Statement About my Final Pieces

My final pieces for my project, consist of seven photographs between the sizes of A5 and A4. The first five photographs are screen grabs of each video I recorded over the period of five days, they are images that have been captured after one minute of film as pasted.


Each photograph from the five days of filming, are to present a moment during my day, in my personal space (bedroom)capturing myself (and who ever maybe with me at the time), lost in my own world.


I thought that the video's effect on my photographic outcomes were great because they looked raw and always had something wrong with the exposure, lighting or contrast. I never edited any of my screen grabs, I just kept them as a original as I created them with my video camera. I wanted to achieve a selection of photographs that looked as raw as Richard Billingham's 'Rays a Laugh' series.
I noticed however the more I got used to working with my camera, I captured a more successful photographs.


I chose the other two photographs to be included into my final collection, (one of my eye and the other one a self portrait that is blurred) because they were two successful photographs that I captured of myself during the project, that looked the interesting. The eye photograph presented the idea of looking into my soul as a photographer and the blurred portrait was to present my confusion at the time about this project when I had no real strong ideas to follow.


I feel that I have enjoyed this project because as soon as I got an idea and a few comments from my class friends that were really positive and helpful, I became much more confident and was always opening up my sketchbook.
I am really happy and proud with my photographs and I have learnt a lot about myself and how I have a few habits... If I had more time I would have wanted to do another weeks worth of filming to get a fuller selection of outcomes.

My Final Idea

I have finally come to the conclusion that I am going to screen grab a photograph from each video, after a minute into the video. Then I am hoping that each photograph is enough to present at a moment in each day, I had filmed.

I think it will be interesting to see which photographs are picked and what each one may present.

In my sketchbook I have gone into detail about what each video and what each one as relived about me, my world; the way I have habits and stuff that I never noticed. When I am in my own little world, in my most personal space (my bedroom).

I have really enjoyed this project, it's been my favourite since starting University, it as been really interesting to see how my work as developed and others in my group. Using the blogs as made it easier for everyone to comment on each others' blogs and having their views on my work, as been really helpful.

Thoughts....

I know that everything I have done so far is not edited or anything I do from now on will be changed in anyway other than the size of the outcome, for my presentation; because i admire the effect the camera I am using to create my photographs with.

My photographs (screen grabs) will be the outcomes for my final presentation, along with my 'Blog' and sketchbook.

However:

- I do not know how many videos I should use for my final piece?
- I do not know what videos to use or if I should just use my latest video and take seven to ten screen grabs from it and use them for my final outcome to show a selection of my day, in my world and what i was doing in my personal space - my room.

etc

Any ideas?

However, I am thinking at the moment to have 5 to ten (screen grabs) photographs from each day since starting my filming and display each day. Maybe displaying the idea of seeing a week, of my world.
I am using captions, which are more like titles at the moment, to show my audience what is going on in the photographs at the time...

Suggestions and thoughts are welcome...

: )

New Day, New Video Clips...

Presenting the idea of seeing myself lost in my own world... In my personal space.

Today I am going to video myself in my personal space again - my bedroom.
For about five minutes, in which I will just carry on with what I was doing beforehand. This time I will place the video camera further away from me, so I am in the full frame, rather than being so close like beforehand, (in my older posts - below). Once it is complete, I am going to take no more than 5 clips that express me lost, in my own personal space.

The most interesting things I have learnt so far from doing this experimental project is that I have noticed that I have a few habits. For example; I like moving around a lot, I can never really seem to sit still. I'm never just sitting around thinking, I'm always doing something in my room, always using my time doing something.

I never really thought this experimental project, involving my life, in my personal space would reflect anything about me , except about what I get up to whilst at home... Very Interesting and intriguing.

Final Idea, Till the End of My project??

Thinking about taking a photograph each day, at the same time, in the same way n place... maybe.. with the camera lens blurred slightly n lighting poor... to reflect on the idea of losing yourself in your personal space... my world, presenting in my personal space, in this case bedroom. Linking with and moved onwards from my older photographs presented.

Any opinions??

Today... Ideas??

Catherine Holland (Myself) eye:


My photography Eye...
Seeing nothing but blur, meaning my ideas are not clear...

Catherine Holland (Self-portrait) Blurred to present my thoughts:


I really don't have an official idea about what or how I will be presenting my world in the form of photographs. This is why I am typing on here, to see if I can think of any ideas and maybe tell them to you, when I think of them... I have always got ideas, but then it is seeing if they are possible to follow...

