Fire Extinguishers

After stating in my proposal that I also wanted to look at things that we automatically remove their function and don't realise they are there yet they can look funny and have nice bright colours. I decided to look at fire extinguishers. They are bright red and actually do stand out, but do we pay any attention to them even though they could save our lives? The picture of the three fire extinguishers are similar to that of the traditional ceramic of three ducks above a fire place, looking very symetrical.

Proposal

I started looking at the theme; spaces, places and objects. I started by looking at documenting places that are occupied by the left of centered occupations, people at the fringe of society. This led me to two places in particular being a Funeral Parlor and Also a care home. This was intriguing me with the objects around the places so I did a fish eye project looking at objects through a different perspective. From looking at this I thought how could I include different spaces and places into my project so I moved into looking at abandoned spaces after discovering a few. This was providing good opportunity to photograph different objects that occupy spaces, showing collections of people and their lives from the mess left behind. This offers insights into different personalities etc. I now hope to go back to the different occupations and link it in with the work I have already developed, perhaps contrasting some places and objects to ones I have already captured. I will be aiming to Re create a sense of scale with objects, Photography everyday objects we don’t pay attention too, for example fire extinguishers, they are a bright red colour, and a funny shape that we often don’t realise are there or are too used to them being there we don’t pay any attention, even though they play a big role in our lives we automatically remove their function.

Research

William Christenberry:

Photographing places the same way for a period of time and realising how it changes.

Looking at sculpture.

The building being isolated on its own, viewed from a distance shows an object due to its shape and form.

Photographing objects in an architectural view, looking at objects.

“It is the genius of William Christenberry to stir up intensely evocative emotions and meanings from common, even humble, pieces of the world.”

— Howard N. Fox, curator of modern and contemporary art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Nigel Shafran:

Showing the untidiness of someone’s house, but linking in with abandoness as abandoned places can look like this when abandoned. Gives insight into how the person may live their life, could they be a untidy person, what may their job be etc.

The high production value of this work together with the artist’s deep interest in the commonplace, has led to the creation of melancholic portraits of people and places.

Zombies

London Faces

The Tate

In the turbine hall at the Tate this year, was an installation from the work of Miroslaw Balka, it was a massive box of darkness where you can't see anything it gives you a sense of unease as you don't know what to expect or see. The same sort of feel when you first step inside an abandoned building. In these images I took I tried to create that sense that you feel when your inside it.

LDN Shoes

Recently visited london to have a look at a couple of art galleries and exhibitions.

Anne Hardy

Anne Hardy is a photographer, and after looking through some of her work i discovered that she collects items she finds and instead of taking pictures of those items in the place she finds them, she recreates an abandoned space in a studio and then shoots it in there. I feel it relates to my work as i have been collecting items i have found from the places i have been visiting, instead of recreating an abandoned space, my photography class is going to do something slightly different but create an exhibition from the objects and images we have taken.

Empty

We found another hotel which had recently been closed, it wasn't fully trashed with everything smashed up as we found in the other places we visited. It was just an empty building which had been cleared out of everything bar a few things. This provided a different photo insight as there werent as many objects lying around for me to photograph. However most of the images I feel were still very effective, looking at shape and subtle colours.

Beetle

Representing objects occupying places, I drive past this garden quite often and notice this old beetle that never moves, its been left, abandoned and neglected by its owner. I took my camera and although its slightly different to the abandoned theme it still links in and i feel that the image that i have selected as my final one is effective.

House

I came across this house which no longer had anybody living in anymore. The image from the front of the house I feel is effective as it feels like it is in the view of the people who used to live in the house.

Hotel

A hotel which is no longer in operation provided a good opportunity to take pictures due to it being abandoned. The three images i have chosen are atmospheric and give a feel for the place. I like the picture especially of the stairs as its intriguing, is the picture looking up or down the stairs?

Army Camp

Amongst the places we have been too our most recent finding was an ex cordite factory site from the second world war. In todays society it has been transformed into an industrial estate. Some of the buildings used in the army camp have been left until this day but remain in the same state. From the images i have selected there is nice texture, colour and light coming through. In the picture with the chair there is a definitive composition.

Pub

We visited a pub which had been half knocked down and just left. It intrigued me to know why they had just left it, this also gave an intriguing look through the lens and gave me some interesting shapes to photograph. The lighting on that day nicely brought out the subtle colours in my images.

Toilets

Throughout the different abandoned places we had come across, there were many things that were immediately drawn to the eye and shouting out to be photographed. However a toilet you would think would be the last thing, although they create quite cold pictures due to the abandoned state of them. In the images there are clear traces that the toilets are still in use by the people that occupy the buildings and gives an insight into their lives. Some might say why do they use the toilet when there is so much rubbish already around them.

Quiet

These two images taken from Homefield i feel work well together mainly as the lighting in them are similar. The light coming from the trees creates a nice sense of shadow across the images and makes them slightly more intriguing.

Shadows

These two images i chose plainly due to the effective lighting which is evident in them. In the bottom one I used my flash meaning to light up the whole area instead i managed to create a sharp shadow on the right and slightly but clearly lighting up the left. I like the contrast between the light and dark side, also the flat black area contrasting with the side with more texture. For the top picture i used a slow shutter speed with a high aperture allowing the minimal light in the area to shine through the broken door. I feel its an atmospheric picture and makes us want to go through the door.

Abandoned Rabbit

Going back to the abandoned school but at night provided some good aesthetics. I feel the picture of the telecom system is effective due to the sharpness of the image and how the area around it is completely black highlighting it more. I chose the picture of the rabbit because i feel its an intriguing image and the shapes are good in it.

Gymnasium

The gymnasium. A place where the kids once came to have fun and exercise. These images showing the complete opposite. In one you can see where kids have come and built a ramp in the gym to use it for there bikes and the other one of the basketball hoop blocked by broken chairs and tables. The greens and yellows work well to make these images interesting to look at.