MA Photography - Time - Tutorial with Aaron Schuman

I had my tutorial with Aaron Schuman of Seesaw magazine. I showed him my 5x4 test images, my journal, scans from the photos that I shot on the Mamiya 7 and the prints that I had made from those negative.
He seemed to like my updated idea of making a journal and having photographs that go with it. But we spoke about what the frame work could be. As in, could it be a day, a month, a week, an hour, a year? in the life of me. What would be interesting to other people about that? He suggested a weekend as it is a length of time that people are familiar with, like a convention that people are aware of. People go to work for 5 days then have a two day break. I like this idea, and I think it works well with my own line of work where I often go to work on the weekend, going away on the Friday evening to then come back on Sunday, unlike the majority of people working their 5 day week and having a weekend break.
However I'm not sure this works for me personally, its hard to put my finger on why. I think it is because a lot of the photographs happen in the week, a lot of the story happens in the week days. I think when I have so many pictures and I start to editing them down, that is where the sequence and the concept will come out. For now I will try and photograph every little thing, all the small overlooked things in my day. The writing on my hand to remember things, the arrangement of papers on the desk, the ripped hole in my trousers, the random assortment of pens near my workspace, the view of the seats infront of my eyes as I sit on the train for the 1000th minute.

My notes from the tutorial:

How can I turn my project into something for the viewer?
Procrastinating is almost when I'm deliberately wasting my own time - rather than when time is wasted by something not under my control.
In my journal I am not really describing what I am thinking in these moments, just a small narrative of what is happening. in that moment - why is someone else going to be interested?
How can I make my thoughts more visible?
Somehow communicate the frustration of losing time and translate visually the feeling of frustration of wasting it

AS on procrastinating all day - "no matter how much time you're given, you're going to waste it"
"It could be that what you think is wasted time is actually just you living your life"
He said to me if I had one month with no responsibilities what would I do? In that moment I thought maybe I would just stay looking at facebook or watching tv or looking at funny pictures.

How would I make a story of losing time in a sequence? The time of the piece of work. Is it 1 day, 1 month, 1 hour 1 year? what could it be?
To tell a story I need to find that structure.
Perhaps I need to catalog all of that stuff of what I could be doing if I wasn't 'trapped by time'
I need to get the viewer into my own head.
The weekend as a time for the piece - its supposed to be a time off, its relatable - i could collect everything, pictures of everything, all the little things.
The documentation of me wasting time - could it be a work of fiction, presented as fact?

He suggested I look at Michael Schmelling - the week of no computer.

MA Photography - Time - Tutorial/presentation with MA course

I presented my initial images on the 5x4 camera with the colour paper and explained how it wasn't quite working, and so I had started the diary journal and started shooting with a more portable camera.

They suggested many things for me to research:
Henri leFebure, Michel de Certeau - the everyday
Ben Highmore - boredom, non productive time
Sinkle, Eugienie - boredom and relationships to photography
Concepts in Modern Art, Reaction Press, Whitechapel, Steven Johnson, the everyday - on amazon
Sophie Calle - diary
Jim Goldberg, deutsche borse
Henry Fox Talbot, Lord Byrons handwriting.

We spoke about in the longterm, the same locations photographed over and over will create a sense of dejavu. To make things that are usually unrecorded a part of the world. To know the subject about which I'm doing. To find a way perhaps of bringing my other processes in.

MA Photography - Time - Reflection on Tutorial

Looking back into my research about time in photography I think at least I know what decides the scenes I will capture.
"Kairos is the ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. He was the god of the fleeting moment, a favourable opportunity opposing the fate of man. Such a moment must be grasped, otherwise the moment is gone and cannot be recaptured."
"In the new testament Kairos means 'the appointed time in the purpose of God, the time when God acts. Seems to be an intermediate time, a moment an undefined measure" from wikipedia

With this research I can draw the conclusion that if I was to photograph for this project, all moments would be decided by me. It would be the times I want to grasp so they are not lost forever. I would simply photograph each moment that I wanted to, everything that needed to be captured. The context for the project must be decided by the project itself. The determined time that the length of the project is before it is handed in in January.

However after this tutorial I feel that my approach is not working, it does not make sense to use this difficult process to try and capture the lost time. There is no relevance. There is no relevance between the process and the concept.

I have decided to bring context and bring some sort of order and sequence to the project I will keep a diary of each time in a day when I am wasting time or time is being wasted around me.

MA Photography - Time - Tutorial with Joanna Lowry

I had my tutorial with Joanna Lowry the head of our MA course at Brighton. She read through my project proposals and thought the "Untitled Kairos C" was the strongest one and agreed that I should follow that one through. I am happy as this was the one I wanted to develop the most really, I guess I can still work on the others in the background.

She gave me many references to look at:
Proust - In Search of Lost Time
Craigie Horsfield
J. H. Engstrom

She asked me difficult questions: why would this be interesting/relevant for the viewer? How does the project capture the idea of lost time? What will you capture? What decides the scenes or the times that you capture?
I couldn't answer these right away, and to be honest I am not at all sure.

Ceaser's Camp Refelection

After discussing this idea with my tutor I felt confident about pushing forwards with this project. However after shooting the pictures I presented them to my other tutor and I couldn't get across what I wanted to express with it. All I could say is that it was an interesting area to me. When I was asked why it was interesting I struggled to answer, and all I could say that it was interesting because this area is so diverse and it is so far removed from the city where I grew up and lived most of my life.

I felt that the images worked partially in a narrative order of my multiple strolls through the landscape, but also as a document of the Topology of the land.

She suggested I look into the history of the specific landscape to add more depth.

Notes from Tutorial:
look at history and maps and find if there are areas near there that are similar - is it about the aspect of it that is it man made
cant be just about an area that is special - why is it special?
need a focus
what is interesting about this area - look at other man made sites
need to pinpoint what I am doing
find a context
what was it before . why that location . why was it built . who has been there?
a sense of place