Work in Progress

Into The Image World

Authorship

I chose to post this image below, to this week’s tutor forum Viewers Make a Meaning. The reason being that I felt it was slightly different from my previous work shown, and since we were asked to post an image no one had seen, this I felt was suitable as I had edited it the morning the forum opened. I also chose it as I was interested to see what my peers thought about the image, their interpretations and general feedback.

Fig 1: Laura Marsh, 2021

My choices surrounding the creation of this image continue to be influenced by observations I make when I spot an item of interest, and how I will portray this within a final image.

I spotted this fragile leaf resting in a puddle of oily water, likely from a car as this was shot in a normal residential road. The juxtaposition of something delicate, that once had life, surrounded by something we use as fuel, stood out to me. It highlighted the harsh, but beautiful details made by the oil in the water, drawn to the leaf. Not only did I want to capture this, but that ‘human choice’ discussed in previous weeks came in to play, how I would shoot the image. I am standing away from the puddle to remove as much of my reflection as possible. I cropped the image slightly to remove any that had been captured. I chose to have the image centre to allow the oil to almost seep out of frame and allow negative space that I enhanced to create a deep, darkness in post-production and at the same time spotlighting the leaf and oil to become the focal point of the image.

I used both Lightroom and Snapseed for this edit, transferring the image from camera, to laptop to phone to do so, enabling me to see the results on different screens which allowed me to adjust the contrast and aesthetic accordingly. I feel this is where my previous influences from Kimberley Witham and interest in the genre of Vanitas in past work of mine shows, that dark background blending into the foreground with that underlying subject of death, showing the beauty within it.

“The photographer’s way of seeing is reflected in his choice of subject. The painter’s way of seeing is reconstructed by the marks he makes on his canvas or paper” (Berger, 2008:10)

My project is developing into one about fragility within nature and the awareness of it within our ourselves, with my own body being a source of reference and inspiration. Recreating this within photographic form is an element that I have been considering over the last few weeks I regarding to the topic themes, mainly the indexicality of the images and the relationship between the photograph and a painting. My work resembles what I have seen, but with edits I create and image to differ from reality, whilst keeping a sense of realism within it.

While editing this image, I notice a resemblance to the Sacrum bone within the human body, this area is the lower section of the spine and connects to the pelvis and coccyx. This area is one of the main areas of weakness for me and where my condition is placed. The skeleton of the leaf mirroring the joins within the Sacrum and the structure of the bone. When I mentioned this to my peers within the webinar, they noticed my observation and could link my observation with my intent. This may be an area I need to develop to either make this relationship more obvious or subjective, allowing the viewer to make their own decisions and relationships.

Responses:

I really enjoyed the forum activity as it gave me a chance to allow my work to be viewed without explanation, which would give me an idea as to how my peers would view my work and how this could develop it further.

The responses I received were positive and indicated towards a feeling of life, death, decay and time from the image.

“The end of life that has given us beauty and oxygen” (Vivash, 2021)

“This speaks of the passing of time to me. The leaf decaying and being wasted away with the oil. The angle of the oil stain taking your eye towards the bottom right corner of the image denoting the direction of travel” (Rabone, 2021)

“The journey of life. The leaf has fallen but the lines and marks make it appear to be moving on water. The journey still not complete” (Woodford, 2021)

“Agreeing with everyone else for me there is light and majesty in decay, even some defiance despite the inevitable” (Stoot, 2021)

“I like the contrast between the beauty of the image and lightning, and the tragic sense of pollution and decay it makes me think of the fact that in Romanian (my mother tongue) what is called ‘Still Life’ in English we call literally ‘Dead Nature’ (natura moarta). A more pessimistic view of the world in the Latin genes I guess!” (Ella Vas (Paciu), 2021)

I had some responses also commenting on the aesthetic of the image and content and composition:

“…There is a beautiful colour palette at play here. Subtle, but wit depth, the oil marks are like the lines of a map and like Steven says the oil line leads your eye to the bottom right of the page” (Hayes, 2021)

“…I loved your recent image, they have an antique painterly feel, which I love” (Rogers, 2021)

“…You’ve nailed the aesthetic, fabulous! I would like to see this aesthetic with more objects in the photograph. It reminds me of some of those images we saw in Steph’s ‘Stilled Life Pop Up Lectures’ (not the dead bunnies)” (Paddison, 2021)

This comment, made me think about how I choose my items/objects and although I have a single object in the image by choice to have the negative space around it, having more objects could bring a different feel to an image, but it is not something I would reject trying as the work develops. It also references my plan to explore still life and how this 'feel' of my images could work in that context.

All these comments have helped me see my work through the eyes of others, in this case my peers and tutor, and from this feedback I can see that my intent of showing the beauty in the unseen and decay is clear, but my relationship to the human body, or mine, is only evident once I explained within my webinars, although the leaf skeletons have been a way to visualise that idea. My editing choices and aesthetic choices I can see from the response have worked with their intent, so I will continue to explore and see how this could develop.

References:

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing : Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. 1972. London, British Broadcasting Corporation, 2008.

Falmouth Flexible. “Topic: Week 4 Forum with Sarah: Viewers Make Meaning.” Flex.Falmouth, 12 Feb. 2021, flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/694/discussion_topics/19364. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Figures:

Fig 1: Laura Marsh, 2021