I began this course worrying that it would pull me away from artistic expression and back towards creating aesthetically appealing images which I now would call the painterly tradition. I could not have been more wrong, the course has evolved my appreciation of the landscape discipline and the many options available to express what I want to express.
I think that the progression of my assignments shows the progression that I have made. In Assignment 1 I felt at the time I was pushing myself by questioning beauty and the fact that the Cotswolds AONB excludes the canal running through one of Stroud’s valleys due to the industrial nature of some of the buildings. This was inspired by Keith Arnatt’s work A.O.N.B (A.O.N.B (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) – Keith Arnatt – Key Works. An overview of British Photography – Hyman Collection – British Photography, 2020). When I look at this assignment now, I see images that did convey what I wanted to show but on the other hand were deeply rooted composition wise in what I had developed as photography skills before my studies – essentially the textbook composition found in magazines. I do feel less disappointed in this than I might have been now that I have learnt through this course that this is a painterly tradition spanning hundreds of years.
For Assignment 2, my images were very different. Here I adopted an abstract style to show wires supposedly dividing up the countryside according to man’s rules but their decay demonstrating the futility of such efforts in the face of the force of nature itself. This assignment was inspired by the course reading “Wires” from the book Edgelands (Farley, P. and Roberts, M.S., 2011) and I think is the first time I have adopted a different style of image taken in the domain of landscape. It was a significant departure for me composition wise but it also led me to explore other aspects such as frame ratios, here I used 5:4, and to make conscious choices about such items as part of the creative process.
In Assignment 3, my images were more orientated back towards a more classical painterly orientation but in this assignment I furthered an interest into man’s industrial relationship with the landscape. This was triggered by a stay in Cornwall where I was interested in the way that the industry of the past had now become a source of tourism interest, in this case Tin Mines. I wondered if Cornwall’s newest industry, wind farms, which today can be controversial for their visual and aural impact would transition over the years to become much loved relics of the past as with the mines. My images aim to capture these wind turbines shown within the natural landscape, as part of the environment rather than as an addition to it. I felt the assignment was successful in its aim.
Assignment 4 is of course different, it was a research project and I chose to research Lewis Baltz’ Candlestick Point. This assignment is the first time I have researched a single photographer and their collection in such depth. The work helped me develop my understanding of not just his work but the choices he made and how they compared to other photographers in his group of peers that all contributed to the exhibition New Topgrahics, but all of whom approached their photography differently. Specific to Baltz was his deadpan style, devoid of people, and making no attempt to compose the picture in the painterly tradition whilst at the same time striving for technical perfection. The consequence of my research is that I now have a far greater awareness of the domain, and consider its influences that I might choose to take into my own practice.
Assignment 5 is a direct consequence of my research in Assignment 4 in terms of its style and its influences and of my growing interest in the relationship between the land and mankind which was has been sparked by many of the photographers that I have researched over this course: Ingrid Pollard, Melanie Friend, Susan Lipper, Edward Burtynsky, Frank Watson and of course Lewis Baltz to name but a few. In this assignment I adopted a deadpan style to capture Stroud’s mills of which some are decaying, some are refurbished and some are parts of new business or residential developments. I explored the use of an artist statement to set the context for viewing the images and I found that this gave me greater freedom in my image taking and in their presentation since it felt to me that I could leave more ‘space’ in the image for the viewer to make up their own mind as to their intent. I also explored the use of video of present my image and found that the ability to add a soundtrack enhanced how I presented my work and I also found that video gives one a greater control over the order in which the images are viewed; in this particular assignment it allowed me to randomise the order of types of mill and therefore require the viewer to consider each image more than they otherwise might.
Assignment 6 was a long running assignment in which I captured the same image for each month of the year. Given its nature, I defined the assignment at the start of my studies, before I began the evolution described above, and as such, it was defined as a traditional landscaper painterly view of the valley in which I live. I chose this because living where I do, I have always been fascinated at the way in which the view changes. I found myself becoming more detached from this assignment as my learning progressed. On reflection I think this is because my interests have moved away from capturing images like this. I did learn the importance of high levels of rigour as it is challenging to frame exactly the same shot every time. I think that my biggest learning from this assignment though is the effect that I have described above, it has made me realise how my thinking and skills have evolved over the course. If I were to redo this assignment now, but with the same intent of showing how the valley changes over the year, I would instead adopt an abstract and macro approach to isolate and capture different aspects of the valley as the year progressed. For example March could be the lambs in the local farm, May could be the bluebells in the trees, October the fallen leaves on the ground and so in.
To sum up, I have learnt so much more than I thought I would on this course and what I am now keen to do is incorporate that learning into my overall photographic practice which is less landscape specific but with what I have now learnt means that landscape can play its part in that practice.
Bibliography
Britishphotography.org. 2020. A.O.N.B (Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty) – Keith Arnatt – Key Works. An Overview Of British Photography – Hyman Collection – British Photography. [online] Available at: <http://www.britishphotography.org/online-exhibitions/1755/10341/key-works-an-overview-of-british-photography-aonb-area-of-outstanding-natural-beauty?r=online-exhibitions/1755/key-works-an-overview-of-british-photography> [Accessed 07 August 2020]
Farley, P. and Roberts, M.S. (2011) Edgelands, Journeys into England’s True Wilderness.
Steidl Verlag. n.d. Candlestick Point – Lewis Baltz. [online] Available at: <https://steidl.de/Books/Candlestick-Point-0913274354.html> [Accessed 17 January 2022].