Assignment 1: Beauty and the sublime

May 2015

Assignment 1 Beauty and the Sublime - Roadside memorials in the landscape

In Burke’s sublime, there is a power or force greater than us at work which causes us to feel inadequate and question what happens beyond humanity. This is portrayed in visual arts by expressing the subject in such a way that the viewer connects with the work and experiences the emotion which completes the cycle. The understanding of the body, science and the universe has moved on since 1857 when Burke published his book “A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful.” Thus his categories do not work for everyone. In order to find the sublime and experience the emotion, one has to associate with a subject which has some spirituality / force/ power behind it which makes us question the subject.

When people drive past roadside memorials at speed, they notice them and experience some thought or emotion, even objecting to them being there, thinking they are an unnecessary way of expressing the grief by the significant others, whilst others think they act as a powerful reminder of how dangerous the roads are. Some people experience the meaning of them but the true power of them can only be felt by standing still and listening to the silence (similar to the noise one hears during an outdoors Remembrance Service.) Burke describes the sublime as being tied up in the emotion of the situation; feeling pain, grief, self-preservation and displaying sympathy for the tragic situation. Whilst the mourners will suffer grief and pain whilst coming to terms with an unexpected death, travellers along the road may associate with the tragedy rather like in play or think how fortunate that it wasn’t them involved in the incident. At one memorial, friends and family come together for a yearly celebration of life in the memorial garden created by the father next to the scene of the tragic accident (the last photograph).

On reading part 2 of Burkes’s Beauty and the Sublime, I understood the message of fear and ultimately terror linked to the sublime. The modern sublime gives the photographer a subject such as roadside memorials and questions people’s views on mortality which was once addressed by the church. As the world becomes more secular the opportunity to discuss this is opened up, although some people may consider their religious beliefs are being violated because this is a very private act on a public highway.  

Burke talks of obscurity and silence as contributing to the sublime. In the following images, I have concentrated on (where possible) not giving the viewer much information so that they focus on the location. When photographing, I experienced the silence of the traffic noise when traffic lights changed or the traffic stopped flowing, although most of these were shot at very busy locations. By using the landscape and the traffic, I hoped to represent the silence I experienced which travellers do not hear when passing the memorial and show how some of the memorials are being reclaimed by the landscape. The danger was in the locations themselves and I had to wear a high vis jacket. Even when photographing at the last location cars did not slow down when entering the 30MPH zone and for one I had to handhold the camera rather than use a tripod as it was too dangerous to kneel in the verge. Traffic influenced my technical choices in the direction of shooting, and where possible I shot on a cloudy day. However, time was limited and I had to visit when the roads were least busy; if necessary visiting or driving past on more than one occasion. The memorials were chosen for ease of access and were ones I drive past on a regular basis.

I found Burke’s description of beauty outdated. For example, when describing a beautiful flower it should have the correct proportions, or have flowing curves, or be frail, or pale in colour. Today we have different standards, shaped by the social and economic factors of our time. In my opinion the beauty in some of my images lies in the fact that wild flowers and trees are growing in the place of a collision, the land is naturalising and the landscape is changing back to how it was before. My personal opinion is that this is more beautiful than artificial flowers, and dead flowers in cellophane are not beautiful. Also, the beauty of the scene can be that people have taken time to visit and refresh the flowers or plaques. However, others may have different ideas. Reading Adams (1996) Essay on Beauty in photography, I came to the conclusion that beauty is linked to aesthetics and “for a picture to be beautiful it does not have to shocking, it must be in some significant respect unlike what has preceded it” (p27). However, even though this is a seldom photographed subject, I do not see the subject as having beauty. William Crane (as cited in the OCA newsletter accessed 21/5/15) states that “Every generation has a different ideal of beauty or perceives a different side of beauty and successively ever seeks some new form for its expression.” I think this still holds true.

A campaign by the local government introduced a sign with a yellow border, a lamppost and a bunch of flowers with the words “Slow down, better late than never” at high risk sites to raise awareness of the dangers because over the last 5 years there have been 68 fatalities on Nottinghamshire’s roads. The signs were removed by the public, so more speed cameras and a speed reduction scheme was introduced. My local government sees the roadside memorials as stark reminders of the dangers and does not remove them after 30 days. Despite this in place, fatalities still occur on the roads.

