Scotland Study Group

I was fortunate enough the other week to have another opportunity to present and discuss my Body of Work at the Scotland Study Group day.  Its a shame that these events don’t attract a larger group as, for those who do attend, we all seem to get a great amount from it in terms of the development of our thoughts and work.  I don’t think that we should underestimate the benefit we can all get from reviewing our work with a professional photographer and tutor Wendy McMurdo.

With this review I wanted to present some of my further thoughts since the Barnsley residential.  I had decided since that critique that I needed to go through a final deconstruction process of my work to get to a stage that I might be happy to draw the line on and suggest its completion.  The main driver to this is that I have continued to have a sense that it needed something more but was unsure of what or how.  I have also picked this up as the general theme of advice from others.  In the review I presented different ideas for the title of the work, ways in which I might tighten up the collective colour and tone of images within each set as a way of making clearer which set they belong to, a tightening of the compositional alignment of some of the pairings of images so that this aspect can be seen a little more clearly, and also alternative pairings of images.  All of which is difficult to explain here without going into more detail with examples but I expect to do this in other posts as I progress with the work.

The interesting feature from what I presented is that it triggered thoughts from those I presented to which I hadn’t expected and we then went through a thorough discussion on some of the things I might think about for developing the work further.  The general conclusion I came away with is that I would need to go through quite a bit of extra work if I wanted to wanted to take this project to the next level in its development.  I was challenged about my reluctance to do this, with the question posed of “what do I have to lose?  My obvious answer to this was that I might make a mess of what I already have and in a practical sense I only have one further assignment review to go and thus little further opportunity to change and amend afterwards.

I have decided that it is worth doing this to see where this takes me and then I can review against the project as it is now.  I can then decide how to present for final assessment.  The implications of this is that my next and final assignment for Body of Work is likely to be delayed somewhat, particularly if it means going back to Thornhill to take more photographs

Barnsley Residential & Work Critique

Its been a week since the Barnsley Residential predominantly for Level 3 photography students which was a great success and really well organised by John and Penny.  The big event I think for most students was the opportunity to have their work critiqued, probably for the first time.  For some it was an early showing of some ideas that they are developing whereas for others such as myself it was a last opportunity to get an audience reaction to a nearly complete body of work.

I was fortunate (I think) to be the first to have their work critiqued by the group, and more favourably for me also by photographer John Davies who stayed behind after his presentation to join in with the critique session.  There were many offers of advice fed back as I was presenting the work which was a challenge to absorb it all at the same time as trying my best to explain its different aspects.  Jesse suggested at the end of the weekend that students should think about recording such sessions which, with hindsight, is something that I should have done as I did come away a little confused with some conflicting offerings given.  On the following Monday, Sharon posted a really helpful note to a link on how to resolve the advice offered from such critique sessions, which was generally to be confident enough in your own work to decide which advice could be helpful in progressing your work and which you might decide to ignore as a difference of opinion or doesn’t fit with the concept of your work which you may have only had 10 minutes to explain, in this instance, 18 months of developing the work.

I did write down some notes soon after the session so that I could capture the advice that particularly struck a note with me and give it some further thought.  This is what I want to muse about here:

There was a discussion emanating from the group about the different layers with which this work could be read.  The title of the work is ‘Land Values’, my presentation of the work was about the idea of a childhood paradise under threat, and the pairing of the images in the book suggested, as John Davies picked up, a sense of the autobiographical.  I confirmed that this was both a challenge and a feature of this work as I am pleased that it can be read in different ways whilst not wanting it to be too confused for the viewer.  Jesse suggested that I think about introducing the word ‘Paradise’ into the title.  I had just shifted the title back to ‘Land Values’ as it relates to my overall concept but I see where this comment is coming from and intend to give it more thought.  I also think that if I change the title then I will need to revisit the final artist’s statement which I include at the end of the book.

The key advice I seemed to be getting from John Davies, and some others, is that I need to strengthen the aesthetic connection between the images.  He picked up that some of the childhood locations where of more ‘messy’ places and that I should perhaps make more of that to bind the set together, with the Glasgow images then being a little brighter and optimistic set.  He also suggested, I believe, that some of the pairings didn’t work as well as others, particularly in the second half of the series.  This is also something that other students were suggesting, even though everyone seemed to have different sets that they liked and didn’t like and thus is something that I can never fully resolve.  I explained that the second half of the series is where I have been struggling with the most and thus is something that I now intend to go back to.  From this I have decided to give the whole series a final, more critical edit both aesthetically as well as the pairings of images.

