Arwed Messmer

Arwed Messmer's work and the archiving of Berlins Police Historical Collection. This is a fascinating insight into student protests. His book 'Berlin 1966-70' catalogues the images in a chronological order using a film border as a device to add continuity to the presentation. Each chapter is differentiated with a date and a simple line drawing of a map, with the occasional narrative. The paper used in the book is thin with a matt finish. This lends the book to have a feeling of handling a newspaper almost as if the ink will come off onto your hands. As I explore different publications, I am becoming more aware of how important paper is and it's something I will research for my future book.

Berlin 1966-1970

Desktop Photography

The art of photographing archival objects has proved complex and something I have never tried in my practice before without spending hundreds of pounds on lighting gear. I wanted to develop a technique that would provide a consistent result. I tried many methods which included the use of two or three lights to remove any harsh shadows. I covered the lights with baking paper (which is not combustible) to diffuse the light. In the end, the solution was a lot simpler, by using a daylight bulb in my work lamp and bouncing this light of a sloping ceiling on to a table I found it softened the shadows adequately.

Image by author

Book Layout

The solution to combining colour and monochrome photographs as well as different format sizes and make it credible in a book layout has proved problematic. In a recent lecture with Laura, it is suggested I look at Christian Patterson's book 'Reheaded Peckerwood'. The book is a true story of two American teenagers in the 1950s who went on a killing spree. Decades later, Patterson revisited the crime scenes and was surprised to find evidence left by the police. The video below describes his reasons and methodology in the production of the work. I find this particularly interesting with how he successfully combines a mix of images and formats.

Presenting Redheaded Peckerwood by Christian Patterson

Christian Patterson describes how he was inspired by the work of William Eggleston to teach himself photography and switch careers to become an artist. The book, Redheaded Peckerwood is the result of Patterson's obsessive five year exploration of the world of Charles Starkweather and Caril-Ann Fugate, teenagers who launched a notorious crime spree through the winter landscape of the upper midwest in 1958.

Archival Images

The rephotographing of archival images is a subject which had not considered in my past practice. The current way I reproduce archive photographs is scanning with a white background. In my tutorials, it was suggested to look at other archivists work. In particular, Arwed Messmer's work and the archiving of Berlins Police Historical Collection, which is a fascinating insight into student protests. His book 'Berlin 1966-70' catalogues the images in a chronological order using a film border as a device to add continuity to the presentation.

A photograph showing my Father and his fellow tank crew taken in Belgium 1945. Photographer unknown

Using a film border to create continuity to the images – Arwed Messmer ‘Berlin 1966-70’

Using archival photos posed some issues about how they would be displayed and how they relate to the new photographs. The majority of the archive photos are black and white, so I must decide whether to shoot in black and white or use both. Following a recent tutorial, it is possible to mix the media using colour for the new photographs. I will explore this, along with which format to use. I have always favoured 6×6 using film, this size works well, particularly in a book configuration which is my aim for the FMP. Our recent webinar with John Tonks and his book 'Empire' (Jon Tonks 2013 ISBN 978-1-907893-49-0) is a good example; however, he does not have the requirement to display existing archive photos.

Front Cover ‘Empire’ by Jon Tonks

Displaying the square format of the book ‘Empire’ by Jon Tonks

Discovering Filey

It is nearly 10 years since I last went to Filey. I used to visit there regularly with a friend but she sadly past away. Since then I have stayed away not wishing to stir up memories even after all this time. It’s not a link I thought about the fact that this town has so much to do with the past. Maybe I could link this with my research on my father. Im not sure if it will complicate the project at this early stage but is something I will think about.

The old town has not changed. much still the old high street with its charity shops, cafes, and seaside novelties. the people are always warm and friendly. I found one care called the Lighthouse particularly inviting and will use this in my project.

Web Site

Following the lecture last week on building your own Wordpress we site I decided to move from Squarespace who I have been with for a number of years. The idea of a separate blog seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately for me my hosting provider combined with my lack of knowledge with  word-press I lost my site on two occasions due a corruption in the database.

My backups had also failed so with this in mind I decided to move back to Squarespace and put it down to experience. I lost a weeks work trying to rectify the problem.

Practitioners

My earlier research in Positions and Practice had highlighted several practitioners using the theme of the seaside. My study included the Turner Exhibition' Seaside Photographed' (Williams and Shepherdson, 2019) a publication that introduced me to artists such as Paul Nash, Martin Parr, Tony Ray-Jones and Iain Mckell.

The Last Resort Martin Parr – http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P78703

Parr's book The Last Resort is perhaps the best-known contemporary example of this practice. He depicts the seaside town of New Brighton in the early '80s over numerous bank holidays. His depiction is honest, almost too honest in my view. The work first appeared in 1986 and was subjected to criticism from his peers. Art critic David Lees review was particularly scathing' (Parr) has habitually discovered visitors at their worst, greedily eating and drinking junk food and discarding containers and wrappers with an abandon likely to send a liberal conscience into paroxysms of sanctimony. Our historic working-class usually dealt with generously by documentary photographers becomes a sitting duck for a more sophisticated audience'. It is ironic in my view that this criticism is equally condescending, with both coming from middle-class backgrounds Parr and Lee's perspective could be considered voyeuristic?

THE IDEA OF MEMORY

In Positions and Practice, I explored the concept of memory and my family and the archives of photos I had inherited. Many of these photographs are taken at the seaside, a subject fixed in my subconscious. Many of these pictures are made on the east coast of Yorkshire in the UK. My parents had been brought up in Cottingham, a village near Hull, so these destinations were popular due to their easy access. I decided to explore these locations, Whitby, Bridlington and Filey being the most popular and photograph the places and people. I hope to connect the contemporary with the archive images.

Bridlingtpn Sea Front- Image by Author

This particular image out of the many hundreds in the archive has influenced me the most. It is a picture of my grandfather (who I never met) carrying my mother and a little boy (who I do not know of). They are paddling in the sea, and the photographer has managed to blur the image which I'm sure wasn't intentional. This blur, for me, introduces a second dimension to the photograph. The movement and consequential blur enforce the sense of the past, of memories, known only to those present. It is interesting that this photograph, although blurred, has been kept in the archive.

Picture of my Mother and sibling carried on their Fathers back - Image by unknown

Lecture Mark Tonks

Interesting lecture with Mark Tonks yesterday. I have ordered his book. I like how he makes his images look almost ordinary but it requires the user to really look and understand the back story which every picture has. I wonder if I do a book for my FMP should it have a written narrative ?