Research and Reflection

Research on decomposing times

"Paper bag - 1 month

Apple core - 8 weeks

Orange skin and banana peel -  2 years 

Plastic bag - 10-20 years

Plastic bottle - 450 years

Chewing gum - 1 million years" 

(Cited by Keep Britain Tidy)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/sep/24/bananas-litter-hikers-mountains-scotland last accessed 12/11/19

My personal research

I found a branch which had fallen from a tree in the local green space and stuck it in some soil in my garden. On it I hung a tissue, a piece of paper towel, an apple, satsuma and banana skin.These are all biodegradable and I'm interested to see how quickly it happens. Does the weather play a part? 

Started 1st November 2019. Review monthly.

Artists Books

Anne Bryson (OCA student) had brought with her to the OCA West Midlands group meeting a couple of her photographs which she had made into tunnel books which we discussed in depth, and Anne mentioned Shona Grant (Visual Artist) as a source of inspiration. I like the idea of producing something tactile with my photographs and following on from the book fair in Derby (March 2019) I have been keeping my eves open for books which inspire me to look at. 

Shona Grant has interesting books displayed on her website. I also like the idea of using dried plants (flowers or leaves) which she includes. I’m hoping to do a bookmaking course at some point. The pop-ups book remind me of children’s fairy tales, myth, legend, as well spending time engaging with them. 

The National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum holds a reference library, open to the public (containing the largest collection of artists books in the UK) The artists book reference collection contains supporting information about the processes and the books under a search engine NAL catalogue http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/n/national-art-library-catalogue/ You can request to look at 3 per visit. 

Ideas from Shona Grant

Woodland Portfolio (2017) Portfolio book

Woodland Portfolio (2017)

 Winter Woodland II Tunnel book (2019)

Savoy Leaves book extended and photo cube (2019)

Autumn Salix concertina extended (2019) Single concertina book

Common Ground double concertina book (2017)

References 

Grant, S. (2019) Artist’s books. Available at: https://www.shonagrantsart.com/artistsphoto-books last accessed 19th July 2019

Bibliography 
Victoria and Albert Museum (2016) Artists books. Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/books-artists/ last accessed 19th July 2019

Mindful Photography Workshop, The Art House, Sheffield 5th July 2019

Don and Heather ran an afternoon taster workshop on Mindful Photography in Sheffield’s city centre. It is an area of photography that interests me but I didn’t really know enough about it to hold a discussion with anyone.

Midfulness photography is also known as contemplative photography or “Miksang”. The practice came from a Tibetan monk and concerns photography as a way of reflecting a state of mind.

After introductions from Don and Heather, we were encouraged to participate in a mindfulness (relaxation) exercise. As a way of slowing ourselves down, we had to choose a nature object from a tray and hold it for several minutes, rotating, touching and looking at it from different angles, considering if / how the light bounced off it, the shapes etc.

The next exercise introduced us to “the flash of perception”, closing our eyes and looking at the first thing we noticed when we opened them, whether it was colour, shape, space etc.

We rotated through 360 degrees over 5 minutes, looking straight ahead and maintaining a wide peripheral vision watching the world in detail. The amount of detail visible was interesting as the session was held in a white painted room ready for an exhibition.

A 10-minute slow aimless wander on the streets of Sheffield saw us noticing much more then we had on the way to The Art House. During this walk we were not allowed to take photographs or earmark anything for the photo walk.

We regrouped and were given an assignment for a 30-minute photo walk. “Finding beauty in unexpected places”. We could take 5 photographs and had to practice relaxation to make the flash of perception happen. Once we had seen it, we had to frame it and once back, send one to Don for group discussion.

I used my camera phone for this exercise to keep things simple. The image I presented was the first one I saw. The 4th image (chain) looked different in my eyes to when I reviewed the photo.

We all presented one image and had to say one word about how we felt or what we saw with other peoples photos. They were all completely different; from abstract to identifiable images.

Don showed us a couple of books on contemplative photography and discussed ideas for further courses. He may organise an exhibition in the Art House to display work from students of his courses.

Further reading:

Karr, A and Wood, M. (2011) The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes. Colorado: Shambala publications

Zehr, H. (2005) Little Book of Contemplative Photography: Seeing With Wonder, Respect And Humility, Little Books of Justice & Peacebuilding New York: Good Books

2nd July 2019

Before I started Photography 3 I considered investigating Photography and Mindfulness (or wellbeing, or both). The Art House in Sheffield are promoting a 3 hour session so I'm off to find out more....