso described his art thus “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web” (1928).
I want to to show some of the emotions I experienced during the harrowing hours searching the sea for the 38 lost souls. Lost in a plane crash a few miles from the ship I was on. See my research here https://wordpress.com/post/michaelgreenlevel2landscapeblog.photo.blog/560 The inhabitants of this space were indifferent to the suffering of the poor people.
My twelve seascapes all show flight and mastery of the elements we humans with all our equipment, skills and endeavours can never hope to emulate.
This space is one of the largest on the planet it is the Drake Passage part of Southern Ocean below the tip of South America called Cape Horn. Named not because it looks like a animals horn, but after the town in Holland that the explorer William Schouten came from Hoorn in 1616 (Schouten).
This massive space becomes a place when the planets animals including us inhabit it even the most fleeting moment. The position we inhabited on the fateful night of the 10th of December 2019 became the resting place for 38 souls when their C130 transport plane crashed on its way to King Edward Island, Antarctica. This work is a tribute to these lost people.
Bruegels painting shows the indifference of man to the suffering of others. I was amazed by the indifference the worlds media showed to this disaster. I could only find two small articles about the crash one on the BBC news website and one On the Chilean government site. Again showing the indifference of the suffering of others.
Words taken from William Carlos Williams Poem “Landscape with the fall of Icarus” (1962).
According to Breugel when Icarus fellIt was springA farmer was ploughing his fieldThe whole pagentaryOf the year was tingling nearThe edge of the sea concerned with itselfSweating in the sunThat melted the wings waxinsignificantly off the coast there wasA splash quite unnoticedthis was Icarus Drowning!
Work Cited
Keller, Helen. The story of my life. Tuscumbia Alabama: Ladies Home Journal, 1903
Elder, Peter Breugel The. Landscape with the fall of Icarus. Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels.
Picasso, Pablo. “Quotation.” MoMA. Madrid, January 12, 1928.
“Cape Horn.” Cape Hoorn William Schouten. Amsterdam: Globe Press, 1618.
Williams, William Carlos. Landscape with the fall of Icarus. Performed by William Carlos Williams. Pictures from Breugel and other poems, New York. 1962.
Michael Green Landscape Studies 