The term archive in relation to photography usually describes a specific set of images, for example and archive could be growing up in the 1930s. Most people have an archive of family photos, which could be refined further through just choosing photos of one person or event. Artists can take inspiration from archives for example taking images that contrast or show a change, or perhaps a commentary on the change.
For this project the brief was to take a photo from my own archive and remake it. the current situation made this a challenge so I chose a photo, that I have have retaken several times showing of bikes on a cycling holiday.
Though the subject is always the same with two bikes, the setting changes, changes in bike design over the years (and our move from mountains bikes to road bikes) can be seen.
The purpose of this exercise is to appropriate other sources of images, making you think more critically about your selection. The theme choice was frost, which produced a wide array of frosty landscapes, trees, and snow scenes. I selected close up images that show the beauty of plants and trees in cold weather. Another unifying feature was in the choice of pastel colours, some images were rejected due to their bright colours.
Of Many Worlds is a creative exploration into cymatics (Jenny, 1967), where light and fluid, make sound vibrations visible. Using macro photography draws the viewer into new tiny worlds, capturing beauty and detail that is hidden from the naked eye. The title is inspired by a 17th Century Poem by Margaret Cavendish, Of Many Worlds in this World, which suggests the possibility of new tiny worlds within our own world (Rumens, 2012). An appropriate theme for this exploration into this universe of macro worlds and cymatic images.
Presented as a slide show of images, the transition of images reveals new colours and shapes emerging organically. Built on minimal material, the music uses the same compositional principals with overlapping sounds, and textures. The choice of synthesiser sounds evokes an other worldly atmosphere through the Alchemy (Logic Pro User Guide, n.d.) synthesiser.
Project Research
This is a project that grew from the restrictions of lockdown. My initial ideas relating to music and musicians, creating links with sound and image, Without access to people outside my household my research turned to how artists were using sound to create images. This generated a list of ideas to investigate (some of these are bookmarked for later exploration), including Chladni patterns generated by exciting a metal plate (Taylor, 1989), and the work of Hans Jenny (1967) who used the term cymatics to describe how the vibrations of sound affect powders such as sand and liquids.
Testing
With limited instructions available about how to set up your own cymatics rig at home, the project required experimentation. The final set up uses a loud speaker with the cover removed placed on its back powered by an amplifier. A thin plastic lid is attached to the speaker cone. The container with fluid is placed on this (see image cymatic rig set up). Sound is generated through a tone generator app on a phone or laptop. Two ring lights are used, one white, and one RGB light.
Cymatic rig set up
Finding the setting where the vibrations created meaningful patterns and shape is a balance of the amplitude, size of container, frequency, and viscosity of the liquid. This provides seemingly endless challenges and opportunities. Even if the settings were not right for a symmetrical pattern, striking shapes and textures emerged.
The placement of lighting at the correct height is crucial for observing the patterns created by the water. An overhead tripod was essential for the camera and achieving consistency. Different colours for the fluid were achieved through using different liquids, and food colouring. Though these images can be captured with a standard lens, or even an phone camera, a macro lens with 1:1 magnification allowed more detail to be captured.
Different patterns required specific camera settings. For example, many of the symmetrical patterns worked well with a slow shutter speed. The more random patterns were more effective with a fast shutter speed. A cyclical reflective approach with planning, practical work, reflection and learning was an essential part of the process.
A file naming convention identifying the date, frequency, and fluid was essential to be able to track the hundreds of photos that were taken as part of the testing stage of this project. Also invaluable was my project notebook in Evernote, for recording ideas, progress, and links to resources.
Presentation
One of the attractions of this project was to create a multimedia piece of art, that could be easily shared online. Something that is very relevant at the time of writing when a conventional exhibition would be out of the question. However, I do look forward to being able to see view this screened on a large projector at work in a performance space.
The intended audience is broad. It could appeal to people with an interest in cymatics, the science of sound, photography, art, and music. It has been shared on social media and created interest with other artists and potential future collaborations.
Equipment
The equipment used is listed below
Canon 5D Mark III
Canon EF 100mm f2.8L
Newer RGB Ring light, standard small white ring light
Overhead tripod
Denon Amplifier
Loud speaker
Tone generator (app)
Macbook Pro
Various circular containers of different sizes (dariole moulds, bottle tops, jar lids etc)
Fluids (water, rubbing alcohol, coffee)
Colour additives (food colouring, glitter)
Post production, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier Pro, Logic Pro X
Skills and practice
The project required a range of skills including macro photography, lighting, and using the camera in manual mode. Autofocus was not very successful, manual focus and zooming in on the image to focus produced better results. A tripod was essential for consistency.
