Sunday, 5 September 2010


Stumbled across her work as the winner of the photo8 summer competition. I love her style and her use of colour through her film photography. I thought this work (below) was particularly interesting.

"I planned my initial meeting with the women to act as an introduction but also to really gage their ideas and how they responded to imagery. I asked them prior to our meet to gather images of their mothers at the age that they are at now as well as any images they liked. The session was a great success and their response was that they felt positive looking at the old pictures and in actual fact felt they looked younger than their mothers. We all loved the aesthetic of the photographs and agreed that images today tend to veer more on the side of commercial advertising and occasionally cheesy. They felt the media presents an extreme sterio-type of women within their age group. Either highly unrealistic models of women who resort to things like botox and surgery to gain a more youthful appearance or the opposite by showing frail and vulnerable elderly women often housebound or victims of society.

As well as working closely with each women and producing images of them in their own enviroments/workplaces etc and showing that they are active, fun and vibrant individuals I also thought it would be a nice idea to add a separate part to the project and reflect on this initial observation..."



Definitely has that feel of a photograph from a different era, its interesting to think about which elements of imagery we see give us its sense of era.

Victorian Imagery


As mentioned below am thinking of producing work influenced by styles of the past so this set of victorian images could be interesting.




Research


I have started thinking about possible directions for the project and have been influenced by my own interest in analogue and "retro" style of photography. Could be an interesting direction? A lot of my favourite artists work in very traditional ways using film and darkroom and I am also interested in alternative processes, like the work of Keith Carter - http://www.keithcarterphotographs.com/images-shadow.html




Seems almost back to the origins of photography, which I find interesting. Could look at influence of victorian imagery. Also found / archival photos? Many movements such as the arts and crafts movement are very process driven and this is an angle that appeals since my work is always very process orientated.  Could also think about "return to past techniques and hand made rather than mass produced", interesting concept in photography since it is by nature the original "mass produced" art, with usually no real "original". Need to look in to how the arts and craft movement affected photography and if some kind of different take on this idea could work.

Summer Project Brief

BRIEF -

To come up with a body of work which is "avant-garde" and might produce a new way of working.

Ideas so far -

Needs to have some kind of ideology behind it? Most movements / new directions in art/photography are influenced by a new perspective in philosophy.

Also needs to have a strong visual coherence to make the style identifiable.

Consider movements / styles which influence my work - surrealism, post-modernism, arts and crafts (?)

Philosophies to consider -

"constructed" imagery vs "reality"
traditional vs digital, return to old techniques? analogue? combining old and new process?
process vs subject driven work?
identity of the author - appropriated / archive/ collaged images