Independent Art and Photography - Evaluation

With this project, I really wanted to challenge myself into making an artefact that presents my photographs in a completely different way to just individual prints presented in a box. I knew this even before I had decided on what I wanted my subject matter to be.
However, quite early on in the module I decided to write about The New Topographics exhibition, as this was a style that I had always known about and identified with. I therefore thought about mirroring that style of photography. I mostly work with colour film, particularly for my projects this year, and so decided to try working with black and white film for this project. After deciding this, I was inspired by a project that I had started in my first year of university - documenting my hometown. I found a lot of my old negatives, and noted that they harked back to the New Topographic style. This, in itself, links to my work throughout this year with remembrance and nostalgia. I also knew that I wanted to reflect the New Topographic style of documenting, with quite low contrast, and a detached style. However, this idea presented a problem. My essay for this module discusses whether the New Topographics exhibition was more concerned with presenting an objective view or a subjective one. This reflected the difficulty I was in. I feel strong nostalgic emotions about my hometown, so I wasn't sure whether documenting in a detached style would be possible as my positive outlook on the city may shine through. However, I decided just to go with the idea, and see what kind of images came out, to challenge myself to document the place in a detached way. I began researching both New Topographic artists and those that may have just been inspired by the show. Bernd and Hilla Becher's documentary work was a starting point, moving on to the images by Nicolas Nixon and Petra Wunderlich.

Once I had decided on my subject matter and style, I needed to figure out how I was going to present my images. I was then inspired by two sessions with Anna Fewster on book making. Using images I had taken a few months ago on the subject of Norwich shop fronts, I made a hand-made book with a very simple fold out section.

Although this book was very simple and not entirely successful, the making of it made me decide that I wanted to make a book for my final submission.
I then took inspiration from Edward Ruscha's books.

However, I realised that just presents lots of images of shop fronts may not be insightful enough to sustain the viewer's interest through the book. This is when I decided that I could combine both a close, in depth view of the city's shops with a wider look at the city as a whole.
I wanted there to be a fold out section, in order that the viewer has to interact with the artefact to get to see all of the images. I was writing about this tactility of books and albums in my dissertation at the time.

After all of these different ideas had jostled for position, I made a mock up of how I wanted to final book to function. This was extremely helpful in getting my ideas down onto paper.

It then just came down to making the book. I really enjoy and thrive at this kind of thing, learning new techniques to hand-make things. I think this is reflected in the way I have put the book together, and I am very happy with how the construction fulfills its function. I also think it looks slick and is easy to browse through.

In terms of the final output, as I say, I am very pleased with the construction of the book. I also feel that the series of images is strong in its own right. I wanted to show both a wide and close view of the city, and by putting the images into a prescribed order in a book format, it means that the viewer is forced to look at them in the order that I want them to. I am also happy with the consistency of the style of shooting. It reflects the New Topographics but does not copy them. The only thing I would say is that, in the final book, some of the images do look a little soft in focus. They are also slightly grainy. Although this is not too much of a problem for me, I could have eradicated this by shooting in medium or large format, as opposed to the 35mm film I had been using originally. This is the only part of the project I wish I had changed with hindsight, just so that if I want to print the images much bigger than they are displayed here, I can do. However, I have seen this whole project as a bit of a learning curve in general, so I know how to rectify issues like these in the future.

Overall, I feel I have created an interesting and tactile artefact. The fact that the book shows signs of being handmade (thick thread etc) I think strengthens it. It shows its construction. I feel I have fulfilled my aim to create something that the viewer has to interact with in order to get the full experience of the project. Through research, I have also learnt how the handmade book still has a place in presenting photographs, which is something I will definitely be considering when making future work.

Independent Art and Photography - The finished article.

Here is the finished article that I will be submitting for this project.

I feel that adding a slip cover has really added another aspect to the book. It provides another level of tactility and forces the viewer to interact with the object, whilst of course protecting the book itself.


I also think the way that I have reflected the title page with the cover is successful.


I feel that the first image in this book is probably one of the strongest. I like the way that the normality of all the different houses in the foreground is interrupted by the cathedral spire. This is also reflected in the second image, with another of Norwich's many churches featuring.

