AD6800: MAJOR DOCUMENTARY PROJECT Supporting Material Lisa Richards
1 Contents Proposal
3
Contacting the Global Seedbank
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Seedbank Research
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Contacting Kew
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Dornith Doherty
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Samuel Zeller
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Beyond the Gardens: The Fungarium
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Herbarium
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The Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Museum of Natural History 20 Contacting the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity
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Planning
26
Risk Assessment
27
Project Proposal (revised)
31
Shoot 1 – Herbarium
32
Contact sheets 1-10/16 Herbarium
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Contact sheets 11-16/16 Herbarium
43
Editing
48
Herbarium 38 image edit
51
Edit Evaluation
58
Taryn Simon
59
Anna Atkins
60
Updates
64
Paper edit
64
Thomas Struth
69
Candida Hofer
72
Book ideas
79
Herbarium & Fungarium further research
80
Simon Norfolk
82
Bridget Smith
88
Shoot 2 – Fungarium
88
Contact sheets 1-6/12 Fungarium
89
Contact sheets 7-12/12 Fungarium
95
Fungarium Edit
100
Fungarium 30 image edit
101
2 30 Image Edit
117
Congo Red
119
Empire
122
Mapping
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(SPACE – title/concept)
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(SPACE - editing images / research for book specs etc (not text) )
125
Initial Book Edit
125
Presentation
128
(SPACE)
128
(SPACE)
128
(SPACE)
129
(SPACE)
129
(SPACE)
129
Back-up Idea
129
Kew Botanical Gardens - contact sheets 1-6/11
129
Kew Botanical Gardens - contact sheets 7-11/11
135
3 Lisa Richards AD6800 Major Documentary Project
Proposal My initial intentions for this project were to photograph the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, situated in Norway. The seed bank acts as an insurance seed bank for all of the minor ones in the world, it is being referred to as the ‘Doomsday Seed bank’ and globally is the largest and most important. The purpose of a seed bank is to collect and store as many strains of plant possible for emergency use or in case of extinctions. I have contacted them about visiting on the off chance of getting a positive response, however so far I have been told I would only be allowed access to the outside of the vault, I am very doubtful any situation will change this as access is restricted, and for me next to impossible. Aside from access being an issue, the travel costs and planning would be extremely difficult to accommodate. But, it did give me the idea of looking into seed and plant conservation, DNA specimen conservation, botanical documentation, and other seed banks around the world. I want to use this project to show the importance of conserving plants and DNA, and give a behind the scenes look at something I feel many people are not aware of and document the work that goes into producing these collections. It is often represented in traditional documentary the beginning of this process, going to other countries to collect the specimens etc. but I want to focus on the work that goes on once the specimens reach their location, deriving back to the idea that inspired me about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Each seed or DNA specimen has come from somewhere different to be protected and stored all in one place, they are back up specimens and undisputedly a living document, which form a collection. I want to photograph this and anything to do with the process, to produce a series of uncommonly seen images about the final destination of these seeds and specimens. This project is quite broad currently and can expand to include other conservational means surrounding this idea or it can narrow down to only focus on one aspect of either the seed bank, DNA bank, or other botanical conservations. I have contacted KEW Botanical Gardens in London about photographing their work for the Millennium Seed Bank, DNA and Tissue Bank, Herbarium and Fungarium. I believe any of these would be great access for my project and help develop my idea into a more constructed format, as I’d have a further insight into what I am photographing. I plan to begin shooting the project as soon as I get approval for access. My intended outcome for this project is to produce a book, either hand bound or a collection of prints, which I will then get bound. I’d like to produce a book because I think it is a good way of displaying images and allows for the use of text or other documents in conjunction to the images. I am also interested in publishing and selfpublishing photo books and I feel the research I am doing for my dissertation surrounding photo books would also be beneficial to the final outcome of my major project. I think this would tie in well with my interests, alongside show casing the work in the way I feel would look the best. I plan to shoot the entire project digitally, however I will consider after an initial shoot using colour medium format, as I prefer
 4   using these cameras and feel the images produced are of a nicer quality than digital. For shooting experimental shooting on medium format I will use a Hasselblad as I am comfortable and familiar using them, and I think the square format as well as the quality of image would work well in the presentation of this project. This will depend entirely on how the first shoot goes and if I feel it is right for this project, the access I have, and the time permitted. Primarily and initially, I will be shooting digitally but experiment with film if the subject is permitting.
Contacting the Global Seed bank
5 I first contacted the global seed bank in Norway. I didn’t expect to be allowed access however on the off change that I would be granted access I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity, as travel and expenses could be figured out accordingly. Unfortunately, in the response I received I was told I’d only be allowed access to the outside of the seed bank, which for me would not be enough for the project and not worth the journey. They however replied very quickly and were very nice about trying to accommodate me. They also gave me access to some of their images and videos that I can use for research.
Seed bank research The link that the global seed bank provided me was to their main site featuring all of the work the organization does which you can see here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/croptrust/albums In the videos you can see the outside of the seed bank and the inside, featuring shelves of plants encased by snow and ice in a very desolate area of Norway. You can view them here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/91cz90p90inz0ul/AAC7kRRuoN5gj1OhVDU9Pjka/SGSV%20Video?dl=0 Tumblr user ohsoromanov (source: http://www.truthersonly.com/2015/07/02/svalbard-global-seed-vault-sgsv-thedoomsday-seed-vault/) posted: “In an effort to ensure global food security, 10,000 new varieties of crops from around the world are being added to the ‘doomsday’ seed vault in the Arctic. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on an island off Norway’s northern coast, already stores 825,000 samples of seeds, which represent 13,000 years of agricultural history. The vault provides a back-up to the network of seed banks around the world, which store seeds but can be threatened by war, accidents and natural disasters. Since 2008, the Svalbard seed vault and its guardians have been entrusted by the world’s governments with the safekeeping of the most prized varieties of crops on which human civilization was raised.” And posted with the following pictures:
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I think these images are exemplary of what I could have shot if I had chosen to shoot just the outside of the building and they do show I could achieve a variety of images from this, however I feel the narrative alone isn’t strong enough to constitute a project and the time and money put into it wouldn’t be worth it. I am researching the vault however to show what I’ve looked at prior to receiving my response and to inspire me for further ideas. This is also evidence of the images being stronger in a sequence with the aid of text. These images which accompany an article on mic.com (which you can view here: http://mic.com/articles/124859/norway-s-underground-seed-vault-could-savehumanity-fromextinction?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social#. w2IaWvOWi) are far more the style I’d like to be shooting. I feel the insider images are far stronger and have a better narrative; they are presented as more scientific and act as an aid to the article rather than the typical images. I feel even with a small amount of text they would work well. The article also includes a diagram of what the inside of the bank looks like which is very informative and I think this collaboration of mixed media, i.e. the photographs, text and illustration work together very well to produce an informed and easy to digest narrative.
