1. The wind on shahallion, the rocks walking over near the top of the mountian to try and reach the top
2. Slioch and the peak, then walking across the snow to the slightly lower peak to look out across lake maree
3. Driving past slioch the next day to look at the mountain on the other side of the loch. Also rowing across the loch to the inner islands to explore them a bit
4. That bit near the tree peaks on Ben Ighe(?) where we couldn't get to the peak because the weather was coming in real fast, then trying to get off the steep ice/snow, nearly slipping to the rocks below, then glacading down some of the less dangerous snow and then running along the flats to get to the car so I could change out my wet socks and shirt
5. going up pillar on the hottest freaking day ever, losing the path and having to climb up that steep rock face and looking below to the rocks and having to pull myself up onto a ledge and cutting up my chest and shins
6. driving past loch Ness going north and looking right to see Ben Nevis away behind the hills but somehow also towering above.
TBC
Monday 30 October 2017
The Mountain
I have been invited to take part in an exhibition in Berlin in Spring 2018, the theme for the exhibition is 'mountain'. I will make a new body of work for this.
Ideas
- paper negatives
- the current environment
- the time of year
Its interesting that the theme is going to be mountain, since I now live in Finland, the other artists in the exhibition are all Finnish but there are no mountains here Suomissa.
I think my current idea is that I will take photographs of my surrounding, mainly in the forests, of views that I find appealing. I spend more time in the forests. Forests and wood as a building material are quite an important cultural aspect of Finnish identity. I think Finns have a greater feeling for the nature than for example english people. Even there are some wild areas here, and the population is so small that there can actually be some areas not taken by humans, unlike england where really human activity is everywhere and has been pushed into every part of the country
I grew up often going to highlands in Scotland, and to Lake district and to hiking holidays with my family. I remember these trips with fondness, particularly the views and the scenery in the mountains, in fact that is really how I got into photography.
Since now I moved here to a place I am almost stuck in place right now, since the job situation is very slow and belonging to TE and having unemployment benefit is basically non-existent, I must find peace and solace, I need to remember the mountains as right now I cannot go back to them.
For me I love mountain biking and being in the natural places and forests, the great outdoors, the countryside, away from other human beings. The bike takes me there, it is not so much 'mountain' biking, as off road riding I suppose.
Photography has a history of connections to mememory, and the picturesque, I think my work should reflect how I am using photography as a tool for memory, and wistfulness or nostalgia. The sights and fields and forests and views I find on my everyday ride in the area I live are very pretty in their own right.
I want to juxtapose these new views, the everyday views and alter the idea of memory, I can take the pictures just on my phone as snapshots, and print them and scan then and print them and scan them etc.
I will do this because;
1, photography as a medium is defined by its ability to reproduce things in an indexical way.
2, the act of copying the pictures will introduce accidents and artifacts that alter the pictures.
3, memory gets worse and alters as time goes on, perhaps each time you revisit a memory, you forget a little bit, until just the core of the memory remains.
4, we live in the digital age, where everything is fact and matter, everything has proof. but perversely every fact can be twisted, looking at the current political climate, with an orange buffoon as most powerful man in the world, a blond buffoon as a joke of a foreign secretary, and a campaign trail based in lying to the general public (printed in large letters on the side of a bus) we can assume that fact and fiction are one and the same, a photograph can be used to twist and spin any agenda depending on how the photographed is used.
5, change and chance. I want to manipulate my photographs that leaves a factor to chance, something not entirely in my control to create the final piece. It is this out of control part that is key as I do not feel in control of my life in this current state, my photographs must reflect this.
6, change and growth, moved to finland
I want to play with this idea of reproduction, how photography can make something perfectly many times. To play with this process and experiment with a simple photographic process to produce something other than a simple index will fit this idea of disjointed memory.
I need to pinpoint specific memories of the mountain, my visits to mountains or mountainous areas. With these idea I need to reproduce the pictures using somewhere in my surroundings, that I can realistically travel to.
Once these pictures are made then I can expose and reproduce them to experiment or play with the perception of memory.
1, the memory of mountains, somehting dear to my heart
2, making 'new' memories in a new place where i cannot really visit to mountains
3, the nostalgia of the views and childhood/younger me visits
4, revisiting these memories
5, putting memories into a new place, trying to find nostalgia in a area where I dont have any nostalgia yet
6, will any future nostalgia I feel be for still the mountains, or will I have some nostalgia for the new place without need for old memories
7, am I looking for new ideas new creativity, new opportunities new experiences? or am i trying to just relive the same happy memories, and try to put those feelings into a new place to try and feel better about it?
Ideas
- paper negatives
- the current environment
- the time of year
Its interesting that the theme is going to be mountain, since I now live in Finland, the other artists in the exhibition are all Finnish but there are no mountains here Suomissa.
I think my current idea is that I will take photographs of my surrounding, mainly in the forests, of views that I find appealing. I spend more time in the forests. Forests and wood as a building material are quite an important cultural aspect of Finnish identity. I think Finns have a greater feeling for the nature than for example english people. Even there are some wild areas here, and the population is so small that there can actually be some areas not taken by humans, unlike england where really human activity is everywhere and has been pushed into every part of the country
I grew up often going to highlands in Scotland, and to Lake district and to hiking holidays with my family. I remember these trips with fondness, particularly the views and the scenery in the mountains, in fact that is really how I got into photography.
Since now I moved here to a place I am almost stuck in place right now, since the job situation is very slow and belonging to TE and having unemployment benefit is basically non-existent, I must find peace and solace, I need to remember the mountains as right now I cannot go back to them.
For me I love mountain biking and being in the natural places and forests, the great outdoors, the countryside, away from other human beings. The bike takes me there, it is not so much 'mountain' biking, as off road riding I suppose.
Photography has a history of connections to mememory, and the picturesque, I think my work should reflect how I am using photography as a tool for memory, and wistfulness or nostalgia. The sights and fields and forests and views I find on my everyday ride in the area I live are very pretty in their own right.
I want to juxtapose these new views, the everyday views and alter the idea of memory, I can take the pictures just on my phone as snapshots, and print them and scan then and print them and scan them etc.
I will do this because;
1, photography as a medium is defined by its ability to reproduce things in an indexical way.
2, the act of copying the pictures will introduce accidents and artifacts that alter the pictures.
3, memory gets worse and alters as time goes on, perhaps each time you revisit a memory, you forget a little bit, until just the core of the memory remains.
4, we live in the digital age, where everything is fact and matter, everything has proof. but perversely every fact can be twisted, looking at the current political climate, with an orange buffoon as most powerful man in the world, a blond buffoon as a joke of a foreign secretary, and a campaign trail based in lying to the general public (printed in large letters on the side of a bus) we can assume that fact and fiction are one and the same, a photograph can be used to twist and spin any agenda depending on how the photographed is used.
5, change and chance. I want to manipulate my photographs that leaves a factor to chance, something not entirely in my control to create the final piece. It is this out of control part that is key as I do not feel in control of my life in this current state, my photographs must reflect this.
6, change and growth, moved to finland
I want to play with this idea of reproduction, how photography can make something perfectly many times. To play with this process and experiment with a simple photographic process to produce something other than a simple index will fit this idea of disjointed memory.
I need to pinpoint specific memories of the mountain, my visits to mountains or mountainous areas. With these idea I need to reproduce the pictures using somewhere in my surroundings, that I can realistically travel to.
Once these pictures are made then I can expose and reproduce them to experiment or play with the perception of memory.
1, the memory of mountains, somehting dear to my heart
2, making 'new' memories in a new place where i cannot really visit to mountains
3, the nostalgia of the views and childhood/younger me visits
4, revisiting these memories
5, putting memories into a new place, trying to find nostalgia in a area where I dont have any nostalgia yet
6, will any future nostalgia I feel be for still the mountains, or will I have some nostalgia for the new place without need for old memories
7, am I looking for new ideas new creativity, new opportunities new experiences? or am i trying to just relive the same happy memories, and try to put those feelings into a new place to try and feel better about it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)