An integral part of these images is the lighting, which highlights the patterns in the water and also provides reflections. The height of the light is crucial in getting the right effect. The images with more than one colour in the reflections are created with a second RGB ring light.
Post production
Post production took place in Adobe Lightroom, followed by Photoshop to crop the image to the edge of the container with the fluid. A square black background was created as a template for consistency of presentation. Minor adjustments to the balance of highlights, shadow, whites and blacks were made to ensure consistency, and the texture increased for clarity.
Key decisions in creating the video were the length of images, transition times, and the order of images. An influence was Lapis, a short film by James Whitney (1966) a computer aided animation creating mandalas. From the early stages I knew that I wanted to come full circle and return to the initial image so the video could be used for an installation and loop continuously if required.
Initially a temp track was used as a guide to mood of the images with the Music composed once I had a draft version of the video. However, it was always intended as an integral part of this project and ideas for the style were forming throughout the video assembly process. The dynamic shape, harmonic tension and resolution shadow the presentation of the images.
Conclusion
This project is the final assignment in the Foundations in Photography course. It has taken nearly two years to complete the course and I am aware as to how much the course has developed my photographic practice. It is now much closer to my other creative work as a composer with research and practice informed by the work of other artists working in a range of genres. Throughout this project I kept an online notebook logging ideas and progress, a practice adopted during the course.
My original aims for the course were to explore the creative use of light, increase my knowledge of the work of other photographers, develop Photoshop skills, and tell a story or express a concept through images. In my self my reflection for part 4 (Gourlay, 2020), my aims had developed, for example, to look at how other art forms influence photography, and identified the use of mixed media and abstract art as interests. Key elements I aimed to include in my work included the creative use of lighting, patterns and shapes, light and shadow, and exploration of colour. This development is reflected in my final assignment, something that I would not have envisaged creating two years ago when I started this course
TAYLOR, C. 1989. Demonstrating Resonance with Chladni Figures – Christmas Lectures with Charles Taylor [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLNFrxgMJ6E [Accessed 13 November 2020].
These responses relate to Suite Venitienne,1979 by Sophie Calle. In this work she followed a stranger from Paris to Venic, documenting her trip with photographs.
Morally I think it is wrong to follow a stranger to make photographs in this way. However, our world in 2020 with GDPR is a completely different place from 1979. Today, permissions to take photos in a work or study setting are required. If a photo is taken in the street, you would be asked for a model release form if you wanted to sell it commercially.
I love the idea of an adventure that would give me a different position that I am used to for making photos. There are lots of opportunities for this and photography tours are based on this desire to take photographs in a different way or setting. It is also equally rewarding to research and plan a personal trip. For example visiting a new place. On my wishlist is a visit to Vancouver, though in the current situation this could be years away so I will plan something closer to home finding new places to explore and enjoy finding different approaches to shoot places that visit regularly.
Taking a job to give me access to a certain subject that I wouldn’t have access to is an interesting proposition. A better way of looking at this is perhaps volunteering, as that can give you access to different people and places.
I like the curiosity and sense of chance that must have been felt in the creation of Calle’s work and wonder if the final images are just a by product of her artistic urge.
An interesting question, as to me a photograph is always an illusion no matter how it is taken, you are getting either a record in pixels of what is captured or an artistic interpretation of the subject. An illusion is something that isn’t actually real. An image or printed photo can be real in its own right, but it is always a representation of an object or subject.
The project is to use perspective, light and focus to create an image that is obvious to the viewer that it the subject is a representation of pixels, without faking the image.
The images below, both make use of a long shutter speed and zoom blur to create the sense of movement.
Variations on a theme, is a creative response through the medium of still life to the Covid-19 restrictions in the UK. This period for me was characterised by restriction, repetition, and rainbows, drawings of which seemed to be in almost every window. These three elements combined to influence the choice of objects, presentation, and colours. Each image presenting a variation on the theme of repetition, using restricted colours and objects. The project developed from an initial exploration of colour to be refined into a more complex response to the restrictions and repetitive nature of lockdown.