A specific question that I asked the group was their thoughts about my use of words as labels under each image.  I explained how after my last assignment it was suggested that I was too limiting in the use of words to entice the viewer towards my concept and to explain how the images work as pairs rather than individual images.  The inclusion of labels was thus an experiment but something I always have reservations about as it can very easily spoil the work.  The clear advice back, particularly from Jesse, was that these labels about what paradise was don’t add anything to the interpretation of the work and thus should probably be removed.  I was pleased to gain this clear feedback.

On the other hand, I do  recall a point made that it was unclear what I was trying to say with some pairs of images but I explained that this was the intention to be vague rather than illustrative and that it is through a sense of the whole series that there images can be interpreted.  I therefore don’t intend to dwell too much on this.

One further comment made was by Jesse who wondered whether I might consider creating two sets of books rather than directly pairing them in an individual book.  I am not sure if I fully understood his point on this but it did trigger some further ideas on my part.  The pairing of the images is important to how this body of work comes together, even though it isn’t critical that this is how they are read.  I am having a thought of something that would effectively be two books but joined together so that the images can still be reviewed together.  Difficult to explain here but it has certainly given my something to think about.

Overall, a really good, effective and very useful session which gave me answers to some things and ideas for others – including how to go about what will probably be my final edit on this work before I progress to the next stage.

Thanks all for your constructive feedback

 

More Words, Words, Words

Following on from my latest assignment feedback I have decided that I need to give some more thought to the use of words alongside my photographs for the body of work, with the expectation of using text as a strategy towards engaging with the viewer without directing them too much.

The first step is to re-consider the title of my work.  My blog has always been called ‘Land Values’ as this has been the main focus of my deliberations, suggesting that we need to better understand our value for land if we are to take action towards its conservation.  At the last assignment I changed the title to ‘Lost Opportunities’, with the explanation of my thoughts behind this included in my review of the feedback from this assignment.  The obvious step forward is actually to revert back to the title ‘Land Values’ which would link my work back to one of its core focusses and to the direction of my Contextual Studies essay.

The next thing to consider is the advice I was given that the book proposal would probably need more text to entice the viewer into grasping my point of view and the importance of how the images work together rather than individual banal photographs of two places.  Having given this some thought I have decided to include an introductory paragraph for each set of photographs which gives some information but without being fully explanatory.  This will then be supported with a more detailed explanation of my thoughts and intentions at the end of the book – as I did with my last assignment.

The introductory text for the images on the left hand side is:

Memories of 1976, and a time and place where I was seemingly free to play without worry of the influences or threats from adulthood or society. 
This childhood paradise is where my value for land was formed.

The introductory text for the images on the right hand side is:

Reflections on today, wondering whether a shift in time, place and society can still present opportunities for a childhood paradise to be formed. 
This place is where my relationship with and value for land continues.

Both these texts will sit side by side before any photographs are shown.

A further thought I have had is to include some text at the side of each image which would relate to why I think that the place I grew up in was a childhood paradise even though visually it would be difficult to appreciate this, and also indicate why the place in Glasgow is an unknown possibility for a similar paradise to be formed.  Here are a few examples of what I am thinking of:

Paradise was …
lurking in the bushes

Paradise was …
finding a place to hide

The concern I have with this, which I have expressed before, is my reluctance to include labels with photographs.  What I do like with these examples is how they can subvert the meaning of why this might be a childhood paradise, but on the other hand, with some of them I am not saying much more than what the images say themselves.  I have decided however that the best way forward is probably have a go with all of the above solutions and create a mock-up book to see how this feels.

A pdf of this book is attached below which gives a sense of what I am trying to do here but I will leave my review of this outcome until later.

LandValuesdraft1

Assignment 4 Feedback

I was fortunate to gain two sets of feedback for this assignment; firstly from the normal route of my tutor, but also from the inaugural meeting of the new study group set up by and for Scottish students.

