Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions I have been unable to organise a suitable exhibition for my work on East Lothian DooCots.
I was introduced to the KunstMatrix website which allows artist to create virtual 3D exhibition spaces. I was quite taken with the idea of a virtual exhibition because it created a full accessible space outside of the restrictions of distance and locale.
I have embedded a link to the exhibition here.
When I started Landscape I had just finished my last Level 1 course “Context and Narrative” and I had the initial understanding that what was contained and being displayed in the scene was not always what you see. My knowledge of the background and history of Landscape imagery was limited to painters such as Turner and Constable and photographers such as Adams, Fenton and O’Sullivan. I was not yet aware that the subject of Landscape could be so multi-layered, with ideas such as semiotics, psychogeography, land management, and ownership.
During this course, I have come to understand that the landscape portrayed is not always what was being represented and that there are layers of influence, politics and personal view within each scene. A prime example of this is demonstrated in the “Hay wain” (Constable, 1821). The image shows an idyllic view of country life, whilst in the cities people were rioting due to job losses created by the industrial revolution. Full knowledge of the history and politics of the time pits Constable’s landscape, a peaceful and pleasant scene, against reality. Does this make Constable’s painting a propaganda piece? It can certainly be construed that way.
The rich and powerful who would commission and present such landscape certainly would not want to be touched by, or reminded of, the whirlwinds of unrest. They would have preferred the fixed representative view of the landscape, presenting their land as a wide uninterrupted expanse, which was normally done by the ha-ha, a physical barrier to prevent the field workers or livestock from intruding on the landscape. Landscape paintings demonstrated the wealth of the individual or family by portraying what they owned, people, buildings, trees, lakes and fields.
I have learned that the concept of landscape is more open to interpretation that I had first considered; the idea that the landscape is not only what people see but how they use it and how their use of the land changes the way in which it not only is interpreted and viewed, but also in how that view is reflected back into how the land is purposed, managed and represented. As Landscape painting became more popular, it started to represent aspirational ideas and memories of visits to locations. Representing the land as either a popular place to relax and see the land laid out in front of you or as a landscape that should be feared for it has yet to come under the yoke of humankind. Manifest destiny was certainly played out as part of the propaganda of the ‘taming of the west’ through painting and photography, as people moved into what they considered uncharted territory they painted and photographed the virgin land that they would then go on to plunder.
During the course I felt drawn to the representation of landscapes by the “New Topographics” group. This reinterpretation of the framework within what a landscape could be was eye opening to me; it broadened my concept of the formal landscape into a much wider knowledgebase. It was, for me, a completely different way to work and was very freeing, as it allowed me to re-evaluate what I know, how I represent what I see and what I want to represent within my work and the frame of landscape photography.
The ideas and concepts within “New Topographics” interlocked with some of the concepts of Braille within images I had started to use in “Context and Narrative”; I was aware of potential challenges with this landscape course in relation to my own physical difficulties (chronic illness and loss of vision) when gaining access to physical sites, and the concept that Landscape was not this formal frame within which everything had to fit, was a new concept within Landscape portrayal for me.
The idea of ownership and accessibility has driven my work on this course, interlocked with my own work on the representation of my personal vision loss. It gave me a lot to consider and evaluate; for example I grew up in a council house, which was built on land owned by the Church of Scotland, but the land itself is riddled with mineworks owned by the coal board. Suddenly the landscape became a large sandwich of ownership, all of which was interlaid with history as the land was the location of a battle.
During my research of lost history for the course I started to play with the new ideas which would have an influence on my work. These were represented in my work for Assignment 5 of the course.
Assignment 5 is my central work; a representation of lost history in the style of “New Topographics” following a 1937 survey of Doocots in East Lothian. The work represents the loss of rights to access by the public; the loss of actual historic buildings either through mismanagement, change in public attitude or change of purpose and the problems of accessibility for the disabled; and the idea of cataloguing historically mundane objects. Unlike Fenton who moved objects “Valley of the Shadow of Death” (Fenton, 1855) I refused to interfere with objects within the scene. I wanted to show an honest representation of these structures and their surroundings with as little interference or interpretation as possible, apart from adding braille markers within the images to allow vision impaired individuals a chance to interact and interpret the scenes.