Barthes (2000) explained that to affect the viewer, the photographer has to take the sentimentality out of the subject and feel, notice, observe and think. To enable me to look objectively at the subject, I had to research and understand some of the psychology behind roadside memorials. Barthes (2000 ) also mentions that Janouch told Kafka that “we photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds” p53. I believe that this is partly true – in my opinion photography has become an art form and as artists we explore the subject and use the medium to improve on our original ideas. Todd Hido explains that you know when a subject is finished because you can move on from the subject – I think you move on with a greater understanding. I now have a greater understanding in the subject of roadside memorials and would consider documenting it further if it was of use. I have probably reached the end of my personal photography of this because it is a sublime subject and because of the danger involved.  The youngest victim was 15, the oldest was 35. It may be possible to work with authorities to help illustrate to young drivers who are being targeted by the council the effects of excessive use of speed and the consequences of dangerous driving. I could also revisit at a later date and see if they were being used differently.

The internet is a discursive site for discussions about roadside shrines with sites ranging from cyber shrines to photo essays to online roadside shrine tour books in the Americas. In the UK they are becoming a business with charity organisations such as BRAKE who work with solicitors to fight cases of shrines being removed. The difficulty is in finding art photography of shrines rather than unconsidered photographs. Photographer Peter Mitchell has published photographs on personal shrines which I am unable to find. Having looked at 2 photographers (David Nance and Ilan Ginzburg) who studied roadside memorials, and read around the subject, I aimed to show that they can fit into the landscape, be a sublime subject and enable viewers to appreciate the meaning and representation of a private place in a public space. .Their images show a memorial in a landscape – Ginzburg uses black and white which I think works in some but not all of his images, and shows that life carries on past the memorials. Nance’s are just about the memorial in the landscape. Although I appreciated both works as being different, I favoured Ginzburg’s which is my main influence. I considered whether I should desaturate my images and decided against it, although used a polariser and underexposed where necessary.

I questioned whether this subject would fit into an art gallery of a museum. This subject is not a collector’s item so it would not appear in a gallery. I would like to think a larger collection of work could be installed in light boxes as an outside exhibition subjected to the elements. My images conform to landscapes which have been ingrained since the 1800’s as they include diagonals, some foreground, middle and background, trees and hedges, use of thirds, horizon in the upper third, and a moment frozen in time. I think I have enabled people to feel some emotion of the subject by showing how I viewed the scene. As this is a sensitive subject I have not moved objects around thereby showing my version of the truth.

I think perhaps my first image is the weakest as this only focusses on the shrine and does not show the context of the road. I took advice from my tutor and decided to include the road and moving vehicles to illustrate the context rather than just have a sympathetic view of the shrine.

Rafal Zaborowski March 26^th 2012 Minibus passenger

Philip Dawn 2^nd May 2012 Cyclist

Keron Dawes 5^th May 2012 Motorcyclist

One of 2 possible motorcycle deaths 2009 or 2011

Marcus Karrigan Atkinson 25^th January 2014 Pillion passenger

Jay Thompson, Ross Johnson, Josh Drinkwater,
Tom Hudson 13^th February 2009 Car driver and passengers

Harrison Carlin 1^st July 2012 Cyclist

References

Adams, R (1996) Beauty in Photography, Essay Beauty in Photography p23-48, Aperture, New York (p27)

http://weareoca.com/fine_art/study-visit-manchester-artmmu/?utm_source=Student+Body+%28On+prog%2FDormant+-+Updated+23%2F04%2F2015%29&utm_campaign=f5d8b413bc-E_Bulletin_21_May_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ddfac2d64f-f5d8b413bc- accessed 21/5/15

Barthes R, (2000) Camera Lucida, Vintage, UK p53

Bibliography

Barthes R, (2000) Camera Lucida, Vintage, UK                                                                                                             

Burke, E (2015) The Beautiful and the Sublime, Oxford University Press, UK

Adams, R (1996) Beauty in Photography, Essay Beauty in Photography p23-48, Aperture, New York

