Week 6

At this stage of the term I was struggling to study due to illness. I had a tutorial with Sarah and agreed I should just concentrate on marked work. Please see my journal for further input.

Week 5 Independant Reflection

In this weeks tutorial, Laura discussed looking at other practitioners and guided me to the web site of 100 Finish Photographers. I particularly liked Heikki Willamo, Nanna Hänninen, Kati Leinonen, Jaakko Kahilaniemi and Jorma Puranen’s work. I am interested in the use of non-photography and using other media like transparency. I may also try to paint my photos are tear images. I will have to reproduce the negatives as I can not damage the originals from the archive. On the whole Laura was pleased with the images I had produced and liked that each image was different.

Week 3 and 4 Zine and non Photography

My Zine is based on the quotation, ' There is hope in honest error, none in the icy perfection of the mere stylist’. This quote, often attributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, is in fact a quote by J D Sedding, an English church architect. I incorporated this week's activity into my zine, by using a photocopier to take the images, rather than using conventional methods. The styled text is deliberate to highlight the theme of style over substance.

Week 2 Independant Reflection

This week I have been examining how I can introduce myself, when I was a child, into the narrative of my parent's memoirs. I have three siblings, who I have not had contact with for over a decade, and for this reason, will not include them in any of my work. The first photograph shows me as a 6-month-old baby having a bath in the front room. My brothers around me are like strangers to me. They were all much older, and consequently, I have never had a close relationship with them: Sara Davidmann, and her book 'Ken. To be destroyed' influenced my treatment of this image. Davidmann uses the practice of removing the face of 'Ken' to provide anonymity. I have used a similar approach to my sibling's. I wanted their form to remain, but like my memories, they have become indistinct.

I have been a follower of Ricard Martinez's work and found his lecture this week extremely interesting. The second image is a play on Martinez's practice. I find the concept of introducing found photographs in contemporary settings a compelling methodology. The current situation, however, does limit travel so, for the time being, I am using images found on the internet. I will rephotograph these pictures once the lockdown has safely ended.

Week 1 Ed Rushca

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Surfaces and Strategies

A Brief Description of Previous Work

I began my MA, focusing on my father and my memory of him. I explored his early years, particularly his time serving in Europe during the second world war. I looked at archive photographs and the few artefacts I had in my possession. My early memories of my father were of family holidays taken on the east coast of Yorkshire, England, places like Filey and Whitby. I revisited these locations and tried to find 'memories which may still exist. In my last term, Informing Contexts, I extended my research to include my mother and the relationship with my father. Their relationship proved challenging at times due to my mother's matriarchal stance. I created a book for my WIP called 'Mothers Love' which examined this connection and caused me to question aspects of my involvement in the family unit. This term, I will continue to explore the same topic but expand the research by linking it to place. I have several old photographs of the village of Cottingham where my fathers family emanated from, and my parents lived after they married. I have long been a follower of Ricard Martinez's work and aim to use the old photographs in context with present-day images. I hope to be able to continue my experimentation with montage and the continued use of film. My current fields of research are work by Todd Hido, Ricard Martinez, Anna Fox, Peter Kennard and Sarah Davidmann.