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10 “Norway is storing 860,000 seed samples underground in case of a global catastrophe In the frozen tundra of the Svalbard archipelago, near an abandoned coal mine, the Norwegian government has assembled one of the most comprehensive “seed vaults” in the world. Jutting out against the forbidding Arctic landscape, the vault serves as a reference library of last resort, that should we need it, could save humanity one day. “ In another article on wired.com entitled ‘Seedbank Vaults Hedge Against Apocalypse’ (http://www.wired.com/2011/10/dornith-doherty/) they include another set of images by Dornith Doherty, which I think would work well in a narrative about the global seed bank, as well as including other images from different storage banks. I really like these images as a set and I would be extremely happy if could produce a series of images to this style. So, although it will be lacking in the isolated feel, I a m going to be approaching smaller seed banks and genetic researchers to see if I can gain the same access I was asking for the global seed vault. I’d like to be able to produce a series documenting the environment of this research and storage, and photograph the working conditions. I think showing this will make people think about the things we really rely on and the amount of effort put in by researchers and scientists to keep the specimens we have safe. I also want to make to series intriguing to look at so that I can accompany them with text, which will hopefully give people a greater understanding of the impotence of this work.
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12 Contacting KEW
I first contacted KEW in London asking for access the Millennium seed vault or DNA bank. I also included that access to the Herbarium and Fungarium would be desired too since they are also of interest. I however didn’t receive a response for some time, which resulted in a few phone calls, and a follow up email, so I’ve chosen only to include the first email since correspondence will not be easy to understand. The result of this is that I am allowed access to the Herbarium only, since they are understaffed and will not be able to accommodate me. I will have to consider through further research if just shooting the Herbarium will make for a strong enough project and outcome, and if I should continue with his idea or develop a new one.
Dornith Doherty I’ve previously looked at Doherty’s work when researching the seed vault, however after discovering their website and their projects I am revisiting the photographer. The images I looked at before and that were used in the article are from the series ‘Achieving Eden’ which consists of two sets of photographs: The Vaults, and a set of images made from x-rays showing pigments of plant specimens. I find this very interesting that they’ve gone down both routes on approach to this project and not used them together. These images are from a variety of seed banks across the world, including KEW London, which I hope to photograph. I think the images alone are very strong and I’ve included below a few, which I have not yet used. I think above all the edit of these pictures; use of colour and composure along with accompanying text is what makes the project strong, which is something I will have to consider well whilst shooting. http://dornithdoherty.com/gallery/vault/
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14 “Spurred by the impending completion of the Svarlbard Global Seed Vault, I initiated Archiving Eden: the Vaults in 2008 to explore the role of seed banks and their preservation efforts in the face of climate change, the extinction of natural species, and decreased agricultural diversity. Serving as a global botanical backup system, these privately and publicly funded institutions assure the opportunity for reintroduction of species should a catastrophic event or civil strife affect a key ecosystem somewhere in the world. Taken at the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections including the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colorado; the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wakehurst Place in Sussex, England; the N.I. Vavilov Institute for Plant Industry in Russia; and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, these photographs trace in precise detail the spaces and technology of involved in this important effort. Since 2008 I’ve worked in an ongoing collaboration with renowned biologists the most comprehensive international seed banks in the world: the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service’s National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Colorado, the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England; and PlantBank, Threatened Flora Centre, and Kings Park Botanic Gardens in Australia. In this era of climate change and declining biodiversity, by collecting, researching seed biology, and storing seeds in secure vaults, seed banks play a vital role in ensuring the survival of genetic diversity in wild and agricultural species. Utilizing the archives’ on-site x-ray equipment that is routinely used for viability assessments of accessioned seeds, I document and subsequently collage the seeds and tissue samples stored in these crucial collections. The amazing visual
15 power of magnified x-ray images, which springs from the technology’s ability to record what is invisible to the human eye, illuminates my considerations not only of the complex philosophical, anthropological, and ecological issues surrounding the role of science and human agency in relation to gene banking, but also of the poetic questions about life and time on a macro and micro scale. I am struck by the power of these tiny plantlets and seeds (many are the size of a grain of sand) to generate life and to endure the time span central to the process of seed banking, which seeks to make these sparks last for two hundred years or more. Use of the color delft/indigo blue evokes references not only to the process of cryogenic preservation, central to the methodology of saving seeds, but also to the intersection of east and west, trade, cultural exchange, and migration. Lenticular animations created from the collages present still-life images of an archive that appears to change color or move when viewed from different angles. This tension between stillness and change reflects my focus on the elusive goal of stopping time in relation to living materials, which at some moment, we may all like to do.”
Samuel Zeller Zeller’s series ‘Botanical’ has been described by ‘Another Place mag’ (http://anotherplacemag.tumblr.com) as: “a modern photographic reinterpretation of the classical botanical illustrations produced between the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Reality is refracted by the greenhouse’s ground glass and reminds me of the paper used in watercolour paintings. The colors are subtle and sophisticated, they mirror the tones found in these kind of illustrations. The whole idea was to reproduce preserved nature in the style of botanical illustrations.” And ‘It’s nice that’ has commented this about the project: “Samuel Zeller’s series Botanical captures the serenity and quietness found in some of the world’s greenest, man-made corners. In a photographic interpretation of classical botanical illustrations from the 18th to 20th Century, Samuel explores the refracted reality caught in the greenhouse’s translucent glass. “It reminded me of the paper used in watercolour paintings,” Samuel explains. “The colours are subtle and sophisticated, and they mirror the tones found in this kind of illustrations.”Blurry outlines of pink and green fauna appear softly pixelated and are framed by the simple, faded metal bars of the greenhouse. Taken at the botanical gardens in Geneva, Switzerland, Samuel feels the series is photographically preserving these glimpses of nature. The whole series feels beautifully romantic and the dreamy contrast of the smooth, blue sky with the bobbled, greenhouse glass only adds to the charm.” (http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/samuel-zeller) Whilst his images are more conceptually artistic that documentary and they imitate paintings there is still a strong undertone of documentary and of serious nature, while his images are ‘pretty’ they show the conditions of these rare plants and their conservation and bring to light the need to conserve natural beauty. This is another approach I could take to photographing the Herbarium, although it is not preferable.
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17 Beyond the Gardens: The Fungarium (by LONELYLEAP) Most people know Kew Gardens as home of the world’s largest living plant collection but are not aware that it is also the location of an internationally important botanical research and educational institution. I found this video about the Fungarium at Kew, which gave me a further insight on what to expect to shoot if I got access to here. From this video I think I could make a good project if I were able to shoot on multiple occasions in order to develop my work. Watchable here: https://vimeo.com/36422624 And I also found one on the Botanical Gardens, here: https://vimeo.com/36421901
Herbarium “Kew's Herbarium houses over seven million specimens and plays a central role in research into plant biodiversity on Earth”
(http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/collections/herbarium) “Herbaria are collections of preserved specimens that document the identity of plants. They represent reference collections with many functions including identification, research and education. At Kew, the Herbarium has a central role for research on plant biodiversity, with seven million specimens, including approximately 350,000 type specimens. The collection at Kew is still growing with a yearly addition of around 30,000 new specimens through a programme of joint work with overseas colleagues, expeditions, gifts and exchanges with other institutes at home and abroad. The care of the collections, or curation, is undertaken with great precision. When studied in the herbarium, specimens sometimes prove to be previously unknown species, which in due course will be described and named as new to science. Other specimens, once examined and determined, will provide essential
18 research material for in-depth studies of systematics, micromorphology, biochemistry, and molecular genetics. The Herbarium is also the repository of many voucher specimens. Such specimens are the only tangible record by which species used in experimental research can be compared.”
