Assignment 5 preparation

Assignment 5 preparation 2016

Initial preparation

I'm not sure if you received the word docs which I put in dropbox in January re assignments 4 and 5 ideas (critical review and personal project)?

I am at a point where I need to start on both. I think they both link with collective memory and identity.

I have been to the location for my planned assignment 5 (and the forestry commission and the MOD have moved in!) So my area to photograph will be larger to encompass this but I don't think it will matter too much because I have given the title scope by talking of Sherwood Forest. I can adjust the rest to suit. 

I have 3 updated ideas of how to photograph my proposal:

1. based on the work of Joy Gregory's Cinderella tours Europe, I would use Viking shoes (re-enactment) using the forest instead of European landmarks. Walking through time as a metaphor (Thynghowe way was Viking A1 and the route marched down to Nottingham to the battle and back to settlements. I may be able to pull in some deep mapping.

2. Take pictures of Vikings at Viking Festival on Saturday (and hopefully find the Viking shoes) and blend the Vikings into the changed landscape.

3. Intentional Camera Movement of trees in the area like Valda Bailey's work. (Not done this before) Show layering and texture and be more abstract like layering through time. 

I was going to give all 3 a go and see which worked best.

Also for assignment 6, I came across Iain Biggs in Liz Wells' Surface book which seemed to be similar to what I have done for my transitions although I can't find many of his photos on line. His area "Between Carterhaugh and Tamshiel Rigg" is associated with folklore and stories. He deep mapped the area and linked it through memory and identity. Do you think something like that would work for my assignment 6?

Hampshire, N. (2016) Assignment 4 and 5.[email]. Sent to Bloomfield, R. 17th February.

Just to briefly follow up my last email. Iain Biggs would seem to be a very good point of reference as a guide to a more textural approach including all sorts of layers beyond just the image. I've not been aware of Valda Baileys work and although experimentation like this is really crucial for developing ones own work, I find her aestheticisation of nature not exactly to my taste, but that's a personal thing! I like the physically immersive element of your first idea a lot, this is precisely what photography can lack. Looking forward to see the development.

Bloomfield, R. (2016) Assignment 4 and 5. [email]. Sent to Hampshire, N. 28th February.

Intentional Camera Movement

Based on the work of Valda Bailey, I experimented with some ICM photographs. These were difficult to achieve - and for a project like this the results are a bit hit and miss. I abandoned this idea due to frustration! Requirements - patience, a large memory card and interesting features in the landscape such as stiles and trees to make the images look different from one another. I abandoned this.

Ghosts within the landscape

Inspired by Patricia Townsend's series on "Scylla"and using her idea of transitional spaces to explore fantasy and illusion, I started to look at placing Vikings within the landscape and using the context that the past is watching you (memories) i explored old wood looking for traces of humanity. I abandoned this in favour of idea 3. This approach relied on me having taken the correct postures at Yorvik Viking Festival as I don't know anyone who is a Viking re-enactor.

Some reading material:

Wells, L. and Standing, S. (2005) Surface Land/Water and the Visual Arts. UK: University of Plymouth Press pps.28-41

Wells, L. (1994) Viewfindings: Women photographers "Landscape" and the environment.Devon: Available light pps.99-105

Boots in the landscape

Not a common image unless for a magazine.

Joy Gregory - 
Impressions Gallery

The Impressions Galley (n.d.) Joy Gregory Lost Languages and other Voices. Bradford: The Impressions Gallery. [online]. Available from: http://www.impressions-gallery.com/_lib/_user_files/Joy%20Gregory%20Exhibition%20Guide(2).pdf [last accessed 1/08/2016].

Gregory, J. (n.d.) Joy Gregory. [online]. Available from: 

http://www.joygregory.co.uk/project/cinderella-tours-europe-1998-2001/ [last accessed 1/08/2016].

Lynn Silverman - from Wells, L. (1994) Viewfindings: Women photographers "Landscape" and the environment.Devon: Available light pps.85-87

Diptych, narrow angle of view. Study of land under the photographer's feet and view of the horizon.  Monochrome. Meaghan Morris as cited by Art Gallery NSW, describes Silverman's work as " a study in the construction of inland space; how space is made intelligible for us by a play of identity and difference; how cultural systems of interpreting a space can be unsettled by exhibiting the process of framing interpretations; and how landscape photographs induce a curious convergence between what you do when you set out to see the sights and what you do when you look at an ordered sequence of images."

(Anon) (n.d.) Collection: Lynn Silverman. Art Gallery NSW [online] Available from:  http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/506.1987/ [last accessed 1/08/2016]

Internet searches revealed "Boot Camps" for landscape photographers and footwear landscape photographers should wear.

Test images based on Joy Gregory's "Cinderella tours Europe"

Email correspondence

 I have added 2 contact sheets and some notes containing my artists statement to Dropbox for assignment 5. Can I mix landscape and square images ? Could you let me know if I am working along the right lines please? I am aiming for a mix of closeup and landscape in the background. I haven't explored Joy Gregory's Peri tower image as a style as I don't particularly like that one. The dutch one is the plan for Nottingham Contemporary. I have tried to position my boots by positioning myself first in the landscape then moving the boots into position so that it looks realistic rather than still life.