I particularly like the angles in the bottom picture of the spread, it looks down into the town form an elevated point, which links back to Nicolas Nixon's work.


The top picture of this spread was exactly the same view as one I had taken as part of a much earlier project in Norwich. I wanted to feature it to make that connection with my memories of that time.
 

Here I wanted to focus on some of the quirkier aspects of the city, which is where I feel my emotions about the place come through. I think the way the tree covered in pompoms is silhouetted against the very structured building works well.


I knew that I wanted to feature an image of a view down one of Norwich's small streets. I think that it reflects what is to come underneath the fold out - lots of images of shops that are on these kind of small streets.

I feel the idea of gradually going from wide city views to close up shots gives a good flow to the book as a whole. This is particularly true for me with the inclusion of the row of shop fronts in the middle of the book. It provides a break in the middle of the all the varied views of the city to look at one particular aspect.

This is where I start looking much more closely at the details of the city. Again, I wanted to feature some of the quirky things that I connect with positive times in my hometown. The bicycle hangs outside is one of my favourite cafe/bars in the city, which is one of the reasons I wanted to show it, although I haven't made it really obvious.

These last 2 pages provide the page spread that I am most pleased with. I feel that the reflection of 3 things in the two images provides the perfect opportunity to show the contrast between a constructed design choice (windows) and an act of rebellion (grafitti).

Major Practical Project - Artist's statement

Number Eight

by Jenni Hardman


What makes a house a home?

‘Number Eight’ is a series of images, building up to a portrait of a home. A real, family home, that has been lived in for over 30 years. A home with real clutter and real memories. The house has been stretched at the seams, the space has had to adjust to accommodate the family that lives there. My home, my family.

This series falls as part of a larger project focusing on nostalgic memories and the concept of home.

These images are the ones that only I can take. Only I know the unique, beautiful, characterful eccentricities of this house.

Major Practical Project - Evaluation of the final images.

So here is the final selection of prints I will be submitting:
This image is one that I feel will act as a visual break from the busier ones, with the simple composition and straight lines. However, the dressing gowns behind the door give enough of a hint of life.



Again, here I feel that the straight lines work well in drawing the viewers' eyes through the image. The muted tones work well against the brighter, more colourful images in the series, and the less-than-healthy plants in the foreground show the reality of a family too busy for gardening.



(This image is a lot less magenta in the real print) For me, this image falls between the simply composed images and the busier ones. The simplicity of the white windows work well against the details of the bottles and cosmetics in the bottom right hand corner. I also feel that the uneven towels on the rail strengthen the image, and reflects family life.

Again, I like the contrast of this colourful image against the muted ones. I didn't want to include many images of my bedroom, as my previous project looked at that room in detail. However, this is a feature of my room that is unique, and wasn't all that prominent in my previous piece.



Here, I think the notion of order amongst chaos really applies. In most of these images, there is not much organisation, but the way the shoes are lined up shows a different side to the house and family.

In this image, I wanted to focus on the repetition of all the CDs, which are no longer essential in the household but are kept because of sentimental reasons. However, they end up occupying every surface, taking up more room than they should. This was what I was trying to communicate in this image and I feel I have been successful.

This image again looks at a small detail of the house, but one that still acts as a sentimental reminder of youth. I chose to photograph this as simply as possible to make sure the subject matter remained the most prominent feature of the image.

Again, this is one of the more busy images, that I tried to cram full of details. I wanted it to be almost overwhelming for the viewer, with all of the different shapes and colours that make up the image. I'm not sure whether this image is entirely successful as I feel the composition might not have enough structure. However, I wanted to include it to reference back to my previous project and link the two series together.

This image is of another sentimental area of my home, and once again I wanted to shoot it as simply as possible. I think that the way it is simply composed but full of details strengthens the image.

This image was included in the final edit as I feel it sums up family life. I also like the way that it contains lots of crossing lines at different angles, it leads the eye through the image.



Again, this image is filled with detail and the viewer would need to spend time with it to take it all in. I like the contrast of the bright, new yellow rake and the dirty, old and slightly grotesque lawn-mower.



I wanted to include an image of every room in the house, and this was the only image of the bathroom that I felt worked compositionally. I managed to straighten up the image at the printing stage, meaning that the top of the image is parallel to the top of the window frame, which I feel has improved the image.