I’ve been given access to photograph the Herbarium at KEW following confirmation from my tutors that the images will not be used commercially. I’ve found a video filmed inside the Herbarium which gave me a good idea of what to expect to be able to shoot in preperation. You can view it here: https://youtu.be/QT8Q22rVvuE I’ve been looking at what exactly there is in the Herbarium and what will be most important to shoot. Although I will decided most of this on the day and circumstance, I have decided that it would make the best photographs and narrative by capturing a variety of shots, e.g general views of inside the Herbarium, plant specimens, scientist and researchers, and the equipment they use. I want to shoot these as clinically and clean as possible and to allow for the most light I will be using a tripod. This video was particularly important for showing the significance of the plant collection at KEW which is something I’d like to bring forth to my images, and the video includes photography which is exemplary to the work I could produce so I’ve included some screenshots.
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 20   The Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Museum of Natural History I visited the Natural History Museum and discovered the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, I took some photos for research regarding their herb and plant specimens. I thought this could work well with my project and have contacted the centre to try and gain access to the labs and archives. My project is now leaning towards the preservation of plant specimens and the researchers/the environments behind the collections. Because of this I have requested to take images of the research spaces and archived collections of herbs and fungi in the museum as well as my images for my shoot at KEW of the Herbarium and Fungarium.
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Contacting the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at The Museum of Natural History I recently visited the Natural History Museum and discovered the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, I took some photos for research regarding their herb and plant specimens. I thought this could work well with my project and have contacted the centre to try and gain access to the labs and archives. My project is now leaning
25 towards the preservation of plant specimens and the researchers/their environments behind the collections. Because of this I have requested to take images of the research spaces and archived collections of plants, herbs and fungi in the natural history museum as well as my images for my planned shoot at KEW of the Herbarium and Fungarium.
I recently contacted the Natural History Museum to follow up on my research about their plant and herb collections and photographing the labs, however I have emailed again since due to the long wait for a reply and still have not been contacted. I am going to call them in the next few days as i’m concerned I have not properly
26 explained what I would like to photograph, and aim to shoot in the next couple of weeks.
Planning
I have been granted access the Herbarium and Fungarium at KEW on 21st March. I have been given 40 minute to shoot during a guided tour of the Herbarium followed by time in the Fungarium. I will need to be sure of what I need to shoot and have all of the equipment ready to be able to shoot enough and good quality images in this time. From my research into the Herbarium I know that there are a multitude of wing each built at different time periods and on different levels so hopefully this will mean a variety of different looking settings and light. In the case of bad lighting i will be bringing a tripod to get the best use out of my camera, and due to the short notice of the shoot I will have to use my own camera which has a fixed 35mm lens. Whilst I am confident that I will be capable of producing very high quality images and shooting at low light I am concerned about using this lens as it may be too wide for some of the interior shots and distort the images slightly. As it is Easter I am unable
27 to borrow a different camera so i will have to use this regardless, however in the future i will be more prepared and borrow a different camera with a few different lenses. To get the Herbarium in time I have found where it is in relation to KEW botanical gardens and calculated a route that will get me there with time to spare using the london underground, which I can get from victoria station near the coach station I arrive into. The coach that will get me into London in time leaves at 5.15am and arrives at 8.45, leaving me time to account for late arrival or problems on the tube. I will then catch the next train to KEW gardens on the district line. I do not anticipate having any issues with the travel other than time delays as I have done the route before and know my way around London well.
Risk Assessment Location: KEW Botanical Gardens Herbarium & Fungarium Activity/Task Assessed: Photographing inside the Herbarium & Fungarium Assessment Date: 20/03/2016 Hazard Descripti on
Sev erity (wit hout cont rol mea sure s)
Public Transport (coach and London tube)
High
Travel to unfamiliar place
Low
Insufficien t access to first aid and medicatio
Low
Pers ons exp ose d (em ploy ees, stud ents etc Mys elf and othe r pass enge rs Mys elf
Mys elf
Risk Control Measures Currently in place
Likelih ood
Risk Level
(with control measu res)
Emergency procedures in place
Not likely
Medium
Maps, phone and internet access, planned route
Not likely
Very low
Qualified first aiders are in the Gardens at all times in the event of an emergency. Qualified first aiders in
Not likely
Very low
Further Action Requir ed – if any
Actio n Comp leted (date and signa ture)
28 n
Low
Mys elf and belo ning s
High
All visit ors and staff
Medi um
Mys elf
Medi um
Mys elf
Harm or theft due to lack of security
Fire/other causes for evacuatio n
Slips, trips and falls, falls from height – Climbing trees
Water courses – lakes, water features, ponds -
Constabulary are also trained in Paediatric First Aid RBG Kew Constabulary based in the Gardens. RBG Kew Constabulary periodically drive / walkthrough / cycle around the Gardens. CCTV strategically sited within the Gardens. CCTV monitored by RGB Kew Constabulary 24/7. Emergency evacuation procedures are in place in all buildings. RBG Kew staff and RBG Kew based contractors are familiar with and regularly practice emergency evacuations. Emergency notices are posted within the site and in all buildings. Dedicated assembly points are indicated on the evacuation notices. Access and egress routes (footpaths and driveways) around Gardens maintained. Moss and lichen removed from walkways / paved areas as required to help prevent slips trips and falls. Climbing trees is not permitted. (Refer to RBG Kew regulations). Active tree management programme in place Buoyancy aids provided as required and regularly checked. Grassed/paved areas adjacent to water maintained. Areas considered high risk, due
Not likely
Very low
Not likely
Medium
Not likely
Low
Not likely
Low
29 Drowning Slips, trip and falls
Moving plant/equi pment Vehicular traffic – tractors, grass cutters, electric buggies, bicycles etc Work equipmen t – chain saws, strimmers , trimmers, vegetation shredders etc
Medi um
Mys elf and othe r visit ors
to uneven surface, bad cracking etc. fenced off by use of temporary barriers installed until area made safe. Garden speed restriction of 10 mph in force. Movement of all nongardening related vehicles is restricted to a minimum during the Gardens opening hours. Vehicle access restricted to specific routes. Only authorised RBG Kew staff operate horticultural vehicles. Safe working procedures in place to monitor drivers/vehicle movement within the Gardens. In the event of an emergency, nongardening vehicles are provided with escorts (RBG Kew Constabulary or pedestrian). All equipment maintained to comply with health and safety PUWER (Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations) legislation. Keys removed from ignition switches. Work equipment removed upon completion of work. RBG Kew staff and contractors competent to undertake tasks. Ongoing supervision provided. RBG Kew staff identifiable by branded clothing and photo security passes. RBG Kew (on site) contractors identifiable by their company branded
Not likely
Low
 30  Â
Hazardou s substance s
Medi um
Mys elf
clothing. Specific risk assessments and method statements in place prior to work commencing. All equipment maintained to comply with health and safety legislation. Warning signage (as appropriate) displayed prior to work commencing. Barriers installed to prohibit access to unauthorised person in the working area. No work equipment left unattended. Keys removed from ignition switches. Work equipment removed upon completion of work. RBG Kew staff and contractors competent to undertake tasks. Ongoing supervision provided. All RBG Kew staff and contractors wear high visibility clothing and personal protective equipment. Specific risk assessments and method statements in place prior to work commencing. Use of hazardous substances is only undertaken by competent persons. Hazardous substances are kept in secure environments. Appropriate signage is displayed
Not Likely
Low
