Module 1 – Landscape and Place
Proposal:
FIN 245 is my first introduction to photography and learning how to use a camera. It may seem amazing that at my age I have never had any formal training in photography. All I know from taking a picture is to point the camera at the object and click the button. The technical language of the camera is so foreign to me I find myself getting lost on the learning path. Though I have a lot to learn the path is steep and long I look forward to the journey.
It is through the medium of photography that I wish to show how nature survives the ever impact of the human footprint. Our interaction with nature is not always pastoral. Though we are part of nature, too often we set ourselves aside from it. By altering the landscape to suit our needs we create a concrete world and, an artificial unnatural landscape. Â Â
Robert Adams says that light is at the center of why and how one makes pictures. By pursuing the study of light, I attempt to show it as the physical ingredient at the center of all creation. Without light, there is no darkness, no shadow to emphasize life’s edge. I seek to explore the co-existence of the design of nature and the architecture of humans. By employing the play of light with dark I intend to point out nature’s will to survive in the urban landscape.
My proposal is to call out the energy that exists in the space between natural landscape and human architecture. In the cracks and crevasses, the spaces where human architecture impacts on the organic world. The two collide causing a flash connection pulling us, the viewer the passer-by into their performance. By employing the play of light with dark I intend to point out nature’s will to survive in the urban landscape.
Not really knowing what I am doing when it comes to the camera itself, I intrepidly stepped out into my neighborhood. I took a series of photographs within two days. An early evening walk with the sun slowly setting in the west allowed me to capture a few images of weeds, grasses, and a few trees pushing through concrete sidewalks and paved roads. The next day I woke early with the sunrise and walked the same area and captured a few more images of nature pushing its life force through the concrete and wire mesh of the human world. On both days I had forgotten my notebook in which I record camera settings at the time of picture-taking. However, I think most of the pictures were taken with an F8 and F16. Some were overexposed others underexposed and most out of focus
Finished Project:
In the space between Light and dark, on shadows edge there is communication at play. Like the rapid firring of neurons as they conduct, we are connected energies on the verge of light and dark.
The idea of light being at the centre of why and how we make pictures is such a simple, yet profound statement made by the landscape photographer, Robert Adams. This was an “ah-ha, yes of course!”, moment for me and influenced my choice of landscape to photograph. I interpreted Adams’ light being at the centre as a metaphor for life and positivity. The relationship between light and dark is important, as light is lost without dark, and dark is void without light. In that l space where the two dichotomies meet, life’s edge is emphasized. This coexistence of light and dark is also echoed in the spaces where organic nature and human architecture collide in brilliant existence. I set out to find this brilliant existence, the dynamic balance of life in the landscape of my environment, the city of Courtenay.
Walking my city streets with this understanding I began to see light differently in my surroundings. I explored the co-existence of urban architecture with the design of nature. I soon saw how human disturbances on the organic landscape stressed natures resourcefulness to survive, the light in the darkness of human architecture. Now when I walk the blocks of my city, I see differently my landscape. I look, into the place where I am, and I see energy in the shadows verge.
In the past I have never put in any thought to picture taking. I assumed one just held a camera pointed and clicked. My view of photography is improving. There is so much more to photography than just taking a “good”, picture. I have learned that I must slow down spend time with the subject matter be in the environment and learn more about it before clicking the button. I find that my understanding of how light plays a role in the interpretation of composition has improved.
Photography is a foreign medium to me. My preferred medium has always been acrylic painting working using colour for statement emphasis. I have a steep learning trajectory when it comes to photography, especially black and white. The process has been intimidating as well. From learning the camera mechanics to navigating WordPress and the MacLab computer systems, (so daunting and anxiety causing). Though I was able to scan my negatives and save them to my USB, I couldn’t figure out how to print from the MacLab printer. I have never developed film and printed my own photos.
By far the most enjoyable for me has been developing photos in the dark room. It is such a meditative, Zen like experience. This project has forced me to slowdown, step back and observe. Something I had forgotten to be, the quiet, learning observer. It has reminded me of patience and to persevere.