This work has also led to my learning more about how to present my work in a physical format, from deciding on the correct paper to use and the best printing process to use to the new technology of 3D printing; which has allowed me to add another format to my exhibition proposal. I have submitted images from this project to Canmore /Historic Scotland enabling them to update their records of the doocots and their library of images. Through the use of computer applications, I can now present my images as lithophanes, a physical construct created through the FDM printing process. These physical constructs allow people to run their hands over the image and feel the image. As mentioned previously, I am keen to explore further the opportunities provided by new technologies to bring photographic landscape art to those with a range of impairments and look forward to seeing how these processes fit in with my future work.
Conclusion
Overall, this course has led me in many directions and has brought many new ideas to my work. I believe I have learnt a lot during this course and have come away more informed regarding the subject matter and how these many directions each have a different influence within a image or images.
I was browsing my twitter feed this morning when this new short course from the OCA popped up.
How different places make us feel and behave.
https://www.oca.ac.uk/courses/investigating-place-with-psychogeography/
Hopefully the course will still be available when I get to the end of studies stage as this idea of how we behave in certain places was one that I cam across in the Landscape course and is interesting to me.
The OCA student site advetised that Photography and Moving Image Tutor Andrew Conroy wouild be leading a visit to Hazel Bingham’s Degree Show/Solo Exhibition.
I registered for the zoom conference where Hazel was on hand to lead us through the work, discuss it and answer questions on the images.
The exhibition is the culmination of 3 years work on the King’s Cross Central area of London and tied in very well with the what I had been stdying during the Landscape course. I was able to interpret scenes where text had been included as symbolic pointers to certain messages, as well as examine the images to see a underlying message about who controls what.
It was a very interesting meeting that, had it not been done virtually, I probably would never had been able to attend. I look forward to seeing if this technique of making gallery visits available online, is taken up as it makes the art more accessible.
I had planned on updating this site with Post Assignment information regarding Assignments 5 and 6 of the Landscape course, however, I managed to break my ankle just a few days later.
The accident shifted my Talus from its normal position to the back of my heal, meaning urgent surgery was required to ensure that I would not lose my foot. The surgery meant that until today, the 14 of May, I have been unable to get out of bed, get to a computer and sit comfortably enough to work.
The plan is now to do some updates and edits before the Assessment date so that I can complete the work as planned.
The assignment tasks the student with producing a series of images that responds to the idea of ‘transitions’ within the landscape. The student is to record the changes that a part of the landscape undergoes over an extended period of time. The student could revisit a very specific view or choose to explore a particular part of the landscape more intuitively.
There is an opportunity to photograph at very specific intervals or your routine may develop by other means. When completed, the assignment should address the notion ‘that the landscapes is an evolving, dynamic system’; the student may wish to confirm, question or subvert this assertion.
In the first attempt at assignment 6, I was working with the concept of the transition of light by recording a long sequence of a day within a static frame and then, frame slicing the videos and manipulating the frame slices to produce a barcode of the day. However, by the third visit and recording, the frame sliced barcodes were too similar to show defined differences. I posted the results in a previous post regarding Assignment 6.
When this occurred I decided to step back and reassess the work, I then returned to a familiar location, which was easily accessible to me and even if I was having a poor day due to the effects of my condition, I would at least be able to get there and record the scene. This location is a south-facing field on the edge of the town, it looks down into the shallow valley before rising up into the Lammermuir’s.
I found a location which would be easily identified which was marked by a piece of broken fencing. Knowing that the likelihood of the fence undergoing repair was low, I was able to use that as a reference point for facing south. I was then able to align a tripod using the fenceposts as outer leg markers. I kept the lens movements to a minimum known that if I kept the lens to a certain position the images would be almost identical.
At first, I believed that I would be recording the changes to the landscape through the different seasons and lighting conditions, which would result in showing the landscape as it changed and evolved through the growth of the crops in the field and the differing effects of the seasons of the land.
While I have captured the different environmental and lighting conditions, I feel that the evolution of this part of the landscape is only really shown in the immediate foreground and the midground of the field. The rest of the scene contains a landscape which has remained largely unchanged since the iron age. The Lammermuir’s still contain evidence of an iron age fort and standing stones which predate the fort itself. While there is much evidence of an expansion into the greenbelt by towns and cities in East Lothian, here, the landscape has not changed since the 1950s; when a small housing scheme was built on the edge of the field. Since then the only real changes to the land have been the yearly agricultural cycle which creates a product for human consumption in one manner or another.
