BOW Submission A4

BODY OF WORK ASSIGNMENT 4: SUBMISSION

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Assignment Four: Major Project Edit

Make another submission of work in progress as a tightly edited, sequenced series. You may have continued to shoot; you may have changed direction since your last feedback report. However your project has developed, make the development clear in the image selection.

Pay particular attention to how you will use words alongside your images (captions, titles or additional ‘relay’ type text) and re-frame your images accordingly.

As in previous assignments, include a short commentary outlining the development of your ideas during your work on this part of the course.

Artist statement

This work is a continuation of my photography within an ancient woodland. It serves as a photographic celebration of cooperation and harmony within the community, along with a submerged representation of my internal discomfort on the divisions in my local community. “What lies beneath” is a visual exploration of a diverse harmonious woodland community, that in contrast to a divided and malcontented nearby human community.

What lies beneath

What lies here beneath the abundant enveloping eiderdown, slumbering peacefully together? What lies elsewhere beneath structural facades, sheltering but murmuring malice?

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What lies here beneath the verdant creeping coverlet, collectively sharing comfort? What lies elsewhere beneath community spirit, concealed but festering?  

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What lies here beneath the luminescent selfless sheath, accepting mutual benefit? What lies beneath shared need, acknowledged but resented?

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What lies here beneath the softest downy dress, sharing nourishment contentedly? What lies elsewhere beneath mans’ disguised demeanor, civil but deliberately divisive?

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What lies here beneath the soothing snaking sleeve, insulated from harm by another? What lies elsewhere beneath deceitful welcomes, smiling but spewing spite?

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What lies here beneath the willing emerald wrapping, acknowledging their collective realm? What lies elsewhere beneath acceptable appearances, charming but prejudiced?

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Commentary

This series of work was a progression from my previous series. Still with the overarching theme of harmony, set against the antithesis of the disharmony in the local community, which is the driver for portraying the ancient woodlands as a visual metaphor for a harmonious community.

Working with a natural subject through natures cycles, caused me to reassess my photographic intention at the outset, which had been to develop the story of harmony in a musical sense as a collective of choral parts. It was December and the woods were bare, except for the prolific moss, which covered and protected the more dormant species hidden below itself. This is a time of nurture, acceptance and sleep in the woodlands, against a continuing backdrop in local village life of festering resentments and division. I reassessed how I could use this as a metaphor to communicate my concept.

So, I photographed moss in its various guises, accentuating it’s vibrant, abundant blanket and it’s welcome benefit and mutual exchange and respect to the rest of the diverse woodland community.

Having discounted my original intention to experiment with musical terms as descriptors and context for the woodland elements, I searched for a way to signpost my work, to add some context, but not too much. My research led me to experiment with combining my images with poetry.  Could poetry bring something else into being? Could my images made up of visual nouns represent something else? Would words in a form of poetry give more clarity and depth without being too restrictive to the meaning?

Experimenting with words led me to connect my visual representations to the local community beyond the woodlands; this the original trigger for my visual work. Would combining poetry develop these images in another dimension, bringing “a third creative personality”? (Hurn and Fuller, 2010:11). After some experimentation I have added my own poetry to unravel the images a little, amplify my internal dialogue, whilst not giving too much directional context – this I hope will create third personalities, beyond the images and the poetry.

Reference:

Hurn, D. and Fuller, J. (2010) Writing the Picture. Bridgend Wale: Seren.

Contact sheets

BODY OF WORK ASSIGNMENT 4: REFLECTIONS ON FORMATIVE FEEDBACK

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This was a video feedback session.

I described how I have taken what is evident currently in the ancient woodlands and used this as a metaphor for my feelings about the harmony in the woodlands as the antithesis of discord in the local human community. This concept of something physical as a metaphor for something invisible to the subject of my CS work.

I adapted my photography to use the predominant feature in the woodland at this time, moss. Moss covers most other plant species in the woodlands during the winter, protecting, absorbing, and stabilising the ecosystem. My intention was to showcase its important role in its community.

I shared how I researched poetry and photopoetry as a possible method for signposting my work, and that this also led me to thinking and behaving like a poet when photographing, being self-aware and stimulating my imagination.

Technically I explained that I took on board previous advice to crop to a 5:4 ratio and so when shooting I allowed for later cropping to this ratio. I share that the low sun and the lack of foliage made the harsh light a challenge to photograph with the softness that I prefer – however I worked around this.

I used a padlet to edit and share with my tutor as previously suggested and this was very helpful to myself during the process.

We discussed some of my thoughts about the next and last assignment.

Tutor’s comments:

• Images are good

• we worked through my editing process, and she suggested that revisit one or two of those I dropped towards my final edit. Firstly to change one or two images that have an amount of brown leaves in them for others that are more predominantly green (amount of green pixels). Interestingly this is something I began then I edited and then moved away from.

• We discussed my use of poetry. My tutor thought my poetry good in itself but invited me to consider:

–    Does the second couplet in each verse that refers to the community elsewhere confuse the narrative of the photograph it is placed against? Are the references too oblique?

– I should check whether the words and images are working together well?

– I could experiment with other approaches such as a wall text which explains the background to the images and text. Or placing a poem ahead of the images and leaving each image in the series without accompanying text, leaving the images to express themselves.

-Review Alec Soth’s work sleeping by the Mississippi

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