Thursday 30 April 2009




So here is the next instalment of my work.

I have now worked out exactly what it is I am interested in and what my work is looking at. This work deals with architectural space, with ideas of 'liminal space' that spaces in between places. Subways, bridges, roundabouts, stairways, places on a threshold. Through a process of turning the camera on itself between two merged exposures I have created a series of distorted, overloaded, uncertain images. They place the camera in a liminal space, in between the two viewpoints we experience in reality allowing the viewer to experience an altered reality.


Monday 20 April 2009



After shooting on the normal slide film it all came back to me, the joy of the photograph, what it is to reproduce what we see and represent it in the way we want. The vivid contrast and saturation of the slides gave more of a richness to the images. As mentioned before I also wanted to experiment with the layering process using the 'in date' film which I did, but the correctly exposed film wasn't thin and bleak like the out of date stuff, it was too heavy. The images would not merge how I wanted them to, they wouldn't really merge at all.

One point I made in my proposal for the final year was to become more conscious and understand what I was doing, so this next step was almost about this for me as well as finding a way of furthering my ideas.I have been interested in using larger format cameras for a while as they allow for greater control when photographing. A big step for me and my work was taking the move up to 5x4 large format photography.

Whilst thinking about how I could develop the previous processes and ideas I toyed with the idea of splitting the exposure time whilst shooting, so I was thinking along the lines of setting up, taking a light reading and then splitting the exposure time in half and then exposing the film for that given time. So only giving the negative half of its required exposure innitially and then later completing it with whatever I wanted, whenever necessary, e.g. a different viewpoint or at night rather than in the day. I felt that the large format camera was appropriate as it gives a lot more freedom in terms of aligning different frames and removing film after the first half of the exposure.

These photographs are two of the initial shoots and were the two I displayed in our Interim Show, a sort of warm up for the Degree Show.

Sunday 19 April 2009






The next step for me was to get away from the 'out of date' slide film that I was almost relying on to do something different to my work. So I went out and took photographs of things that interested me in terms of this idea of space and liminality using normal, 'in date' slide film. I also had the process of layering in mind and wanted to test it with this film as a way of furthering and developing what I was doing.



Following on this is a series of photographs that all came from the process of layering the slides to create a new, distorted, uncertain image. As I said before an altered reality.

Whilst viewing some of my slides I accidentally put two into one slot in the projector, it just happened to be that the two slides were of the same building, one in the day and one at night. This created a strange sort of twilight image, the two frames didn't quite line up which slightly distorted things. The resulting image is one of uncertainty, not quite sure of itself, not night and not day, distorted and the out of date film created yet again a unreal colour cast, an altered reality.


I also shot some black and white photographs of some of the spaces but was not overly happy with the outcome. I was shooting with a 50mm wide angle lens which I feel captures to much around what I am focussing on which then to me creates just photographs of buildings etc. I guess the photographs become confused.

Friday 17 April 2009






Next on the list is some of my more recent work, the start of my latest project, the final project for the degree. Throughout studying I haven't really been that happy with the work I have made, some of it seemed to be a means to an end, it was just to fill criteria, for me to get by. Now working on a self initiated brief I am really interested in what I am doing, enjoying it and it feels like I am getting something from it.

The title of the project started as 'Ideas of space', I was interested in what I was calling 'Non-space'. Places and spaces that seem to have no given purpose or have lost one due to different circumstances and also 'in between' spaces, subways, stairs and alleyways etc.

This idea has now evolved and I am thinking about 'liminality', the 'liminal'. I guess this is what I was initially drawn too and interested in but I wasn't really sure how to explain my thoughts. 'Liminal space' is know as a space/place on a threshold, these photographs are some of the initial shots I took in the early stages of the work. They were taken on out of date slide film and colour corrected which has produced the strange tonality and colours.



Moving closer to the present now. This is a small series from the first year of the degree, it was a brief entitled 'Time and Space'. Three photographs of empty rooms in a student halls of residence that were vacated after the building roof was badly damaged by strong winds, as a result the rooms began to flood. They were photographed in a stage of transition, in between residencies and whilst work was being carried out. At the time I was questioning there purpose, I called them 'Non-spaces', the designated use had been removed leaving them in uncertainty.

Wednesday 15 April 2009




And heres a few from Barcelona too. When I am shooting for documentary I tend to just photograph everything and anything that catches my eye, or whatever I find interesting at the time. Cities are great for this a diverse mix of people, places and things.



This is officially my first blog post ever, I thought I would start by uploading some of my past work. Firstly to get it online and also to give a background of what I am interested in and also what type of work I like making. These photgraphs are from a documentary series taken whilst I was backpacking up Australias East coast in 2005.