CAPTURE Issue 2 by Helen Jessica

C A P T U R E technical journal & notes

PHOS330: photography final major project portfolio, mnhp level 3 issue

CONTENTS 4 - 5 Notes From The Author

SHOOTS

22 - 39 Shoot Seven Kannack 40 - 49 Shoot Eight Pendennis 50 - 59 Shoot Nine Castle/Gyllyngvase 60 - 69 Shoot Ten North Coast

WRITE UPs

6 - 9

Uta Kos

10 - 13 Lottie Davies

24 - 25

Martin Parr

SERIES 14 - 17 Observers Guide ...to British Birds 18 - 21 Obervers Guide ...to British Wildflowers

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NOTES

FROM THE AUTHOR

ISSUE two of Capture is the second installment documented the progression of my photographic work and is a chronological presentation and discussion of more shoots and images created for

PHOS330: Photography Final Major Project Portfolio, that i am creating to contrubite towards the marine and

Natural History

Photography course at Falmouth University. Within this Issue all aspects of the shoots will be discussed including, location, set up, technical decisions and equipment.

This

issue differs slightly from issue one of capture as the shoots displayed in this magazine had little or no post-prouction so instead of documenting these processes i am explore the visual effects of combining my images and placing them in a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;white wallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; space to see how the image relate to each other.

Unlike the first issue this is more of a visual catoaloge of imagery, with less text, making its sole purpose that of displaying images and assessing visual and aestethic impact.

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Uta Kogelsberger Uta KogelsbergerÂ lives and works in London. After

completing her MA at the RCA in Sculpture Kogelsberger started working with photography. Her work looks at how the built environment and domesticated landscape become a physical manifestation of a societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ideology and belief structures. More specifically it looks at those places we create through our dreams and aspirations and the inbuilt failure therein.

THE LECTURE For the yearly Falmouth Photography Symposium, we on the Marine and Natural History Photography course where billed two guest speakers, the first of which was a lecture given by Uta Kogelsberger (whose information I have explained about). Her lecture focused on her work filming a recreational beach area in southern USA. Her lectured was mainly playing us a 26-minute clip of said footage, which was long, slow panning shots of the landscape and the people and the cars using the area. The tones were the same throughout the piece, all dull and low contrasty. Personally I found the shoots beautiful, however the piece to me seemed to long and drawn out, without much point. I was a bit disappointed with the lecture as a whole as I was hoping to hear more about her practice and how she works and creates the images and film she makes, not just be shown the work with only a brief description of what went into making it.

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Uta Kogelsberger Continued

THE PORTFOLIO REVIEW Along with the lecture, as apart of the Symposium we were also offered portfolio reviews with the professionals that came to lecture. I booked one with each of our courses two guest lectures and my first one was with Uta. As I have never had a portfolio review before I was very very nervous. I brought with me the final images from my last portfolio, and was semi prepared with what I wanted to ask her opinion on, however as a whole it did not go well. I found her slightly uninterested and unimpressed with the work I showed and she made me feel uncomfortable and with this discomfort I was unable to articulate my ideas very well. However I have never been one to take criticism badly so I went away and thought about her opinion that my work and my messages didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t match up and I seem to be forcing my imagery to fit my message. And this is something I have been looking a lot into in this portfolio and finding more subtitle ways to show a meaning and a message within my imagery. She also gave me an artist to look at in reference to my new idea of using the observer guide, she told me to look at the work of Roni Horn, and to look more into the theory of interlinking text and images. Overall I am glad I went to the review, but more to prepare me for my next one and not because of Utaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advise as she made me feel quite bad about my work after the session, but this has inspired me to work harder.

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Lottie Davies

Lottie Davies was born in Guildford, UK, in 1971. She grew up in Surrey and was educated

in Alton and Godalming. After a degree in philosophy at St Andrews University in Scotland, she moved back to England to learn the photographic trade as an assistant in London, where she has since been based. Davies’ work is concerned with stories and personal histories, the tales and myths we use to structure our lives: memories, life-stories, beliefs. She takes inspiration from classical and modern painting, cinema and theatre as well as the imaginary worlds of literature. She employs a deliberate reworking of our visual vocabulary, playing on our notions of nostalgia, visual conventions and subconscious ‘looking habits’, with the intention of evoking a sense of recognition, narrative and movement. THE LECTURE Lotties lecture was highly enjoyable and very informative. The lecture started by her explaining how she got into photography and how after may years of working in photography she didn’t enjoy she decided to start travel photography. She then went on to explain the numerous self funded shoots she did in different places around the world and how she went about getting places and how she got the shots she wanted. It was also interesting to hear about how hard it is to get work that has a message and something to say about the troubles of another country published in the UK, this surprised me highly, she said she even found it hard to give away the stories she photographed. The second part of the lecture and the part I personally found the most interesting, was about her fine art shoots that is her current practice. She did this by showing us one of her images and then talking us through how the lighting setup worked and how she went about dressing her sets choosing her models and even as far back as how the idea of the shoot originated in her mind. I found all of it fascinating, as the more time passes the more I am drawn to fine art photography, over that of wildlife and documentary.

