AMY CONNELLY Independent Practice
THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER The first brief that we were given was to create a presentation that communicates what we feel our independent practice is currently about. At this stage I was still quite unsure about where my practice lies and what I felt were my strongest skills. I decided to think about what I enjoy doing and decided typography, stop frame animation and hand based methods were three of my preferred areas of interest within graphic design, so this is what I based my presentation on. I created a short stop frame animation in which I cut out letters from small bits of lino and created a print reading ‘typography’.
Click to see video
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS The second brief we were given was to produce a film precisely 3 minutes long conforming to the Dogme 95 rules that also communicates something about our independent work. I struggled with this brief, again, because at this stage I was still unsure about what my practice was. I decided to focus on my interest in typography for this brief and created a short film demonstrating how I myself would go about designing a new font. I managed to create my film without breaking any of the rules, I did find this difficult but enjoyed the challange of working within a set of limitations.
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FUNNY STORIES After deciding I needed some help to get me started with my independent practice I had a tutorial with Luke in which we had a discussion to help me find a starting point. From our discussion we decided that one of my strong points seemed to be writing, so to get the ball rolling we decided I should start by collecting funny stories from friends and family. After trying to do this for a week I found it quite difficult to obtain stories from people so I decided to broaden this area of interest to funny conversations that I overheard, these can be seen on the following pages.
“We were all sitting in the garden playing cards over the summer. I had cards in one hand and a cigarette in the other and I suddenly fell straight through the garden chair onto the grass! The worst part was I couldn’t get up by myself, so I had to wait for everyone to stop laughing before someone finally came to help me. Then when I did manage to get up the frame of the chair was still stuck around my butt”
“I was out one night in Croydon for a friends birthday, but had somewhere to be the next day so I decided I was going to leave at a reasonable time. So I left at midnight, wanted to save some money so went to go get on the night bus instead of paying for a cab. Got on the night bus but fell asleep and woke up in Elephant and Castle. I then had to wait around 45 minutes for a night bus going in the other direction to take me back home. But fell asleep again and woke up back in Croydon! After all that I went and got a cab home and didn’t get home until about 3am”
“Once when I went to Thorpe Park on fright night with my friends, we were getting ready to go into one of those ‘scare mazes’ and had to stand in a line with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front. It was really dark and everyone was screaming – one of my mates was screaming my name and telling me to make sure I didn’t let go not realising it wasn’t me he was holding onto!”
“I bought a bottle of water the other day, that brand that donates a certain amount of money from each bottle sold to charities in Africa. I asked my friend where the water was sourced from as I couldn’t see it on the bottle . She said Africa”.
“We went on holiday to Ibiza a few years ago and my mate Jim was trying to cut into a really stale bread roll using a butter knife and went straight through the roll and cut in-between two of his fingers. But rather than go to the hospital he put a plaster on it and sellotaped his two fingers together! We went Go karting the next day, and once you’ve finished you obviously have to lift yourself up out of the go kart. So using the same hand he’d hurt the day before, he’s put it down on the engine to lift himself out and completely burnt the palm of his hand. So we went to the bar so they could give him some stuff to put on his hand and get it bandaged up a bit and then went to play pool. He obviously had to play one handed and with the wrong hand at that… But he still managed to beat me!”
EXISTING EXAMPLES After creating my first five stories and I began to thnk about documenting conversations. I decided to research how existing designers had taken similar ideas further. The most interesting interpretation I found was a TV programme called Creature Comforts. This programme was originally created in 1989 by Nick Park and Aardman Animations. The original was a British humorous animated short film about how animals feel about living in a zoo, featuring the voices of the British public “spoken” by the animals. The most interesting thing about this animation, and the aspect that makes it inspirational to my work, is that the dialogue was created by interviewing residents of a housing development, an old people’s home and a family that lived in a local shop. Clay animation was then created that attributed the answers to zoo animals. The episode I have story borded below is a more recent episode aired in 2003 title The Circus.
Click to see video
So how was Noah’s first birthday? Yeah good, we took him to London Zoo for the day, was really good, expensive though and they don’t even have
Oh really?
any elephants
Yeah, had giraffes though, they were pretty cool. If you were going to do an impression of what a giraffe sounds like what would you do?