Crane, W (1905) Ideals in Art, Chiswick Press, London

Hido, T (2014) On landscapes, interiors and the nude, Aperture, New York

http://weareoca.com/fine_art/study-visit-manchester-artmmu/?utm_source=Student+Body+%28On+prog%2FDormant+-+Updated+23%2F04%2F2015%29&utm_campaign=f5d8b413bc-E_Bulletin_21_May_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ddfac2d64f-f5d8b413bc- accessed 21/5/15

64600333http://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/speedkills/accessed 15/5/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/christine-riding-and-nigel-llewellyn-british-art-and-the-sublime-r1109418accessed 5/5/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/julian-bell-contemporary-art-and-the-sublime-r1108499 accessed 5/5/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss accessed 5/5/15

http://www.petercroteau.photography/roadside-sublime.html accessed 5/5/15

http://www.wildculture.com/article/new-english-landscape/1432 accessed 5/5/15

http://andybarter.com/main/?p=527accessed 5/5/15

http://webpages.charter.net/dnance/descansos accessed 5/5/15

http://www.murblanc.org/larue/passage/ accessed 5/5/15

http://memoryconnection.org/article/materialising-memory-the-public-lives-of-roadside-crash-shrines-2/accessed 5/5/15

http://emmaharding.weebly.com/personal-memorialisation.html accessed 5/5/15

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y23j accessed 5/5/15

Visual research and analysis - social contrasts

May 2015

Find photographs depicting at least two different social perspectives of the same place. ‘Place’ could refer to a province, a village, an event, an entire city or a small area of a city. For example, find a photograph depicting the affluent side of a city, and one that shows the poorer side. You may wish to use this as an opportunity to take a closer look at some of the photographers we’ve already discussed, or to look at completely new ones. You might find two or more contrasting images by the same photographer, or contrasting images of the same place by two or more different photographers. 

Then see if you can find two photographs where social contrasts are present within a single image. 

Having studied Stieglitz's "The Steerage" recently at an exhibition, I can now see the similarity with Paul Seawright's "Bridge" from Invisible Cities. The sentiments are similar; the first class passengers are looking down on the lower classes. It has been suggested that Stieglitz's image was taken whilst the boat was in anchorage. Stieglitz's image contains metaphors of the class struggle- the viewer is looking directly across at the man with the straw hat who belongs to the wealthy class on board and travelling in the luxury of state rooms. The viewer (and the first class travellers) look down on the steerage, which was a space for third class travellers and had really cramped, dark, unhealthy living  conditions. However, when the whole image is viewed, the shallow depth of field and crowding of people enable these people to be in a state of being in between, as in there is nothing to tell the viewer where they are going, what their ambitions are, or whether we belong with them.

In Seawright's "Bridge", the bus on the flyover is similar to the passengers on the top deck, whilst the people underneath are living in squalor reminiscent of the people in the steerage.  

I came across the work of Beatriz Veliz Argueta on The Association of Urban Photographers. She photographed the changing landscape of Tbilisi, Georgia following the changes from soviet to democratic times. Her images show views of the old buildings, where development and regeneration is planned for and the shiny new buildings already being erected. In this urban space, there is a distinct difference between the housing and space they occupy compared with the impressive, shiny new builds and paved footpaths. She illustrates the images with people who show the viewer who uses each space. In one of her images, she includes a street with fairly old car and on street bin, people walking along the road and the new build and landscaped trees and lamp-posts which gives the sense of two worlds in one.

Within Roland Barthe's Camera Lucida is an image from Koen Wessing of Nicaragua (1979) which depicts two nuns crossing through a rebellion. This would have been a picture of daily life at the time except for the nuns.

Bibliography
http://www.urbanphotographers.org/members-beatriz-veliz-argueta accessed may 2015
http://www.paulseawright.com/invisiblecities/ accessed may 2015
http://jasonfrancisco.net/alfred-stieglitz accessed may 2015
Barthes R (2000) Camera Lucida, Vintage, UK p22

Zone system in practice

30th April 2015

Demonstrate your awareness of the principles of the Zone System and your ability to take accurate light readings by producing three photographs taken in relatively high dynamic range, i.e. contrasting light conditions. Make sure that your exposure choice renders as much detail as possible in the brightest and darkest areas of the photograph. 

Collate your work and any reflections in your learning log.

