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Leah Gordon
Mar 28, 20217 min read

Week 4:

Film camera workshop:

I attended the on campus film camera workshop this week with Jason where he went through how to use all the different film cameras available. Afterwards I decided to hire the Mamiya 7 so I could experiment with some film photography for this project, and decided to use this one as it's pretty light weight and portable so much easier to take out onto location for my shoots.


Film photography research:

After the film workshop I decided to research some film photographers and film photography techniques that I can take inspiration from when using the film camera I've hired.


Man Ray

I've been aware of Man Ray's work for a while but thought it would be particularly relevant to look at his solarisation prints, a technique he pioneered. I think the way that this technique creates a very eerie and almost ghostlike feel to the photos is very in fitting with the folk-horror material I've been looking at. Man Ray was also a member of the surrealist photography movement - with the surrealism movement epitomising the very in-between state that the world was in post WW2, another reason I was drawn to his work for this project.


If I'm able to access the dark room I would love to have a go at solarisation myself with my film photos, otherwise I'm sure I could create similar effects in photoshop.

Catherine Yass

After researching Man Ray, I decided to find other artists who use solarisation. I came across Catherine Yass' work and loved how completely wacky and outlandish it is. I also really like how she seems to use double exposures to combine opposing locations of urban architecture and serene landscapes in a colour mishmash. This makes her work quite transportive and gives a modern folk horror feel to the work too. Although the colours and outcomes of Yass' work are a lot more garish than what I'm going for, analysing her work has made me think about possibly trying double exposures when using the film camera as a way to link the political message of my work with the folk horror aesthetic I'm using by possibly photographing far-right rallies and then using the same roll of film to photo more folk horror inspired images or something like that.

Video describing how to use the solarisation technique incase I'm able to access the darkroom:

Darkroom Manipulation:


After looking at artists who use solarisation I thought that I would also see what other darkroom manipulations there are that I could try - some are described in the article below for future reference:


Alexandra Waespi

After looking into other darkroom manipulation techniques I thought I would find some artists who use the techniques I've been researching, and found Waespi's work particularly inspiring.


'Alexandra’s work pushes the photographic print further through experimentation with chemical reactions, manipulation of the film’s emulsion, and alternative darkroom and digital processes.

She develops color film at home, often with a rough development process, bending negatives in the reel and varying the temperatures and times. In the darkroom she prints on found old paper and applies the developer with a paintbrush.

With the printed image, new layers are added by hand. Her scanner manipulations were first developed in her attempt to archive her work digitally. She believes the manipulations transform her images into an alternate reality, which fuses analogue and handcrafted techniques with digital glitches. After these stages she is left with a tangible object rather than individual photographs.

Her inspiration comes from early 20th century colour photography; particularly the techniques used in hand colouring and toned black and white prints. She is also influenced by the toned prints from Boris Mikhalov and intuitive style of Miroslav Tichy.' https://www.photofusion.org/darkroom-techniques-new-ways-of-seeing/


Although it might be a bit ambitious for me try all these ^ techniques considering I've never used a darkroom, it's really interesting seeing the wide range of outcomes you can achieve through darkroom and physical manipulations. Similarly to Yass' work, I think Waespi's work is also a bit too garish in comparison to the look I'm going for in my own work, but I think it's always really beneficial to look at a wide range of artists to gain inspiration that you wouldn't by looking at similar material to your own work all the time. I'm definitely going to enquire about access to the darkroom after researching these artists as I would love to have the opportunity to play around in the darkroom.


Alternative printing methods

While I was researching darkroom manipulation methods I came across this beautiful image and thought it was much more in fitting with the folk horror material I've been looking at. I'm not quite sure what this picture is printed onto but I love how using an alternative method to printing on paper has given the image such a raw and imperfect feel, adding to the sombreness of the woman's expression. Yet again, if given the opportunity to access the darkroom this is also a technique I would love to try, because as the below article explains, you can basically print onto anything if you have the right chemicals and possibly printing onto leaves or bark or something found from the locations I do my shoots in, could be a really nice way to make my work a lot more interconnected.


 

Collage Workshop:

This week we also had a workshop with James during which he taught us about the history of collage, its importance to the photography world and showed us some very influential collage artists. Below are some of my favourites from the presentation:


Jamie Reid

Is an English artist and anarchist who is best known for his work with the Sex Pistols. Collage was pioneered by the dadaists, an art movement that formed in a negative reaction to the horrors and folly of WW1 and I think it's very fitting that Reid chose to use collage to represent the angst and upset of the 70's punk movement. I think the messages and look of Reid's work is definitely very relevant for the political message of my own work and I'd definitely like to experiment around with collage more to see if I can create anything I like for my photo-book and the political message I'm going for.

Wangechi Mutu

Is a Kenyan artist who is noted for her work conflating gender, race, sexuality and personal identity. Mutu's work is heavily political and her work really aims to question racial stereotypes and spark conversations. I think her collages are deeply beautiful and immensely clever. The way she creates such powerful images through very considered use of collage I find really inspiring. I will definitely be coming back to Mutu's work throughout this project, especially considering how successfully it presents a political message and questions your beliefs, something I'm hoping to do with my own work.

Unattainable Blonde

We were then directed to create our own collage, but before I started mine I remembered an artist I've been following on instagram for a while, Unattainable Blonde. I really like how political a lot of collage is, it seems to be embedded in the art form, and this can very clearly be seen with this artists work. She uses collage to comment on very current issues and I've seen her art posted by a lot of big celebrities, so I guess the secret to spreading a message these days is to make it instagrammable! I took a lot of influence from her work for my own collage.

My own digital collage using photoshop:

Inspired by the work of unattainable blonde I created my own collage on photoshop. I wanted this collage to reflect my anger towards the blatant incompetence of our government at the moment. I used clippings from different newspapers to make the ironic title 'put your faith in us' because despite all the promises this government made at the start of their term and all throughout the pandemic, the majority of them have been broken. I really enjoyed this workshop and making this collage. I think looking at some more political artists reminded me of where I started this project and re-focused me, I think I've gone on a bit of a folk horror tangent recently! But after making this collage and working out how to do it on photoshop because of my lack of access to a printer at the moment has definitely made me realise that it's a very strong option for an outcome for this project, especially considering the very political history of collage.


 

Week 4 Reflections:

Over the last few days I've really started to reconsider the message I want to portray through this project. Due to current conversations going on at the moment surrounding the murder of Sarah Everard, and the wide array of reactions from the trending #notallmen on twitter to the outpour of women sharing their experiences, I think I want to re-focus my project and make it more feminist focused. I unfortunately have my own experiences with sexual assault and the conversations happening over the last few weeks or so have really upset and angered me, but I want to use that frustration for good and I think this project could be the perfect opportunity to do so. Looking at the work of Wangechi Mutu this week and other political artists has only strengthened that. I think making the project more personal will only strengthen this project and I think I will give me more autonomy and a right to be making work on this subject matter seeing as I have personal experience. I think as well when I was doing my research into folk horror last week, I came across a lot of material discussing how women are using Wicca and returning to pagan beliefs and rituals as a way to empower themselves and reclaim the power nature gives us. I think using the folk horror aesthetic in this more feminist and empowering way will make a lot more sense and will give the project a clearer message. I think wanting to express my strong dislike of the far-right through folk horror wasn't really working, and I think shifting the message of this project will make my work a lot more coherent. So yes, despite shifting my message almost completely for this project, it's still early days and I'm glad I've found a way to make this project more personal and meaningful to me.


Research into Wicca empowering women:






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