Lol, I don’t know, giraffes don’t make any noise do they? I don’t know. Okay, if you were going to do a hippo impression what would you do?
Ermm, I don’t know! Lol. Do hippos make a noise? Yeah, they sort of make a noise that sounds like laughing, like ‘hahahahaha’
Lol So what impressions would you do for a chicken? ‘Cluck cluck’ Okay and what would you do for a sheep?
‘Baaaaaaa’ And what would you do for a duck? ‘Quack Quack’ – is this going somewhere?
Is there a reason you’re asking for animal impressions?
No......I just wondered :)
Did Amy tell you about her boiled potatoes?
No? She was cooking dinner for her and Ashley the other day and asked me how to do mashed potatoes. We only had the big baking potatoes, so I told her.... - Just pick a couple of the potatoes out - Boil them for about 15 minutes - And once they are soft enough you can start to mash them
Right okay, what’s wrong with that?
Yeah, what is wrong with that? Nothing Well... I came down to the kitchen to see how she was getting on and she’s got two whole, unpeeled potatoes sitting in a sauce pan while she waits for the kettle to finish boiling so she can boil them....
Ha Ha! I followed your instructions!! You never said anything about peeling and chopping the potatoes, so I didn’t :(
HANDMADE & BOUND I went along to the Handmade and Bound event not only to support some friends who were displaying work there, but also to look for inspiration. I didn’t feel that my current project was going anywhere and that it was lacking in depth, meaning and creativity. I bought this small blue book from a designer called Kali whilst at the event. I liked this book alot, not only because of the interesting choice of design but the photography inside was beautiful. This alongside other designs/designers I saw whilst there, such as Simon Last’s photography books, reminded me of how much I enjoyed doing pinhole photography last year and inspired me to revisit it. Below are some images of the book I purchased. After browsing through the book I noticed a note on the inside of the cover, which can be read in one of the images below. I decided to contact the designer to find out a bit more about this and her reasons for creating this little book. Opposite is a conversation I had with the designer.
CONVERSATION WITH THE DESIGNER OF THE BOOK I bought a book from yourself at the Handmade and Bound fair the other day, it was a little blue book with some photography inside of the Peckham Estate. Initially I bought the book for the beautiful photography and because I loved the way it was made, but I’ve become really interested in the note that you’ve placed on the inside of the cover. I wondered if this was based on a true event? I did have a quick Google but couldn’t find any information and wondered if you could tell me anything about this or point me in the direction of where you found the information? I had the information from friends who lived on the Peckham estate, they were told that the estate was being knocked down because of the crime and they told me the story about the architect. I don’t have any proof, though, I did believe it was true at the time I made the book several years ago but I can’t definitely confirm it. I am really interested in architecture and tower blocks in particular, especially the way Le Corbusier designed the first tower blocks as ideal living places - and those that exist in places like Berlin are really beautiful still - and the huge contrast with some council housing in my neighbourhood.
PINHOLE PHOTOTGRAPHY OF LONDON After the Handmade & Bound event I reflected back on some of my previous pinhole photography from other projects. I decided this is something I would like to experiment with once again, so to continue with this idea, I took a trip into central London and documented my journey through London using pinhole photography. I decided to accompany the images with the time in which the photographs were taken along with a short description of what was being photographed. I feel this gives the images a bit more context, meaning and more of a purpose. I managed to achieve some really interesting images that I was very pleased with.
10:57 View of St Paul’s Cathedral from the Million bridge.
11:33 View of Westminister Abbey.
14:27 View of Trafalgar Square.
10:57 View of Temple Bar and St Paul’s Cathedral.
09:46 View of Vauxhall Bridge.
10:29 View of the Wellington Arch from Hyde Park Corner.
14:34 View of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
11:20 View of Westminster Abbey.
PINHOLE PHOTOS OF WHIPSNADE ZOO After having successfully created a series of pinhole photographs of London, I decided that this is the direction I would like to pursue for my independent practice. Although there are other unconventional photographic processes that could be explored, I chose to stick with pinhole photography as this is a process I am already familiar with. This allows me to be more aware of time constraints, medium limitations and how I can use this process successfully. To progress with this idea, I continued to produce pinhole cameras to take with me on different journeys. The next journey I managed to document using pinhole photography was a visit to Whipsnade Zoo.