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Lottie Davies THE PORTFOLIO REVIEW

Continued

I have to say that the 20-minute portfolio review I had with Lottie was the most helpful time in terms of this portfolio that I’ve had so far. After discussing my pervious work, I explained my current struggle between wanting make a difference and produce work that has a purpose and a message, but that I want to go into fine art photography. Her response is one that I found extremely helpful and had changed my perspective on how I can work she said that; “Images produced showing animals under threat, (as an example) will go into a national geographic magazine or something like that, and the people who read these magazines and publications are people who already have a passion for this kind of thing, so therefore your images aren’t really making the impact you want them too. However if you create a more fine art image, that still has the conservation message and put it in a gallery, the people who then see it might not be aware and therefore your image has informed someone and you have made someone new aware….” The second thing we discussed was my use of the observer guides, and she advised me to not take to much of a literal route to the work, and said I should just take my camera and go to the places described and photograph what I, personally, see there and just go and immerse myself into the place, making the images created and the project a more personal exploration of the environment. I really like this idea and thing I may well run with it to see how it works.

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The Observers Guide to British Birds My first idea when looking at these

combine my portraiture work with

to forced. If I was to carry on down

observer

inspired

these pages. I decided to use a

this root I think I would need to

by the descriptions of the birds

simple technique of doing this by

reshoot the portraits in a more

and how sentences within these

simply replacing the image of the

natural setting so that they would

descriptions could be attributed

bird with the image of my model

blend more seamlessly into the

to people. This made me think of

taken in the studio.

composition. However even with

how people have a tendency to

I think the concept could

this change I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think the idea

name their children after natural

be a strong one, however the clean

works as well in actuality as it did

subjects, meaning that the names

white images of the models donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t

in theory, I still want to continue

of the birds could be referring to

blend in enough with the texture

working with the observer guides

people, and vice versa.

and colouration of the pages,

but I personally think I need to

came

this meant that the overall image

leave the portraiture behind me

together and inspired me to try and

created didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t flow well and looked

and move in a different direction.

guides

These

was

ideas

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The Observers Guide to British Wild Flowers

This series is the same

I also think that one of the main

completely changes the feel of the

as the last, with the same concept

reasons this doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work is that

page and the magic of the guide is

with the exception of the change

the beauty of these guides is the

lost. If I am to continue to use these

from birds to flowers. However

detailed drawings on the pages

pages in my compositions I need to

the same issues apply, the image

and by replacing them with other

find a way to combine the old with

composition just doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work.

newer,

the new in a more seamless way.

cleaner

photographs

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SHOOT 7 - Kannack Sands 07/03/2014

“Kennack Sands, near the village of Kuggar

on the Lizard peninsula, is comprised of two beaches with some grassy areas which are divided by the small hill of Carn Kennack and a shore rock feature called Caerverracks.”

I have made one final decision on the course

of my photographic work for this portfolio and that is to pick one of the observation guides and stick to it. The one I have picked is ‘The Observers Guide to the Sea Shore’ meaning that I am going to completely focus my time of photographic specific coastal areas and seeing what effects I can achieve shooting on my Pentax 35mm camera, using 200 ISO colour negative.

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A Bit Martin Parr…

Martin Parr; you cannot have studies

have been drummed into me as the top of

photography at any educational level without

British photography for so long I have grown

coming across or talking about the work of Mr

to dislike them more and more. However I

Parr. I was introduced to his works in my first

cannot undertake a photographic project with

term of studying photography at GCSE level,

the subject matter of the English coastline

as a student you cannot escape him. However

without looking at his work, even if it is mainly

if you have never studied any aspect British

to avoid creating ‘Parr’ images.

image making or you have in fact just emerged

from a cave that you have spent your life in,

my attention as being a bit ‘Parr’ like when

I will briefly explain. He uses his photography

reviewing my shoot with a peer, this was

to capture his vision of ‘british-ness’ but more

due mainly to the colours. As my aim with

specifically he looks at the subjects of leisure,

these images to show the un-observed of

consumption and communication, he does

the places I visit and capture the banal of the

this by taking images from unusual angles,

environment in an interesting way I need to

using garish colours and strange motifs, they

keep my colour palette duller and more true

could even claim to be slightly ‘uncanny’.

to what is being photographed. This would

mean stay far, far away from any similarities

Personally I have always disliked

the work of Martin Parr and think the works

This image was brought especially to

to Mr Parr.

