First group meeting of the term

As the first group meeting of the year, we were split in two groups with two tutors each, and showed what work or ideas we had thus far; as I hadn't done any new work since my last shoot (due to focusing all my attention on my dissertation), I brought in all the work I had done and relayed what was mentioned at Rich's meeting.

To be honest, the meeting wasn't very useful, as the tutors simply reiterated what was said in my meeting with Rich, without adding anything new. It has made me feel lost when it comes to my work, as I am unsure where to go from here; regardless, looking at all the work I have done so far and reading the books that were already mentioned to me should help me focus on how to develop this project.

CRS meeting with Rich

When having a meeting with my tutor to discuss my CRS, in addition to elaborating upon the marks I was given, we spoke about how I shouldn't be seeing what I want to see in my images, and not confine the work so early on.

Also,  after mentioning comments from my meeting with Stella, in which I have two routes I can go down with for this project: either focus exclusively on the attic and the objects within, or explore my relationship with my space at home and the objects and archive imagery, Richard, my tutor, introduced me to a book called Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience by Yi-Fu Tuan; it explores the interactions and implications of "space" and "place" within the perspective of experience. This should help form the project into something different and develop it, but I feel like I am unsure what to photograph next,  as there doesn't seem to be that much of a focus (now with the suggestion of going down two routes); however, creating work will help generate ideas that will inform the project.

Tutorial meeting with Stella

In order to recap for myself what I've done since the last term- and to show Stella what I've done so far- I showed her my CRS and dummy book; she said certain images didn't work, like the general cluttered objects in the attic, as she thought there was too much going on in the images, and didn't know what to focus on.

However she thought certain groupings, like of the sleeping bag, worked well, and that I should explore it more by linking objects with an archive image of when it was in use.

For instance, she said the work is reminiscent of Taryn Simon's Contraband in how it photographs sole objects, and gave the suggestion of documenting the objects like it was a scientific or documentary study, and compose it like a typology.

Contraband

Furthermore, whilst looking through the dummy book, she gave two suggestions in how the work can progress: focus just on the attic and its objects, or explore the relationship between the spaces at home, and how that links in with the memories of the objects and archive images.

With that in mind- she introduced a book called Photographs Objects Histories: On the Materiality of Images, which explores the idea that while photographs are images, they are also objects, and this materiality is integral to their meaning and use; this is most useful considering I'm experimenting using archive images.

Overall it has given me a lot to think about for this project in the new term, and how I can continue to develop and refine it.

References:

• Contraband: http://500photographers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/photographer-150-taryn-simon.html

Talk with Danny Treacy

For our first week back at university this year- we had photographer Danny Treacy discuss his practice and how he created his images. For instance, in his project Them he acquired 200 keys for flats that were soon to be knocked down, and documented what was inside. Whilst there he wore clothes still in the flats as "it felt the right thing to do".

Them

His other project, called Those, consists of clothing that has been imparted with nature for some time, transforming them into something unlike anything seen before; like with all his images, there is a forensic and intimate quality that tell its own story, through cobbling the clothing together.

Those

I very much enjoyed this talk, since I found the reasoning behind his project to be very interesting, as well as my photographic style being similar to his; this is especially the case with my second year project, which consisted of objects found in the local woods, as well as my final year project. Therefore this talk has opened my eyes to the relationship with the and place around, and exploring that within my current project.

References:

• Those: http://www.dannytreacy.com/selected-works/those/
• Them: http://www.dannytreacy.com/selected-works/them/