Certainly, there is a small evolution in the landscape as the season’s pass, the crops in the field grow and are then harvested, but outside of that, the landscape is largely unchanged. It has lain unchanged largely since the Iron Age, standing stones and forts still where they were placed at that time. The changes made on this part of the landscape are few and far between taking centuries to complete a change. Looking into the distance you see a land which is outside of time, for it has a sense of timelessness to it, no major highways cut through it and no industrial change has been placed on the land. It remains in pretty much the same state as it did over two thousand years ago.
The main foreground of the scene is a field whose change is only regulated by nature and the hand of man in the shape of the farmer, who manages the 3-mile long strip of land which rests between the river to the south and a public highway to the north. The dynamism of the field is driven solely by his demands, out with that, it is unchanged by the numerous walkers and cyclists who use the paths running along these borders.
This landscape, unlike other parts of the green belt, is not undergoing an evolution is use, it remains, open and for the majority visually unchanged and perceptually unmanaged. Other fields on the opposite side of time are undergoing a dynamic change; in that, they are evolving from places where food was grown into places where people inhabit, the modern, posher version of tact housing. Large parts of the green belt are being buried under housing developments as societal pressures drive the change in the landscape. Here however within these scenes, the system of the landscape is under no pressure and therefore does not need to evolve or change.
This can be seen in the following images, where apart from the direct changes created by use of the land by the farmer, in this case ploughing, seeding and growing of produce, that the only other changes are driven by nature; lighting conditions, environmental changes driven by the weather and the growth of grasses and weeds by nature.
The images have had a very small amount of post-processing, they have been processed in photoshop for horizon alignment and a small amount of sharpening and contrast. This was deliberate as the images are representative of land largely left alone as it the one piece of land in the area which is currently not under development for housing.
1. March 2018
Green field. A field which after being ploughed has been left fallow.
2. February 2019
Muddy Field – the field has now been ploughed.
3. April 2019
Dark Sky in the morning – The field has started to sprout.
4. May 2019
Mid Morning – Grows are green
5. August 2019
Mid Day – Weeds grow high in the immediate foreground
6. September 2019
Mid day – Weeds start to die.
7. November 2019
Mid Day – Wet and wild weather has churned up mud, but we still await the harvest
It can be seen from these images that there is an element of placelessness within them. Similar to the images of Watkins and O’Sullivan (Briston, D. 2019), the landscapes are not defined territorially, nor geographically as a place (Sowers, J. 2019) rather, they are defined as a land of unknown elements and dangers. Here civilisation has stopped and is content to sit within the boundaries as created by the land itself. The Lammermuirs rising off into the distance uninviting and unwelcoming to man-made change. Much like sections of Yosemite, the land remains unchanged and under protection, although unlike Yosemite, the protection is done by the employees of the landowners, although there is some debate as to whether the land management is to the benefit of the wildlife.
While the land use overall in East Lothian is evolving and changing, the landscape, here, itself is unchanged to a major extent. The only real threat to the landscape is from humans as they continue to force the landscape to fit their shape, while at the main time ignoring the threats created by climate change. While this scene extends off into the peaceful distance, behind the camera, vehicles thunder along a major roadway almost constantly. In the air above, the main air corridor, where passengers and cargo are whisked high above the land. The land itself is acting as a soak for the carbon produced, but how long before the land is unable to manage the excesses of man and starts to die.
I am very happy with the work within the assignment, it has taught me to look at the landscape not a singular representation of beauty, but more of a changing system, some of which is under threat due to mankind. It has also taught me to review and revisit an area of interest to see how to light and seasons change the objectivity of the landscape.
Briston, D. (2019). The Evolution of American Landscape Photography Seen Through Imagery Made In Yosemite National Park. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/19519559/The_Evolution_of_American_Landscape_Photography_Seen_Through_Imagery_Made_In_Yosemite_National_Park?email_work_card=title [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Edwards, R. (2014). Revealed: landowners massacre mountain hares in the Lammermuir Hills. [online] Rob Edwards. Available at: https://www.robedwards.com/2014/09/revealed-landowners-massacre-mountain-hares-in-the-lammermuir-hills.html [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Raptor Persecution UK. (2017). Merlin population in decline on Lammermuir grouse moors. [online] Available at: https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/merlin-population-in-decline-on-lammermuir-grouse-moors/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Marzie Mohammadmiri (2019). Place In Photography: How Photographers Encounter Place. [online] European Journal of Media, Art and Photography. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/37910065/Place_In_Photography_How_Photographers_Encounter_Place [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Seamon, D. (2015). Humanistic Geography–Lived Emplacement and the Locality of Being: A Return to Humanistic Geography? (2015). [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/4935949/Humanistic_Geography–Lived_Emplacement_and_the_Locality_of_Being_A_Return_to_Humanistic_Geography_2015_?email_work_card=interaction_paper [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Shinkle, E. (2019). Prelude to a Future: Globalisation and Risk in Contemporary Landscape Photography. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/8703297/Prelude_to_a_Future_Globalisation_and_Risk_in_Contemporary_Landscape_Photography?email_work_card=interaction_paper [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Sowers, J. (2019). Place and Placelessness, Edward Relph. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/4446545/Place_and_Placelessness_Edward_Relph?email_work_card=interaction_paper [Accessed 27 Nov. 2019].
