Susan Hiller at Tate Britain

   I stumbled upon the Susan Hiller exhibition at Tate Britain whilst I was there to view the water colour exhibition, she was not an artist that I had heard of before but I decided to have a look. Hiller uses photographs in her work, some she has made herself and some she has found and collected. A lot of her work deals with the past and forgotten people and memories.
    There were two works that interested me the first of which was Monument (1980/81). This piece consists of 41 photographs of plaques on a memorial to London heroes who died trying to save others at the beginning of the twentieth century. These heroes were ordinary people who have since been forgotten everywhere else except by this overgrown monument  and Hiller has decided to bring them to our attention, thereby erasing the forgotten years between. By having their names carved onto these plaques they will 'live' for as long as the monument or Hillers' artwork exists, as Hiller herself states " you can think of life after death as a second life which you enter into as a portrait or inscription, and in which you remain longer than you do in your actual living life."( Hiller 2001 )
     The second artwork that struck me was Dedicated to the Unknown Artists (1972-1976 ). This work consists of 305 British seaside postcards  whose titles include the phrase ' rough sea ' , she began collecting the postcards firstly because she could not believe that there were so many of them. She also felt they were showed the British acting out their supposed " love affair with lousy weather" ( Susan Hiller cited by Withers 2004 ).
    This work is another kind of memorial, but this time it is Hillers' to the thousands of forgotten photographers and artists who worked to produce these throwaway images.
    Hiller brings to the fore what I think is one of photographies greatest strengths, to bring the past into the present. She does it it a less direct way than normal, by drawing attention to the people behind the images rather than those within them but she does manage to draw you into thinking about the distant past and the very human people who lived it.

Ref: Hiller S, 2001, Biographies @ www.susanhiller.org [ Accessed 26/04/11 ]
       Withers R, 2004, Artworks Susan Hiller @ www. susanhiller. org/info/artworks-RoughSeas. html.

Horizontal lines

 Horizontal lines tend to ground an image, we are used to seeing the horizon as our reference, if the horizon as straight we must be upright, all is well. I found strong horizontal elements more difficult to find than vertical lines and having just horizontal lines made for very static images.

  This is one of the buildings that make up Anglia Polytechnic and in place with the buildings around it is quite an exciting design, but when the horizontal elements are isolated it becomes very flat and two dimensional.

   This image has some depth with layers of horizontal lines, but I found that if I increased the angle that took the photograph from and included more of the field it became less dynamic. I think that landscape pictures generally need some diagonal lines to lead your eye into the image.

   This is an image of the shadows made by some railings, I quite like it as an abstract, but it has no reference, I could lay the frame horizontally and it would still look right.

  I would normally take a picture of this graffiti from closer probably with a wide lens at an angle to give it an edgy feel but having to keep the horizontal has made me change my perspective and include the whole scene. This has left with a non subjective, dispassionate image i.e a Deadpan style image ( Cotton, 2009 ).
  With the right subject a totally horizontal image could be very restful and relaxing, sea, beach and sky for example, but from the above examples the only one I am happy with is the last one, which is the one I was the least happy with at the time of capture.

 Ref : Cotton, C.2009. the photograph as contemporary art.Thames & Hudson.London

Vertical lines

  We are surrounded by vertical lines, most plants grow upward and it's a rare building that is not made of vertical lines or a road climbing a hill can appear as a vertical line, especially if it is photographed through a long lens. Any vertical lines within the frame will have to be carefully placed to be parallel with the frame otherwise the viewer will instantly spot the discrepancy and be confused as to whether the line is vertical or diagonal.
    A single vertical will generally sit more happily in a vertical frame (Freeman 2007) but multiple verticals can sometimes look better in a horizontal frame as it can help to provide a sense of depth.
    When used in conjunction with a horizontal line,  a sense of balance can be achieved, because we are used to standing up on a level surface and because the directional force of the lines cancel each other out a sense of peace enters the image because all is right with world, all the right way up.

   This first image shows a Snakeshead Frittaleria which is a single vertical in the frame and therefore looks happier in a narrow upright frame, I love taking pictures of these flowers and I have planted them in my garden just for this purpose. They look great in black and white as they have a definite checkerboard pattern on their petals.

    This image of silver birch trunks in the early evening light still looks best in a tall frame because the trunks are quite thin.

   I am less happy with this image, I hoped to get an image with light raking across the brickwork to create shadows behind the brick pillars to emphasize the verticals, but I could never catch it at the right time.Also I think I should have tried a horizontal frame to get greater depth and include more pillars.

   This image is a local flour mill is a vertical building made of vertical panels, but the verticalness is softened by the different opposing angles. This is one of those locations that changes with the direction of the light as the angle change in rakes across the corrugated structure.
   This photograph carries on the the tradition of making images of farm buildings by such luminaries Walker Evans (1903-1975) who travelled the American countryside in the 1930's recording the effects of the Depression for the Farm security Administration. He made photographs of farm buildings in all states of repair and let the light uncover their architectural forms.

    Once again this is a single vertical in the frame, it is very simple but I think it is a really strong image in a Deadpan style. I love the idea of having this picture hanging on a wall and people stopping to look at the stop sign.

Ref: Freeman, M.2007. The Photographers Eye. Ilex. Lewes

Multiple point part 3

In these final two images I am just refining my effort at composition by using interlocking triangles and turning some of the shells so that they are not all the same way up and therefore more natural looking.

 I think that the final image is quite nicely composed, there is a sense of order to the picture but it is harmonious and natural looking. I am afraid it does not come up to the standard of Bob Carlos, maybe next time.

  The above image shows the series of interlocking triangles that I based my composition on, once I noticed the first couple beginning to form. Although it is based on triangles the final composition has a sweeping circular form as shown below.

    Your eye will follow from shell to shell in the above pattern, thereby keeping your eye moving and you interested so you look at the image for longer.

Multiple points part 2

As I tried to carry on with this opposing angles practice things began to get a bit complicated, but I did notice a pattern of interlocking triangles starting to emerge so I decided to try and place the remaining shells to carry on this composition..

multiple points

For this exercise I had to group a set of similar objects into a natural looking composition, I chose to use some shells that I had in my garden and place them into a tray filled with sand. I decided to use the sand because it is obviously the natural back ground for the shells, but also I wanted to try and replicate Bob Carlos Clarke's (1950-2006)  Small Stones (1999) series of photographs which have been favourites of mine for a very long time.
    With the placing of the first few shells I tried to balance the composition by placing each shell pointing in the opposing direction to the previously placed shell.

The relationship between points

It is quite difficult to find scenes with two points against a fairly neutral background for this exercise. For the first picture I remembered that there were quite often horses paddocked on the flood plain in the centre of Chelmsford so I rode over to hopefully manage to isolate two of them with a long lens, I had to wait quite a while before two of them decided to move close enough together to be included in the same frame.

Horses by the Chelmer

I think it is an interesting image for this exercise because the black horse on the left should be the dominant point because it is closer to the centre of the frame and it is also larger, but the other horse is patterned your eye is definitely drawn across the picture towards it. I have shown this picture to several people and none could decide which was the stronger point, so I think that the difference between the horses stops this becoming a completely resolved image i.e you cannot decide which is the main object.  

     Whilst out on the same jaunt I came across a verge covered in Daisies and decided to isolate two of the flowers, I was careful to choose two flowers had grown to the same height as I wanted them both in focus as I knew that at this close focussing distance depth of field would be shallow.

In this image the two Daisies are in almost the same positions diagonally across the frame but the one on the right appears stronger as when I look at the image the lower flower seems to be trying to fall out of the frame. To be awkward my wife says the one on the left is stronger because it is slightly larger, but what does she know,( lets hope she doesn't read this).

      Lastly as suggested in the exercise I photographed my wifes eyes framing them tightly so that there are no distractions.

       Obviously we are attracted by such a direct gaze because we are programmed to look at each other, but  our eyes cannot settle, because as long as both eyes are the same then neither will be a dominant point.  

Positioning a point

I took the images for this exercise whilst on a visit to the Tate Modern in London, I had had a lot of trouble finding a scene with a single point that was naturally occurring. Whilst standing on the balcony overlooking the engine hall as the visitors came and went I thought that if I zoomed in I could isolate one of the people. As the people were moving around my framing was quite often dictated for me. I noticed one small boy playing on his own away from the main thoroughfare and I concentrated on him.
    This first image is the most eccentric of the three and the boy does look as if he is about to roll out of the frame, but your eye is still drawn to him because your eye is naturally drawn to any human figure. Below I have drawn on lines through the point to show the lines of division.

  As you can see the division lines are very close to the edge of the frame and there is no real justification for this in the image, and too much space left on right of the frame, it would be better if there was a second point on this side for balance.

 

     The second image is less eccentric and the boy is closer to the centre of the frame although rather high up. The boy is too small in the frame to hold your interest  and the division lines show that the composition is almost the same as the first image even though the boy is in a different part of the frame. 

The third image is the most successful of the three as the boy is closer to the centre of the frame in both directions. You still get a sense of isolation as there is nothing else in the frame but there is less movement as the division lines cross closer to the centre. The image is moderately dynamic, without being extreme (Freeman 2007)

 Reference; Freeman,M.2007.The Photographers Eye.Lewes.Ilex

Gabriel Orozco at the Tate Modern

This Saturday, April 2nd 2011, I went to view the Orozco exhibition at the Tate Modern. As a photography student I will concentrate on this medium, of this very wide ranging artists output, which includes sculpture and found objects.
     On a first quick browse around the exhibition I was not overly impressed with Orozco's photographic skills and felt that he was just using photography as part of his working process, as suggested by Cotton (2009 page 117).
     I then took a more measured viewing of the pieces that attracted me, the first of these was My Hands Are My Heart (1991). In this work Orozco has grasped a lump of red clay between his hands over his heart and when he opens his hands he has formed a red heart shaped sculpture, this is shown in two photographs and the sculpture is laid on a pedestal in front of them. The sculpture would be impossible to read without the images so they become an integral part of its history. This work is one of Orozco's early works and therefore appears somewhat easier to read than some of his later works, he seems to be saying, here is my art it is central to my being, the final sculpture is a very humble item.
    A major part of the exhibition is given over to  Until You Find Another Yellow Schwalbe (1995), in this work Orozco bought himself a yellow Schwalbe moped whilst he was living in Berlin and then rode around looking for matching mopeds and photographing them together. The moped was originally made in East Germany so maybe Orozco was trying to say something about the integration of east and west or just a comment on chance, but in this work the series of images have become central to the work.
   For me Orozco's most effective photographic image is Breath On Piano (1993), it shows the highly polished surface of a piano with the condensation from Orozco's breath clouding its shine. This image goes to the very core of photography by showing the most fleeting of moments and saving it for all time, the act of photography become the work of art. Our attention is drawn to the surface of the print on which image formed which serves to remind us that we are looking at a photograph.
   As you can hopefully tell from what I have written above my initial dismissal of Orozco as a photographer on first glance has changed with closer inspection and time for reflection. Anyone who can make a an image with quiet elegance of Breath On A Piano (1993) is a great art photographer.

References; Cotton,C.,2009, the photograph as contemporary art.New edition.London: Thames & Hudson.