Evaluation

PHVP 3409 Evaluation

The brief was to create a Final Major Project, demonstrating the ability to develop and sustain a focused, in-depth, body of practical, creative work around one theme. My own approach to photography is art-based. My work tends not to follow narrative or non-fictional themes; rather, I work within an art context.

It was an essay I had written last year, based on Surrealism, which had inspired the beginning to this project. Surrealism is such an open form of expression, for reasons simply that you cannot argue (although many do) with what another’s subconscious may be emoting. In short, the aim for many surrealists was to expose psychological truth by freeing thought from conscious reasoning.  It is most definitely a demanding approach, dealing with such a free system of thinking – to attempt to understand and reason with such a format that represses reason to begin with.

With this, my basic needs were to create images out of obscurity, for reasons only instinct knew, and then study the outcome afterwards – a shoot now, think later, approach. Beginning research/inspiration was drawn from Rene Magritte and Max Ernst. Ernst relied much on spontaneity and juxtapositions of materials and imagery, whilst Magritte’s work had simplicity to it (although this is misleading). He also often chose ordinary themes to construct his work from – trees, chairs, shoes, doors, landscapes – he wanted his work to stem from the visible world, rather than dreams or strange phenomena.

The processes of experimentation with different ideas all stemmed from the same approach throughout the project - juxtaposition of objects/scenarios with setting. I wanted to avoid previous themes of surrealism, such as the recreation of dreams or dreamlike worlds – rather I wished to keep a slight surreal leitmotif, to maintain some obscure icing on the cake. Eventually my project honed in on the photographing of a red shelf within a variety of environments, to become a part of a growing series. The main philosophy of the series is transformation, of an objects use and placement. Through the simple action of changing the habitat of a form, it manipulates not only the function of the object, but also the function of the new setting. The result is that the setting now becomes a plinth, the object is the art-piece and the act of purposeful placement takes on a sculptural convention. The surreal leitmotif is driven from the series’ purpose to challenge convention and rational function (rational thought). It is my response to rationalism, rebelling with an irrational image.

But why misplace an object, purposely? My own interpretations for doing so are, on the surface, simple. Purely “just because”? Perhaps. I had initially envisioned some imagined blur of bizarreness – a simple image, uncomplicated but unexplained – stemming from my own subconscious. However, the images are not confined to only my own interpretation, for how can an image, with such a lack of narrative, leave the same message to another?  I prefer to keep an open approach to expressive work, avoiding creating work for a specified declarative reason - for I believe that within art, greatness equates with multivalence.

To present this series of images, it would best suit book publication, alongside an opening gallery exhibition. The series has potential to keep on growing over time, to create a larger series would take time but is entirely possible to keep on taking the red shelf to different locations, as opportunities appear.  

I believe I have successfully fulfilled the brief, generating a multitude of different experiments whilst maintaining focus throughout the project on an expressive approach to surreal imagery – resulting in an effective (ever-growing) series of images that work well individually, as well as together. I am whole-heartedly pleased with the resulting images and would, currently, change little to my working process for an expressive project sticking to an art-context. I feel the “shoot now, think later” approach very much compliments an expressive form of thinking – for true expression is often of-the-moment, for us to improve and dig deeper into afterwards.

Stuart Morgan

Upon reading over the writings of Stuart Morgan, [my interpretation of] his texts appeal to my understanding of art/art photography. 

Homage to the Half-Truth
Lecture given at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1991, at the symposium "Writing About Art"

He states that criticism over art, offers interpretation. More importantly however, "its function is didactic". The very notion of learning through anthers problem-solving/approach is something many can agree on. The aim, he states, is to sample models/ways of thinking. To approach art, intuition, sympathy and imagination is necessary to understand the possible interpretations. 

"I know nothing in art criticism that equals the impact created by William Empson's analysis of a single Shakespeare sonnet in his first book Seven Types of Ambiguity, where he returns to the same poem time after time, producing interpretation after interpretation like a conjuror pulling rabbits out of a hat. This unrelenting display was based on the assumption that, at least as Empson saw it, greatness can be equated with multivalence, so the more things a poem means, the greater that poem is."