Influences
The images have a number influences for example Laura Letinsky’s use of real and printed versions of objects (reference), spirals from Andy Goldsworthy’s land art installations (Goldsworthy, 2019), and Andy Warhol’s use of repetition (MoMALearning). Perhaps a less obvious influence to the viewer is the preparatory course work, in particular, work from Project 1 Experimenting with still life, and Project 2 Combining images, objects and concepts. Both of these had an impact on the experimental approach, combinations of objects, and final presentation.
Choice of background, subject and objects
During lockdown access to materials was limited so each image uses objects that were easily available at home, but aims to find beauty out of something ordinary. Though the preparatory work trialled different layouts with a number of items of the same colour, I was drawn to objects and backgrounds that could be used to create patterns. The backgrounds use a variety of objects including coloured card, a mirror, a chair, and in the only image to use layers (the sunflower), sliced lemons provide the texture to subject.
Choice of colour and light
To create strong colours, where possible, the images were shot in bright sunlight and processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. The choice of colour was inspired by the colours of the rainbow However, in keeping with the rainbow, the images use a range of individual colours rather than a solid block. Throughout history, the rainbow has been used to represent different hopes and ideals, with most recently in lockdown, support for the NHS, combined with the more traditional symbolism of faith and hope, which is very relevant for today’s situation.
Interaction with the viewer
Underpinning each image is the framework of repetition, though the placement of the objects and in their presentation. The presentation in a grid could highlight the sense of restriction by being viewed as bars or as windows looking in on the objects. Each image interprets the theme of repetition in a different way, with the use of colour, objects and composition. However, I would not want to impose an interpretation on the viewer and would be happy for them to create their own impression of the images. Larger versions of the individual images can be viewed at Variations on a theme.
It has been an interesting and challenging six months with lockdown and working harder that ever. I’m sure anyone working in education whatever their role will understand having to completely transform their professional practice and the amount of hours needed just to keep your head above water. Though I have taken photos and been engaged in talks and reading about photography my aim now is to get back to a more detailed plan for completing the Foundation in Photography course by December.
Before lockdown, I remember visiting London and seeing the Dora Maar exhibition at the Tate, the V&A photography rooms (loved the work of Linda McCartney, what a revelation), and seeing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year winning images at the Natural History Museum. I came away feeling completely inspired, only not to have any time to follow up and consequently loosing impetus
I’m a strong believer that for creative work sometimes you just have to dive in and get started. If you wait for inspiration to strike, you may have a long wait (well I know I would). So here goes, watch this space and wish me luck! I’m looking forward to the challenge.
This exercise started with considering a familiar environment and how we tend to ignore or not see certain things in them. Looking at thins we are used to seeing and then removing them changes the ambience. mood and intention of the photo.
The photos below are of my desk at home where since lockdown I spend most of my day. The image on the left is set up for work with two laptops, monitor and mic (the webcam is out of view) and definitely my workplace. This is my personal response, but by removing my work laptop and anything connected with delivering live sessions on Zoom, I can reclaim the space for my own creative use. To me the two images create a different mood contrasting the restrictions of work and the potential of free time.
Going beyond the initial exercise, I looked at how absence or presence in a different setting can affect the mood or meaning of an image. The two images of the beach at Fraisthorpe, provide a contrast by the presence and absence of the wind surfer. Though the first image has a sense of space and calmness, the second image is more ambiguous with just the sand, sea and has no sense of scale evoking a feeling of timelessness. The second image is my favourite and is one that captures my attention by the absence of direction.
I also looked at two photos from St Aiden’s Nature Reserve. In these, the removal of the heron completely changes the intention of the image. In the first image I am drawn to the different layers, and shades of green and brown grass and reeds blowing in the wind moving from the sharp foreground into the blurred background. The second image captures the stillness of the heron in its natural habitat, which is always my preference for wildlife photos. Though not the purpose of the exercise, I do find the yellow distracting at the top of the image and if this image was not being used for comparison would consider further editing.
My final pair of images strikingly show the difference of an standard image of an horse in a field transformed into a portrait by the use of photoshop, textures, and creative use of brushes and paint. In this instance less is definitely more.
The exercise, has been thought provoking and I enjoyed exploring beyond the initial brief. Not all the images are things I would usually publish, but they do show my thought processes. The absence of an obvious subject can completely alter the interpretation of an image and draw people into the image. By manipulating the content of an image (either physically or digitally) the meaning can be altered. My biggest learning points from this exercise are the importance of composition in capturing the mood you want create, and how in some instances less can create a more intriguing and engaging image.
Karen Gourlay: Foundations in Photography 