I studied the Zone system in Photography 1: Digital Photographic Practice. The most helpful book I found which enabled me to work out the zone system in landscape photography was Frye M (2009). I revisited the technique to see if I was still using it correctly.

Frye (2009 p42) explains how the zone system works in relation to digital imaging. "its easy to increase contrast, but difficult or impossible to decrease it. So if an image looks too flat, it's easy to add more punch later in software. But if the scene has too much contrast - if it exceeds the dynamic range of the camera - then part of the image will either become pure black or pure white."

If the contrast range is fixed, the zone system is still useful to set the exposure accurately. I use the spot meter built into my camera. The difference between colour photography and black and white is that light colours loose saturation beyond zone 6 and although it retains detail, the colour is pale. A dark colour becomes muddy below zone 4. Ansel Adams used the zone system for colour photography. Frye cites Adams "I have found that the Zone System is invaluable in colour photography, primarily in relation to exposure, but of course its application poses very subtle considerations". (Frye 2009 p42)

This image shows how the zone system can be compared with the histogram and if checking the histogram and the flashing screen, the photographer has an idea at the time of shooting the image whether it will be OK or whether there will be too much loss of detail in the shadow or highlights. Ideally pixels should be between zone 2 and zone 8. Anything which falls outside of these zones will register as pure black or be over-exposed.













This guide shows what subjects equate to each zone...

...and in colour.
















Image 1

f16 1/20 ISO100 28mm tripod polarising filter

My Raw image shows that there is a very small amount of blue shading at the water's edge and in one patch of grass which indicates a little loss of detail. To go one stop up would overexpose the sky. I used a polariser filter to retain the colour detail in the sky. I decided that this small amount of loss of detail was acceptable for this image.


























Image 2

The screen shot below the image shows the Raw file and histogram. I have tidied up the original image; cloning out the spot in the sky, cropping out a stray stick and warming the colour up a little making it reminiscent of the late afternoon sun. The original image was taken to give the best exposure and this is what Ansel Adams means by visualization. If I had exposed differently, there would have been under or over exposure. 

f13 1/80 ISO 100 24mm

Rather than use auto bracketing, I take what I think is right and then take a photo half a stop either side of the original exposure. I tend not to rely on the camera's suggestions because I have found the camera can get it wrong, especially when faced with scenes of more dark or more light. I was advised to leave the white balance on auto by a previous tutor and adjust accordingly. This practice seems to work for me.


















Image 3

In this image of a tree in the late afternoon, there is a lot of shadow detail. Looking at the raw image, I exposed correctly for the scene because there is still detail in the sky (clouds) and the shadows have detail too. This is an occasion where the camera insisted on shooting one stop above my settings which would have over exposed the image. By measuring the scene and deciding where to set the mid point, I was able to expose correctly.

f14 1/80 ISO200 35mm

Bibliography
Frye M (2009) In the footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, Ilex press
http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-using-ansel-adams-zone-system--photo-5607 accessed 30th April 2015

Assignment preparation

26th April 2015

Ideas for assignment 1 Beauty and the Sublime

Produce a series of 6–12 photographs that convey your own interpretation of beauty and/or the sublime within the context of landscape. You may choose to support, question or subvert accepted definitions of these terms. Your images don’t necessarily have to be made in the same place or type of location; however, they should complement one another and attempt to function as a cohesive series

Ideas (all images unedited)

fear of the location – being something to be frightened of

Idea 1
Mountain biking through technical trails cut into the landscape or down steep hills or mountains fills some people with fear and trepidation and they would rather look at other people’s achievements than their own (Burke’s self-preservation ideas)

Decided against as it would mean capturing facial expressions which could be quite difficult as the people change from worried to elated. Not all people feel the same – to some it would not be a sublime experience. Location would mean not close to home – time allowance would be great. Not followed up further at this point although something to consider. Inspiration - video of Danny McAskill on the Ridge, Cuillin Hills in Skye shot by Scott Marshall and Stu Thompson http://www.dannymacaskill.co.uk/ and previously researched MTB photographs for magazines before workshop.

Idea 2
My children do not like night riding in the forest. When questioned they think there are other creatures out there with scary eyes, the shadows and shapes play tricks on them and it is unnatural.

