First Thoughts

Digital Image and Culture

First Thoughts

So, I’ve opened the box after circling around it for a while, crinkling the lovely red tissue paper and touching the books. My first Level 2 Module so I’m expecting to feel a little more competent now – hopefully.

This Module studies ‘practitioners who exploit the possibilities and potential of digital photography and imaging technologies’ in many different ways. I acquired my first, small, digital camera, a Canon Ixus, in 2003 and I was so pleased that I could see the photographs instantly instead of having to wait for the negatives to be developed. I re-discovered this one from a few days spent in Scarborough. It’s quite small.

Now I have a Canon 6D DSLR which contains so much more technology.  Here they are – photograph taken by iPhone

 

 

I feel enthusiastic about the idea of exploring and experimenting more.  I used to enjoy taking photographs before I started this Degree but this enjoyment seems to have become somewhat lost nowadays through the necessity for sustaining academic rigour whilst speaking through imagery. I would like to weigh the scales a little more on the enjoyment side if possible. I’ve recently been involved in a collaborative art swap with five artists, see here. Each of had to provide five words which the others responded to with a piece of art. My five words were Summer’s dying lines Autumn’s cloak. Here are the responses I received

From Ingrid

From Ange

From Alison

From Mark

From Bee

They are all so different, utilising such a variety of techniques and media and it really struck me how much I miss texture. I got round this a little by printing some of my photographs (for them) on titanium lustre paper but it isn’t quite the same somehow. I want to think more about exploring texture in photography, evoking sense of touch.

I’m also interested in looking at archives (particularly my own) and using found images.  I’m slowly acquiring some of the latter including, just recently, two photograph albums containing photographs from the school I went to as a child. I bought these from eBay and when I enquired, the seller said he’d bought them at an antiques fair so had no idea where they originally came from. There’s mystery within them and I want to explore this more deeply. It also made me realise that, although there were plenty of photographs lying around in boxes and envelopes, we never had a family album when I was growing up. I think this is unusual for those days so why could that be? I’ve learned from earlier reading that it’s usually the mother who maintains the family photograph collection for all kinds of reasons (G. Rose, 2010) so what stopped my mother from putting them into an album?

During the Context & Narrative Module I explored my responses to landscape and I want to continue with this. I also asked myself a continuing question as to how much a single image can contain a narrative. In my final Assignment I chose to present a photograph without a caption or much explanatory text so see how much the image itself evoked a response. I want to continue this exploration of image and text.

I’m ready to begin now.

10th March 2016

 

Reference

Rose, G (2010) Doing Family Photography : The Domestic, The Public and The Politics of Sentiment, Farnham, UK, Ashgate Publishing Ltd