15:41 The elephant enclosure.
15:59 The view over the hill.
12:05 The white rhino enclosure.
11:50 The outdoor rhino enclosure.
16:01 The penguin enclosure.
13:32 A view of Camels on the hill.
13:59 Flamingos in lake.
14:17 The lion enclosure.
PINHOLE PHOTOTGRAPHY OF BATH I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Bath in December and made the most of this opportunity by taking along some pinhole cameras. I continued my work by taking images in and around the city.
15:06 A view of townhouses in Bath.
14:47 A view of architecure in Bath with a shadow of Bath Abbey in the centre.
11:04 The view down the Kennet and Avon canal.
11:30 A view of Bath Abbey.
11:10 A view of the Kennet and Avon canal taken from the other side of the bridge.
11:43 A view of Bath Abbey.
11:10 A view of the Kennet and Avon canal.
12:14 A view of inside the Bath Abbey coupled with some town house architecture.
LONDON BY PINHOLE PUBLICATION I have begun to consider my Final Major Project and what result I am likley to achieve with my images. Taking into consideration my subject matter and medium, I have begun to consider how my end result will be presented and have decided the form of a book is likely to be the most appropriate manner. I have produced an ISSUU publication showing my collection of London pinhole photography as a prototype for a way in which I could consider presenting my FMP. To the right can be seen two double page spreads taken from this publication as an example, of which the full publication can be seen if you click the link below. I would also like to consider producing a physical set of books for my final images, as although the ISSUU publication allows the images to be easily accesible via the internet, a pyshical book does have a certain quality about it that I feel would add to the experience when viewing the photography.
Click to see full publication.
Hardy’s Tree Before turning to writting full time Thomas Hardy studied srchitecture in London. During the 1860’s the Midland Railway line was being built over part of the St Pancras Churchyard and Hardy was asked to supervise the proper exhumation of human remains and dismantling of tombs from the land. It was decided that the headstones from the graves were to be placed around this Ashtree which has continued to grow, intertwining with the stones.
Cardinals Wharf Between the Globe Theatre and the bridge there are a few houses that most people don’t notice. These are known as Cardinals Wharf and the house pictured with the red door to the right, is where Sir Christopher Wren stayed to watch his masterpiece take shape directly across the river. It is thought that it was this house specfically that he chose, because he felt it had the best view of the cathedral.
EVALUATION During the course of the year we have been encouraged to progress and develop our independent practice through experimentation and the use of an ‘action/research/ planning’ process. I have found this semester extremely challenging as I wasn’t sure where my independent practice lies and was unsure of what direction to move forward in. In previous units throughout this degree I had explored and enjoyed the idea of pinhole photography in my personal practice, but due to receiving poor marks I felt that perhaps this area was not for me. Based on this, I struggled to know where to begin with this years independent practice unit. Our first brief was to produce a presentation on where our practice lies. My response to this was to produce a stop frame animation with the subject of typography as its theme. This is an area I had always found to be interesting, enjoyable, and felt I was reasonably good at, so I felt this could be a good starting point for my practice. Our second brief asked us to produce a film exactly 3 minutes long conforming to the ’Dogme 95’ rules. This was extremely challenging as not only had I never worked with film as a medium before but it was also difficult sticking to that any restrictions all at one time. Although
this brief was challenging and completely outside my comfort zone, I every much enjoyed exploring a new way of working and was proud to complete a piece that conformed to all of the rules. For this brief I continued with the idea of typography and how I would personally go about designing a new font. Although this is an area of interest for me I didn’t feel like it was something I wanted to pursue long term. After spending many weeks confused I decided to have a tutorial with Luke to discuss my options. We discussed my areas of interest and what skills I felt I had and he set me a one-week brief to help get me started. Taking into consideration that I was doing a double dissertation and therefore I clearly enjoy writing, the brief I was set was to record 5 funny stories and bring them to the next tutorial. At the next tutorial we decided I would continue with this idea but try and find images to accompany the stories, whether it be photography, illustration or moving image. As I continued with this project I decided it lacked depth and meaning and I wanted to progress and evolve my practice further. I visited the Handmade & Bound event and found much inspiration for form, subject and medium here. It began to make me question further where I felt my practice could
lie after finishing this course - what could I enjoy doing on a daily basis? This brought me back to the idea of pinhole photography and handmade books. Having seen many people taking part in this event selling self made books with their own idea of what they feel is creatively interesting, this gave me the confidence to go back and revisit what I enjoy doing. Practitioners such as Simon Last, who produces pinhole photography and Kali who is featured in my portfolio who produces digital photography of architecture have both shown me that it is possible to create a great personal practice out of a small starting point. I hope to expand on my starting point of pinhole photography through my Final Major Project to create a much more solid and thought out independent practice. So I began revisiting pinhole photography, I made several cameras and took pictures of places and journeys I had been on including a trip to London, Whipsnade and Bath. I very much enjoyed getting back into pinhole photography and the results I was getting were highly interesting and unique, which is what I find most appealing about this method of photography – that you can never be sure of what the results will turn out like but usually they will be interesting and unique.