I explored this idea further by looking at some of the ancient oak trees in Sherwood Forest. When taken in late evening the long shadows accentuate the faces on the trees. Or the group of trees being reminiscent of Fangorn forest in my imagination.

There are also unusual shapes of old fallen trees which taken in the right light and from the right angle look like something they are not. I only explored a small corner of the forest and armed with an orienteering map, I can find other areas of the forest. I think this has potential for assignment 1– my difficulty was in the technical execution to make it look forest like because reviewing my first set of images it looks like I have treated them as sculptures. Carpark open in the evening and accessible.

I tried this in overcast weather and it did not work as effectively. It was easy enough to find the same trees for a reshoot.

Idea 2
Grimm's fairytales had shaped the imagination of not wanting to be alone in the forest.

Films such as Snow white, Hansel and Gretel, little red riding hood, into the woods, Jack and the beanstalk encouraged me to look at the landscape which would fit with this such as woodlands and more open spaces.  Decided I could not get the right weather effects easily. What I decided I was looking for was forest like I had come across in Scotland with moss, rocks, dry stone walls and lots of rain and maybe this was a project best saved for visiting later in the year. Influenced by Killian Schonberger (photographer)

I also looked at the effect I could achieve at twilight/ dark/ mist in my local woods. This needs more experimentation.

 At low light and night, the forest becomes unfamiliar to me and routes which I knew based on certain landmarks are still there but look different. Add to that the sounds of the forest such as the nightjars singing, owls hooting and squirrels scurrying and other people around such as dog walkers staying out later and mountain bikers with powerful lights and it becomes disorientating. Freud described this as the uncanny (feeling of discomfort when seeing something simultaneously familiar and alien). I would argue that this fits into nature based on Morley’s editorial of The sublime: Documents of contemporary art (2010)

Can rule out misty conditions as it is not the right time of year. Twilight and night time happen daily so photography just need to coincide with my shifts. Small patch of light / light trails – e.g riding through landscape in the dark may be creative.

The other idea I had which I have not taken any photographs of yet is of the destruction and disorientation which happens when deforestation takes place.  Although this was probably a better subject for the winter as the workers started early and the machines came out of the darkness like monsters.

Based on what I feel confident doing, I will either re-explore the low light shadow contrasts in the forest or look at the forest at twilight / night.

Twilight / night-time shots – mix of landscape and portrait, mix of heath and woodland, some structures such as a farmhouse with a light on, piles of cut logs that are a solid shape in the dark? Riders with lights on through narrow trails – trees close together, small pond, bracken (dragon like)

Low light shadow contrasts – mix of landscape and portrait images, mix of single trees and groups of trees, tree with hollow roots which fairytale creatures could live inside, some heathland, a sense of the landscape of the ancient hunting forest, Juxtaposition of trees creating different shapes, bracken (dragon like)

Having worked my way through a planning exercise, I think low light shadow contrasts will be easier to achieve initially, with the idea of developing it by delaying the time of day. 

Following email discussion with my tutor, I revised my plan for the assignment.

The key to understanding the assignment was to find a working definition for the sublime. After watching Gravity at my tutor's suggestion and revisiting Burke and listening to a Radio 4 show, I had a different definition which sparked ideas.

Revised ideas for sublime

My definition

In Burke’s sublime, there is a power or force greater than us at work which causes us to feel inadequate and question what happens beyond humanity. This is portrayed in visual arts by expressing the subject in such a way that the viewer connects with the work and experiences the emotion which completes the cycle. The understanding of the body, science and the universe has moved on since 1857 when Burke published his book “A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful.” Thus his categories do not work for everyone. In order to find the sublime and experience the emotion, one has to associate with a subject which has some spirituality / force/ power behind it which makes us question the subject.

(I will expand on this in my actual assignment).

Looked at reality and truth versus obscurity and artistic photography.  Some scientists acknowledge the power of something greater.

