Level 3 Photography Nicola Hampshire

Following a discussion with my tutor, I need to identify my position on dirt / rubbish / waste. I'm currently reading about dirt to try and define the difference between the words. Dirt can be a material object or a concept. Dirt is tied up with identity too. I need to narrow the subject right down because it is huge.  I've grown up with books such as "Stig of the dump", my children love The Grinch, and one of my early memories about travelling by car is seeing a toilet dumped in the middle of the Lincolnshire Fens. Walking the last few miles of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge in June 2019, I noticed lots of litter, (both compostable and not) in the countryside. I'd been careful that our group took everything with us and managed the waste, even down to finding someone who could take our pulp teacups from the tea waggon  in a car because there are no litter bins en route. At the other end of the extreme is a time recently when "lost" in a true wilder...

Waste studies research : It was good to see that waste featured within this exhibition. Waste is a large narrative and it was great to see an acknowledgement towards it within the exhibition. These images did not inspire my learning journey although I am looking at rubbish on the floor. Maybe it's because I didn't connect with the artist statement? Big Fence, Pitcairn Island. Rhinnon Adam This was a fascinating body of work to look at, with all sorts of details down to posters on the walls, a huge family tree to look at and personal artifacts in display cabinets. It was thought provoking and made me start thinking about what I could collect to display. I read an article with Robin Friend's photographs in before I started this course. It was great to see some of this work exhibited.  Some work I liked with a different way of looking at walking. Unfortunately my photographs did not do the work justice.These are about walking and meditation. Screenshot...

Tim Mitchell's AV display inside the National Glass Centre was something I found by chance. Having a spare half hour, we visited on the way to the beach. This slide show  looked at how humans impact on the ecology of the natural world and how resources are intertwined. Key words: waste, capitalism. The cars are abandoned all over Europe, in various states of disrepair. I found this series interesting. The images showed enough landscape to give some  clues as to  where they might have been abandoned. I felt comfortable looking at this exhibition, confirming that I did need to investigate a strand of waste for my BOW. 

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 supporti...

 Informal OCA Midlands group meeting organised by Allan O’Neill We met at the Vine Pub in West Bromwich at 12 to look at Stephen Burke’s Exhibition “The Lord is my Shepherd”. Stephen joined us for the afternoon. Stephen works for GRAIN photography hub. Stephen explained that he applied to Multistory, the commissioners in 2017 for the 2019 Blast festival, giving him a year and a half to make and present the work alongside other his other works. I thought there was a resemblance to Casey Orr’s Saturday Girl on which I saw at Hull and Derby. Colourful backgrounds relate to clothing that would be worn to West Bromwich Albion Football Matches. The clothing represents a uniform and the single images collectively form football fans at a match. Themes emerging are culture, identity and a sense of belonging. People not smiling show respect. I liked the way the vinyl images hung, looking like fans in a football stand. The work was made in three parts: Interviews  Fan gro...

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.... 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...

A cloudy reshoot day.  After reviewing my images with the other couple of strands, I felt I had something which might work.  Over the next couple of weeks I wrote up I my assignment. During the West Midlands OCA student meet-up, I worked out the problem with my set of images. I didn't have the right images for the intended audience. I wrote mt Contextual Studies 1 assignment, relating my images to photographic theory to enable me to look closely at my images  and see how I could develop it.