I took my results to a tutorial with Mike to obtain some guidance on how I progress with this idea. We decided I needed to give the images more context and more meaning. I decided to start putting the name of the place that had been photographed alongside the time I believe it to have been taken. This gives the viewer an idea of where to place the image with regards to time and place. This is as far as I managed to get with my independent practice unit this semester. I recognise this is due to much thinking and perhaps not enough doing, but I am happy to have reached a place in which I feel confident working. Following shortly is my FMP proposal which will describe how I wish to progress from here. During the course of this semester I have made an effort to attend a number of talks, workshops and exhibitions to help me to build upon my knowledge of existing work, contemporary themes and practical skills. This is something I intend to continue doing as I am very much aware that in order to achieve current and interesting work I must have an expanse of knowledge of what contemporary themes there are, an awareness of what references I may be making and a way of learning whatever skills I will need to complete my work to a high standard.
FMP PROPOSAL Having enjoyed re-visiting the process of pinhole photography during this semester, I would like to continue with this for my final major project. Having used the idea of ‘journey’ to drive my pinhole photography I would like to continue using this theme. I managed to photograph some really beautiful places and things during this semester and it got me to thinking about why I felt the need to travel out of my own area in order to achieve ‘nice’ photographs. This also ties in with part of my dissertation, which is the idea that photography is an extremely selective process. From the photographer picking and choosing exactly what will be included in the frame of the photo right through to the editing and selection of the photographs that people are happy to share. For my FMP I have decided to take a series of photographs showing the journey from my area to central London to depict the changes in the surroundings along the way into the city. Following on from the points mentioned above I am going to try to be as indiscriminative as possible with the images I take and select to try to ensure that each book represents each mile as realistically and fairly as possible. The journey from my area to the official central point of London (Charing Cross) is approximately 9 miles. I intend to produce a series of pinhole photographs for each mile of my journey to London, I will then create a publication for each mile containing the relevant photographs. In my portfolio I have experimented with the idea of displaying my photographs in the form of an ISSUU publication, I would like to consider this as an option for my final piece. I would also like to consider the option of creating a physical book for each of the 9 books. The map I have put together (as shown above) displays each mile of the journey from my area into London. I have used red circles to depict each mile, starting with 9 miles out from the centre. I have done this so that I do not constrain myself to a specific area for each mile - this will allow me to branch out whilst ensuring I remain within the designated mile.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Websites www.chriskeeney.com/monthly-pinhole-lenslessphotographer-features www.digital-photography-school.com/photography-101light-and-the-pinhole-camera www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/pinhole.shtml www.marktweedie.co.uk/blog/index.php www.pinhole.org www.pinholeday.org www.pinholephotography.org www.pinholephotography.co.uk/pages/index.htm www.slowlight.net www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/25/theshowcase-of-beautiful-pinhole-photography www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/estenopo/ index.html Books James, Christohper. The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, (2008) Delmar Keeny, Chris. Pinhole Cameras: A DIY Guide, (2011) Princeton Architectural Press Renner, Eric. Pinhole Photography, (1995) Focal Press Renner, Eric. Pinhole Photography: From Historic Technique to Digital Application, (2008) Focal Press Designers Jonathan Stead Justin Quinnell Katie Cooke Mark Tweedie Scott Speck Tony Taylor Zeb Andrews