The brief for the assignment was largely unchanged from the ideas created in Exercise 4.6 which were “to research and photograph Jacobean doocots (dovecots) in the East Lothian district. The project will be guided by the doocots listed in the 1937 publication ‘Transactions of East Lothian Antiquarian and Field naturalists Society Vol 3’ which listed the doocots and their state at that point in time. “
I chose to expand the aims as follows:
The main Influences for the project is the New Topographics group. I chose to approach the subject of landscape photography in a nonstandard way, which allowed me to concentrate on the buildings themselves as they stand within the context of the landscape rather than the other way around. The project is directly influenced by the work of Hilda and Bernd Becher and Edward Burtynsky. My aim was to produce a set of images within this aesthetic to show that the idea of landscape photography can be malleable.
The first challenge of the brief was to gather the locations as described in the original survey. The publication which was produced in 1937 is based on a survey of Jacobean Doocots undertaken in 1931 by J. Whitaker. The survey was never completed due to the untimely death of Mr Whitaker in 1932. The final survey was gathered from his notes and has additions from several individuals within the society who had worked with Mr Whitaker in compiling the information. The locations in the published survey differ from modern-day locations in several aspects. First, the publications use place names which in some cases are no longer in use. Second, due to the change in the shape of towns over 80 years, some of the places no longer exist. Thirdly, due to the nature of the buildings, some had already been lost by the time of publication. Land ownership has changed in the region from just a few central landowners who owned large tracts of land within their estate to a large number of smaller private owners of small parcels of land which is some cases are formerly estate land. Where there were small farms who worked small fields, there is now large industrial-scale farming which was knocked down many of the walls and boundaries and who have opened up the land, by removing the smaller older farm buildings, so that they can use large modern farming techniques and machinery.
Initially, my aim was to gather a basic survey and plot using digital maps, GPS positions and digital footprints from modern maps, alongside historical and archaeological websites. This was only partially successful as parts of the digital footprint were, in fact, direct text copies from the 1931 survey. In other cases, the data had not been revisited since the 1980s and was out of date. It quickly became clear that accessibility was an issue. At times, it required gaining permission from the landowner, and some requests were not well received. I had to deal with a number of landowners who were not aware of the Scottish right of way. In other cases, it was quite simply, that the stewardship of the land, the access path to the building and the building itself had not been undertaken and that the land was being left to be as unwelcoming and inaccessible, possibly with the aim of having the public right of way denied as it was no longer in use. In the majority of cases, no consideration was given for ease of access for the disabled.
When visiting the sites to capture my images, my main hurdle was in trying to give each location the same treatment. I quickly found that I could not use the treatment of a set distance using the same parameters – angle, height, position relevant to the camera in an attempt to capture scenes which will be comparable with each other. At several sites, I was forced to use a telephoto lens to photograph the subject as access was impossible. The project was further hindered when during a return from one site, I suffered a major muscle spasm and I dropped all my equipment breaking camera and lenses. I had to buy a new camera and lenses which were significantly different from the originals, and so a period of adjustment was required.
I took several photographs at each location, from varying distances, angles and positions. I then chose images which were not always identical, not because the subject matter was too similar or boring but because each subject photographed differently from the same position. Sometimes I felt that shadow or highlight distracted from the subject and so these images were discarded from the final choice selection. I felt that the basic shape of the doocot remained the same which allowed the topographic aesthetic to continue.
