Portraiture.

(Img. 1 - Mike.)


(Img. 2 - Ffion)



(Img. 3 - Amy.)

As the introduction of full body scanners begins in U.K airports, our privacy, dignity and rights will be pushed to beyond our usual comfort zone. My portraits using a modified flatbed scanner, are affected by the subjects movements, distorting and sometimes almost completely destroying their visual identity.
The decision to move about is theirs. The disfigurement of the portrait won’t be attractive however it is their anonymity they will be changing. The studio was set up with bright lights and most photos were taken on a one-to-one basis which may make the subject feel somewhat as uncomfortable as the scanners they may encounter on their next journey abroad will make them. Some of my peers have not and will not turn up to have their photos taken this probably isn’t but could be seen as a use of their rights to remain anonymous.

These photos (Img. 1-3) were taken in the photographic studio. I used studio lights on the subjects. The rigidness of the photo shoot allowed for lots of shots to be taken in (Fairly) quick succession. Keeping the focus in the same position and also the lighting at the same level.

Thackray.

This project was inspired by a visit to the Thackray Medical museum. The horror show of mannequins suited the mood of my photography. I also have a slight phobia of mannequins. Their lifelike qualities often take me back and make me think twice about if they are real or not. With these photos I wanted to use the mannequins and other things I saw at the Thackray museum to create a haunting and creepy set of photographs. Which I hoped would make people feel as uncomfortable as I do around mannequins.

My Camera...

... And my strife.


(Img. 1 - This is the camera itself. A big cardboard box with a magnifying glass. Carefully taped up and taped to the scanner.)


My photographic practice is just that; Practice. I used a modified A4 flatbed scanner to produce most of my photographs this year. And this is a fairly temperamental technique. Similar to that of a pinhole camera, I use a camera obscura to transfer the image onto a light reactive surface (the scanner). This method has caused a few problems through out the year. At first I was unsure that the technique would actually work. The first image I got was less than spectacular (Img. 2) and I was tempted to stop then. however with some perseverance I managed to work out how to focus the camera by sliding the outer layer of cardboard up. This primary research was great fun, frustrating at times but in the end paid off and became rather rewarding.


(Img. 2 - The first image.)


(Img. 3 - Second image. Even though I'd seen it work on the internet and the basic scientific principles seemed to be all in order . I did feel like a pioneer in photography when I managed to achieve this. A photo of the corner of my bedroom. How exciting!)


The camera is also tempermental in the way that I can only ever get it to capture this seagull ish type shaped part. Sometimes its there sometimes not. I just cope. Also the appature (despite me saying it was similar to a pin hole.) Is about big enough to get my hand through. I've tried different appatures but none seem to work quite as well.
So;

MASSIVE appature= Tiny depth of field. (I think that bit of science is right.)
So yeah to get anything in focus takes some time.

Another thing is if its bright daylight I have to make different appatures to make it work. Usually consisting of layers and layers of parcel tape stuck over the lens with a small hole made with a biro. The camera works better in man made light/Low lighting conditions.

Taxidermia.

"The sight of a dead animal, particularly a bird, touches me in a way that I always feel very contemplative." - Polly Morgan.


(Img. 1 - Leeds City Museum.)

This project I set out to take photos of the taxidermied animals in Leeds City Museum and also Leeds Discovery Centre with my Scanner camera.


The re-animation of animals through the taxidermic process has always fascinated me. The importance of retaining lifelike forms of animals for further generations to study will gradually become of more importance as ice caps melt, urbanization and deforestation take place which will certainly affect already endangered wildlife.
My photographic studies of taxidermy illustrate the rather peculiar art. The animals are given an identity by the taxidermist, and this superimposed character is what I wanted to capture with the set.

I think that the glass boxes help me to remove myself from the animal and its life-like pose removes me from its death. Museums are nothing more than cheap to run Zoos the animals don't need to be fed, watered, cleaned out they just stay in their mock up habitats with a bunch more out of context animals. This however isn't a bad thing I thrive off of these animals, frozen in time. Always there ready to be seen with their claws out. There's something reassuring about being able to re-visit and see your favourite animal en captured and posed like the beast it once was.


(Img. 2 - Dead pigeon found murdered a street away)

These photos (Img. 2) taken on 35mm film have made me realise what I like about Taxidermy as opposed to just dead animals like these. Even though there is a bit of peace... The decomposing of the corpse is disturbing. Taxidermyed animals have such a grand/majestic quality about them. Making them powerful creatures rather than fragile. (I didn't kill it by the way.)

As a person I don't think I form human relationships well enough to understand peoples relationships with animals. But what I like about taxidermy is the ability to be stood a foot away from some of the most powerful animals in the world.
Like a child with their face pressed up against the glass, I too enjoy them with the same wonderment. I think that the process that I have taken to come to the final photographs gives them an ethereal feel.

*Ethereal- Word that I just had to put in at 2am before the deadline in a sleep deprived moment of madness.


(Img.3 - Illustration from first year.)

I think this is the most important set of images that I produced this year. Important to me because I feel that I have been on a journey with the photographs. I worked in first year with illustrations of animals (Img. 3). This did not go well. However I think its interesting that I've somehow revisited them again, without really thinking about it. Making this constant dialogue between me and my subject (Animals in general), has helped me form a relationship with it I think. I am gradually seeing what I can work with and what inspires me about them to use them in my work.

Going back to my original brief I think I achieved what I set out to do after the Christmas period. I got out of the house. Out of my comfort zone. I had to have negotiations with people from outside of university and also later I'll describe how I used the photos to collaborate with fellow students.



(Img. 4 - Simone Bergantini)

Simone Bergantini (Img. 4) has been of particular interest to me recently I found his work through Foam Magazine's website as one of the winners of the Talent call last year. His dark portraits of foxes,monkeys and people remind me of my own work from this year. They have similar rustic qualities and, the shallow depth of field allows for a lot of further thinking into the imagery. It doesn't reveal too much in one heavy burst.

Self Portrait.

(Img. 1 - This is myself. It was early.)

The Brief.

The brief I set myself in January/February sort of time was very loose, I had already began with the scanning stuff so I basically wanted to progress it. Here’s what I originally wrote (Img. 1);


(Img. 1 - Brief written at beginning of semester 2.)



So yeah set out with my scanner in hand to do this. This brief may have seemed a bad idea at the time, usually with open briefs I get lost (Img. 2). However I think the experimentation and the process of building/researching and using the scanner camera, captured my attention and I managed to see things through. The images I began creating were more accurate representations of what I had pictured in my mind.


(Img.2 This is a flow chart of ideas/things covered in the first semester. How things didn't work. Its basically a diagram of my brain.)

Introduction.

Scanning has many implications. One of which is carrying round too much equipment to be healthy.


Hello future back problems.


(If you didn’t get my jest. I’m going to write this as a critical blog or maybe imagine me giving this as a lecture? Yes that’s good. So rather than a 3rd person essay I will attempt to go through and write this in one go, maybe a bit of editing later but yeah one go so its like a continuous dialogue. I feel that this is the true way for me to fluidly express my work.)

This semester I have focused on creating lenses to fit an A4 flat bed scanner. The Cannoscan Lide 25 A4 flatbed scanner was purchased because it would be “portable”. Under this premise I wanted to produce work outside of my bedroom and in the real world, live environments and difficult situations. I moved fairly quickly from working on the flat surface to lens based image making, which I will go into more depth throughout this The LEARNING AGREEMENT. (It comes across as a big deal. But is it? Should I be making such a fuss over nothing?)

Or maybe this post should have been called;

Dr. Stirling or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Learning Agreement.