31 Project Proposal (Revised) Lisa Richards AD6800 Major Documentary Project Proposal My initial intentions for this project were to photograph the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, situated in Norway. The seed bank acts as an insurance seed bank for all of the minor ones in the world, it is being referred to as the ‘Doomsday Seedbank’ and globally is the largest and most important. The purpose of a seed bank is to collect and store as many strains of plant possible for emergency use or in case of extinctions. I have contacted them about visiting on the off chance of getting a positive response, however so far I have been told I would only be allowed access to the outside of the vault, I am very doubtful any situation will change this as access is restricted, and for me next to impossible. Aside from access being an issue, the travel costs and planning would be extremely difficult to accommodate. But, it did give me the idea of looking into seed and plant conservation, DNA specimen conservation, botanical documentation, and other seedbanks around the world. I want to use this project to show the importance of conserving plants and DNA, and give a behind the scenes look at something I feel many people are not aware of and document the work that goes into producing these collections. It is often represented in traditional documentary the beginning of this process, going to other countries to collect the specimens etc. but I want to focus on the work that goes on once the specimens reach their location, deriving back to the idea that inspired me about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Each seed or DNA specimen has come from somewhere different to be protected and stored all in one place, they are back up specimens and undisputedly a living document, which form a collection. I want to photograph this and anything to do with the process, to produce a series of uncommonly seen images about the final destination of these seeds and specimens. This project is quite broad currently and can expand to include other conservational means surrounding this idea or it can narrow down to only focus on one aspect of either the seed bank, DNA bank, or other botanical conservations. After looking at the work of Dornith Doherty I’ve decided that I am especially interested in photographing the equipment the researchers use and the spaces within the banks. I have contacted KEW Botanical Gardens in London about photographing their work for the Millennium Seed Bank, DNA and Tissue Bank, Herbarium and Fungarium, as well as the biodiversity centre and Angela Marmont centre at the Museum of Natural History. I believe any of these would be great access for my project and help develop my idea into a more constructed format, as I’d have a further insight into what I am photographing. I have currently been given acess to shoot the Herbarium and Fungarium on Monday 20th March and I plan to be shooting the project as soon as I get approval for access to the other places or arrange a reshoot at KEW. My intended outcome for this project is to produce a book, either hand bound or a collection of prints which I will then get bound. I’d like to produce a book because I think it is a good way of displaying images and allows for the use of text or other
32 documents in conjunction to the images. I am also interested in publishing and selfpublishing photo books and I feel the research I am doing for my dissertation surrounding photo books would also be beneficial to the final outcome of my major project. I think this would tie in well with my interests, alongside show casing the work in the way I feel would look the best. I plan to shoot the entire project digitally, however I will consider after an initial shoot using colour medium format, as I prefer using these cameras and feel the images produced are of a nicer quality than digital. For shooting experimental shooting on medium format I will use a Hasselblad as I am comfortable and familiar using them, and I think the square format as well as the quality of image would work well in the presentation of this project. This will depend entirely on how the first shoot goes and if I feel it is right for this project, the access I have, and the time permitted. Primarily and initially, I will be shooting digitally which will require a tripod but experiment with film if the subject is permitting.
Shoot 1 - Herbarium The shoot at the Herbarium went very well, I was able to arrive at the location on time with no issues and was as best prepared as I could be. I shot on RAW and jpeg to ensure the maximum use of my images, and used a tripod the entire time whilst shooting in the Herbarium. The lowest ISO I could use without the images being too dark, using a too narrow aperture or a shutter speed too low (as I was on a time limit and didn’t want to risk shaky images even with a tripod) was 200, which for the intended use of these images and the file types shouldn’t be an issue in editing or producing noise. I am happy with the amount of images I shot in the time frame, which was an hour extended from 40 mins, and I think I definitely got a lot of usable good quality images. I wasn’t able to shoot the researchers or any people, however i’m happy with the type of images I was able to shoot. I think I got a variety of different settings, equipment and work spaces which will form an aesthetically pleasing and coherent narrative sequence about the Herbarium. I am going to be writing up the information I found out on this visit as well as further research which will hopefully firm a body of informational text about the significance of these spaces within the Herbarium which can accompany the images in the format of a book. Since I shot raw I have selected one image from each of the similar looking images from looking at the contact sheet, which I will use to find the set of images to open up in photoshop and pick the best one for further editing. This enables me to disregard sets of images I don’t think work well or are technically not good much easier than looking at each image individually.
33 Contact sheets 1-10/16 Herbarium
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43 Contact sheets 11-16/16 Herbarium
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48 Editing After looking through the contact sheets from the Herbarium I was able to select the RAW files and view them in photoshop. I then selected an images from each set of similar images to edit further, checking for camera shake and sharpness mostly. In further editing I tried to keep it simple and clean so only changed in each image the levels, straightened out the images and cropped them, and adjusted the color balance if necessary. A lot of the images were hard to straighten out as the lens was wide but I think the images work well regardless, and if necessary I will put more work into selected images and use the lens correction and perspective tools on photoshop. Ideally for the next shoot I will use a different lens, however I found during this shoot it was often beneficial using a smaller camera with a wider lens as a lot of the room only had narrow spaces to shoot in and It would have been very difficult to shoot anything but close ups if my lens weren’t as wide. I really like the light I got on most of the images as although the Herbarium as a whole was quite dark, a lot of the shots still make use of natural light. In post-production on the RAW files I was able to reduce the highlights in a lot of the images which was extremely useful for those which have windows in as I could get a better overall exposure and reduce shadows/blown out windows. Having shot each shoot more than once also allowed for me to view the images side by side and zoom in to evaluate which image I should use which in a lot of cases proved beneficial as some were not as sharp as the other, or had different composure. Since I cannot shoot all that often during this project I am very happy that I was able to shoot so many images during this shoot and was able to shoot in RAW format and take multiple shots of each shot, this allows for the most use out of the shoot and a much larger edit to select final images from and refine my images.
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Edit evaluation I think there are a lot of images within this 38 images edit that compliment each other and I’m very happy with the way the images turned out, in particular I like the images which make the most use of natural light, and those involving work stations. I think the images once narrowed down will produce a really interesting series and look aesthetically good as well as technically. In this edit I was careful to only use sharp images although I am going to edit out some of the images further. The images from this shoot remind me of the similar images I looked at in research however I think they are of different style. From the 38 image edit I can see I will need to narrow it down and edit out the similar images and weaker ones as well as deciding which work well together and could work sequentially in a book or series of prints. To do this i will do a paper edit as it’s easier to compare the image and order them when I don’t have to use a screen and have access to all of the images at once. For this I am going to do a large edit of my second shoot and then print both large edits to make use of all my images. For the large edit of the second shoot I will use the same process as before and view each image of a similar set to pick the strongest. I think this shoot differs from the next mostly in lighting and the content of the images, where this one uses a lot of natural light and architectural images the next uses only artificial lighting and mainly consists of close ups and detail shots. I think both shoots will come together well to produce a coherent record of the buildings and their purpose, however i need to make a tighter edit and consider the use of text and narrative.