This image I feel is the strongest in the series, and sums up the entire project for me. The way that every nook and cranny of the house has been affected by the family's presence I think is strongly communicated through this image. Again, I have highlighted the repetition and the way that objects such as books and CDs are often stored in large groups.



I like this image because I feel that the lighting is a bit different from the rest of the images in the series. Also, all the different angles provided by the pan handles sticking up I feel strengthens the composition and shows that the image is real as opposed to being constructed.

This is one of the most simply composed shots in the series. Again, I had to straighten the image at the printing stage, but I feel that doing this has improved the composition and creates straight, defined lines through the image.



With this image, I wanted to include it as it shows the contrast between my brother's bedroom and the rest of the rooms in the house. I think that the contrast between the simple blocks in the top half of the images and the large amount of tiny details in the bottom half keeps the viewer's interest.



Once again, I feel that the lines in this image give it a powerful composition. It also suggests that the structured form of the stairs has been interrupted by the human influence of the newspaper and hangers.

I was hesitant to include this image, as I felt it could be seen as too similar to the image of wellies in our hallway. However, in contrast to that image, I feel this one shows how we have tried to create order in the home, but it has been disrupted.



I wasn't sure if I had included too many images of our garden in this project, and this was the image I was unsure about cutting. However, I feel that the repetition of the forms of chairs, but in different positions and sizes, gave the image interest and strength in its own right.



In this image, I am unsure whether the presence of a person on the right hand side works. It is the only image in the series to include a portrait, and therefore might stand out a bit too much. However, it does provide evidence that this house is being lived in, that life is inherent to this home.

For me, this photo represent how youth has slipped away from the children of the family. My brother and I used to play on these swings all the time as children, but now they sit unused and unnecessary. This is the main reason I wanted to include this image, and I feel that it communicates this message successfully.



I knew that I wanted to include an image of my fridge in this series, as with our family it is pretty much the heart of the home. It took several attempts to get the look I was after for this image, but I think that the lighting in this image was the best of all that I took, and I like that it includes the old style milk bottles.



Again, with this image, I knew that I wanted to have a picture of the washing up, as I feel it reflects family life. I also wanted to link back to Nigel Shafran's work, as it influenced me so much in this project.



This is probably the image with the most detail in the series. Again, I like that it reflects the slightly hectic life my family leads, and that this room is where all of our 'stuff' just gets left. Again, I wanted this image to be nearly overwhelming with the amount of detail in the composition.



This is one of the first images I shot in the project. I wanted to include it as it provides a visual break in the project, and an opportunity for the viewer to see a simpler image that still communicates my ideas about the project.

Major Practical Project - Evaluation of the project.

This project came about in part because of my acknowledgment of the nostalgic emotions I feel surrounding my bedroom, family home and home town. Throughout all my work this year I have tried to tie in the ideas of nostalgia and homecoming, and create work that passes on these feelings to the viewer. I noted that most of these feelings revolve around the home that my family have occupied for over 30 years, and that I have lived in for my entire life until I moved down to university. Therefore, I decided to focus on this for my Major Practical Project this year.

In this project, I wanted to look at the way that my home has had to adjust to the presence of the family living there; the way that all of our possessions have to fit into a home that probably isn't nearly big enough; and the unique features it has taken on that only I would know about, having lived there for 21 years. This lead me to make a connection with Nigel Shafran's quote "My photographs are the ones that only I can make". I wanted to focus in on the unique eccentricities of my home.
I therefore started to look at photographers who principally work using a domestic style of photography - shooting their homes or homes that are close to them emotionally.  This is where I started to look at the work of Nigel Shafran and Anna Fox, and took influence from their styles of shooting. Later on in the project I also took influence from Gillian Bostock's The Roddis House and normalroom.com.

In terms of the progression of the project, it took me quite a long time to refine when I was trying to create. The first images I shot didn't deliver the kind of message that I thought they were going to, finding this out through early feedback. They almost looked as if I was photographing an empty house, as opposed to somewhere that is full of life.

