Photographic Exhibitions

Format Festival: The Chocolate factory, Derby

March 2013

I decided to visit the Chocolate Factory in Derby which was exhibiting work and projects from several photographers. The reason I chose this site was because I was thinking about Assignment 5 – illustrating and narrating a story. Having read the guide, I thought there would be some relevant exhibitions there.

I was interested to watch the short films about a brewery, railway and a pumping station near Derby. Two of the films I watched as a slide show with no narration as the headphones were in use, and two I watched with the headphones on. I was interested to see which was stronger, if any; the spoken word or images. I thought one could tell what was happening from the photos which meant they flowed and there was a time order and picture story running through them.

Project Grow by David Chancellor was an interesting project. Set up in 1983, he photographed some of the farmers working for the South African pulp and paper industries in Kwazulu Natal area. This organisation encouraged farmers to promote sustainable tree farming. Chancellor had taken environmental portraits of women farmers proudly showing off their cut trees. One of his photographs showed a sense of scale with a huge forest and a small farmer. I liked the clarity and colours of the portraits. The coloured women against the pale trees made a striking contrast.

Ian Teh exhibited some thought provoking photographs looking at China’s insatiable appetite for coal which comes at a cost to peoples lives and living conditions, with power stations being built in the same road as houses. I liked the composition and colours of his photographs, as well as the story which was being told. One point which made me think was whether photos have to be in focus to be displayed? I think these were deliberately blurred rather than camera shake, and actually when viewed as a whole collection, they didn’t grate on me as much as I thought they initially would. I followed up this by looking at Teh’s website.

Mark Curran had a photobook and some large photos around a small room within the factory. I looked at the book and found it hard to come to terms with the content. I found it very restrictive and clinical; there seemed to be several photos of gloves, white coats and portraits of people in white coats and photos of the outside of the building perimeter. Several workers had been photographed in the same pose. I didn’t find out what the factory was making – it seemed to be secret. I found a journal compiled at the time of what he was allowed to do and then it made more sense. Although the factory was in Ireland, it gave the impression it was owned by a controlling company who did not want to reveal too much. I think this could be true of some companies across the world – in the age of globalisation, the location and workers are controlled by the owners.

A nomad family was followed by photographer Michele Palazzi across Mongolia, and his photographs showed how traditions were starting to disappear as what we associate with western civilisation began to creep in. For example, the yurt had a solar powered fridge and the family had a television. His photographs were clear and made me look closely at the story he was telling. Children were playing between the van and trailer, but there was still a camel next to the yurt.

There were also a couple of projects happening such as negatives which had been retrieved from the silver mines and printed in order to look at Chinese life between 1985 and 2005. I found the grouping of the photos interesting – different family photos could be grouped together under headings such as holidays, days out, a visit to McDonalds, bedrooms showing posters of Marylyn Monroe and be similar to photos that people might take here. This was China at the start of a cultural journey when film cameras became available to people with money to spend and before the popularity of digital.

The photographs I enjoyed looking at were those which told me a story by looking at them, either in the way in which they had been grouped together or because there was a written story linking them to one another. I saw that colours, composition and subject was important to carry the story, and inclusion of environmental portraits, detail, scene setting and action had to be present. It gave me food for thought for compiling my assignment.

North and East Midlands Photographic Federation – Exhibition of Photography 2013 Mansfield Museum, Nottinghamshire.

January/February 2013

About 200 photos were displayed by members of local photographic clubs, including a digital projection section. Photos were displayed around the room with a name of the exhibitor and title. This is the first time I had visited this exhibition. I would have liked to know a little more information about the prints – a couple of lines about what appealed to the photographer at the time of taking it or a couple of thoughts behind it would have made all the difference to me. Although there were categories, the photos were a little mixed up, for example portraits were mixed with creative abstract photos. Only the projected images had categories. This made me think about what I write about my photos.

I picked out a few photographs to study in more detail relating to areas that I was currently looking at including night photography, rain, snow and backlighting. I spotted a photo showing juxtaposition and it made me think about similar situations that it may occur.

“Secrets of Chain Lane” (Julie Donovan) was an interesting night time photo. Chain Lane is an alley in a nearby town which has a few shops and lights and runs down to a market square. The buildings are old and irregular in shape with an interesting roof line which I had observed from walking around with my camera on several occasions. The photo looked like it was taken near dusk so the roofline was separated from the sky, as described in the coursework. I had already planned an evening to a city centre to take some night time shots (and would be arriving after dusk) and thought the lighting demonstrated the written word well. I stored this thought to explore at a later date.

“Rain stopped play” (David White) made me think about the effects of rain on people. In this scene, a man and boy were the only spectators huddled together under a large umbrella in a seating stand such as at a race track. The colours and sentiment behind the photo made it feel as if it was a heavy downpour and the game would be a while before it started hence why there were no other spectators. The lighting, in this instance, appeared to suit the situation.

Three snowy scenes caught my attention – primarily because of all the wintery weather and because I had been practising using increased exposure compensation to achieve a whiter snow. One was similar to a photo I had taken using shadows on snow.

“Return to the shadows” (Stuart Crump, ARPS, CPAGB) interested me because of the use of backlighting and symbols. It appeared that the photo had very little colour because of the lighting direction, black and white clothes and pale plaster walls of the houses. The buildings in the background cast shadows forward so that most of the mid scene was darker. The lad was walking away from the viewer with his shadow in the foreground of the frame. The use of shadows and the feel of the street made a connection with me. In my opinion, although the photographer used back lighting which can give a two dimensional feel, there was alot of depth to this scene. I have since looked up this photographer’s website to see more of his work because it inspired to start looking at symbolism and storytelling.

I took away from the exhibition plenty of ideas to think about in relation to what I am currently looking at and ideas of how I could make other photos I have taken more creative. I was reminded of my Zebra photo which I took because it fitted in with my lighting project, but actually, if there was more than one zebra, I could just focus on an area such as the pattern of their hide.

I revisited the exhibition whilst it was still on because I felt I had learnt so much the first time.

Masters of Vision Exhibition Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire

Chasing the Light - David Noton

Saturday 30th July 2011

David Noton presented an evening of his latest unpublished photographs, video clips from shoots from around the world projected onto a large screen and filled with anecdotes about his experiences. The event was held in a cathedral and timed for when the light started to go down in order to add atmosphere to his presentation.
 
I found his photos were inspiring and discussion from the audience was useful as he shared technical tips and debated post processing. Eight local professional photographers had exhibited landscape photographs. I was interested to view each photographer's unique style which showed through their collection. (Update Jan 2013-Each photographer had displayed a piece about themselves and their photos which was useful, although having now visited an exhibition where only the title of the photograph is shown, I can see how much value was added to my experience and understanding. I will endeavour to write a sentence or two about what inspired me to take or why I took what I did when necessary.)

Exhibiting photographers:
Pete Bridgwood, Damien Demoulder, Chris Friel, Mark Gould, Jonathon Horrocks, Dav Thomas, Chris Upton, Steve Watkins

The roadshow made me realise the importance of light and how the right light can make the difference to a photo. I thought about the lighting in the photo I took of the tractor (implied lines 6th July 2011) and how the early evening low sun made the crop appear more golden and the threat of the impending thunderstorm made the sky look more dramatic. The roadshow has given me a starting point to look at the importance of lighting.