I acknowledge that the potential outcome of a new Topographics style set of images was in danger of being abandoned as the images were at times completely different. I continued because I felt that the project was still probable. Even though I had to modify my set of rules, I continued to photograph as close as possible to those rules. The project gained in the weight of the brief regarding the accessibility/landownership aspect of the brief. After examining the first sets of images again, the topographic idea was strengthened. I could see the differences and the commonalities within the doocots and started to understand how and why they were there.
I broke the subject matter down into three distinct build types of the Jacobean period; the initial beehive shape, the later Lectern shape and the final tower shape. After this final shape doocots fell out of use. I used these shapes as the identifiers for their topographical type, trying to keep within a strict Linnaean definition of type.
Here the project will take two different routes:
Exhibition – The works will remain in colour and be printed individually on A4 and hung in alphabetical order, as per the original survey publication. This will be done to allow the viewer a chance to observe the differing archetypes of doocots and their current state against what was written about them in 1931.
Assignment and Final Submission – The works will be gathered together in a format similar to the Typographic aesthetic, with the doocots ranked first by type and then within that subset alphabetically. They will be presented in monochrome, as I found that the use of colour caused the images to be far too busy and the subject matter was overshadowed by the colour. In some cases, nothing could be seen of the final sets of images but washes of green and brown.
As with Assignment 3, I have continued with the exploration of visual accessibility by placing braille in the images. Again, I have kept the braille to a minimum size, as it represents my own partial loss of vision and the continued disturbance it contributes to what I see. I decided with black braille this time, as I wanted the normally sighted viewer to understand that for some people with vision loss, that this is an invisible disability and so, is unseen, and like the braille, not understood by the main populace.
Congalton/Dirleton/Dolphingston/Drylawhill
Nunraw/Phantasse/Preston Mains/Waughton
Athelstaneford/Belton/Bourhouse/Crocegate
East Fortune/Friars Croft/Herdmanston/Humbie
Johnstounburn/Lady Kittys/Nungate/Pencaitland
Preston Tower/Redhouse/Saltcoats/Spott
Tantallon/Tranent
Amisfield/Bolton/Colstoun/Elvingston
Haddington/Heugh/Lodge/Newton Hall
Ormiston/Prestongrange/Saltoun/Stenton Church
Thurston
One of my problems was what to do about the images of missing and destroyed doocots, while there was an opportunity to photograph the missing or destroyed doocots I felt that it would have made for a set of incongruous images. At locations where there was a pile of stonework at the site, the original stones were missing, and more modern bricks lay there instead. All the work representing the Jacobean age has been removed. The simple fact that at times there was nothing to see or the locale had been built upon and the original standing area for the doocot was now lost. I felt it was a stronger message, especially in the digital age, to show a place marker as it represents missing information, in the same way, that a 404 page represents a missing webpage on a website.
The black and white shapes represent the unknown effect of losing doocots. The red ‘X’ is representative of the more computer-driven iconography of a missing image link, usually presented through an internet browser.
This was created to represent the hostility felt when approaching landowners when attempting to gain access to their land to locate and photograph a piece of local history. In a number of cases, the landowner was not acting within the “right to roam” law and had created barriers to prevent access to the public which had formerly been there before.
Do I consider these images as landscape? Yes, I do. These doocots represent a space which was by kings statute created on the land as a representation of the Lairds fealty to King James VI and the money and the power that they held over their tenants. These spaces have in fact become places, lending of their name to locations, such as dovecot farm, or dovecot lane, even where the doocot has been destroyed. These images represent the land as pieces of history, some of which have already been lost and some of which are inaccessible due to the fencing in of property by later landowners.
By bending the Topographic rules which I had set in the brief, I have created a set of images which are not repeated regular architectural shapes. Each location shows its own individuality through its setting and the final image selected. Some of this is down to the different time of day, differing light conditions and differing lenses but also down to the location itself as each site had its own set of identifying features even amongst the most common of buildings.
The work took longer than designed into the original brief, due to the amount of research required to locate the physical doocots. Since the survey was never fully completed, I had to pick up where it left off and continue to locate the doocots and acquire access. This was not always as easy as a disabled person and a person with visual impairment. I also had to manage the issues of surrounding my health condition, and my energy levels. I was not always successful in getting these to align and ensure that I was able to get out and photograph when the weather allowed it.
Having created a structured set of rules, had I in fact made life easy or difficult for myself? I had hobbled myself with quite a set of rules, trying to work within the confines of these rules was at times very difficult, working within the New Topographics aesthetic plus trying to keep an aesthetic which matched the ideology created by Joseph Whitaker when he undertook the original survey in 1931. At times, I felt that I had set the bar too high and that I was not going to complete the survey. Visually I wanted to continue the idea of history, place and usage.