59 Taryn Simon - The Picture Collection
“The Picture Collection On the third floor of the Mid-Manhattan Library on 5th Avenue at 40th Street are housed 1.29 million prints, postcards, posters, and images carefully clipped from books and magazines. Organized by a complex cataloguing system of over 12,000 subject headings, it is the largest circulating picture
60 library in the world. Since its inception in 1915, The Picture Collection has been an important resource for writers, historians, artists, filmmakers, designers, and advertising agencies. Diego Rivera, who made use of it for his Rockefeller Center mural, “Man at the Crossroads” (1934), noted that the scope of this image archive might go on to shape contemporary visions of America—suggesting that today’s “accidents” might be the basis for tomorrow’s collective understanding. Andy Warhol was also a frequent user of the collection, with a particular interest in advertising images—many of which were never returned. The Picture Collection’s content and categories follow a crude algorithm, reactive to the happenstance of image donations over time, the interests of librarians, and the specific requests of library users. The collection serves as a space where images that are historically inscribed and validated exist beside those that are not. This flattening of hierarchies positions generic advertising pictures next to photographs by Weegee or Steichen, and a Rauschenberg or Malevich reproduction next to a travel postcard or an anonymous artist’s work. Romana Javitz, head of the collection from 1929 to 1968, recruited 40 artists through the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s to help clip, cull, and catalogue the collection. In the 1940s, Roy Stryker of the Farm Security Administration donated nearly 40,000 photographic prints to the collection, concerned for the images’ safety in the face of a Congress that might disapprove of their content. Only during the mid-1990s were these pictures, including works by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, removed from The Picture Collection’s public folders and placed under the protection of the Division of Arts, Prints and Photographs, in direct response to rising market prices for the artists. In The Picture Collection (2013), Taryn Simon highlights the impulse to archive and organize visual information, and points to the invisible hands behind seemingly neutral systems of image gathering. Simon sees this extensive archive of images as a precursor to Internet search engines. Such an unlikely futurity in the past is at the core of The Picture Collection. The digital is foreshadowed in the analog, at the same time that history—its classifications, its contents—seems the stuff of projection.” http://tarynsimon.com/works/picture_collection/#1 Above I’ve highlighted from the introduction of Simon’s series ‘The Picture Collection’ some key information. Here Simon is documenting archives, in particular the largest picture collection in the world. In itself she is recording records which is conceptually similarly to my work where I am documenting the largest [collection of plant species in the world. Interestingly her work almost mocks this human instinct to archive and record in way which is ironic given her method of doing so. Her photographs organise and present sections of the picture archives and are presented in exhibition. Interestingly the way she has presented them and labeled them seems archival. This is a very different approach than I have been shooting in documenting archives as she is focused on the concept and the impact of these archives whereas I am more concerned with the housing of the archives. However, from this i have decided that in my next shoot I should as well as documenting the buildings, work stations and equipment I should also document the specimens that have been archived. I avoided this during the first shoot as I didn’t see the purpose of recording records and felt it more important to document the ‘behind the scene’ per say of the record keeping involved in the largest plant specimen collection in the world, however when used alongside my other images I think they could provide more information as well as if presented in the format of a book aesthetically compliment the text. For this I also have to option to use scans of the specimens, similarly to Anna Atkins cyanotypes.
61 Anna Atkins - Cyanotypes of British Algae
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(From Anna Atkins, 1843-1854, Photographs of British algae: cyanotype impressions & Anna Atkins, 1854, Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns) “The substance to be recorded is laid on paper impregnated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. When exposed to sunlight and then washed in plain water the uncovered areas of the paper turn a rich deep blue. Atkins employed cyanotype to record all the specimens of algae found in the British Isles. The first part of her work, entitled British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, appeared in 1843, and by 1850 she had produced 12 additional parts. During the next three years Atkins completed the publication with 389 captioned photograms and several pages of text, of which a dozen copies are known. In 1854 Atkins, possibly collaborating with her friend Anne Dixon, produced an album entitled Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns. Despite the simplicity of her means, Atkins’s project was the first sustained effort to demonstrate that the medium of photography could be both scientifically useful and aesthetically pleasing.” http://www.britannica.com/biography/Anna-Atkins Atkins was notably one of the first photographers to use photographs for scientific purposes as well as introducing the photo book, she formed an archive documenting
64 british algae in the form of the first photo book by creating photographic cyanotypes. This process involves creating prints of the plants and it arguably is not a traditional photograph. Nevertheless, the purpose of the book was to document scientifically the algae and make an archive. Although I will not be doing this process, a more modern and digitalised version of this would be to scan in the plants rather than photograph them or create photograms. This could be more effective in a book because of the scientific and clean nature ego scans, they would be on a clean white background and have all details visible which may not be as accurate if i were just to photograph them. However I am not the one creating a record of these plants, just photographing the archives which already exist, so the purpose of this would be purely aesthetic.
Updates Since I’ve been keeping a blog I’ve decided to also output my research as a word doc with a contents table which can be uploaded to issuu.com to be viewed as a book, I think this will be the easiest way to print my research and access it for referral, especially with the use of page numbers. I’ve also decided to keep running the blog along side it as its easier for sliceable links, enlarging images and updating quickly. Since I will be keeping both I’ve decided to post my progress now, before the paper edit. Each update to my research will now be posted on my blog and updated on my word doc, viewable on issue. The same information is accessible on both. View word here: http://issuu.com/snappography/docs/mdp/1 View blog here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ad6800
Paper Edit After printing off all of the images from the Herbarium and Fungarium edit which made an edit of 64 images (after taking 4 from the edit because they were technically worse than other similar photos), I arranged the similar looking images into sections as photographed. I intend to make an edit of 40 images to begin using in my book design, so I need to edit out 24 images. To do this I will begin by picking between the similar looking images if they would serve no purpose of having multiple images in the book. For example, I am not editing out any of the map images even though they are similar because I think they could be useful in the book, however I will be editing out similar images of the staircases/rails because I don’t think using multiples of these that look similar would be effective.
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The 64 image edit in sections.
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Editing out 16 similar images of the 64, leaving 48.
The 48 image edit rearranged for further editing.
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4 images removed from the 48 image edit, leaving a 44 image edit. I now need to edit out a further 4 images but I am not finding it difficult to pick between the images. Laying them out like this made it easier to compare the similar images and pick the strongest but now I think each image has merit and am going to take a different approach to the edit.