Contact sheet 1

Spa ponds Clipstone – mediaeval constructed landscape – keep – shows boots detail	Sherwood sandstone – keep. Local geology is mainly sandstone influenced farming and building choices	Thynghowe – keep. Actual Viking site (just been part of an archaeological dig) Viking landscape – no trees in area
Thynghowe – shows ancient trackway – not keeping	Thynghowe – clouds – drama – keep. Shows position of law rock (marked by holly bush)	Thynghowe dig markers – keep? Better when seen as a larger image.
Sherwood forest looking at shelter - ? substitute for Major Oak – stuff of modern legends	King Edwin of Northumberland (of Edwinstowe) died 633AD in battle near here. Body buried here to hide it from Pendra Mercian King. Shrine erected site of chapel. History existed before Vikings. Religion – some Vikings turned Christian. Not much evidence found locally. Keep	Cuckney – investigating as site of battle of Heathfield where King Edwin was slain. Flood meadows system of altering the land to control water and enable crops to grow. Would have all been marshy in Viking times (Mercia = marsh) Keep
Arable fields, fence as boundary – common since enclosures act. Would have originally been hawthorn hedges and oak trees to mark boundaries. Keep	Track through Sherwood forest heath - keep	View across Sherwood Forest heath. shows slag heap from coalmine in distance ? keep

Contact sheet 2

New sculptures appearing of Vikings. This doesn’t work yet. Need to use a different post (they are all the same but in different locations) with boots on floor as an equal	Trent Bridge – Keep. Can’t use a tripod due to bridge design. May have to reshoot and leave more space around it for straightening image.	Old River Leen course – Keep. Hardly anything left now it has been re-routed so many times. Dilapidated – flourishing river unkempt. No space to stand back (parked cars) so trimmed to a square crop
Nottingham Contemporary art gallery – significance is the steps main invading route through Nottingham. Reflection- something Vikings would not have had. Also tram network, urban, bewildering. Needs reshooting possibly boots wide apart and not in focus with tram in focus	Nottingham Castle – Like sandstone caves poster with invading army in different outfit. Confusion for Vikings as it is not them but it is what they did. Reshoot to include more people. square or landscape crop?

(first draft) Artists statement

My work for Assignment 5 examines the contemporary landscape traversed by the Great Heathen Army in 868AD through modern day Sherwood Forest to Nottingham.

The Viking here is a metaphorical character, inspired by Joy Gregory (photographer – Cinderella Tours Europe 1997-2001) and my own interest in Viking history.

This series touches on documented histories of Nottinghamshire to elucidate places known to the Vikings such as Thynghowe, Nottingham, Sherwood Forest, Edwinstowe, Clipstone, Cuckney. Using a pair of re-enactment boots to bridge the timespan between past and present I have illustrated the inevitable change in the landscape brought about by man; some bewildering to Vikings if they could glimpse 1200 years into the future.

Sherwood Forest is famous for the legend of Robin Hood. Contemporary archaeological evidence suggests Vikings shared the landscape peacefully with Anglo Saxons, and art and history is currently being reshaped through archaeological digs and Viking sculptures to change our existing proclivity of a warmongering race.

Aim is to balance urban landscape with rural landscape at a ratio of 1:3

Present images from Nottingham (marched to Nottingham AD868 then settled in rural areas)

Further ideas to explore

Major oak with or without tourists

Birklands Sherwood forest – (all being tidied after recent storms)

Busy main road e.g A60 Nottingham or countryside

Nottingham Market Square

Swamp - reshoot

Ancient trackway (waiting for bluebells)

Ford (need water level to go down)

Modern day village sign of Viking place name (need leather shoe lace to sling boots over it)

Hampshire, N. (2016) Assignment 5. [email]. Sent to Bloomfield, R. 5th May.

Gregory is investigating landscape within a postcolonial context but there's not much information on her website. It would be good to see those interviews for instance. Does Autograph or Iniva have anything on her? Have you thought of contacting her?

Can you identify the deeper themes across all of your investigations to broaden your artist's statement beyond assignment 5? If possible indicate your theoretical points of reference - perhaps from your essay in A4.

The Viking here is a metaphorical character

A metaphor for what? You might say the Viking is imagined standing in or walking through the landscape, or the Viking as an historical figure is represented by a pair of re enactment boots. You're questioning the representation of the Viking in contemporary culture, can you be more explicit about why?

For me there's an absurd element in both Gregory's series and your own boots in the landscape. You seem to have tried to overcome this by placing the boots in places where you've actually stood but it's still there. This is not necessarily wrong, the absurd is close to the surreal and as Sontag said, there's always something surreal about photography. 

New sculptures appearing of Vikings. This doesn’t work yet. Need to use a different post (they are all the same but in different locations) with boots on floor as an equal..

I like it, these notes show process, questioning, doubt. They have a slightly humorous edge (our struggle to create). Can you use them with the work? I'm with David Campany  - photography should be image and text, photography on its own is always somehow lost.

Square crops with landscape formats tend to move the presentation towards an installation. Conventionally stick with one format. Conventional is not creative however...

Bloomfield, R. (2016) Assignment 5. [email] Sent to Hampshire, N. 6th May.