In terms of my tutor’s feedback, the two things this has made me think about are to revert the title of my work back to ‘Land Values’, and also to think a little more about the use of words and the impact this can have on the work.

In Assignment 4 I had tested the notion of using a new title, ‘Lost Opportunities’, arguing that the first set of photographs were about looking back at what had been lost from a time and place where I grew up, whereas the second set looked at the present to compare and contrast these losses whilst also considering the opportunities they might present for the future.  I did note my own reservations about this when putting these two words together; Lost – Opportunities, which then gave a different connotation of regret that wasn’t something I was particularly intending.  My tutor suggested that I might reconsider the title of ‘Land Values’ which I immediately agreed with.  It now seems like one of those things where you wonder why you ever deviated from this path.  Land Values is, and always has been, at the heart of my Body of Work, is probably the tag towards ‘Sustaining Your Practice’, and is also central to my Extended Written Project.

The next point to consider was the relationship between words and images.  I have been quite bereft of words in Assignment 4; including only the title at the front end, then the 12/13 sets of images, and then the artist’s statement at the end.  My tutor suggests thinking about including more of a ‘teaser’ at the front end that provides enough for the viewer to realise that the sets of images are meant to work together rather than being a series of independent, mundane images.  He also reminded me of the impact I noted from Cloe Dewe Matthews work whereby the ordinary images were given a new life by the introduction of text.

This is another feature of my Body of Work that I had been thinking about.  I felt that it lacked something to lift it to something that an audience might be interested to reflect on, but I have always been reluctant to use too much text as I can also see its power to destroy a work if used incorrectly.

With this, I decided to test something with the new Scottish Study Group, and as I quickly introduced each set of images I reintroduced the personal significance of each of the images from my childhood.  I was probably being a little unfair with them as some of these images reflect on very specific and personal issues that you would not get just by looking at these images – but was this the missing link that would raise this work?  I have, however, always wanted this work to remain fairly ambiguous to allow the audience to reflect and think rather than read them at face value, hence, I feel that my very personal interpretations push the work too far in one specific direction and away from its core purpose of considering ‘Land’s Value’.  This is also the sense I got from my test-audience’s reaction – a little too direct and thus confusing as to the overall purpose of the work.  I never really got chance to then reintroduce my work from its original perspective but I will look forward to doing this when we meet again.

There are a couple of things that this has helped me to conclude which are that a short introductory piece of text at the beginning of this series is needed, and I am also thinking about adding some words against each image – not as direct as discussed above but something that might allude to this a little more.  I intend to give this some more thought, balanced with my concerns over the use of too much text, and probably provide an update in a further blog post.

One specific issue that came from the study group was to consider taking out the set of images of my old and new homes as this directed the work too much towards different social classes, which didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the work.  I had used this set as a good stepping off point but I can appreciate this feedback and so need to give this some more thought whilst also making sure that the replacement final set remains sufficiently strong to conclude this series.

I am also pleased to be able to say that I have just finished my substantive draft of the Major Written Project, which has taken up a lot of my time recently, therefore, I should hopefully be able to come back to this Major Body of Work and give it some final and worthy attention.  I also want to look into printing options, particularly in terms of producing a book.

BoW Assignment 4

The following is a copy of my fourth assignment for Body of Work.  It consisted of the following covering note, a series of paired images that I submitted as a pdf in a book format (I have shown them below as a set of images rather than an attached pdf), and a draft artist’s statement which I intend to put at the end of the book.

Over the last few months I have been ‘getting to know’ my body of work.  Strange as that may sound, or at least it is to me, I found that with the previous Assignment 3 submission the work was visually coming together well but that I was struggling to express was it was about both verbally or in writing.  I also wanted to create some space between me and the sequence of images so that I could better review the overall work, the pairing of images and their sequencing.

The result has been a refinement to the pairing of images within the body of work and the creation of an artist’s statement to go with it.

I didn’t want to meddle with the work too much as I was concerned not to spoil the flow from overthinking the pairings and sequencing.  The main changes are that I have moved away from blackening out parts of some of the images, and I have changed some of the images to the second half of the set.

