Supervision Meeting No3

Date of Supervision Meeting

10 November 2020

Start time of Meeting

12.00 Noon

Length of Meeting in minutes

30 mins

Meeting Notes & Action Points

My meeting today was very positive and allayed any concerns I had. We discussed the masks I had produced using the technique of ripping photos,  and agreed it was successful. There are reminiscent of death masks. Wendy asked me to look at Maud Sulter and Hew Locke to explore different approaches. I was asked to produce a number of masks and letters for the next meeting. I also agreed to take part in the Show and Tell meeting in December.

Date of Next Proposed Meeting

1 December 2020

Supervision Meeting No2

Date of Supervision Meeting

20th October 2020

Start time of Meeting

12.00 non

Length of Meeting in minutes

30

Meeting Notes & Action Points

My tutorial this week discussed the outcome of my research proposal, which was received with positive comments and achieved 69%. I was very pleased and looked forward to pursuing my ideas. I discussed the idea of writing letters to my parents, exploring the concept of asking questions of my parents. Questions I wish I could ask now. Wendy liked this idea and said this could make up a major part of my FMP. I have been asked to produce work which can be discussed at the next meeting.

Date of Next Proposed Meeting

10th November 2020

MA Visiting Speaker 1pm Wednesday 28th October

Robert McMillan will be discussing the development of his practice at 1pm Wednesday 28th October

Robert explores the link between memories, both realised and imagined based on his family narrative. He is using a family archive and artefacts left by his late parents, to describe their emotional state and contextualise their early life. Robert wants to ask questions of his parents he never had chance to ask. Robert has a BA(Hons) in Architecture and his work has been published in the Guardian, Building Design and has contributed to several books.

Check out his research / work here:https://www.robertmcmillan.photography/

MA Visiting Speaker 1pm Wednesday 28th October

I was fortunate to be invited by Dr Steph Cosgrove to talk about my work to the BA Photography students. I had excellent feedback and enjoyed the experience

Robert McMillan will be discussing the development of his practice at 1pm Wednesday 28th October

Robert explores the link between memories, both realised and imagined based on his family narrative. He is using a family archive and artifacts left by his late parents, to describe their emotional state and contextualise their early life. Robert wants to ask questions of his parents he never had a chance to ask. Robert has a BA(Hons) in Architecture and his work has been published in the Guardian, Building Design, and has contributed to several books.

Final Major Project Proposal

Introduction

Mother Circa 1938

My FMP is a continuation of work started at the beginning of my MA. I had re-discovered an archive of family photographs and also artefacts stored in the attic of my house. This made me think about my own past, a subject I had avoided for a long time. I should explain that my parents died in the 1990s and since then our family went their separate ways. I am the youngest of four boys. All my brothers were much older than me and consequently I had very little contact with them. Indeed, two of my brothers had left home before I could form any real memories them. I never thought of them as companions, we were never that close. My parents were in their late 40s when I was born and belonged to an older generation. My Mother was the matriarch of the family and could be verbally cruel. Its not my intention to portray her as a bad person, as she was a good mother in many ways and brought us all up well. She did however come from the old school of parenting being strict in her parental approach. My father on the other hand was a mild mannered man despite spending six years as tank crew during WWII. The horrors he would have encountered during that time, I am only now beginning to appreciate. The archive contains photographs dating back to the late 19th century and many of them of them are sadly unknown. The collection also includes letters, telegrams and post cards. As well as the photographic archive, I inherited a few items of furniture, along with some pottery and silver items. All of these I intend to use in my FMP.

Mother with glass vase

Influences

My practice has developed during the past 12 months, following research into my family’s and my own memories of holidays we had on the Yorkshire coast. Many of the images in my earlier project consisted of a retrospective of the recollections held both in my memory and in my imagination. I enjoyed this early work as it allowed me to revisit the places I remember from my childhood. Initially I was influenced by practitioners like Martin Parr  and Tony Ray-Jones . However I later became aware that Parrs work could be considered voyeuristic and to some extent I became uncomfortable with this practice. Consequently, early in my work, I decided to portray images that maintained a degree of positivity. 

Curiosity Shop- Filey

In my research, I found the book Red Headed Peckerwood by Christian Patterson (Patterson 2011) This book introduced new possibilities and ideas for my practice as did, Sugar Paper Theories by Jack Latham (Latham 2019) but to a lesser extent. This technique of introducing letters and notes to the book, added a sense of realism to the story and something I would very much like to try. 

Redheaded Peckerwood by Christian Patterson

Redheaded Peckerwood by Christian Patterson

Sara Davidmanns ‘Ken-to be destroyed’ (Davidmann, 2016) takes this one step further, by producing a narrative based mainly on the letters which had been found after Kens death. It was illustrated with real and imagined photographs, to portray a transgender person living in the mid twentieth century. 

Ken - To be destroyed Sarah Davidmann

I became more experimental during Surfaces and Strategies and using my archive photographs I cropped, layered and introduced colour to them. My intention was to create new images from found photographs. I did this digitally but in my final work will investigate analogue techniques. 

