EDITION FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY ISSUE#009
EDITION FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY ISSUE#009
Editor Iam Burn Techincal team Michael Daglish Web Creator Natasha Wood Special thanks to University of Sunderland, Photography, Video and Digitial Imaging students, and MA Photography students, for their submissions.
EDITION Edition is a fine art photography magazine from students at Northern Centre of Photography, University of Sunderland, BA (Hons) Photography, Video and Digital Imaging and MA Photography. This magazine acts as a platform for our students to get their work out to a wider audience. In this issue we showcase a range of students’ work across all three years working in a variety of different mediums; ranging from traditional chemical and digital through to alternative processes. We would like to thank everyone for the continued success of Edition. Edition Editor
Whereness: The Landscape of Uncertainty “The photograph belongs to that class of laminated objects whose two leaves cannot be separated without destroying them both: the windowpane and the landscape, and why not: Good and Evil, desire and its object; dualities we can conceive but not perceive... Whatever it grants to vision and whatever its manner, a photograph is invisible: it is not it that we see.� Roland Barthes Rain is a temporary thing. Commonplace, but not the norm. Vital to our survival; yet on a daily basis it is merely an inconvenience, something we endure, for as little time as possible. Rain is transformative. Its effect on the landscape - and on our behaviour - is profound. We run for cover. We hide indoors. We leave the outside vacant. Rain is an intervention. The car acts as a mediator between myself, the rain and the empty landscape. It opens up the possibility of new locations. It provides shelter from the rain, facilitating a more considered, meditative image-making process. But it is also a hindrance, as framing an image is contingent on my ability to manoeuvre the vehicle within any given location. Balancing creative decisions with those outside of my control is an integral aspect of my work. I choose to photograph the rain and by doing so I invite uncertainty into the process. The rain intervenes on the landscape and my method, but also on the photographic image. As it pools on the glass, the rain distorts and obscures the landscape. It separates the windowpane and the landscape. It draws attention to the car and my position inside. It makes conscious the act of seeing.
CHRIS YOUNGER
WHERENESS
CHRIS YOUNGER
WHERENESS
CHRIS YOUNGER
WHERENESS
Domestic Bitch Porn. First directed by men. Written by men. Starring men. Featuring women. The industry was geared towards the male gain, with female parts playing the role of a pleasurable punching bag within the faux BDSM related scenes. Pain being misconceived as pleasure. Control being misconceived as trust. But what drives this misogynist view on sexuality and fetish? And why is the size 10 foot still on the accelerating pedal? Through time, women have been the inferior gender in literature as well as media, in sexuality as well as society, but celebrated when at the total control of an abusive master. Within this body of work, I addressed the ever-growing issue of the misconceptions observed in the BDSM scene, and how women are often abused rather than pleasured for the entertainment of men. I took inspiration and quotes from the book The Yellow Wallpaper – a short story published in 1892, written from the point of view of an oppressed woman, a theme which has followed the gender throughout the years. My purpose was to show the vulnerability of bound women, but at the same time, show the female in the role of the dominant, being the one pictured brandishing a flogger and whip with no male influence in sight, pushing the fact that true BDSM does not mean pure servitude and degradation, but also compassion and care. “We’re modern women! Not slutty Sharons, horny teens, desperate housewives, hot nurses, and nymphomaniac hookers, always looking to service pimps, multi-millionaires or macho sex machines!” – Erika Lust.
HYDE ALDERSON
DOMESTIC BITCH
HYDE ALDERSON
DOMESTIC BITCH
HYDE ALDERSON
DOMESTIC BITCH
Metmorphosis This work is a visualization / interpretation of the homonymous novella by Franz Kafka. A series of portraits of Gregor Samsa, the book’s main character. This series of images is about the metamorphosis of a person into a loathly creature, a person that society does not accept and his isolation induced by this event. Gregor Samsa has no gender, race, or caste. He could be anyone.