I thought about the advice from the third assignment which suggested using the blackening out technique on just one image (it had previously been used on 3-4).  I gave this a go but felt that it became an odd feature rather than providing a jolt to the viewer.  I also felt that I wanted to move away from the idea of using it to politicize my message; therefore, I have drawn away from this idea.  I would be interested to have feedback on whether I should perhaps reconsider this strategy.

Regarding the sequencing of images, I have kept the first half of the set identical to Assignment 3, right up to the Glasgow cash machine photo (the twelfth photo in).  I liked this sequence and didn’t feel it needed any alterations.  After that image, there are various changes including not blackening out, adding a couple of new images, changing some of the pairings, and altering the order a little.  I am hoping that this tightens up this second half a little more and is more in keeping with the first half without spoiling what I had already.

With regards to the Artist’s Statement, I have had five attempts at this and have recorded my progress with it on my blog.  I thought that I was almost there with it on the fourth attempt but had a slight niggle that I might have over-simplified it.  I then picked up a discussion on the OCA forum about artists’ statements which made me decide to look back at it once more and try to refer a little more to the visual culture and context that supports the development of the work.  This latest draft is included in this submission.

I have also been thinking about how I might combine this statement within the book format I am proposing for my body of work.  As I have mentioned above, one of the things that has troubled me with this work has been that I have struggled to properly explain this work and I think that one of the reasons for this is that even I see different elements within it when I have left it for a while and then come back to it.  I don’t want to lose that ambiguity of interpretation for the viewer and worry that including the artist statement up front will lead the viewer too much.  I would be more pleased if the viewer was able to appreciate the work from their own perspective before then asking to themselves whether this is what the photographer intended.  To achieve this, I am currently planning to include the artist’s statement at the end of the book rather than at the beginning and this is what I have tried to show in the draft pdf of the book that forms the main part of the submission.

Lost Opportunities investigates how changes of time, place, and society can change a person’s relationship with, and appreciation for, both land and the place it forms.  It does so by looking back at a Council estate in West Yorkshire where I grew up, and then compares this with the present area I have just moved to in Glasgow.

Images of the Council estate recall ordinary places that have a significance to me, whilst also depicting what I now reimagine as a childhood paradise where I was seemingly free to engage with the land and place oblivious of the threat to this utopia from adulthood and societal influences.  The imaginary idealisation of this time identifies with Neo-Romantic principles which regards the past as an integral part of our heritage and national identity and thus something we must preserve, or maybe long for its return.

In Glasgow I wandered around this new place to seek out the heritage I have now adopted, to reflect on its potential of becoming significant to me in the future, and to question whether the idealised notion of a childhood paradise could still be created in this place today.  This shift in time, place and society forms a narrative about change, to ask whether it is a threat to the way things were, or the beginning of new opportunities.

Words, Words, Words

I have been giving a lot of thought recently to the impact of words on a body of photographic work, such as the one I am developing at the moment.

When I went to see Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Shot at Dawn exhibition at The Stills, the impact of words was quite significant to the interpretation of the work.  The large scale photographs of relatively ordinary fields, a school, trees, a church, etc., were accompanied with a list of names.  Connecting that to the title of the work ‘Shot at Dawn’ and you begin to make a connection.  With your interest pinged and a little more research, the understanding of the works becomes clear that these locations are places were soldiers were shot for desertion.  Then suddenly your appreciation for the works rises to another level.

Also, at the exhibition ‘Conflict Time Photography’ held at the Tate Modern in London, there was so much work on show that it was only by reading the accompanying words that one gained a better appreciation of the work.  This was probably also of particular importance for this type of work as most of it was focused on remembrance of a time passed which had erased most of the evidence of the conflict that had previously occurred.

With my body of work, I have quickly concluded that I will not be adding labels to any of the photographs.  I rarely find that this works and is a bit too directional.  The ambiguity of my series is what I think makes it work; which can even confuse me at times as I see different layers of understanding within it, and which is something I want to retain within.  This leaves me with two further opportunities to support my work with words; these are the title of the body of work and an accompanying written piece – such as the artist’s statement.

As the work incorporates pairs of images from which the audience is able to compare and contrast, I wanted a title that encompassed how these pairs of images related to each other.  When I first started this body of work I wrapped a lot of my investigations around a working title of ‘Land Values’, and while I think that there is still an intrinsic element of this within the work, I now believe that it has shifted away from this direction.  I do also believe that I have a much better understanding now of what I am trying to say with this work, which has definitely benefited from the research I have been doing particularly around my Contextual Studies report.