I think I am going to stop thinking about what technology that I want to to experiment with, for a moment. However I need to think about what my subject matter...

I know I will be presenting 'my world/selection of my world' of it; but I do not know what area?

Like Jay, Bill suggested in 'The Thing Itself' essay in Occam's Razor book; I need a subject matter, that I have a passion about, to keep me interested and excited, about my project and my subject matter must be accessible.

Today... I have shown how I am feeling as a photographer with the idea of starting this project... rather than any ideas...

Maybe I could photograph the same section of an area in my personal space, my bedroom, each day to see my habbits with tidying up and where I place things...

For example:

I took the top one yesterday and the bottom one today...
Noticed the difference?





I think you can tell the difference a lot better when your actually looking at the original photograph to be honest...?

This idea is Sophie Calle and Richard Billingham inspired...

Ideas Running Through My Mind....

'Bad Picture'




Maybe I could photograph an area that is my personal space, where I reflect upon things. For example my favourite place or where I spend most of my time? Then maybe I could see the difference in each photograph, for example; moving objects, my habits with placing things in a certain way or even photographing where I am in that particular space. I could even photograph myself at a certain time each day... to see where I end up being? Obviously sometimes I would have make sure I wasn't in the bathroom at that specific time lol These are just ideas at the moment that I quickly need to make part of my everyday photographing and then it is just knowing what type of camera am I going to take my photograph with, will I be in the photograph and will this present my world the way I would like...?

'Bad Pictures'

'Bad Pictures'

I took these polaroids below yesterday, they are photographs of the same place; looking up towards the sky, the top polaroid was taken at 5:15pm and the bottom polaroid was taken at 8:15pm. I chose to photograph the same area, to see what the photograph would look like at a different time, for example; when it got a lot darker outside. As you can see, there is a huge difference... Me personally, finds this really interesting.



Polaroids are one of my favourite ways of capturing images, the outcomes are quick, raw, their original (that are uneditable) and real photographs and not just an image on your computer screen. You can hold them and see them after you have just taken the image, once the photograph as is revealed, after the chemicals have finished working.

My World

My first photographs... 'Bad Picture'

I decided to take a photograph of my curtains because that's the first thing I see every morning when I wake up, they're like my alarm clock to be honest, they are so thin they let all the light in, and I am a light sleeper; so I m up every morning, pretty early. I made my image out of focus to express the way I see when I've only just opened my eyes...

I have more photographs to come, but I need to scan them in, as they'll be polaroids. I am also planning on using pinholes during the time of epressing my world though photography.

My Photography

I have chosen some photographs that I think are my favourite photographs, that I have captured myself and have explained; what my intentions were and who may have inspired me during the time.

Isolation 2007 (Photographed by Catherine Holland)

This photograph above is of a bike that had been set on fire underneath a tunnel, that I walked through on my way to college and back everyday. One day during my second year at college I kept walking past this bike and then on the third day thought I would take a quick snap on my compact digital camera to capture the aftermath of someone's vandalism.
After uploading this photograph onto my computer, it made me think of the word isolation and it made me think about how the world would never be perfect.


The photograph below is a scan of my original pinhole collage that I made up of pin hole prints that I captured with my home-made pinhole, using the darkroom. The pinhole prints were photographs of areas around my college, that is being demolished sometime in the future and I wanted to present it in college of a few pinhole photographs. This was inspired by Rob Gardiner with the idea of documenting areas, using pinhole photography as a chosen media.

Photo collage 2008 (Created by Catherine Holland)

My World

Recently I have been given a brief from University to present my world using photography. Thinking about this sounds like a very wide and open project that may sound pretty easy, but it is really quite the opposite.
Having opened my sketchbook to think of ideas for my photographs and what to photograph, I notice how much more difficuit this project may become in the future.

I know that I want to show my world in an exciting way rather than in a simple way to keep me interested and passionate about the idea of presenting my world to others. I think I may show a section of my world rather than everything because that maybe quite impossible with presenting a day in one photograph...

However I am very excited to see how mine and other class mates' blogs presenting our worlds will present themselves, with our chosen media.

Other Photographer's Photos

Given the task of finding five photographs or more that have influenced me the most since the time I had discovered photography was difficult. There are so many photographers/artists that have inspired me. I looked though old sketchbooks and books, to see who had influenced me during briefs that were given to me, during my study of photography in college or on my own projects.

The five photographs I have chosen are below and I have explained why they are so inspiring to me.

Comments are welcome on what your opinions maybe on my choices.