Idea to represent the sublime in landscape;

Assignment 1 Beauty and the Sublime update

Subject: Roadside memorials in the landscape

Images 1 and 2

3 needs reshooting at a different time of day

4 needs shooting early Sunday morning when the road is safer

5 and 6 need investigating further

My definition of sublime:

In Burke’s sublime, there is a power or force greater than us at work which causes us to feel inadequate and question what happens beyond humanity. This is portrayed in visual arts by expressing the subject in such a way that the viewer connects with the work and experiences the emotion which completes the cycle. The understanding of the body, science and the universe has moved on since 1857 when Burke published his book “A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful.” Thus his categories do not work for everyone. In order to find the sublime and experience the emotion, one has to associate with a subject which has some spirituality / force/ power behind it which makes us question the subject.

When people drive past roadside memorials at speed, they notice them and experience some thought or emotion, even objecting to them being there, thinking they are an unnecessary way of expressing the grief of the significant others, whilst others think they act as a powerful reminder of how dangerous the roads are. Some people experience the meaning of them but the true power of them can only be felt by standing still and listening to the silence (similar to the noise one hears during an outdoors Remembrance Service.)

A campaign by the local government introduced a sign with a yellow border, a lamppost and a bunch of flowers at high risk sites to raise awareness of the dangers. The signs were removed by the public. Another sign is being introduced as well as more speed cameras. It seems that roadside memorials stay because of the emotion attached to them. Some local governments have policies of removing them after 30 days. Ours seem to stay for several years. I have discovered it is a subject which people feel uncomfortable talking about.

Research into the subject has shown me that there are different types of shrines and when they are no longer needed, the landscape reclaims the site. Having looked at 2 photographers (David Nance and Ilan Ginzburg) who studied roadside memorials, I aimed to show that they can fit into the landscape, be a sublime subject and enable viewers to appreciate the meaning and representation of a private place in a public space. I had reservations about this subject as it is sensitive; however, I hope I have given it the respect the mourners would expect.

 Rafal Zaborowski March 26^th 2012 Minibus passenger

 Philip Dawn 2^nd May 2012 Cyclist

"There are many interesting angles to your proposal and the two photos you've sent over are sensitively done. I've been trying to find a series by the Leeds based photography Peter Mitchell as part of the Art Transpennine exhibition on personal shrines but he's notoriously elusive and I couldn't find anything online.

Make sure you differentiate the sublime from just 'spirituality'. You've mentioned Burke's idea of the Romantic sublime as being not very relevant to your idea, but you 'll need to back up your own usage with some solid references. You might find something under the modern sublime references on the Tate website   - 
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/project-overview-r1117556" Tutor comments 2015

The contemporary abyss

26th April 2015

The contemporary abyss

“Read Simon Morley’s essay – “staring into the contemporary abyss” published on the Tate Website (http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss). This should provide you with a good overview of the sublime as a theme within visual culture. Next choose any body of work that you feel explores the sublime. It may be a photographic project, a work of literature, cinema or any other medium. In your learning log write at least 300 words, describing how you believe the work you’ve selected relates to the sublime. Use Morley’s text to support your argument.” (Course Material)

I also read Simon Morley (2010) The sublime: Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery.

My chosen body of work is “Forest”, a photo book by Jitka Hanslova because whilst reading the chapter on nature in Morley’s (2010) The sublime, I became curious about the work explained in the essay from John Berger (2006 pp125-127). I followed this up by finding her photo-book and researching the ideas behind how it fits into the sublime. I thought it would help formulate the ideas I had for assignment 1 on beauty and the sublime.

Jitka Hanslova is a Czech artist who revisited the forest of her childhood home several times to make a body of work entitled “Forest”. This is the second of her documentaries, made during 2000-2005 in which she explored “the forest as a metaphor for a concrete landscape but also a dividing line where the site dividing fantasy and reality becomes thin.” (http://www.georgkargl.com/en/artist/jitka-hanzlova - accessed April 2015)

Her images are not wide angled shots of a forest; instead they pick out part of a tree or the forest floor, or the last remains of the day’s light or even moonlight light show off a few tree branches. Viewing the body of work, I had some idea of what the landscape of her forest consisted of, and that it contained a mix of heathland, undergrowth, deciduous and evergreen trees, although I could not tell if it was on a mountain side (shot in the Carpathian Mountains) or a flat landscape.

The first image of the silhouette of the tree in low light is sublime rather than beautiful because the viewer conjures up a sense of what is lurking in the forest as the light starts to fade. It plays with the mind and does not tempt the viewer to go into the forest but look from the safety of the book. It sets the scene of what is to come.