In light of this, the Council estate aspect is about looking back at what as a society we might have lost from the past and questioning whether we might long for its return.  For the Glasgow estate it is about reflecting on the future and the opportunities that might be possible as I begin to engage with this place.  This is why I am relatively happy with the title ‘Lost Opportunities’, however, the further interesting aspect of this is the way that by joining these words together it creates a further meaning – Lost Opportunities could also suggest regret, which is possibly something I am asking within the work but not necessarily intending as a direct statement.

With this title relatively firm in my mind the next question for me is the introduction of a short written piece.  As there is an academic purpose to this work I think it suitable to incorporate this as an artist’s statement.  I have had several goes at this over the last few months and there are several blogs associated with my different attempts.  I was generally happy with the last attempt, however, having followed a useful discussion on this topic on the OCA website I decided that I needed to give it another refresh.  I was little concerned that I had shifted it too far towards a general audience’s understanding of it and that it needed a little more academic vigour.  The revised version is included below, which will form part of my Assignment 4 submission of the body of work.  Before I include it though I also want to mention that I am still wondering where to place it within my Body of Work.  On the fairly firm assumption that I will be producing a book, I am undecided whether I should put the text at the front or at the back of the book.  I am liking the idea of allowing my audience to view the images first and getting them to think about it before reading about my intentions.

So here is my revised artist’s statement:

Lost Opportunities investigates how changes of time, place, and society can change a person’s relationship with, and appreciation for, both land and the place it forms.  It does so by looking back at a Council estate in West Yorkshire where I grew up, and then compares this with the present area I have just moved to in Glasgow.

Images of the Council estate recall ordinary places that have a significance to me, whilst also depicting what I now reimagine as a childhood paradise where I was seemingly free to engage with the land and place oblivious of the threat to this utopia from adulthood and societal influences.  The imaginary idealisation of this time identifies with Neo-Romantic principles which regards the past as an integral part of our heritage and national identity and thus something we must preserve, or maybe long for its return.

In Glasgow I wandered around this new place to seek out the heritage I have now adopted, to reflect on its potential of becoming significant to me in the future, and to question whether the idealised notion of a childhood paradise could still be created in this place today.  This shift in time, place and society forms a narrative about change, to ask whether it is a threat to the way things were, or the beginning of new opportunities.

Viewing Different Exhibitions

I’ve been to several exhibitions recently and rather than write a précis of the artists’ work I thought that I would write something about my impressions of each exhibition and how I felt each one worked differently.

The first one was the Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Shot at Dawn exhibition held at the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh.  I have already provided a write up of what I thought about the excellent work work so, as I say, this bit is about the exhibition showing itself.  I am not sure about the funding situation for the Stills Gallery but this exhibition was quite a high profile for this gallery and yet was free to view.  The space available gave ample opportunity to show enough of Matthews’ work to gain a good sense of what the work was about and the message it was trying to express.  These photographs were printed large therefore there needed to be sufficient white wall space to achieve this and so the venue seemed to work quite well for the photographer.  The overall impression was that the exhibition had made every effort to show the work to its best and for that to be its absolute focus, rather than it be about the exhibition itself.

Next I took a quick visit to a student showcase event in Glasgow which had selected what they felt was the best work from student shows across Scotland this year.  The space available was plentiful with good natural light however because this was a showcase there was only limited space for each student.  As a viewer I got the sense that I needed to see more of each student’s work to get a sense of their intentions.  The limited allocation of space did affect this quite a bit.  It was still interesting to go see the exhibition as a useful benchmark for my own work.

The following week I went to an OCA study visit to the exhibition ‘Conflict Time Photography’ held at the Tate Modern in London.  This exhibition was based on a central connecting theme rather than any individual artist.  The space given over to this was huge which allowed many different photographers work to be shown and thus enable comparison between how each of them connected with the theme.  The problem with this was that the exhibition as a whole became the focus of attention rather than getting to know any particular artist’s work.  My reaction to this at the time was jotted down in my notebook:

“In a sublime sense the images do little for me.  My only experience of war is from movies and computer games therefore these photos relate more to those media experiences for me.  It is the accompanying words that seem to have the power and the images a mere catalogue and evidence to support those words.  The exception is McCullen’s classic portrait of a soldier just after battle.  The immediacy of this image gives it its power.  I question with the rest, how long afterwards do these events become nostalgic.”