GREG BABALAS
METAMORPHOSIS
GREG BABALAS
METAMORPHOSIS
GREG BABALAS
METAMORPHOSIS
GREG BABALAS
METAMORPHOSIS
Absence Trying to understand what you feel when you lose relatives close to you at very young age is a hard task. The memories you have, are hidden away to protect them from being lost, but in turn, it protects them from being remembered. You’re told they adored you. You’re told all about how you used to sit on their knee at the dinner table when they ate their favourite meal. You’re told how you used to steal food from their plate. This story becomes a memory for you, something that makes you smile whenever you have that familiar meal. The older you get, the further from your loved ones you feel and the absence of them in your life impacts your everyday. You notice the little things. How your love for reading is directly influenced by those nights spent as your Nana reads to you and how a certain smell brings you back to a more innocent time.
REBEKAH KITCHELL
ABSENCE
REBEKAH KITCHELL
ABSENCE
Antagonistic Confidante I have had mental health issues since childhood. The only relationships in my life which have been for a longer period are with my family. I have fought through some very dark depressive periods. I have felt close to throwing my hand and ending the pain. Thankfully, there has always been something within me that has pulled me back from the brink. This body of work looks at my last major depressive episode, exploring my emotions and feelings I endured as my brain fought against me. My old comrade. My antagonistic confidante. The original work was presented as a photo album. The images were shot in medium format colour film and printed by my own hand. It was vital for me to have a personal connection with the printing, creating objects of my emotional experiences. Each image was placed under vellum, complete with accompanying text. Finally, they were placed in to the album. ​ These images are digital scans from the original album.
IAM BURN
ANTAGONISTIC CONFIDANTE
IAM BURN
ANTAGONISTIC CONFIDANTE
IAM BURN
ANTAGONSTIC CONFIDANTE
The Void Man was born with a hole in his heart, with which nothing could he satiate. As the stagnant light offered nil, an ever-growing desire of want consumed. In attempt to understand what was within black he looked within. In my work, I am hunting for a sense of unseen; a case of searching for the next place in the consuming human process of perceptual evolution and exploration; the power to ground the unseen to reality and see more than our own vision. It talks about primal need to seek the unknown, while also being a personal questioning of ones inner shadow and ego. Nothing will satiate our need for knowledge, and only in death is a there a calm finality, in death the curse of want is ended by the mind returning to nature. When working with the unseen, the void is a fascinating thing to explore, as we consume a lights horizon there is always more within the void for the mind to chase. When I create photographs using flash, it’s an act of swallowing what is hidden while also accepting the far reaches of black that I cannot reach. There is a rush from being blind, to reaching out. I am infatuated with the possibility of the void, and infuriated with the stagnation of light. Through this project I’ve become aware of the need to create in hope of filling a hole. In one way, my work is cathartic therapy as I expose myself to the places in which nightmare images are born, as capturing brings clarity. In another way, my work highlights how I find myself in a catch 22; in creating work I stagnate what was once a mystery, but without the consumption of reality I wouldn’t approach closure. Staring into black with open eyes has a tie to staring with the eyes closed, thought forms emerge and details become more apparent for those with the desire to indulge in blindness. Closure isn’t something to be found, it’s something to be accepted. And in the void, I find closure.
KIERAN KEETON
THE VOID
KIERAN KEETON
THE VOID
KIERAN KEETON
THE VOID
Born A Victim, Grew into an Attacker The past came and went, but the wounds are still there, my aim is to open up the discussion of how the reality of slavery cannot be closed whilst the scars of its history are still in the world. The division amongst black people themselves needs to be resolved, before we talk about the strides we have made so far. Shut out greed, selfishness and care for one another as a unit. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that�. (Martin Luther King JR)
OLASUNKANMI OLAYANJU
BORN A VICTIM, GREW INTO AN ATTACKER
OLASUNKANMI OLAYANJU
BORN A VICTIM, GREW INTO AN ATTACKER
Chris Younger Whereness : The Landscape of uncertainty chris.younger@me.com www.chrisyounger.uk
Hyde Alderson Domestic Bitch bg86th@student.sunderland.ac.uk
Greg Babalas Metamorphosis b.grigoris@hotmail.com
Rebekah Kitchell Absence rebekahannekitchell@gmail.com www.rebekahkitchell.com
Iam Burn Antagonistic Confidante iamburnphoto@gmail.com www.iamburn.co.uk
CONTRIBUTORS Kieran Keeton The Void
#009
bg98ph@student.sunderland.ac.uk
Olasunkanmi Olayanju Born A Victim, Grew Into An Attacker bg52yc@student.sunderland.ac.uk
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CONTEMPORARY FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY BY STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND