I always find I am editing right until the deadline. I still have ideas I want to explore and want to use the time left to the maximum. On the other hand, I am always playing catchup and there is nothing like a deadline to be inspired. It’s the way I work and I have learned over the years to live with it. I have never missed a deadline during this course and been fortunate enough not to request an extension. I’ve found the Covid epidemic has, in some ways, helped me. It allowed me to concentrate without too much disturbance. That said, I had to change my project from a seaside theme to mainly archive photography. I’ve found I have used my scanner more than I have used my camera, which has been very refreshing and this has opened up new avenues in my practice. I have also started using film cameras again after a 20-year absence and learnt to develop my own film. At the beginning of this course, I had almost given up on photography and I found I was stuck with the same old pictures, desperately trying to find a new path. The MA course has opened my eyes to what photography can be, not just using a camera but using many techniques to form an image. It was said to me; ‘you are not only a photographer but an artist now’. Where this new knowledge takes me, I don’t know, but what I can say its transformed my life. I am sad that the course is at an end now. I have met some inspiring people along the way and made some good friends.
The Letter
A love letter from my father, Charles, to my Mother Irene, written on the morning of their wedding in September 1947. The text is self-explanatory, although the handwriting appears rushed and possibly nervous. It doesn’t reflect very well on my father’s usually neat script. I was hesitant in using this letter, after all, it's very personal. However, I thought it was important to my narrative so I included it. The writing was so difficult to read I thought it best I transcribe it. There is one word I couldn’t make out.
My Darling
Aunty Millie has brought you this White Heather to wear for luck, its from off the moors and she sends it with her love. I also enclose that brooch Mum was asking about it again but I didn’t tell her I still had it.
Sorry dear but everyone is talking and I’m all excited. I’m just dying for 3’ o’clock my sweetheart.
The table centre is one Aunt Cis has done for us and we have got a lot more presents but will tell you all about it when you are ‘Mrs Wright’. Hope you get this in time, everyone sends their love.
So till three sweetheart, Keep your pecker up. I’m thinking of you a million times a second.
All my love for ever,
Charles
PS Jack arrived ok, sober.
White Heather
When we are young
My father was part of a tank crew in the Royal Engineers using the Churchill Tank. He often said his survival during the war was down to the thick armour of this vehicle. This particular page is the most poignant for me. I thought my Dad was invincible, I suppose we all do?
My Father in Army Fatigues. Archive Image circa 1939.
Mother circa 1938
Two page spread
Irene Jibson circa 1938 age 17. Archive Photograph.
This is a crop of a full-face image. This photograph shows my Mother smiling, but I find this image sad and brooding, knowing what was to come. The picture is scratched along her face. The damage is somewhat poetic and fitting for my narrative. I choose to use a double-page spread and split the image as it helped in highlighting the dual personality I wanted to convey.
First Text
Early in my FMP, I decided to incorporate text into my project. I wanted to convey the feelings I had when I composed the pictures. Not a description but a memory, I wanted the viewer to experience the thought process behind the picture. I found it difficult at first, as some of these memories I am trying to forget or at least put to the back of my mind. I have mentioned before that I found the process cathartic which it has been, but it’s also upsetting. I did wonder if I should be doing this at all and if my relatives should see it then what would they think. I now realise that these are my personal memories, which I am entitled to as some may be imagined having seen the photograph, but I wasn’t there. The text was just difficult as composing the images. I was worried they might be too sentimental but they are truthful and that’s what’s important to me.
Lithograph
Mother. Archive Image circa 1939
This image is made from a lithograph and then scanned and toned using software. I want to convey innocence yet darkness, like that of a mug shot taken after some terrible crime. It seems a long process for what is a simple image. Making the lithograph concentrated the light and shadow in a subtle way and the marks and scratches of this technique helped with the narrative.
FMP Submission
Hotel Room
Hotel Room circa 1994, C E Wright.
The two photos are taken by my father when he went on holiday soon after my Mother’s death. He had taken quite a few images of this empty hotel room. The single bed and empty chair represent a profound loss and sadness to me. I liked how the two photos linked into the Vase image in a way saying my Mother was still in my Fathers presence.
Single Bed
Empty Chair