decay presentation

February 2012

DecayAS PHOTOGRAPHY EXAMINATION

Saturday, 28 January 12

Decay

Many photographers have focused on aspects of decay that would otherwise have remained unnoticed. Mood, colour, texture and the effect of light have all been observed and recorded. Consider the work of others and respond in your own way to some aspect of decay.


Aaron SiskindChicago 30

What has interested the photographer here and how has he attempted to record his impressions?


Chicago 27, 1960

Jerome 21, Arizona, 1949“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”Aaron Siskind


Paul White Great Frampton Mansion, Llantwit Major, South Glarmogan 2009

Since 1993 I have been photographing close-up, large format photographs of weathered walls. Some were taken in busy streets in cities such as Swansea, Nottingham, Bristol and Brighton whilst others were taken in rural Wales in empty cottages, farms and mansions.

These abstract photographs are inspired by the American Abstract Expressionist painters from the 1950's but especially by the work of American photographer Aaron Siskind.


Keith Arnatt - Untitled, from the series The Tears of Things (Objects from a Rubbish Tip) 1990

in 'Tears of Things' (Objects from a Rubbish Tip) 1990-91, Keith Arnatt depicts single items on a makeshift plinth: the head of a doll, a brush with some of its bristles caked in gunk, a cracked red lightbulb covered with a film of brown dust, a doll's torso with a foot thrust forward covered in black gloss paint.


Keith Arnatt - Untitled, from the series The Tears of Things (Objects from a Rubbish Tip) 1990


Keith Arnatt - Untitled, from the series Pictures from a Rubbish Tip, 1988-1989

The series 'Pictures from a Rubbish Tip' (1988-89) is a body of work devoted to images of decomposing food, some in their plastic wrappers, some naked; all of which have a delicate, almost transcendental, beauty. Arnatt uses the medium of photography with the sensibility of a painter. Colour is important to him, and this comes out in one image depicting a strip of bacon and a piece of eggshell against a backdrop of plastic partially obscuring a pink floral pattern behind. But it is not the inventory of items depicted which makes this picture arresting, it is, rather, a certain undefined quality, perhaps the way the light falls on the objects, or the way the plastic conceals and mutes the things behind, in this instance, making a composition of rubbish appear as if painted in the manner of a Flemish painting. Perhaps it is because the effect of making what could be described as dirty plastic appear as fine gauze or muslin, or the care with which these items of rubbish are composed: each is attributed with a value by its relation to the others. What ever it is, Arnatt has transformed the unwanted into something, at least pictorially, highly desirable. But when Arnatt plays directly with the ambiguity of objects, as he does in his series 'Canned Sunsets' (1990-91) the transformation from literal into figurative seems contrived by comparison.


"it has always been an obsession for me to venture in forbidden places: I did it as a kid – I’m still doing it now (where as many others just stopped when they grew up). I love to rediscover what has been forgotten, to relive what has happened, to listen to sounds that no longer are, to just sit down and imagine what the ghosts that are still around are telling me, showing me… Catching this inside a camera, on negative black and white or colour slide isn’t easy. I need to be alone to be able to concentrate and translate that feeling."

Henk van Rensbergenhttp://www.abandoned-places.com


http://www.abandoned-places.com

http://www.abandoned-places.com

"To some degree you must know the theory behind the shutter button – that will give you the freedom to express what you want to express. Measuring light and exposure are things you can learn. Using a tripod, knowing the limits of your lenses, depth of field are things you must understand and apply to get results. On the other hand you can talk about composition or sharpness but in the end it’s up to the photographer to actually play with his composition and eventually break the rules to achieve something surprising …"


Robert Polidori from the series Chernobyl 2001


Sigmar Polke, Untitled (Palermo) 1976

Polke, who died last year, used his camera like a sketchbook; and he treated his photos like paintings, experimenting with, altering or deliberately bungling the development process to create unusual visual effects. Most of his prints are creased and stained. Everything seems unfinished—not in the sense of lacking anything, but in the sense of still being in play.


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Questions to ask yourself:

How many interpretations of the word ‘decay’ can you think of?

Can you think about all the ways that a photograph could record both the process and products of decay?

In what sense is decay an inevitable feature of existence?

How can photographs themselves decay? How could you explore, encourage and exploit this process?

How is the art of photography partly an attempt to prevent decay?


decay presentation

Education

keith arnatt untitled

items of rubbish

butwhen arnatt

series pictures

little things

way of feeling

tears of thingsobjects

series chernobyl