Rejected image from the first shoot

I still feel that this is a strong image, but it is true that it may give off the wrong message to the viewer. It doesn't fit this particular project. Therefore, when I went back home for a second time, I decided to try and cram my images so full of details it is almost overwhelming. I wanted to capture all of the 'stuff' we have around the house, and how it has shaped how we occupy the space. I wanted to contrast these incredibly busy images with some with much simpler compositions. Upon receiving the second four films-worth of images, I realised in which direction I wanted to take this project.

The contrast between this image (which made it into my final edit) and the previous one sums up how the project progressed between the first and second shoots. This image certainly shows that the house is lived in! It was important to me that I showed the messy bits of the house, as this is a real family life. In my opinion, a comfortable, beautiful family home shows off it's possessions, not hides them away. If I had styled the images then it would have completely defied the point of this very real, truthful, and personal project. Therefore, on my third time photographing home, I needed to focus my attention on the rooms of the house that I hadn't looked at yet, and that perhaps aren't generally on display to the public. This included the garden, shed, bedrooms and bathrooms, making sure I had at least one image in the final edit of every room in the house. I also wanted to take a step back and look at making some simpler compositions in these images, whilst still demonstrating the way that the family has changed the space.

This image didn't make it into the final edit, but a slightly different composition of the same idea did.

I do feel I have achieved a good balance in terms of compositions in my final edit. I wanted some frames that were filled with details and some that were easier on the eye, to act as a visual break in the project. I do feel that the project may have been improved by doing one more shoot at home, in order to re-shoot some of the images I wasn't as happy with the first time around. However, I wanted each time I went home to have a particular aim, focusing on a certain aesthetic every time. Therefore, I'm not sure whether another shoot would have provided me with anything fresh and new.

On the whole I am very happy with my final prints, I'm glad I did manage to do hand-prints in the end, as I feel it strengthened my connection with the project. It also meant I could retain creative control over the outcome of the images. I chose to make quite small prints - I wanted to give an overall impression of the house by focusing on its details, rather than, for example, 6-10 wider, less specific images or views. I also chose to use gloss paper - I normally use lustre but felt that the project suited gloss better. I did have a few issues when printing with newton rings appearing on my prints where the negative had been touching the glass in the negative holder. I managed to sort it out, by using folded up strips of paper stopping the glass touching the negative.

I plan to exhibit these prints in a grid, but with each image having it's own individual frame. I still want the images to be quite small, but I may have to see whether the 7x7" size they are now would just be too small for a gallery wall.

Overall, I feel this has been a very personal project for me, and it has helped me to acknowledge the positive feelings I have for my family and home. I am happy with the final outcome, and I do feel that they communicate the message I was aiming for - that this is my family home, and it is unique. I am happy that I have been able to maintain creative control by printing the images myself. Generally, I think the images work really well as a series, but the only thing I am unsure about is whether they are as successful if one image were to be viewed individually. However, it was never intended that I would create one standalone image that would communicate all my ideas about this project. I wanted to make a series that showed the eccentricities of my home in detail, building up a picture of the place. I do feel that I have fulfilled this aim. I also wanted people looking at these photos to conjure up images of their own family home and question their feelings about the subject. I hope that when my images are seen by the public they will evoke this kind of discussion.

Independent Art and Photography - Making the book part 2...

After my folded pages had been sitting under a pile of heavy books overnight to flatten them out, the inside of my book was ready to go.

Next, I needed to make the cover. At the same time as making the prints for the pages, I printed my title on the cover sheet too. I decided to go for grey card, as I feel this reflects the tones in the images the best. I didn't want to have a colourful cover for a book of deliberately quite flat images.

I then had to bore holes through all of the pages and the cover in order to stitch it together. This included going back through the cover holes the opposite way to make sure that they had a clean look and didn't appear torn on the outside.

I chose some quite thick thread to stitch the book together, as I wanted it to be obvious that it was handmade - I wanted to highlight the very thing that was holding the pages together. It was just a case of doing five simple stitches and tying the ends of the thread together on the outside of the cover to hold the pages in place.


I then decided to make a slip cover, both to protect the final book and also to keep the pages from flapping around when they are not being looked at. I made a template in paper, then cut, folded and glued the same card that I had used for the book's cover in place. I wanted to keep it consistent with the look of the whole book.

The only thing left for me to do after that was creating a title for the slip cover and cutting a small semi-circle out of it to allow for easy access to the book.

And there we have the finished product!