Blog Feed – Page 6 – Jenna Powell – Expressing Your Vision

Brief

Make a series of six to twelve photographs in response to the concept of ‘The Square Mile’. Use this as an opportunity to take a fresh and experimental look at your surroundings. You may wish to re-trace places you know very well, examining how they might have changed; or, particularly if you’re in a new environment, you may wish to use photography to explore your new surroundings and meet some of the people around you.

The results of my previous attempt at Square Mile for the Foundation in Photography course can be found here with the analysis of the feedback here.

This time round I want to get out and explore parts of Yeovil where I live. To this end I aim to follow the River Yeo and the streams that feed into it from the Abbey Manor part of the town through to the Pen Mill area. Following the course of streams will be challenging as their courses take them through private property and underneath roads.

Researching the photographers highlighted in the course notes (1) I found a number of things that I could draw upon. For instanace Keith Arnatt’s Dog Walkers and Miss Grace’s Lane were two examples of ways I could approach this assignment, although I would have leaned more towards the latter.

In the end I decided to go with my initial plan.

I know from having lived where I do since 1996 part of the stream, ponds and tributaries that lie along the course of the River Yeo. So finding subjects to photograph wasn’t going to be difficult. However, what I hadn’t taken into account was not having explored some parts of the area. Like the one I started off with.

After an hour I had amassed over 160 photos including culverts, tunnels, bridges, parts of the stream, vegetation and even some graffiti on a building. More than enough to develop a series of images for the assignment.

Some of the images I discarded immediately because there was obvious camera flare. Others because on reflection they weren’t interesting and didn’t add to any story I could tell.

One particular image that I wanted to use I have to retake because of flare which I can only easily remove by making the image black and white, something that doesn’t fit with the rest of the images. As this image and two others will be central to the series there is a need to get this one right.

Having done my research online and given thought to what I wanted to do for the assignment I found myself distracted when I headed out by a number of gardens I spotted. Immediately I could see another approach that I could take to the Square Mile assignment, photographing the different gardens, the well kept, the overgrown and the abandoned.

The series of images that I’ll be submitting for Assignment 1 will be the first part of a much bigger project that I plan to call River Runs Thru It. This part will called Underground Overground.

Footnotes

Exhibition at Stills, Edinburgh from June 28^th to October 6^th, 2019

Although not a large exhibition, there are 21 prints, a display copy of the book Cindy Sherman – Untitled Film Stills and a looped showing of her 1975 16m film Doll Clothes.

The exhibition is laid out over two rooms. The first is dedicated to Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills series and includes a copy of the book Cindy Sherman – Untitled Film Stills and gelatin silver prints of Untitled Films Stills numbers #22, #24, #28 and #83.

The second room has a looped showing of the film Doll Clothes and 17 prints from the series Murder Mystery People.

Being more familiar with her Untitled Film Stills series, I found her earlier work of greater interest.

Comparing the prints from the Untitled Film Still series with the Murder Mystery People there was an obvious progression in technique.

The latter series is much simpler with regards to sets, in fact the images are reminiscent of the line-ups you see in police dramas on TV or film. A single figure stood in front of a plain background, in this case a wall, a single power socket drawing the eye away from the main figure.

Sherman is brilliant at turning herself into different people. Male, female, young or old, you need to look closely to see that it is her. In Murder Mystery People it is her eyebrows that lead you to see that the characters are the same person, but in the context of the theme, could be related to each other.

I feel that this adds another level to the characters she is portraying, particularly where the characters are not supposed to be related.

What really drew me to this series of images was the wires on the floor. At first, I thought that these were linked into some of the props, something plugged into the wall socket, a telephone lead. Then I realised that there were wires in each of the images, even the ones where there were no props.

Looking at Sherman’s work I’d always assumed that she was either a remote release or a timer to trigger the camera. What I hadn’t considered was that these photographs were taken in the mid-70s when infra-red remote releases didn’t exist. Seeing the wires on the floor I realised how she was triggering the camera remotely. A foot release directly connected to the camera allowed her to position herself and then trigger the camera to take the photo.

From appreciating each image for what it shows, I now found a deeper appreciation of each because of the techniques she used while taking the photographs.

Today, the technical side of capturing the images would be much easier, the level of artistry remains the same or is even greater.

Instagram allows us to take selfies wherever and whenever we want. Sherman’s images, I feel, would be lost today.

As fascinating as her photos are, Cindy Sherman’s Doll Clothes 16mm film is even more so. Stop motion filming of images of Sherman in lingerie and a dress, printed and cut-out, show a doll getting dressed before a hand comes in and puts the doll and clothes back into their storage pouches.

Again, modern technology allows for a much better result compared to 16mm film but the effort the Sherman put in to her 2 minutes plus film makes it far more impressive and attention grabbing. There is also a feel of watching a film from the early 20^th century, something akin to Méliès A Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage Dans La Lun.

Square Mile – Thoughts, Planning and Reflection

Brief

Footnotes

Cindy Sherman: Early Works, 1975-80