There was a general discussion about whether this exhibition worked in its layout and approach.  The curator had organised it based on how long after the actual event/war that each work had been photographed, with the first photographs taken the closest after the actual event.  There was a suggestion that it might have worked the other way around so that there was a growing sense of audience impact as you walked through the exhibition.  I could, however, see what the curator was trying to achieve as the widening time between the event and the photograph was similar to the growing time between entering the exhibition and then leaving.  The other feature I picked up from the exhibition was how my sense of appreciation of the style of each work changed from documentary for those shot closest to the event, moving on to remembrance, and then to nostalgia as the photographs were shot furthest from the actual event.

Overall, this exhibition was big and bold and thus seemed to focus attention more on the exhibition itself rather than showcasing any individual photographer.

The latest exhibition was ‘Ponte City’ held at the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.  This is a typically historic and impressive building located in the city centre yet there was still a good balance between the photographic work and the exhibition space which gave the viewer the time and space to interact with the various different aspects of the show and gain something from this.  The work itself was an eclectic arrangement of photographs and found documents that were used to document the experience of living in this semi-derelict apartment block in Johannesburg.  I think that the curation was thoughtfully planned with the viewer experience in mind.

Artist Statement – Update

Well, I feel as though I have spent an age working on the three paragraphs I have written for my artist’s statement.  The last post on this got me so far, but I still didn’t think that it truly described by work.  I have been surprised, however, at how difficult it has been to write this when the body of work is so well advanced.  It is almost as though the work has had a mind of itself and I have been playing catch up trying to describe it.  The positive aspect of this struggle has been that I feel that the work is quite multi-layered and open to different interpretations therefore the statement had to point towards my intentions without leading the viewer too much.

I had also got it in to my mind not to use the word ‘I’ as I was worried that this would push the work back towards a Modernist approach which isn’t what I wanted to achieve.  However, I have now come to realise that this is ok as long as I am using this personal perspective to reflect a common concern rather than my own agenda.

Another feature that has helped me to develop this statement, but which has also meant that it has taken me quite sometime, is that I have tried to closely connect this statement with the theme of my major essay for Contextual Studies.  I felt it important that I fully understood the focus of my body of work so that I could use this as the focus of my essay too.  I am glad to say that this artist statement has helped to create the structure of my major essay as well as the introductory text to it.

The other point to raise is that while I was in the doldrums over this, it was through an e-mail conversation with a fellow student that rejuvenated my efforts to get me to this stage – thanks Stan is the phrase I need to say.

I am therefore now pleased to announce that I am quite happy with this statement and I feel that it really works with the images.  It certainly helps me when I go through the photographs so I am hopeful that it would be just as supportive for others.  I sense that the key words are at the end “It leaves open the question of whether this change is good or a threat to the way things were.”

For now, I intend to leave this statement open for a while.  I will come back to it later but hopefully I will still feel quite happy with it then as I do just now:

Lost Opportunities

This body of work investigates how changes of time, place and society can affect a person’s relationship with the land and place it forms.  It does so by comparing a Council estate in West Yorkshire where I grew up, with a more cosmopolitan area of Glasgow where I have just moved to.

Looking back at the Council estate, I recall ordinary places that became significant due to my engagement with them, and then reimagine a childhood paradise where I was free to engage with the land oblivious of the threat to this utopia from adulthood and society.  In Glasgow, I sought out similar opportunities for engaging with both the land and place to understand their potential of becoming significant to me and whether the notion of a childhood paradise could still exist today. 

The intention is to use personal experience to reflect on the ways in which society’s relationship with land and place has changed over time, and to consider the reasons for this.  It leaves open the question of whether this change is good or a threat to the way things were.

Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Shot at Dawn exhibition

This is my review of the Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Shot at Dawn exhibition held at the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh. It was part of an OCA study visit and so other students have already posted some very good reviews of this visit, namely Duncan Astbury, Yiannitsa Stevens and Mark Jones, which I am mindful of when writing my review. I have tried to focus this on my thoughts and response to the exhibition rather than an overview of Mathews work as I want to reflect on how this might link to my work.