I kept the pigeons in the images, as I wanted to show that even though in a lot of cases these small pieces of “unimportant” history were being left unattended by humans, they were still in use by the decedents of the rock pigeons which would have been rooting there when the Doocots were built. The pigeons are the one remaining link between the design of the buildings, their usage and the current day, where now only wild pigeons roost. The pigeons are symbolic of the historical linkage.
Where modern aspects, impinged upon the image, again, I felt that the dogs, bag and jacket are representative of the change in usage; what was once a Jacobean food store is now an architect’s office. The modern-day use of the building has been devolved completely away from what would have been a smelly, wet and reasonable cold are into a quiet, warm, pleasant office, where sleepy dogs watched out of the window and the garden is tended by a gardener. The traffic cone represents the current usage by humans, what was once a beautiful and well-built doocot is now an open-topped dumping ground for items which are not currently being used by the charity which is tending the garden. Removing the traffic cone would have been dishonest as it would not have been representative of the beauty marred by indifference to the building.
I am satisfied with the final work as it covers the points I wanted to raise within the brief
All of these points are covered in the completed work both in exhibition form and in the submitted form.
Once the project is completed, I hope to offer Historic Scotland a number of images for their Canmore site. This will allow Canmore to update their database with the missing images and information about the current condition of the Doocots. These records could then be made accessible for the public and could also be available for reference through the East Lothian Council’s John Gray Research library and website.
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New Topographics: “Landscape and the West – Irony and Critique in New Topographic Photography” (2005) – AMERICAN SUBURB X. 2019. New Topographics: “Landscape and the West – Irony and Critique in New Topographic Photography” (2005) – AMERICAN SUBURB X. [ONLINE] Available at: https://americansuburbx.com/2012/05/new-topographics-landscape-and-the-west-irony-and-critique-in-new-topographic-photography-2005.html. [Accessed 15 June 2019].
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape …. 2019. New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape …. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/new-topographics/?ds_rl=1263130&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrfvsBRD7ARIsAKuDvMN-Y5AzdamX3TGr-T1gX3l8aRTxOcphHJCNTWPtMRHyzUPbxrRkgKQaAoRCEALw_wcB. [Accessed 16 June 2019].
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Preston Mill & Phantassie Doocot, East Linton – Historic Buildings & Homes | VisitScotland. 2019. Preston Mill & Phantassie Doocot, East Linton – Historic Buildings & Homes | VisitScotland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/preston-mill-phantassie-doocot-p255601. [Accessed 8 October 2019].
Showcase Archives. 2019. East Lothian Antiquarian And Field Naturalist Society. [ONLINE] Available at: https://demo.orangeleaf.com/collections/getrecord/ELCAS_EL335. [Accessed 7 October 2019].
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Tate. 2019. The Purloined Landscape: Photography and Power in the American West – Tate Papers | Tate. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/21/the-purloined-landscape-photography-and-power-in-the-american-west. [Accessed 15 June 2019].
Tate. 2019. Who are Hilla and Bernd Becher? | Tate. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bernd-becher-and-hilla-becher-718/who-are-bechers. [Accessed 16 June 2019]
As part of my coursework, I looked into the ongoing issue surrounding the battle site at Prestonpans. During the last three years, the community have been involved in a number of disputes within itself regarding whether or not to continue protecting the battle site or allow it to be built over.
Part of this is a moot point as the battle site has already been built upon partially; a sportsfield and sports centre are built on one part. A major road runs through the middle of the battle site and what is left is now disputed land.
Part of the community under the leadership of the community council wish to put commerce and industry first and continue to build over what is left, stating that “No one was interested in the battle site”. This was met with complaints and a campaign by parts of the local community to protect the battle site so that history can be protected for future generations. Whilst this campaign has had limited success in preventing the destruction of local history, it was met with a lukewarm reception by the wider community. Only when the battle was featured as part of the television series “Outlander” that wider recognition of the battle and its place in history was highlighted to a wider audience.
