Interim Review 3/11/11

The Object

Our first unit given was one called Object and Body, beginning with the object. The task set was to create a still life piece, with a theme centralised on a current issue or topic that you (the photographer) feels passionately about.

The topic I chose to tackle was 'consumerism', the definition of this being: "the preoccupation of society with consumer goods". My first item of research on this subject was a documentary called ‘Objectified’, this was a documentary based on the nature of a products design and manufacture, approaching mainly from a product designers point of view. There was one quote in this documentary however that stuck in my mind, which was: “Make what was now, look like then, so that people want our now”. This made me focus on the corporate backing to consumerism, and that we consume goods at a habitually alarming rate, to the extent when the purchasing of these goods loses all meaning.

After a tutorial, it was brought to my attention that I was crossing into two areas of consumerism, and so I chose to look less at the consumer society as a whole, and more of a statement about our self identity with these products, or rather lack thereof.

I was unclear of my visual style for this piece, until I saw a series of photographs by Danny Treacy called “Them”, which was a series of outfits constructed from strangers clothing.

I took this and decided to use fashion and clothing as my signifier for the consumerist products, as fashion is one of the most prominent and ever changing aspects of consumerism.

Next I looked at the nature of fashion, and decided that a mannequin would represent my consumer, as I am looking at the idea of meaningless or ‘soulless’ behind consumerism, a life size doll would be perfect to show the facade of consumerism.

I lastly needed a reinforcing symbol to the idea of ‘soulless’ and also something to make the mannequin replicate a human more prominently, so I chose an empty mirror frame, as it is a common habit to check oneself in the mirror, but adhering to old folklore, the lack of a reflection signifies the absence of a soul.

Environment

Alongside our Object and Body unit, we were given a unit called The Environment. In this unit we had to create a pastiche to one of three choices, and next to create three of our own images based on our own conceptual approach to representing landscape.

Our lectures began by looking at the birth of Romanticism in landscape paintings, and then in early landscape photography such Ansel Adams’ work on the American landscape.

As we looked at the Romantic movement, I began remembering what I had learnt of the Romantic movement in Poetry in my English A level, and this reminded me of  poets like Wordsworth and Blake, but most predominantly, the work of John Claire. Who’s work was heavily influenced by England’s Agricultural Revolution.

This revolution was described by historian Mark Overton as “The shift to Capitalism in the agricultural world.” The main part of this revolution meant that all land had to be owned, and was no longer free.

I took this and began exploring this idea of an imprisoned land, or quarantine, something wasted as it is unused yet denied to us.

After a tutorial session where I displayed a test shot depicting a broken fence lying on a field, I was advised to pulled back a little and to show these vast denied landscapes more clearly.

I was also recommended to look at John Darwell’s work, ‘Dark Days’.

Looking at his use of the fence as a barrier between the viewer and the land, I decided to adopt this visual concept, but to elaborate the idea of the barrier into something far more domineering and overbearing, so I utilised low angle shots to over emphasise these barriers around the land.

I focused on high contrasts, and giving the fences far more focus in the foreground, but so that you could still make out what the fences blocked, but it has lost it’s detail and life along with it’s freedom.

For my pastiche I chose Robert Adams' 'On Signal Hill'.

Doing my best to replicate this shot, I chose a location on the edge of a hill, in Gillingham overlooking Chatham, so that I had a populated area behind my trees. Unfortunately I could not find a location with actual trees present and an appropriate view, so I actually used a 3 foot high plant shot up close to replicate the trees, and then appropriately angled my camera to proportion my sky, city, and foreground as close to Adam's as possible.

I chose a high aperture of F32 to make sure I maintained focus as much as possible in the foreground and background, and I exposed for the urban area at 1/2 a second to silhouette my foreground. I shot this at roughly 6a.m. in order to use the morning mist to replicate the fog hovering above Los Angeles.