I did a little research on this exhibition before I arrived so did have some understanding of the context and we did discuss it as a group before having time to review the exhibition. Her photographs are of seemingly ordinary places with no discerning connection between them until you note the text by the side of each image. The interplay between image and text is very important here as it creates significance to each place as locations where soldiers of World War I were shot for desertion.

In my mind, the work is commemorative towards the personal sacrifices and tragedies associated with this part of our history. It is a work that was commissioned 2 years ago, I presume not by accident, to coincide with this commemoratory year for Word War I. This allowed Mathews two years of research and investigation in preparation for this body of work. The strategy that she took is also an important feature of understanding this work and was discussed at length by the student group I was with.

The photographs on show were printed large, which I know is a modern feature but also one that helps these relatively banal subjects come alive. I wonder whether if printed smaller they would have had the same affect. This may be something that I will need to think about in the future as I am also photographing quite ordinary places for my body of work, which at the moment is focussed around producing a book, but what do I do if I want to exhibit them?

My overall response to this work was positive as I felt that the connection between photographs, text, and an understanding of the research behind it all interplayed in their presentation to the audience. Also, as time went by I began to notice objects within each photograph that could be interpreted as symbols associated with the theme of the work – a single tree representing a last man standing, trees on the floor of a woodland representing fallen men, an embankment as the wall for a firing squad. I wonder whether this was just me projecting thoughts into the images, or a specific strategy of the artist.

Overall, I think that this commemorative work was asking us to remember the human sacrifices, and sometimes abhorrent way that fellow humans can treat each other, as a lesson for the future – if we cannot learn from our mistakes then what hope do we have of not doing this again in the future? The land itself seems to have forgotten these events so as photographers and artists we need to use our skills to find ways of capturing our imaginations and making us think about such events, which I think that Matthews has been very successful in this endeavour.

Writing an Artist’s Statement

I am finding that writing a few short paragraphs on my Body of Work rather challenging.  It is somewhat difficult to express in words what my images are trying to express; which is perhaps descriptive of the difficulties I am having at the moment in progressing with my major essay – I don’t want to progress in one direction only then to find that I need to change direction once I have progressed with it.  I have therefore decided to make an attempt at writing an artist’s statement on my body of work to help clarify my thoughts and intentions.  The following are, therefore, an attempt at two versions; one based on the reflections I made in my Body of Work Assignment 3 submission, and the second is based on updated thinking on what the statement should be.  Both have been difficult to write and neither is likely to be the final version, but for now they serve a purpose and will be something I can come back to later:

Based on Reflections from BoW Assignment 3 Submission

This Body of Work reflects on the threat from society and adulthood to Land as a ‘childhood paradise’.  The paradise is formed from memories of childhood engagement with Land and an adult appreciation of the influence this has on personal identity.

It is influenced by the Neo-Romantic art movement of the 1940’s which reflected on the threat of war and impending consumerism on our ‘English’ identity; formed from a spiritual, mythical, & idealised notion of land, body and society.

The Work takes an autobiographical approach by retracing a childhood walk around the estate I grew up in, and then sets this against a more ambivalent wander around a new place I have still to get to know

By juxtaposing images from these two parts of the Work, a conversation develops around the similarities and differences between these two places, whilst also engaging with the viewer on some of the restrictions; real and perceived, imposed by society on childhood engagement with Land. 

Based on an Updated Perspective of the Artist’s Statement: Dec. 2014

This body of work looks at society’s relationship with Land; asking whether opportunities still remain to engage with it in the same way as we might recall from our childhood memories.  It is set within the context of concerns over Land’s future conservation caused by society’s lack of value for it.

It begins by revisiting a ‘childhood paradise’; a time and place where a child was able to freely engage with Land and form a significant bond with it.  At the same time, however, it also asks whether this ‘paradise’ truly existed, or has it been formed from a romantic notion of the past?  It then reflects on a time and place set in the present, to question whether society and/or adulthood have been the cause of the demise of this lost paradise, or do opportunities still remain for similar relationships with Land to be formed?

The body of work leaves open the question of whether a child’s relationship with Land is important to society’s future attitude towards its conservation.