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The Observers Guide Seashore

to the

“The Observer’s Books were a series of small,

pocket-sized books, published by Frederick Warne & Co in the United Kingdom from 1937 to 2003. They covered a variety of topics including hobbies, art, history and wildlife. The aim of these books was to interest the observer and they have also been popular amongst children. Some of them have become collector’s items. For the dedicated collector this could be a lifetime’s work as there are over 800 variations, some of which are now rare. The values of the books can vary from 50 pence to hundreds of pounds.”

Out of the 100 titles produced I owned two and

after deciding to use them within my photographic work have purchased six more. I have however decided to narrow my work down to looking at one, the guide to the sea and seashore. This I did because to time limits and that in Cornwall you are never to far from the coast, this and the sea and coasts are my personal refuge.

At this point I am still unsure how compositionally

I will use the pages from the observer’s guide, whether it be overlaying, framing, increasing/decreasing the sizing or simply placing my images within the book format, this I the main area I need to experiment in.

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SHOOT 8 - Pendennis Point 12/03/2014

After the relative success of my first shoot, I have

moved locations. For this shoot I went to the popular spot of Pendennis Point, Falmouth. This is an area with a lot of signs of human presence but new and historic. I particually didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to just document this human presence but only incorporate bits that I felt where there but overlooked.

Everyone goes to Pendennis to look at the ruins

of the old castle and the watch towers, whereas I wanted to observe the newer aspects added to this historic bit of coast. I have also decided to carry on making sure I never actually photograph the sea or any clichĂŠ landscapes of the area. I am continuing to use my 35mm Pentax with 200 ISO colour negative as after processing my last shoot the quality and colours captured work well with the again pages of the guide I am working with.

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SHOOT 9 - Castle/Gylly Beach 10/04/2014

I am still working the same way as the pervious two shoots, shooting random objects along the coast, still using my old 35mm Pentax camera with 200 ISO colour negative film. This shoot is set along the path that runs from Castle Beach to Gyllyngvase Beach at Falmouth. I choose this location as it’s A, local and B, contexts two very popular tourist beaches, so is decked out with all the typical things you would expect to find at an English beach. I was also interested in doing this particular location, as it’s an area that over the last three years of living in Cornwall I have been too a lot but never really focused on what was there to actually make an image with. I really love the images I have taken so far, so I don’t plan on changing anything about the technical details of this shoot over the last one. I was planning on upgrading to 120mm colour film, to get a better quality image, however I personally thing the grainy, un-perfect look of 35mm film is exactly what this project needs.

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SHOOT 8 - North Coast 16/04/2014

Again the technical details on this shoot are same as all the others, except on this shoot I am using 125 ISO colour film, as it is a particularly bright and sunny day. For this shoot I decided to go to North Coast to a small cove by Treknow. I choose this location due to the fact that I stumbled across it, it was both beautiful and remote but with hints of tourist propaganda. I loved that it had a proper combination of old style fishing village and modern tourist necessity. I wanted to see if I could capture the two things in one image. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think I was able too, however I do think I captured images of the two separately and well.

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Evaluation

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Next...

I think I can finally say that I am starting to see my final images take shape, I have after

many attempts and failure come to an idea that I think works and that I like and can say Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy to continue on with and create an interesting body of work out of.

The main break through I had with this portfolio was when I changed the way I was

going about the work, I have always had the tendency to work backwards, and envision an image or an idea then try and make my photography fit. However after a tutorial with Lottie Davis, a

photography I highly respect I saw that I needed to go back to my original love to photography and the outdoors and the coast. Her advice to just go out and BE in the environments and photograph

what I personally see as beautiful was what inspired these series of images. This means that I am now not just producing images I think are aesthetically pleasing and personally interesting but I

am also starting to enjoy the photography again! I also think the change from digital to analogue was the second thing that made this project fall into place for me. By using the observer guides

as my base for my imagery, digital was never going to work as the images produced by a digital

camera were too perfect and too new, by using 35mm colour negative I can now place my images more seamlessly into the context I want them.

The next step for me in this portfolio is the one I am most excited about, as although I

ideally want to add one or two more shoots to increase my image choices, I now need to experiment with composition and compilation ideas. I also need to start thinking of my final outcome, in terms of size, paper, printing, framing and displaying methods.

Issue 3 of CAPTURE Coming soon....