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From the 44 image edit I decided to pick from it the image which i particularly like and think will work well in the book, and together. I’ve chosen 15 images from the 44, and will use these to begin ordering a narrative. From this i will be adding back in images from the 44 image edit until I have an edit of 30-40 images, which I can then critique and narrow down once more. I think by doing it this way rather than eliminating images from the 44 I will be able to see if they fit in with the narrative better and my choices will be more informed. Once a narrative begins to form I will also be able to see if I need to add in any previously dismissed images.
I’ve added back in a few more pictures, now making this a 23 image edit. I’ve put in the rest of the map images because I think this will work well in my book edit, and a couple of detail shots because the edit was lacking. I intend on putting back in a lot more images from the previous 44 image edit but from this I’ve gotten a few ideas for structuring my book, so am going to be continuing the edit whilst designing the book. I think the addition of text will really help me with the edit.
69 Thomas Struth Struth’s ‘New pictures from paradise’ display a level of complexity, depth and detail which is hard to explain. Each picture has a certain flatness, never allowing your eyes to settle on just one detail and forcing you to pervasive the image as a whole. The large format for this concept works really well allowing you to see small details of the image, this gave me the idea to print my book large rather than small. If i am going to focus on a labyrinth theme small details of the image are important and my images having an impact is even more so. Here in Struth’s images each picture connects to the next whilst being utterly different, each has a sense of familiarity and is immersive. I think for my images to work together to make a subtle yet intriguing and effective narrative about the herbarium, and even come across as elusive, they will have to be presented in a similar way.
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Candida Hofer Hofer’s work photographing libraries has a similar concept to documenting the herbarium in that she is photographing collection. I have even found some of her images which bare resemblance to some of the herbarium images. I had known of Hofer’s work before this project and she has been an influence to many of my works however I’d like to specifically look at ‘libraries’ in relation to this project. The use of such images in a book could be presented in very different ways, however in this instance the images are presented as documents rather than part of a narrative. Nevertheless throughout the book the viewer is able to reflect upon the complexity of each image, similarly to Struth’s large images Hofer’s are incredibly detailed and each image reveals more than the next. I think presenting the book in large format and using minimal text allows each image to speak for themselves and really gets the viewer to think about the context of the images, however another way to interpret this could be similar to a labyrinth style narrative, by removing the use of the word library from the book the images would have to tell more of a story about the building. This is what I am trying to create with my series. Whilst Hofer’s images are more of a typology I want to be able to create a narrative which will intrigue viewers. “ Höfer’s photographs investigates what a library might be. The potential definitions of a library include: a building that houses a collection of books and other materials, a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study, a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing, and a room where books are kept. Essentially she shows that the concept of a library is a diverse and complex subject. “ https://thephotobook.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/candida-hoefer-libraries/
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Book idea Labyrinth concept- a structured narrative which reveals more about the context/building as the book progresses, images are intriguing and text is subtle. There are a few different approaches I could take to presenting this series, however for in a book it would be most effective to create a narrative. I could present the images as stand alone images with minimal or no text, just acting as a document of the herbarium, however it would be much more interesting and especially effective for book format to utilize the use of text. text can add another element to the project and in a lot of cases it will make the difference between a good book and a bad one. One way to do this is to keep it purely contextual, have each section of text contain lots of information about the building and the contents of the images, statistical and factual information, or perhaps quotes from the people who work there. Doing this i believe is still more effective than no text as it shows you what the images are about and gives a better perception of what you are trying to convey, however it is hard to construct a narrative in doing this. What I have decided to do through looking at other photo books and series, and through discussion with peers and tutors after a critical image edit of my work is to combine the idea of information and education, whilst leaving the context of the images elusive and almost puzzle like. I want the book to create a labyrinth-like narrative, each image with informed text about an element of the image or relating to a more serious social issue, but not being entirely obvious of the purpose of the building or how the images are connected. The herbarium and fungarium archives are an important and overlooked asset to the world, I want people to be able to sense this through the individual images before discovering what the relation of the images are. The herbarium and fungarium, even in their names but also in aesthetics, are intriguing and infinitely interesting buildings, even within KEW botanical gardens they are not popular and often disregarded yet contain some of the most important specimens in the world. To the general public, this is boring, or looks so. Through this book I want to tell a story of the significance and beauty of these buildings. For this idea i think a large book would look best, similarly to Struth’s ‘New images from paradise’. When first considering the use of my images in a book I was thinking about a book about 8x10′’, however after looking at some photo books and thinking about this labyrinth concept I have decided that bigger would be more effective. I think the files are of good enough quality for this too, and allows for a much more
80 effective use of text. For printing I will have to leave around 10 days turn around time for book printing, for which I am considering using Blurb or Exwhyzed. http://www.blurb.co.uk/ http://www.exwhyzed.co.uk/products/self-published-book-printing/
Herbarium & Fungarium further research After the queen handed the king of Hanover’s house, which later became the Herbarium, over to Kew Gardens, Sir William Hooker’s collections went into the king of Hanover’s house thus beginning the herbarium. The Herbarium began as a Georgian house in 1734, and later consisted of both Hunter and Hanover House and post 1820 was turned into the king’s lodge, but was sold to the commissioners of the woods and forests in 1823. The first assistant to the Herbarium, and when it was given it’s official title ‘Herbarium’, was 1878. Whilst the buildings and the oldest wings of the herbarium date back to the 1700’s, it was not used as the Herbarium until the later 1800’s, and was continuously expanded on, now consisting of wings build in the 1600’s through to 2000’s. The architectural and historical information of thee buildings may be relevant in context to the images taken in different wings, and can relate to more serious and demonstrated issues of the time period, which can be reflected in the images, such as the idea of empire. The Herbarium houses the world’s biggest collection of around 6,000,000 specimens and over 700,000 fungi specimens (including 270,000 type specimens representing a quarter of the world’s named plants). Kew Gardens is home to the world’s biggest collection of living plants, but it is often not acknowledged that their archives of herbaria are also the worlds largest. The archives are only open to the public by appointment, and are primarily used by researchers, in direct contrast to the gardens, which is open to the public. (information and illustrations from ‘The Story of Kew’ David Blomfield and ‘The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens’ Ray Desmond.)
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 82   Simon Norfolk http://www.simonnorfolk.com/pop.html
Norfolk's series Bosnia Bleed, and book Bleed, focuses on secondary mass graves in Bosnia as a result of the war in the early 1990's, these were created once the Serbian's responsible for the death's of captives from villages and prisoners realised later during the war that they may be punished for the deaths of so many people, they secretly excavated the primary graves, where the remains had first been buried, and moved them to secret secondary graves in order to hide the evidence. Secondary mass graves are unique to the war in Bosnia. Norfolk focuses on the largest secondary mass grave Crni Vrh, a Serbian controlled part of Bosnia. Here remains and clothing along with other evidence from the mass grave can be found. (information from Norfolk's 'Bleed')
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84 What's interesting is that Norfolk has primarily photographed the potholed road covered in icy water in the first section, and leaves any form of description out until the end of the first section, where a page of text is then inserted explain the secondary mass graves. The first page of text which appears before al of the images is a simple dictionary entry for the words 'Solution', 'Dissolve', and 'Absolution', thus leaving the first section of images open for interpretation. I think the use of text like this could work into my labyrinth concept for a book, as it hints at the meaning behind the images without announcing it. However, here it is extremely effective to put a full description after the first set of images to give context to the rest of the book. For my series I am considering including a chunk of explanatory text at the back of the book, as I am only doing a 25 image edit and the sections would be too short.
