Week 1 - 2: Work In Progress

These first two weeks have been a whirlwind of information, ideas and inspiration and I am starting to figure out a suitable schedule for myself to study, shoot, read and write alongside my job.

In this section, I will share my work in progress throughout the two years, towards my Research Project. I like to work in sketchbooks, so I will be sharing scans and photos of these pages along with the work I produce.

The above images show two page spreads of my thought process during week 1. I was still trying to find a starting point I and wondering where I could go with it. I had so many ideas going through my mind, but they all focused around nature, wildlife, ground level, macro, life and death and life cycles. So, I have used these thoughts as my starting points.

I heard a story within Tom Seymore’s lecture this week, about a friend of his who's father had died, afterwards he found himself visiting and photographing the same wood that he visited with is father. This resonated with me, as I do look back on events and deal with grief in a similar way – links to memories? coping? therapy?

I then thought about death as a subject, and how we respond and how nature responds to it. I remember seeing some Instagram posts photographer Tom Hunter made over the summer, documenting the dead animals he came across while out. I found these fascinating to look at and it drew the same curiosity in me that I have when I find a dead animal in the street or countryside - what happened? why is it laying here?

My first reaction is always "ooh" in interest at what I have found, but I am still trying to understand within myself why I am interested. At the start of this week, I discovered a dead baby Newt in our pond, I fished it out and I decided to photograph it, out of interest and curiosity.

Laura Marsh, Little Lost Life, Newt, September 2020

I used a Neewer Macro Lens, 58mm, attached to my Canon's 18-55mm standard lens. I was able to get closer and to see more detail on the Newt, I love how I have been able to show the skin and it's structure. This detail in nature and anatomy is a huge interest to me - maybe links to science, pathology photography?

Walks

Something I do a lot and rely on are walks, I have always loved going for a walk and being outside. In recent years this has benefitted my health due to a back condition and a couple of years ago I found walking extremely hard and painful, which affected me hugely both physically and mentally.

I tend to look down a lot when I walk, possibly because I can be clumsy at times, but more so is that I find what is at my feet more interesting, especially if I know the area and walk well. I took a short walk round my town and down to the coast to think and gather inspiration, with the idea of life, death and lifecycles in mind.

The photographs that follow are taken on my Canon 1100D and my Samsung Smartphone.

At the end of week 1, I was due to walk 13 miles for Brain Tumour Research, in memory of a friend who died a couple of years ago and I planned to take a camera and my phone to capture anything that takes my interest throughout the walk. These are the photographs I captured that wet and windy morning.

Something I was interested in was the way the dead vines cling around the railing, hugging and hanging on until life returns later in the year. The patterns, textures and colours caught my eye and I used macro setting on my Canon to get as close as I could, creating some depth of field.

This is edited in Snapseed and transferred back to my PC. I used very basic editing techniques, adjusting the light and contrast only.

Week 2- Interdisciplinary Approaches

The theme this week was Interdisciplinary Approaches. I found this week a slight struggle mentally, as I was tired from the amount of information I had gathered last week as well as my job.

I explored the theme of Vanitas for this week and shared work of Pieter Claesz and Kathryn Osgood. This bought some discussion from my peers, as some had not heard of Vanitas before and were interested in the theme, while others commented on the composition of the work, colour and lighting. I have worked with this theme before, many years ago when I ran still life photography workshops at a school I was training at and I have always had an interest in it somehow. It is full of symbolism, culture, allegory as well as looking at still life, fine art and religion.

Webinar

At the end of this week, there was a webinar. This was my first one and I had many examples I could show, but I wanted to show an image that I took 2 years ago, one I have not shared publicly. Why? because I did not want to upset or offend anyone? possibly. I know I want to try and experiment with my style more and take more risks, this could include being braver with the photos I share publicly.

The photo I showed was of a dead shrew I discovered on a country path while visiting Devon, South West England. I got quite a good reaction to the image and my tutor gave me pointers, linking to Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes and Clive Landen’s book ‘Familiar British Wildlife’. A peer also recommended an Instagram site called Berlin Animal Life, which I have now followed and will explore more. This site documents roadkill discovered on the streets of Berlin.

I mentioned that I tend to look down a lot when I am walking, which got a good reaction from my tutor, this lead to a discussion about people not looking down and only looking up, when they could be missing something at their feet. I would like to explore this further as an idea for a project.

Laura Marsh, Shrew, August 2018