Assignment 2: Collecting- Possible direction…

I wrote in an earlier post about Fay Godwin being a photographer who I’ve been aware of for a good few years, citing as a particular inspiration her work to accompany the poems of Ted Hughes in “Remains of Elmet”.  In a similar vein, George Tice’s work is something I often return to. His book “Stone Walls, Grey Skies: A Vision of Yorkshire” has been on my bookshelf since the early 1990’s, having been lucky enough to have seen his work at the National Media Centre in Bradford. (Back when it was called the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television….)

Chesapeake Mill, Wickham. John Callaway [2016]: f5.6: 1/800s: 16mm focal length: ISO 200

Both collections have probably seeped into my subconscious over the years. Black and white images have a timeless quality to them, preserving the moment in the raw without distraction of colour. I’m not sure that it is possible to ‘see in black and white’, but I do find myself composing photographs with  a view to them being in monochrome.

Nelson Monument, Portsmouth. John Callaway [2016]. f7.1: 1/800s: 16mm focal length: ISO 200

Early days yet, and this may not be the direction that I ultimately take, but I do have a job which affords me travel to substantial parts of the county of Hampshire. Travel which takes me through landscapes which bear the scars and evidence of human activity.

Bishops Waltham Social Club. John Callaway [2016]. f5: 1/125s: 22mm focal length: ISO 200

At the very least, the broad heading of ‘views’ implies the need to travel and get out and about.

Mindful of the need to reflect a single coherent idea, and that ‘the ….fragments which are to be glued together must match one another in the smallest details although they need not be like one another ‘ [Walter Benjamin: Quoted in EYV p52], my first sortie out with the camera gave me these three images (amongst others).

I’m not quite sure what the unifying theme is yet, but there’s enough ( I think) for me to continue down this avenue for a while longer.

Footnote: One of the elements of feedback from my tutor for assignment 1 was to select landscape or portrait format, and not a combination of the two. I’ve therefore  decided on the following ‘rules’ in shaping this assignment.

1: Black & White

2: Landscape

3: Final image to be 10 x 8 in dimension. Partly because it mirrors the preferred format of Tice and Godwin, but also because it means I have to think more about composition. I don’t have a camera which allows 5×4 or 10×8 images, and there’s something to be said for framing an image with the knowledge that I have to apply a crop in order to follow my ‘rules’