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After the second section, Norfolk's image take an aesthetic change and go from the intriguing icy patterns to snowy rivers and stream, then intersected is some text regarding a rumour of the director of the dam had to request no more corpses thrown into the river as they were blocking the intake pipes to the dam. after this text the snowy images continue, and the narrative of the book is now regarding the actions of the men who went to extraordinary lengths to hide their crimes, and goes on to explain how the grave was found. to reflect this the images progress to wider shots of the hills and valleys on which the mass graves were found, Norfolk presents this information in an investigative way, and concludes his writing as if pondering over a puzzle.
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The images in this book begin as very puzzling but with the addition of text after the first section, and more contextual text throughout the book the series begins to make
 87   sense. This utilization of text creates an intriguing and immersive book, the addition of large chunks of text is important to understanding the images yet the elusive nature of the first section also works very well. Finally, there is an image index, each picture being accompanied by factual text about the contents of the images, including the first section. This is then followed by 5 images which directly feature evidence from the graves, yet are also included in the index. The choice to feature these images after the index is interesting and separated them further from the other images.
The text for the digital version of the series however appears below each image rather than and index, and definitely takes away all feeling of a labyrinth or puzzle type narrative. The photographs in the book are presented with a large white border, yet are printed in a very large book. This makes me think the book would also work well as prints with an image index and text at each section break, however for the quantity of images Norfolk presents this idea would still makes more sense in the forma of a book.
88 Bridget Smith
Shoot 2 – Fungarium Shooting in the Fungarium was more challenging than the Herbarium as there was no natural light and for shooting things on the desk I often had to go hand held as there was no space for the tripod. A lot of the images aren’t how I wanted them to be due to the light and lack of space. There were also only two rooms to shoot in
89 opposed to the herbarium where I was constantly moving through different wings. Through looking at the contact sheet i’ve selected some to edit and retouch, i’m not as happy with this shoot as the last but I think I still have managed to get enough images for a 20 images edit due to the amour I shot. This should allow for a more concise and critical final edit. NOTE: fungarium edit posted late but was completed before the previous posts regarding the 68 image edit from both herbarium and fungarium shoots.
Contact sheets 1-6/12 Fungarium
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Fungarium Edit To narrow these down I selected on the contact sheets one image from each set of similar looking images and opened each set’s raw files in photoshop. From that I picked the strongest image of the set or disregarded the set, and opened the
101 remaining files to retouch. To retouch I adjusted levels and crop, however these mages were harder to retouch because a lot of them were too shaky or dark, or not sharp enough. I picked from the remaining pictures a 30 images edit which still includes some similar looking images and some which I feel are not as strong, however I’ve decided to keep them in for the paper edit so that I can compare them and select them against each other and the previous shoot rather than just on screen. I am very pleased with the 30 image edit as I was not expecting to get many images from this shoot and although I feel the previous shoot was stronger there are definitely some important images in here that will work well with the edit from the previous shoot. I am trying to schedule a reshoot at KEW in the next couple of weeks before the deadline in the hopes of getting some more varied images and better quality Fungarium images, however I have been told I will not be contacted for the next week as the staff are out of office. I am concerned this will mean I am not able to reshoot in time, however I am still looking into other plant archives I can shoot in. If I am not able to shoot again I am still certain I can make a critical edit from the 68 images I have so far, and for print outcome I will not need as many images which means I am able to be more selective with my images. NOTE: fungarium edit posted late but was completed before the previous posts regarding the 68 image edit from both herbarium and fungarium shoots.
Fungarium 30 image edit
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Selected images for book edit
119 Congo Red
“CONTEXT: Congo red is the essential histologic stain for demonstrating the presence of amyloidosis in fixed tissues. To the best of my knowledge, nothing has been written about why the stain is named “Congo.” RESULTS: To Europeans in 1885, the word Congo evoked exotic images of far-off central Africa known as The Dark Continent. The African Congo was also a political flashpoint during the Age of Colonialism. “Congo” red was introduced in Berlin in 1885 as the first of the economically lucrative direct textile dyes. A patent on Congo red was filed by the AGFA Corporation of Berlin 3 weeks after the conclusion of the well-publicized Berlin West Africa Conference. During these important diplomatic talks, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck presided over a discussion of free trade issues in the Congo River basin. A challenge to AGFA’s Congo red patent led to a precedentsetting decision in intellectual property law. CONCLUSIONS: The Congo red stain was named “Congo” for marketing purposes by a German textile dyestuff company in 1885, reflecting geopolitical current events of that time.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11175644 “1884-85 - European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognise Leopold’s claim to the Congo basin” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13286306 “THE BERLIN WEST AFRICA CONFERENCE
120 A key question is why the dye was called Congo red in the first place. Unfortunately, because few internal corporate documents survive from the 19th century (for reasons that will be detailed), a definitive answer to this question is not possible. However, strong circumstantial evidence points to a connection with the geopolitical event later known as the Berlin West Africa Conference. A major diplomatic conference was held in Berlin from November 15, 1884, until February 26, 1885, ostensibly to mediate a trade dispute between several European colonial powers concerning the Congo River basin in Central Africa.15 The conference was one of the most significant political events of the decade, and European newspapers were full of news and opinion pieces concerning the conference and related colonial issues. Attending the conference at the invitation of the German ‘‘Iron Chancellor’’ Otto von Bismarck were high-ranking representatives of all the major European powers and the United States. Germany was not a significant colonial power in 1884, having just established its first African colony that year; Bismarck may have called the conference in order to give legitimacy to Germany’s new imperialist leanings. In fact, although the official report of the conference called for free trade in the Congo basin,16 this never occurred; what may really have been decided was how the colonial powers would divide the continent of Africa among themselves.17 Since the West Africa Conference was held in Berlin, and the central issue was the Congo—an exotic locale to Europeans in 1885 and a name that was on the tip of every tongue— it is not surprising that a Berlin dye company (AGFA) gave the name Congo to a sensational new dye debuting at the very same time. The name was an effective marketing tool. AGFA filed a patent for a modification of the Congo red dye on March 17, 1885, less than a month after the conference ended; this patent application mentions that Congo red was already ‘‘well known.’’18 It might be imagined that production of Congo red required raw materials from Africa, or that the dyestuff was named in honor of colorful native African textiles. The available evidence does not support these arguments. The chemicals used in making Congo red and the other aniline dyes were primarily derived from the coal-tar waste products of the coal gas and steel industries in Germany’s Ruhr Valley. Traditional native textiles from the Congo River basin are typically black and rarely red (M. Taylor, Information Officer of The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, oral communication, June 1999). The marketing hypothesis is further supported by the debut of other textile dyes with African names during the same era, such as Sudan black and Somalia yellow.” ‘ ‘king of dyes.’’ http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/congo-red.pdf “The General Act fixed the following points: To gain public acceptance,[citation needed] the conference resolved to end slavery by African and Islamic powers. Thus, an international prohibition of the slave trade throughout their respected spheres was signed by the European members. Because of this point the writer Joseph Conrad sarcastically referred to the conference as “the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs” in his novella Heart of Darkness.[4] The Congo Free State was confirmed as the private property of the Congo Society, which supported Leopold’s promises to keep the country open to all European investment. The territory of today’s Democratic Republic
121 of the Congo, some two million square kilometers, was confirmed by the European powers as essentially the property of Léopold II (but later it was organized as a Belgian colony under state administration). The 14 signatory powers would have free trade throughout the Congo Basin as well as Lake Malawi, and east of this in an area south of 5° N. The Niger and Congo rivers were made free for ship traffic. A Principle of Effectivity (based on “effective occupation”, see below) was introduced to stop powers setting up colonies in name only. Any fresh act of taking possession of any portion of the African coast would have to be notified by the power taking possession, or assuming a protectorate, to the other signatory powers. Definition of regions in which each European power had an exclusive right to “pursue” the legal ownership of land (legal in the eyes of the other European powers).[5]:44 The first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to “spheres of influence” is contained in the Berlin Act.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence Idea for text: The berlin conference was 1884, a similar year to the beginning of the herbarium, in which the dye is used. A german company marketed the dye a ‘Congo Red’ to evoke imagery of ‘The Dark Continent’, Africa, as was the fad at that time to market colours as african geographical names, because of the occurrence of the berlin conference, also known and the congo conference. ‘Congo Red’ refers to a marketing tactic intended to mislead people of the contents of the product, often people though it contained mud from the congo rivers when in fact all of it’s ingredients were made in Germany. The fact that it was a German product but interpreted as African was supposed to sell, indicating that images of Africa for dye products are more appealing than chemicals from Germany. Given this information I think in order to make a subtle hint at the geopolitalc context to this name I need text that will have to refer to the berlin conference, and reveal that ‘Congo Red’ is in fact German. In order to relate this text and image to another image I think I will have to use the year 1884 as a linking aspect, meaning the image should be reflective of another event in the same year. I could also make reference to ‘Congo Red’ being the ‘King of Dyes’, and apply its illegitimacy another king, or the idea of empire and matriarchy.
