My idea for the Environment series is to question the use of a manmade landscape; how every corner habited by men is made for men, how there are constructed areas for living as well as there are areas for waste and for corpses of men. Why are we living within landscape of storage units of dead humans? This notion of making space for something that isn't even alive nor in any use for anyone, just there for sentimental and religious reasons, made me want to make my landscape series by photographing dead people, spirits, in our everyday landscape.
After coming up with my idea of taking photographs of spirits I knew immediately who I wanted to use as my research: Willian Hope and his interpretation of dead humans with his series Spirit Photography. I got interested in his way of showing the dead with the living by using double exposure. That was exactly what I wanted to do with my photographs as well; I took double exposures from one landscape to make the spirit look slightly see-through. This way when looking at the photograph the viewer understands that what they see isn't really there - it's something that was there one time, and now it's only a ghost, a memory. In William Hope's photography this same feeling full-fills the photographs; the spirits are unnatural next to the living.
I wanted to make the photographs as surreal as possible, therefore I did a little more research on other spirit photography by reading articles of "Seeing Is Believing" 2007-2008 exhibition in Photographers' Gallery. What caught my eye was Ben Judd's photography and his usage of two photographs of a same woman in almost same situation placed next to each other; this was what I wanted the photographs to feel like. But as I didn't want my series to be in colour nor to have a feeling of anything real I dwelled into the earlier days of spirit photography by reading about "Haunting the Chapel" exhibition on Daniel Blau's website. While browsing though the web gallery I understood I needed to make my photographs in a shape of a circle to give them a Victorian feel; this way the photographs look like they are out of place like I wanted them to look like.
My interpretation of landscape as a storage unit for dead people reflects how I feel about our today's society and how we humans place ourselves on top of everything. We are not be cremated but to placed back to the ground to be dust again, which to me feels a bit ridiculous, as I am not a spiritual nor a religious person, and as I think about the future generations to come. Where will they live and with what resourced if we are taking up all the space and energy by placing our dead bodies all around the world? I am very interested in environmental issues, how it has shaped into what it is now, but I don't want to use the same photographic vocabulary as artists usually do by showing the grievances of environment because it doesn't say anything new to me and thus does not interest me enough to even read the photograph. This is why I chose to make my photographs visually as pleasing to me as I could while still showing my idea, which in my opinion comes through the photographs quite well. I am aware that my idea of a landscape as a storage unit of dead people might not be the first thought what the viewer has in mind, because there are non "unit" kind of references in the single photographs', but as a series, one might understand the meaning behind my idea.
I scheduled the shooting and printing to be completed two days prior the deadline, so I didn't have any issues regarding my production. The only challenge in this unit to me has been getting out the equipment as there are not as many cameras as there are 1st year students. Luckily I had the possibility to borrow equipment from my 2nd and 3rd year friends to be able to complete the assignments on time.
After coming up with my idea of taking photographs of spirits I knew immediately who I wanted to use as my research: Willian Hope and his interpretation of dead humans with his series Spirit Photography. I got interested in his way of showing the dead with the living by using double exposure. That was exactly what I wanted to do with my photographs as well; I took double exposures from one landscape to make the spirit look slightly see-through. This way when looking at the photograph the viewer understands that what they see isn't really there - it's something that was there one time, and now it's only a ghost, a memory. In William Hope's photography this same feeling full-fills the photographs; the spirits are unnatural next to the living.
I wanted to make the photographs as surreal as possible, therefore I did a little more research on other spirit photography by reading articles of "Seeing Is Believing" 2007-2008 exhibition in Photographers' Gallery. What caught my eye was Ben Judd's photography and his usage of two photographs of a same woman in almost same situation placed next to each other; this was what I wanted the photographs to feel like. But as I didn't want my series to be in colour nor to have a feeling of anything real I dwelled into the earlier days of spirit photography by reading about "Haunting the Chapel" exhibition on Daniel Blau's website. While browsing though the web gallery I understood I needed to make my photographs in a shape of a circle to give them a Victorian feel; this way the photographs look like they are out of place like I wanted them to look like.
My interpretation of landscape as a storage unit for dead people reflects how I feel about our today's society and how we humans place ourselves on top of everything. We are not be cremated but to placed back to the ground to be dust again, which to me feels a bit ridiculous, as I am not a spiritual nor a religious person, and as I think about the future generations to come. Where will they live and with what resourced if we are taking up all the space and energy by placing our dead bodies all around the world? I am very interested in environmental issues, how it has shaped into what it is now, but I don't want to use the same photographic vocabulary as artists usually do by showing the grievances of environment because it doesn't say anything new to me and thus does not interest me enough to even read the photograph. This is why I chose to make my photographs visually as pleasing to me as I could while still showing my idea, which in my opinion comes through the photographs quite well. I am aware that my idea of a landscape as a storage unit of dead people might not be the first thought what the viewer has in mind, because there are non "unit" kind of references in the single photographs', but as a series, one might understand the meaning behind my idea.
I scheduled the shooting and printing to be completed two days prior the deadline, so I didn't have any issues regarding my production. The only challenge in this unit to me has been getting out the equipment as there are not as many cameras as there are 1st year students. Luckily I had the possibility to borrow equipment from my 2nd and 3rd year friends to be able to complete the assignments on time.
You probably didn't mean it but the words of your opening seemed to imply that the human landscape is gender specific i.e. made by man (as opposed to made by woman) and filled with the corpses of men or monuments to dead men. An interesting idea, would a female landscape be any different from a male landscape?
ReplyDeleteYou declare yourself not to be spiritual and yet you can imagine future generations. Are you really completely materialistic? Often, when I find myself in a city I look around at the buildings and think of them as mausoleums; monuments to and from dead people. I think about all the previous generations which have surged across the streets and are no more. There are many Victorian cities in England - when I was young I almost regarded 'the Victorians' as an alien species with different ways of talking. And yet our whole culture is based on the past, in fact it would not exist without respect to the material remnants of the past, surely that is what knowledge is? If we lose our connection to the past are we not in danger of losing ourselves, do we start to become ghosts in the present? Ghosts of the past are real and are manifest in books, art, movies, buildings and graveyards. Graveyards tell us that we are mortal, and that future generations will remember us. A Confucion venerates ancestors it might be worth researching the philosophy as an alternative, to contrast with your own views about the corpses of men. I agree with Steffie, don't confine yourself to graveyards. By the way, if you have trouble with getting the right equipment I have a Bronica, and also a Mamiya EZ (which has a tendency to stick on the wind-on and consequently lots of accidental double exposures). Let me know if you have problems - I live quite close to UCA.