Walking from Sandwich bay along the beach towards the mouth of the river, the sea collects objects which wash around the shoreline and are deposited above the high-water marks where it stays. The colors which fade over time but continue to stand out amongst the muted natural tones. I like the ambiguous narratives which can be connected with them by the audience, a multiple of back stories can be applied. I am interested in how removing the objects from the found environment can change the narratives and power placed upon them within the photograph. Removing an item from its original environment and placing it within the studio or different space shows an effort asserted by the photographer and invites the audience to ask why. The images below show an act of physically lifting the object out of the space and raising it above, changing the viewpoint from looking down to looking up again creates powerful connotations.
Please click to see uncropped versions.
Please click to see uncropped versions.
These three images are an experiment into the different meanings and approaches to take in shooting one found object. The fourth image experiment to come will be taking this object into the studio and creating a still life. However, these 3 images show different ways which interest me. I feel that the top left image of the object in situ as found without any mediation is a record of something which caught my attention. The top right contains connotations that I as the photographer thought this was an interesting shape, texture color and I want the audience to look at it as a beautiful object. This top right photograph removes the object entirely from the context of surrounding and place, the stone therefore could have been found on a beach as it was or shown to me by someone else who had found it previously and I chose to photograph it. The third image showing the environment I found the object in the background does relay this lost information. It conveys a sense of context and information, not a lot but enough to start piecing together a weakly obvious narrative. I feel that the objects I chose to photograph whilst upon my walk did interest me individually, initially I found them because I am interested in the location but my main focus was upon them as individual items. I liked the ambiguity of how multiple items are spread across an open stretch of space. These objects have become useless, they are lost therefore they have lost their function. |
I shot the color images on a poor quality color film, Agfa 200 from pound land is nothing to be desired but it is affordable. I regret not shooting them on my usual kodak Portra or some black and white. A quick edit shows how they would look in B&W, although I would prefer a less contrasty neg with less grain, so would shoot on a 100 I think they have a nice quality. It is difficult however as they will loose their interesting faded color which holds a lot of the information within the narrative. I will re-shoot objects throughout my trip along the river and see how it relays to the audience. I think it is important to remain productive in creating lots of work and explore different mediums but consider how they fit aesthetically with original Direct Positive Paper Negs.