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.