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.
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 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].
The process I was working on regarding assignment 6 Idea not just working out.
I had been working on an initial idea of a steady locked off tripod pointing at a particular landscape and videoing what was passing in front of the lens.
The resultant video would be processed in the same manner as in my learning log post Resuming the Journey. I was working on the conceptual idea of transition is not only the light passing during the day but also the transition of place and space as the earth revolves.
The first sets of videos were finally captured and ran through the algorithm to produce the first set of timeslices which could then be put into the barcode formats. However, on examination, I am finding too much of a similarity in the images and therefore they are not showing the transition even though the lighting conditions and condition of the landscape have changed as they are different times of the year.
The three Barcodes which I have produced are shown here.
Spring Early Day
Summer Stormy Day
Autumn Fresh Day
I am now examining two other locations where there are physical transitions occurring on the landscape and will then make up my mind whether they are suitable for the brief or not.
It does question whether or not taking photographs at all known locations could end up as plagiarism, certainly, when a site becomes popular, there is an inspiration in looking at what others have done.
PetaPixel – Is This Plagiarism or Crazy Coincidence in Landscape Photography?
On occasion, I have muscle and nerve spasms, most of the time nothing major occurs. This week was different while moving away after photographing a subject for Assignment 5, I suddenly and unexpectedly spasmed and dropped my camera and bag.
Whilst the bag should have protected everything, this time around, the bag split open and out tumbled everything. One camera, two lenses, assorted items and myself landed very roughly onto the ground.
Assessing the damage was heart breaking and now I have to procure a replacement.
As a visually impaired person, I have a limited view of the world; in one eye the centre does not exists, bright light causes a purple haze and in poorer light I can see nothing. In the other eye it is a blur. Between the two, the world fuzzes, fades, flashes and distorts.
With this in mind, I have started to experiment, it was while working on Assignment 2 that I started to look at how I perceive the world, from a low down position to the slow shutter blur of movement. While working videos formats, I decided to have a few point of view camera experiments and then see what I could do to pass on this sense of wonder and distortion to the non visually impaired.
Using the video frames themselves I worked with a program to compress each third frame into a single stripe, the colours of which are mathematically calculated by percentage per frame selected. This created a stripped barcode effect with enough distortion in each final image in an attempt to pull a sense or emotion from the viewer.
Here I present the first of the series
1. A walk.
A 8 minute walk with eye level point of view. Daylight.
2. Walking again
A 8 minute walk with eye level point of view. Daylight.
3. To the supermarket
A 30 minute walk downhill. Daylight.
4. Return home
A 50 minute walk. Daylight.
5. Bicycle Journey
Journey 5
A 12 minute cycle. Daylight; clouds and rain
6. Bicycle along a path
Journey 6
A 9 minute cycle before chronic pain required a stop. Daylight.
Conclusion.
I plan to continue with these experiments as they allow me to produce a different style of photographic image. I am particularly pleased with the results of the images produced when cycling, both the wobble from the camera, the speed of movement and the camera angle work together to produce an image where the viewer must try to separate and locate the ground beneath them, the landscape they pass and the sky.
Leonard Scott Landscape 