122 Empire
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/britain_empire_01.shtml Idea for text: this is the final image in both it’s set and in the narrative, it’s text should reflect themes brought up throughout, and the set of images it belongs to. This image acts as an accumulation of previous images and this the texts should reflect this in being an accumulation of ideas. Thought empire was fitting for this, it is also worth noting that this archive room is in one of the earlier build wings, dating back to the late 1700′s.
123 Mapping
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http://vm136.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/vegmaps.html https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF8#q=the%20use%20of%20maps%20in%20herbarium
(SPACE) title / concept idea- congo red (metaphorical) deriving from the use of the titel ‘congo red’ for dyes for marketing purposes to provoke images of the dark content / fit in with a fad… e.g the use of the live plant collection at kew to entice the general public / to support herbarium/fungarium research and archiving
125 (SPACE) editing images / research for book specs etc (not text)
Initial Book Edit
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For my book edit before incorporating the text I wanted to establish an order of pictures which involved a pattern, however given the labyrinth aspect of the book I decided to include a systemic method of creating a sequence, this can also related to the themes archiving. I began with my 30 image edit and tried to develop a small narrative of image which looked good together, initially this was image 1, 2 and 8, which was later substituted for 3. Once I had those initial images I was able to find similar images and create a linear pattern of similar looking images, in a similar way to how i did my first paper edit. At first i began with row A, B and C, and tried to find images similar in one aspect. For row A I began with an establishing image, then followed with another which within it contained a stool, the next image was a very different image of that stool, and the next another image with a similar looking stool, and finally an image which is aesthetically very similar to the previous two (and contained an object which would introduce column 5). Since I was aware these images, even as part of a set, would be distributed through the book and not directly next to each other it was easier to pick linking pictures. For row B I picked all detail shots of key information, for example the fungi contained within the fungarium and the dye used for preservation. These images are all similar looking due to their close up nature and
127 provide interesting breaks in the book (every 5 images as with the rest of the pattern after distribution of rows and columns). Row C is of chairs and work spaces, these images are not particularly close up nor detail shots and are all of work spaces within the herbarium, primarily invoking chairs. You can notice a lot of similarity in this set and it works well with the labyrinth idea, and similarly to row A, as often it may feel like images are repeating themselves when they are not. Row D involves maps and lamps, alternating and one images crossing themes, again this works well because of their similarities. Even within the set the images are alternating, meaning only 1 every 10 images, so although here we see them together they will be distributed in the book. Row E is the most interesting one, the set comprises of green boxes and are primarily full room shots, each a different scene leading up to the final image featuring the most archival boxes. This theme is present throughout all the sets but most so in this one. I find it interesting as it has a narrative within the ultimate narrative, although all of the rows hint at a different narrative and all combine to create a puzzle-like series of images. After explaining the rows it is important to know that the images will be presented in numerical order, as can be seen through the columns. I’ve done this to distribute the images and create a pattern in images, each will have a different narrative and a different set of text that you can follow through the index of the book using reference numbers. to do this I’ve had to reorder the rows a lot until I finally came up with this sequence to make sure that whilst each row makes sense each column also looks good together and the images follow on from each other well, including the last and first images from each column. I did all of this first in physical form using a paper edit which really helped me visualize the images together and the sequencing. https://issuu.com/snappography/docs/draft_1 The initial book edit does not yet include text as i’m still deciding whether to present my series in a book or in a set of prints, regardless for the layout of the text i’ve decided rather than putting the text on the page or on an opposite page, I am going to present each image with a small white border and a reference number, similarly to the style of citations, and have the text listed in the back. This will serve multiple purposes: cleaner design, a more archival style, and it will allow the viewer to figure out the ‘puzzle’ of the book or think of their own ideas before finding out to context, and flipping back through. Alternatively, the viewer could read the text first and imagine the content of the images in relation to the text. Each text will be between a couple of words and a couple of sentences long, not overly descriptive but will establish a link between the photographs to each other and to political, social or historical information. Similarly presented books which have inspired me are Walker Evan’s American photographs and Robert Frank’s The Americans, however I’ve developed their defencing system not just to indicate the title of the photograph with minimal description but create a more intriguing narrative. Whereas Evans segmented his book and put the reference text between segments, and numbered the pages on the opposite page, I will ply be making a 25-30 image edit so will have all of the text at the back. I also think it looks better for the reference number to be very small, similar to citations and footnotes, and on the same page of the image. This would work well for both a book presentation or prints, given that each image has a border.
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(From ‘American Photographs’ Walker Evans)
Presentation change of idea after initial book edit 1. wooden box with prints, white border, reference number and index with accompanying text/ integrated printed cards with text … same text idea/labryinth concept 2. window mounted image and text, similar to how herbaria sheets are presented 3. hand made book (set of prints perfect bound) 4. index cards/postcard style with text on back or under bordered image
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129 (SPACE) (SPACE) (SPACE) Back-up Idea Kew Botanical Gardens
Kew Botanical Gardens - contact sheets 1-6/11
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135 Kew Botanical Gardens - contact sheets 7-11/11
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