The subsequent images are shot when it is nearly dark. There is some light hitting and reflecting off the trunk of the silver birch tree which lights a few branches which becomes a theme for some of the images. This makes the forest look eerie and a place for wildlife to inhabit rather than people. The viewer does not expect to come across waterfalls in the dark and Hanzlova includes a small brook taken at night. These are usually a place of beauty to visit in the daylight and this gave the impression of a danger the reader may stumble across or something which is necessary for survival in the forest.

Kargl describes Hanslova’s composition of images as “refined, and yet random, the tones are tender and fragile, and yet lend a palpable materiality to what is represented, making them seem unnaturally close”. (http://www.georgkargl.com/en/artist/jitka-hanzlova - accessed April 2015)

Hanslova uses low light, night time and weather such as fog and snow to create the required atmosphere in some of her images. Her use of colour is minimal, sometimes only the beech nut husks on the forest floor are the only colour in the image and sometimes the images are so devoid of colour that they look almost black and white.

How does the work chosen relate to the sublime?

Morley categorized Hanzlova’s work under nature, explaining that “nature turns us back to the roots of much contemporary art in notions of romantic sublimity, identifying the natural world as a primary source of  such experiences” Morley (2010 p20). In my opinion, Hanslova’s “Forest” still fits in with the notion of producing “emotions in the audience of a decidedly irrational and excessive kind” http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss (accessed 26/4/15) which was from the idea of the Romantic artists, although I think the execution of her work is more contemporary than the work of Casper David Friedrich.

Casper David Friedrich

Morley, when describing the history of the sublime in art, explains that in the 1950’s and 60’s “the goal of art was to pare work down to a minimal visual language in order to establish its purity.” http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss (accessed 26/4/15)

I think that with Hanslova’s work, she has stripped away any confusion of what this work might be and once the viewer has looked at the images, they are left with a feeling of the sublime. It is the silence of the images which provides the disquiet, provided by recording timelessness.

In this day and age, most people have fast paced lives and rely on technology to record information. Even in “down time” people reach for their laptops or mobile phones or television instead of engaging in conversation or going outside into nature. What happens when we enter a forest is that time slows down because it has a different sense of time. The forest is governed by seasons and events that happen in the forest at a much slower pace than we are living at. Our ancestors would have used forests as refuge from the bad weather as they provide shelter. To us, forests have become places of recreation but also in a culture which is becoming more secular, the energy within the forest is making us scared of finding ourselves. This is what Morley terms “self –transendence” which is the opposite of rational thoughts and more about spirituality. In my opinion, Hanslova’s images were ones where the viewer could lose themselves rather than of recreation or beauty which makes them sublime. As Morley explains, the contemporary sublime is about “defining a moment where social and psychological codes no longer bind us, where we reach a sort of borderline at which rational thought comes to an end and we suddenly encounter something wholly and perturbingly other.” (http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss accessed 26/4/15) Morley argues that contemporary art is now about “immanent transcendence[…] a transformative experience understood as occurring within the here and now” (http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss accessed 26/4/15) By this he means that Hanzlova has presented a set of images in which the viewer may either find reality or left wondering and asking questions about the set of images and may convey to us on a subconscious level.

Bergen (2010 p126) explains that Heidegger (a philosopher) used a forest as a metaphor for reality and what he was really trying to find was the way through it (or the woodcutter’s path). This reminds me of Grimm Brother’s fairy tales and Disney’s animations such as Snow White. What Hanslova is really trying to show is the “the way I go is back to see the future”. She is trying to photograph the backwards motion of time from modern day to forest time.

References

(http://www.georgkargl.com/en/artist/jitka-hanzlova - accessed 26th April 2015)

(http://www.georgkargl.com/en/artist/jitka-hanzlova - accessed 26th April 2015

(http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss) accessed 26/4/15

(http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss) accessed 26/4/15

(http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss) accessed 26/4/15

(http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss) accessed 26/4/15

Bibliography

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss accessed 26th April 2015
https://vimeo.com/39929796 accessed 25th April 2015
http://www.georgkargl.com/en/artist/jitka-hanzlova accessed 26/4/15

Simon Morley (2010) The sublime: Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery.