ARTISTS TALKING

# 3 [25 August 2008]

This blog was started as a general look into my practice working with photography within the landscape. Although it’s still going to be based around landscape, environment, space and place it has become more focused and directed on a personal level.

 

Since my last post I have attended a funeral of an old school friend, obviously at age 31 this came as a shock and surprise. Whilst sitting through the service I became more and more frustrated with the vicar as he delivered his speech getting little facts and stories wrong about my friends’ life, giving a cold and impersonal account of someone he didn’t know. At times I felt like jumping from my seat and telling all the funny and interesting stories that contributed throughout his life journey to date. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t personally blame the vicar for this, or family and friends. But it just left me at unease knowing that it’s just another fact of our current society that I feel personally doesn’t give as much attention to detail as it should. Or perhaps it’s just my romanticized artistic nature that wants to express things differently.

 

From this point, as morbidly as it sounds I started to think about my own death, life memories and my future funeral service. How would I want to be remembered? How would others remember me? At this point, beyond life, I feel that vanity and embarrassment should be left with the living.

This project as now developed into a visual autobiographical documentation of my life memories, stories and travels throughout the landscape.

 

# 2 [14 August 2008]

Tripod Terrorism Part 2.

I understand peoples reactions to wanting their own personal space and safety but what worries me is the fact that the government will reinforce their own claims on safety to the general public for CCTV. But then question my own profession and shroud it in suspicion and add unfair restrictions. As is always the case, one rule for you and one rule for us. “If you have nothing to hide” then let photographers take photos in public spaces. The vast majority is easily identified from their large black cameras and is openly shooting with nothing to hide.

 

Even though there is no law in the United Kingdom to date that prevents a photographer from taking photographs in a public place, I feel that it’s only a matter of time before restrictions will soon put an end to this. The more and more we seem to be watched and monitored by CCTV and media the more we seem to be wanting fame, recognition and celebrity as a culture. On the flip side we also crave privacy, individuality, and freedom for our legal rights. Unfortunately this clouded and polluted issue will only add to a destructive cause for the artist who uses photography in his/her work. I remember Photographic Artist Martin Parr saying in a lecture he once gave that he hardly if ever had any written permission from people who he photographed. How would this play now in todays world of celebrity photo culture and Channel 4’s Big Brother. The British Journal of Photography is covering these issues in their ongoing news and readers’ letters pages. Issue 09/07/2008 invites readers to write to their local chief constable to enquire about restrictions imposed on public photography in their areas.

 

As a practicing Artist who uses photography a restriction of photography in public places would be disastrous for my practice and so many others. It would restrict many innocent future photographs and endanger the image forever, becoming no longer an open past time or hobby for many but frowned upon and shunned to the outskirts and possible seen as even anti-social or illegal.

You only have to look at how the teaching industry as stopped parents from filming or photographing their own children at sports days, festivals or plays. A true sad historical period of your childs life never documented within education as if it never happened, with only the yearly posed school photo to look forward to. I’m so glad that I have my photographs from when I starred in so many awful school plays, no matter how embarrassing.

# 1 [14 August 2008]

Tripod Terrorism Part 1.

At the moment I’m feeling angry, depressed, restricted and a little paranoid every time I try to develop or work on one of my art projects. Why? Ask a lot of my artistic friends and peers. Well… a lot of my photographic artwork is based on landscape, public space and urban regeneration. Ok… So what’s the problem they continue to ask? Well… if you were under suspicion all the time, made to feel like you are some kind of public threat, pedophile or terrorist it’s not a very pleasant feeling or supportive atmosphere to work in. I understand artistic practice can be challenging, thought provoking and difficult at times but to what extreme and to what outcome.

The professional photographer seems to be continually hit from many different angles and it only puts the photographer at an unfair disadvantage. Police continue to currently monitor and photograph journalists and photographers covering public events. Members of the public who are more media savvy seem to think that you are not allowed to photograph in public places along with security guards and many other officials. As soon as I set my tripod and camera up and usually before I have even taken an image, I am immediately questioned as to what I’m doing. A police officer once questioned me, why I was taking photos of a tree? I liked the tree, it looked artistic, it would make an excellent fine art print, it was an ongoing project. Etc… etc… Do you think that this made any sense to him? NO. He replied, Can’t you go to the park and take photos of the trees there instead of here? I thought, perhaps if Monet had been moved on to another location in the same way we might have had “Cows at Sunset” instead of “Haystacks at Sunset” But he took my name anyway. I suppose just incase I was going to terrorize the tree or blow it up. Would the stereotypical artist dressed in floppy hat; with easel, oils and pallet have had the same reaction if sitting there painting the tree. May be its worth investigating, even if it’s only for my own amusement.

 

Google are now developing a street archive just as google earth, Google Street will aim to photograph all the streets of the world for your viewing over the World Wide Web. This has stirred a large amount of people actioning against this and questioning their public and private space. Google said that they would blur peoples faces in the photos to hide the identity of anyone who appeared in the streets. This disturbs me a little as it progresses into other professional imaging mediums and from an artistic point of view ruins the artistic aesthetics of the image.