This success, however, is now being overridden by the needs of the county council who are starting to build a new town on part of the battle site. The loss of the locale is being highlighted by local historian Arran Johnston who has said that the loss of historical evidence presented by the landscape is “like knocking down a castle”
Johnston points out the landscape changes in Wallyford, where the original battle site for the Battle of Pinkie has been completely lost due to a recent housing development which has been built over the battle site. This loss of an important piece of the landscape means that any living history of the area is no longer relevant, as it can no longer be referenced.
Personally, this saddens me, part of this course has ignited a passion for capturing the local landscape within the concept of its living links to history; to see and hear that the landscape which has remained static for so long is now undergoing a destructive change at the had of mankind. When the landscape is gone, we lose a part of the history and links to the past.
Sharp, M. (2016). Row brews over draft plans to build over historic battlefield. [online] East Lothian Courier. Available at: https://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/14537253.row-brews-over-draft-plans-to-build-over-historic-battlefield/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019].
Smith, M. (2019). ‘It’s like knocking down a castle’: The fight to save Scotland’s battlefields. [online] HeraldScotland. Available at: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18063696.its-like-knocking-castle-fight-save-scotlands-battlefields/?fbclid=IwAR2ss32osxTETUAjHfRjx3qZgvAkgjhSzsrCTvLnuDLXkNZDpinKeydcWy4 [Accessed 10 Dec. 2019].
As part of my research into answering a question raised by my tutor in my Assignment 5 results regarding how visually impaired people see digital images, I have been looking to how best describe the use of Alt Text.
It was during today’s “International Day of disabled persons” that Dr Amy Kavanagh posed a twitter link to the following page.
https://caneadventures.blog/2019/12/02/alt-text-on-social-media/
It contains a brief but precise description of how it is used within the boundaries of social media. The Alt-Text also works as part of an HTML flag for webpages and I have been using it to add brief descriptions to each of the images I post in the learning log.
It is through Alt-Text that visually impaired people can see images digitally.
The assignment tasks the student with producing a series of images that responds to the idea of ‘transitions’ within the landscape. The student is to record the changes that a part of the landscape undergoes over an extended period of time. The student could revisit a very specific view or choose to explore a particular part of the landscape more intuitively.
There is an opportunity to photograph at very specific intervals or your routine may develop by other means. When completed, the assignment should address the notion ‘that the landscapes is an evolving, dynamic system’; the student may wish to confirm, question or subvert this assertion.
In the first attempt at assignment 6, I was working with the concept of the transition of light by recording a long sequence of a day within a static frame and then, frame slicing the videos and manipulating the frame slices to produce a barcode of the day. However, by the third visit and recording, the frame sliced barcodes were too similar to show defined differences. I posted the results in a previous post regarding Assignment 6.
When this occurred I decided to step back and reassess the work, I then returned to a familiar location, which was easily accessible to me and even if I was having a poor day due to the effects of my condition, I would at least be able to get there and record the scene. This location is a south-facing field on the edge of the town, it looks down into the shallow valley before rising up into the Lammermuir’s.
I found a location which would be easily identified which was marked by a piece of broken fencing. Knowing that the likelihood of the fence undergoing repair was low, I was able to use that as a reference point for facing south. I was then able to align a tripod using the fenceposts as outer leg markers. I kept the lens movements to a minimum known that if I kept the lens to a certain position the images would be almost identical.
At first, I believed that I would be recording the changes to the landscape through the different seasons and lighting conditions, which would result in showing the landscape as it changed and evolved through the growth of the crops in the field and the differing effects of the seasons of the land.
While I have captured the different environmental and lighting conditions, I feel that the evolution of this part of the landscape is only really shown in the immediate foreground and the midground of the field. The rest of the scene contains a landscape which has remained largely unchanged since the iron age. The Lammermuir’s still contain evidence of an iron age fort and standing stones which predate the fort itself. While there is much evidence of an expansion into the greenbelt by towns and cities in East Lothian, here, the landscape has not changed since the 1950s; when a small housing scheme was built on the edge of the field. Since then the only real changes to the land have been the yearly agricultural cycle which creates a product for human consumption in one manner or another.
Certainly, there is a small evolution in the landscape as the season’s pass, the crops in the field grow and are then harvested, but outside of that, the landscape is largely unchanged. It has lain unchanged largely since the Iron Age, standing stones and forts still where they were placed at that time. The changes made on this part of the landscape are few and far between taking centuries to complete a change. Looking into the distance you see a land which is outside of time, for it has a sense of timelessness to it, no major highways cut through it and no industrial change has been placed on the land. It remains in pretty much the same state as it did over two thousand years ago.