The possible number of interpretations for a piece of art, be literary or visual, is potentially limitless. Perhaps, as Empson stated, it means for a greater work of art. The artists reasons for its creation may not necessarily be why it is so appealing to the masses, but it is appreciated all the while. 

Stuart Morgan goes on to say that criticism must be rhetorical, "... because thinking is not writing; it must be reflexive". What you write may differ to what you think, therefore criticism is indirect and conventionalised. It is this that banes many artists, for it is not the paragraphs they create for, rather the freshness of new eyes and minds on their work to look for themselves. 

Edits

Upon reviewing Franco Fontana's work in landscapes, I had envisioned rolling green hills as a new setting for the shelf. However they needed to be smaller in scale as usual/natural hills are, so not to drown out the shelf in sheer scale (it would be too small in a photograph). I remembered an image in my mind from an old school trip, where old Iron Age hill forts had manipulated the land for defence and the land was left as it was - strange hill formations. A perfect strange setting for my next trip. 

Burrough Hill - Leicestershire

http://www.leics.gov.uk/country_parks_burrough_hill

Franco Fontana's landscape images were beautifully yet simply composed, to the bone of compositional meaning - line, shape and form. It is how I had envisioned these images prior to overlooking Fontana's work, but it is also the sense of scale that I can see within his work and my own here. He used trees, which worked but also confused as a sense of scale, the audience asking themselves how big the tree actually may be. These images below, the red shelf is the scale. But again, it is simply a red, rectangular shape within the frame. The photograph becomes a handful of shapes/blocks of colour. We can see the green mass is grass and we can work out the grey is sky, but at a glance it is geometric. 

Still continuing to photograph my partner throughout the trips. These images are on a grander scale, the landscape is mammoth over both the shelf and the human form in frame. 

Contact sheet

Edits

To bring the project together as a series, bringing the red shelf to different environments, it would make for a more diverse series taking it to settings other than landscapes. Urban/city was the next move.

I wanted to avoid people in frame, leaving people out of the photographs creates a stranger world with less to associate with. So my first choice was to shoot at night, for two reasons: 1) avoid the crowds, 2) It would create a whole different mood/set. Something to variate. 

I believe the images work very well. The setting I chose was a pedestrian underpass, the lighting is incredibly moody/ominous, the shadows cast are sharp and bring even more shape to composition. Above, the shapes and lines of the setting work beautifully with the red shelf, quite a geometric image.

Below, a moodier photograph. The shadows are softer and the red shelf here, in contrast to much of the project, is subtle in shot, but it works here with the mood of the image. Soft shadows, darker tones. Well composed with the frame split into three sections: left staircase, strong shapes - right corridor with shelf, soft tones and dark shadows - bottom floor, one general tone/colour to balance the image. 

The corridor of the underpass made a beautiful setting. Its symmetry was a great tool to use when composing the photographs and the lights (and shadows they produced) made for great patterns/details along the walls. 

From previous shoots (beach, Salcey Forest) I brought in the mixed placement of the red shelf, laying down, upright, diagonal etc. It made for a great series of images. The general lack of colour of the setting contrasted well with the red shelf, being an impactive highlight in every image. The shape of the object still continues to bring to light the strangeness of the scene we are presented. The lighting helps add to the mood, making is almost fantasy/dystopic?

I had also contemplated photographing in urban areas in daylight. Avoiding crowds/people proved difficult and the images didn't give the same feeling of strangeness. Perhaps it was the specific setting I had chosen, I may try again in a simpler area (street-side? with less people, ally?) but this particular area didn't work well. The daylight bleaches the object also, and set alongside an urban area it seems, perhaps, ugly. A worthy attempt but the images are definitely not as strong as previous. 

Photographing closer up did help, however. The object is less bleach and the simplicity of the object helps calm down the business of an urban area. It could potentially work. 

Contact sheet