The Project

The continuation on the theme of family is self-evident but it needs to be focused. I have therefore decided to concentrate this project about my parents and in particular the lingering questions I have some 25 years after their death. I am currently reading Susanna Walkers’ book ‘The life of stuff’ (Walker, 2012), based on her experience of her mothers death and what the possessions left behind can say about the deceased. Following my parents deaths, it became very obvious that there was an acute divide between myself and my siblings and we were destined never to to meet again. This left me with an underlying distrust and dislike of them. It has been suggested that I attempt to find out what has happened to my brothers but this is something I do not wish to do. Hence all the pictures of my siblings have obscured faces.

My brothers and me faces obscured

In addition to the letters from the archive I want to create a new narrative. I intend writing letters to my parents, asking those questions I wished I had asked when they were alive. I was very moved by Daniel Simons audio work (Falmouth FPP 2019) and how his story telling weaved into his photography. Simons by his own admission had been influenced by Daniel Meadows, know for his photography and audio recordings. The letters I produce will be read along with new images to illustrate the text. As the letters will form the core of the narrative, they have to be drafted before photographic work can proceed. I will use the working title of ‘Letters to my Parents’ for my project, which will form a hand made book. I have a design background but may also collaborate with a graphic designer or book publisher. Such firms as Setanta Books, 10x10 and Mack books are possibilities if they are interested. 

I also have to consider if there are any copy-write issues connected with using images of living relatives.

Treasure Hunt - Whitby circa 1964

I am looking forward to hand making the book and to this end have purchased book binding tools and the instructional book ‘Making Books’ (London Centre for Books and Arts, 2017). I want the book to contain differing sized pages and possibly inserts. It is my intention the letters are printed on a tinted paper to give the appearance of being from an archive and they may vary in paper size. The paper thickness and texture will be very important. A book that interested me recently is by the Swedish photographer Carl-Mikael Strom and his book Montoristen (Strom 2019). The paper texture and printing are beautiful. The book is hand stitched in a loose fashion. I will need to obtain sample paper and test which of my printers will give the best results. I would like to print the book myself as this allows me full control of my final design.

Montoristen - Carl-Mikael Strom

I will be using a combination of analogue and digital technologies, including non camera photography, to produce the images along with experimental printing on different surfaces such as card, tracing paper and film. I understand the cost of this process will be high, particularly in film, developing and printer ink. All negatives will be scanned at high resolution.

Whitby contemporary image with archive image

Layering and drawing on photos

Location of Practice

The location of my practice will be dependant on a number of factors, not least where the COVID epidemic restricts travel. Under the current circumstance, I do not think it's possible to plan for an exhibition in 2021 at the moment, but possibly 2022 if my work proves successful. Many of the images can be taken locally and I intend to use pictures of myself if required, to reduce any external contact. It is my wish to travel along the East coast of Yorkshire but current travel restrictions in some areas are making this difficult. If not then I will adapt my practice and allow for this. My local area may be able to provide the backdrops I require. This situation is in flux and hopefully I will be better informed after the Christmas break. 

I think over all this project is going to be an emotional journey but one I look forward too.

My mother with her father, the image that started this journey circa 1929

Supervision Meeting No1

Date of Supervision Meeting

22.09.20

Start time of Meeting

12 Noon

Length of Meeting in minutes

30

Meeting Notes & Action Points

It was agreed that my project, on the whole, was interesting and had many possibilities. However, it was apparent I need to decide who to focus on, whether it be my parents, siblings etc. Wendy thought it would be interesting to look into my brother's story and what are they doing now, where do they live etc. I am uncomfortable with this and there are personal reasons why I haven't explored this earlier. It could be something to think about but for the moment, I will look at other aspects of my family life. I questioned that I hadn't done any real photography with a camera. Most of my work up to now had been using a scanner and archive images. Wendy said I could work on an additional project while I'm still deciding a way forward, and this is something I will try. Wendy asked me to look at a book about the death of a parent and will forward me the details later.

Date of Next Proposed Meeting

20.09.20

PechaKucha for Wendy

Reflection

Over the previous study-blocks, my photography has evolved considerably. Before starting this course, my practice struggled between the beautiful picture and surrealism. I was confused where and for what reason I was doing this. One of my motivations for beginning this course was to add a rationale to this life long investment in time and money. I was tired of the same old images repeating themselves in the popular magazines of the time. Youtube is full of photographers telling you were to take the picture, how to take it and what equipment is best for it. I've even noticed how some are using film again as though they discovered it in some elitist manner. The MA was and is such a refreshing change from all this. Studying different practitioners allows me to critique images in an informed way. Critique, in my view, is a powerful tool, enabling the image-maker to review work objectively. Looking back at my last terms work. (Surfaces and Strategies) I understand now how my work could be considered repetitive. The difficulty I have is that I'm using a limited source of archive images and artefacts, so the risk of repeating one's self is high. In my FMP I need to move on from this kind of image-making which at the moment is not easy. Watch this space.........

I had a brief chat with Wendy this morning, and I feel a lot more confident regarding my practice. I look forward to my first 1-2-1 with her next week.

Wendy recommended the book, Ken - To be destroyed, by Sara Davidmann a book I have in my library, and referred to last term. It is the story of Davidmanns Uncle and Aunt through a series of letters and photographs.

Davidmann, Sara, 2016, Ken -To be Destroyed, London, Thames and Hudson