The main foreground of the scene is a field whose change is only regulated by nature and the hand of man in the shape of the farmer, who manages the 3-mile long strip of land which rests between the river to the south and a public highway to the north. The dynamism of the field is driven solely by his demands, out with that, it is unchanged by the numerous walkers and cyclists who use the paths running along these borders.
This landscape, unlike other parts of the green belt, is not undergoing an evolution is use, it remains, open and for the majority visually unchanged and perceptionally unmanaged. Other fields on the opposite side of time are undergoing a dynamic change; in that, they are evolving from places where food was grown into places where people inhabit, the modern, posher version of tact housing. Large parts of the green belt are being buried under housing developments as societal pressures drive the change in the landscape. Here however within these scenes, the system of the landscape is under no pressure and therefore does not need to evolve or change.
This can be seen in the following images, where apart from the direct changes created by use of the land by the farmer, in this case ploughing, seeding and growing of produce, that the only other changes are driven by nature; lighting conditions, environmental changes driven by the weather and the growth of grasses and weeds by nature.
1. March 2018
Green field. A field which after being ploughed has been left fallow.
2. February 2019
Muddy Field – the field has now been ploughed.
3. April 2019
Dark Sky in the morning – The field has started to sprout.
4. May 2019
Mid Morning – Grows are green
5. August 2019
Mid Day – Weeds grow high in the immediate foreground
6. September 2019
Mid day – Weeds start to die.
7. November 2019
Mid Day – Wet and wild weather has churned up mud, but we still await the harvest
It can be seen from these images that there is an element of placelessness within them. Similar to the images of Watkins and O’Sullivan (Briston, D. 2019), the landscapes are not defined territorially, nor geographically as a place (Sowers, J. 2019) rather, they are defined as a land of unknown elements and dangers. Here civilisation has stopped and is content to sit within the boundaries as created by the land itself. The Lammermuirs rising off into the distance uninviting and unwelcoming to man-made change. Much like sections of Yosemite, the land remains unchanged and under protection, although unlike Yosemite, the protection is done by the employees of the landowners, although there is some debate as to whether the land management is to the benefit of the wildlife.
While the land use overall in East Lothian is evolving and changing, the landscape, here, itself is unchanged to a major extent. The only real threat to the landscape is from humans as they continue to force the landscape to fit their shape, while at the main time ignoring the threats created by climate change. While this scene extends off into the peaceful distance, behind the camera, vehicles thunder along a major roadway almost constantly. In the air above, the main air corridor, where passengers and cargo are whisked high above the land. The land itself is acting as a soak for the carbon produced, but how long before the land is unable to manage the excesses of man and starts to die.
Briston, D. (2019). The Evolution of American Landscape Photography Seen Through Imagery Made In Yosemite National Park. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/19519559/The_Evolution_of_American_Landscape_Photography_Seen_Through_Imagery_Made_In_Yosemite_National_Park?email_work_card=title [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Edwards, R. (2014). Revealed: landowners massacre mountain hares in the Lammermuir Hills. [online] Rob Edwards. Available at: https://www.robedwards.com/2014/09/revealed-landowners-massacre-mountain-hares-in-the-lammermuir-hills.html [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Raptor Persecution UK. (2017). Merlin population in decline on Lammermuir grouse moors. [online] Available at: https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/merlin-population-in-decline-on-lammermuir-grouse-moors/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Marzie Mohammadmiri (2019). Place In Photography: How Photographers Encounter Place. [online] European Journal of Media, Art and Photography. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/37910065/Place_In_Photography_How_Photographers_Encounter_Place [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Seamon, D. (2015). Humanistic Geography–Lived Emplacement and the Locality of Being: A Return to Humanistic Geography? (2015). [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/4935949/Humanistic_Geography–Lived_Emplacement_and_the_Locality_of_Being_A_Return_to_Humanistic_Geography_2015_?email_work_card=interaction_paper [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Shinkle, E. (2019). Prelude to a Future: Globalisation and Risk in Contemporary Landscape Photography. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/8703297/Prelude_to_a_Future_Globalisation_and_Risk_in_Contemporary_Landscape_Photography?email_work_card=interaction_paper [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Sowers, J. (2019). Place and Placelessness, Edward Relph. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/4446545/Place_and_Placelessness_Edward_Relph?email_work_card=interaction_paper [Accessed 27 Nov. 2019].
Leonard Scott Landscape 