Inspiring Photographers

Photographed by Rob Gardiner
'Slow City' (2005)



Rob Gardiner is amazing at taking pinhole photographs in my opinion. Gardiner's pinholes' look really obscure and are taken with a 4x5 pinhole camera, which are printed very well as you can see from the example above? Gardiner takes photographs around London, the photograph above is of Ironmonger Lane. The reason for taking these pinholes on this street was because Gardiner had a fascination by the construction works and wanted to view it's transformation after the 14 week “Street Improvement Project” that was said to have took place there. The photograph I have chosen is of Ironmonger Lane before the construction work.

Just for interest I have added the pinhole Gardiner had taken after the construction below:
Slow City (2006)



As a photographer myself, I have a passion for taking pinhole photographs and I think Gardiner is very inspiring to me. I love making my own tiny pinhole cameras and using it to take small obscure photographs and then printing them in the darkroom. Seeing the tiny prints come to life in the dark room is an amazing feeling, that keeps my passion alive for photography, especailly pinhole photography, which is like a guessing game most of the time. However the patience is worth it with the final outcomes.

Photographs from: http://www.nyclondon.com/blog/

Inspiring Photographers

Photographed by Sophie Calle
The Hotel (1983)


Sophie Calle is a very voyeuristic artists and I am inspired by her sneaky and nosey ideas, which can be really interesting. Calle's work usually consists of her looking into other people's lives without them even noticing or knowing and as revealed alot of personal things to her audience. Sophie Calle as also pointed the camera to herself in her work too.

The photograph above is from a series entitled 'The Hotel' which is a collection of photographs that showed a guest's room at the Venetian Hotel where Calle worked for three weeks temporary as a chambermaid. During this time Calle looked after twelve rooms, noting down her guest's habits, presenting them using photography (guests were not identifiable).

Sophie Calle's work is said to raise questions about what interests us?

I think Sophie Calle is very inspiring for my current project entitled, 'My World' with the way she has presented other people's personal space, that was not truly their own, but borrowed. Maybe I could present my world within one space, like my bedroom for example rather than a number of places, to show patterns with how I keep my personal space and how I live in that certain area... However this is just one idea that I may develop, which will be very personal.

Inspiring Photographers

Photographed by Brassai
'Paris By night' (1933)


I have admired Brassai's work for a long time, he has captured some beautiful photographs of Paris at night and this is one of my favourite photograph, out of his collection. Brassai's photograph above is a very gloomy and mysterious image looking through the foggy night in Paris, which has created an atmospheric photograph. I admire these types of photographs because they add a sense of mystery and uncertainty.

Brassai explored Paris using photography to capture Paris's people, places and it's moments.
Brassai is an inspiration for my new brief entitled 'My World' where I will be using photography to express my world or a section of it.

Inspiring Photographers

Photographed by Richard Billingham
'who's looking at the family' (1994)


Richard Billingham's series entitled 'who's looking at the family' shows raw and very realistic photographs presenting his family life at home. These photographs were meant to be
material for his paintings at first, until he used them for his exhibitions. The photograph above is an example of one of the photographs from his family members in 'who's looking at the family' series.

'who's looking at the family' series is a very personal and real life collection that is a very inspiring series, that presents an idea of his world, growing up with his family at home. Billingham took so many photographs that his family didn't even realise that he was taking them any more, so they were quite oblivious to him.

Billingham took his photographs with a cheap film and got them printed at a cheap printing place.

Richard Billingham's work is very influential because he used a very simple way of working that presented truth and the way he lived and where he grew up (Very realistic and personal). I'm wondering about if other students who are doing the same brief (entitled 'My World') as me at the moment will create similar images to Richard Billingham's work? I can see this being a very interesting project with the way our ideas and ways of presenting our world's will be presented.

Inspiring Photographers

Photographed by Jerry N Uelsmann
Untitled, 1982.

This is one of my favourite photographs by Uelsmann because it is quite a fantasy type of image, that is strange and unique. This image is a fantasy like image because you would never be able to see this in everyday life, which creates a very dream-like photograph.

I admire the way Uelsmann works in the dark room with the way he creates his type of photographs. He uses a number of enlargers in the darkroom to create these types of photographs that are made up of a number of negatives, not to create narratives, but illustrative surrealist imagery of the impossible . I find Uelsmann photographs very fascinating.

This photograph reminds me of the lyrics: "We could plant a house,
We could build a tree" by Nirvana (Breed). I was going to try and recreate this idea with photographs, but then thought of Uelsmann, who had already done this idea without realising it.