How to view the work

I feel that I should put instructions here on how to view my piece of work. It should be held with a light source behind it. This could be against a window, on a light box or with a torch held and moved around behind it. Please handle with care as it is very fragile and precious to me.

Evaluation

This project has changed a lot since I first started, at the beginning I felt really inspired by the 'Day of our lives - Washing of hands' video and felt almost sure that I would produce a video for this assignment. I knew that I would be traveling to The Gambia in November, and was excited to join this with my final projects. I took my video camera and borrowed a Canon 40D to photograph with. When I got there it was too difficult really to film, photograph and have children hanging from my arms and legs so I just stuck to photographing most of the time. This meant that when I returned I didn't have enough film footage to make a video for my assignment. So, it meant I needed to have a change of idea.
I turned to look at more personal things and wanted to incorporate the 'Root's trip that I went on whilst in The Gambia. When thinking and looking back through photographs I remembered the connection and interest I had when I visited St James Island and heard of the slaves there. This then quickly became my main focus for the project. I felt really interested and excited in doing this and started to get quite creative I felt.
Then I went to a group presentation and presented my work to the group, I came away feeling really deflated and as if my work really wasn't good enough. I think, because I was so connected to the work and to the people, I didn't fight back in the way that I should have. It should have forced me to make the work better and find another route to take it and make it better but I didn't, I let it deflate me and I really did just give up on the project. This is the part looking back I think I am most disappointed about, because I am disappointed in myself for letting it deflate me like that.
However, I realised that I needed to do something so I met with some peers and re-talked through my work and showed the passion that I really feel for this piece of work. This was a massive help, because they built my confidence back up and pretty much told me that I shouldn't have given up at that point but just carry on what I was doing because the passion was so clearly in it.
From that point, I am really pleased with how the project went. I really enjoyed the experimenting and the hand's on practical part of the work. I find that I work better when I am physically making something, so perhaps a video wouldn't have been the best way for me after all even if I did have video footage.
When I purchased my fabric to print on, I wasn't sure if it would work and I knew that I was working to a budget so I only brought 1 pack. This meant that I was limited in how much I could experiment with that part, however I did do lots of test prints on acetate and sizing I did on normal white paper to check that it all was sized correctly. If I were to go back I think I would have brought more of that so that I had chance to experiment much more with it all.
I was surprised at how quickly it came together, I expected myself to be really clumsy and print wrong sizes or not line things up correctly. So I really expected to spend so much money on print credits just trying to figure out how to not be stupid when printing. But, I didn't make any silly mistakes. It took me a little while to work out how the university printers print, because I had to put the fabric in the right way so that it didn't print on the backing paper. But again, this only took me a couple of trials and then I had it and remembered it. I shocked myself.
My piece of work has to be viewed with light behind it. Originally, I was hoping to buy or make a light box to hand in with the work, but unfortunately due to costing and time I wasn't able to do it. However, it works well just being held against a window, so although that wasn't my initial plan it works and it is free, and is readily available. When it is held against a window, which isn't quite as bright as a light box, the text that I wrote in the bottom is less visible, which to be honest I quite like because it is even more hidden inside of the layers.
Overall, I am really happy with my final piece of work. I put a lot into it and it means a lot to me because it represents to me a group of people that I really hold close to my heart, the Gambian people. I wanted to do them justice and I think that I have.
If it were going on display I would buy a light box and mount it all so that it was attached to the wall. I would ideally have it so that the viewer could turn the light box on and off as they desired because I think it is interesting to view as both a single tree image and then when the light is turned on it reveals what is underneath. Or, if there was no switch for the viewer then perhaps it could be on a sensor so that when a viewer moves closer to it, the light would come on and the layers would be revealed.
I hope that people will be interested enough to want to find out the true meaning of my work, but if they just think it looks good and are fine with that much then I am happy for them to admire it in that way too. I am really happy with how it has turned out.
In terms of costing and budgeting, I did keep within my budget but there was not much cash left spare at the end. All of the items that I needed for this work I was able to buy so that was okay.

Essay

My essay was looking at the meanings which surrounded the images 'Mount Williamson' by Ansel Adams and 'Fire at Hoboken' by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

I started off by looking at different landscape photographers and photographs. I first of all came across Ansel Adams and then Alfred Stieglitz through a little reading. Then I started looking through different series' and bodies of work, eventually falling upon 'Mount Williamson' by Adams. I loved the image but didn't know what it was about, and after reading his books I was so surprised at what the meaning behind it was, so I was hooked.
I really felt that it linked nicely to my work in a way that I didn't really expect it to.

Then I found a quote from Cartier-Bresson:

The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks.

This led me to look further into Cartier-Bresson's work where I discovered 'Fire and Hoboken'. It all sort of fit together and flowed well.

The meaning in my work I don't feel is instantly obvious to the viewer, so I sort of compared myself to Adams' work straight away (Even though his is a single image and mine is an artefact) The meaning of mine is quite a deep thing and I think that it is quite an important thing, the same as Adams' image being about the Japanese people being held in imprisonment.

Framing

Obviously, I want something that is not covered at the back because the point of this piece is to have light shining from behind it. I tried to find a photo frame that just had perspex or glass at the back of it so that it can still be completely see-through. Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck in finding something like this.

So I had the idea of displaying it in a box frame. But then the same issue stood that, at the back it will look a mess. I know its only the back and when it's on a light box nobody will see it, but I'm a perfectionist with these things and I just wanted it to look good all the way around, so that if people do hold it, it wont be a mess at the back.
Also, if the back is neat then all of the messy edges that are on the piece from the joining process will be hidden.

To resolve this and still have a neat back and front I decided to buy 2 frames and sandwich them together. So I took the backs off of both of them, and then super-glued the glass to the inside of the frame - at first I was going to take the glass out so that people could touch it and feel the material but then I realised that if many people did this it would become so ruined and the colours would change over time. So to preserve it I decided that I wanted to keep the glass in.
So that is super-glued into the inside of both of the frames. Then I glued the front piece of fabric to the back of the glass and the inside of the frame.
This was really difficult because it needed to be perfectly lined up but I had to have it all upside down to be able to glue it and keep it in place. So awkward and fiddly!

Then I had to keep that in place, glue the back of the fabric and the back frame piece and sandwich it all together.
The wood of the two frames didn't sit together as tightly as I wanted it to so I had to pile heavy books and things on the top of it for a couple of days to make sure that the super-glue dried whilst the wood was as tight together as possible, and not move it to allow the wood to pull away.



The chalk on the frames is really dusty so I had to also try not to get any of that off my hands onto the glass or front of the fabric, because once it was all glued there's no taking it apart to clean anything.

Joining the layers

Now that I have all of my layers printed and together I need to work out how to join it all together.
The edges of the fabric keep fraying and the bits of cotton are going everywhere. I wanted to buy some shearing scissors to stop that happening, but stupid me went to the shop without my ID and they wanted ID for me to buy scissors! So annoying.
I found instead some anti-fraying glue that you can put on and it stops the edges from falling apart so I brought that instead. (They wanted ID for scissors but not glue!)

It has worked really well it dried really quickly so didn't go all over my work and literally just sealed the edges over and stopped all the little bits of cotton.
The acetate I have cropped slightly to make it the same size as the fabric. I almost made a massive error, I forgot that to stick it all together I would need a sort of seam allowance to put the glue or tape and I almost cut it all off. Then I remembered to leave it and so cut it further away from the edge of the image.
I am using double sided tape to join all of the acetate pieces together, it is strong enough to hold it and see-through so if any is seen when I have finished it won't be too noticeable.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to present it for hand in. I don't want to just give it in with all of the edges messy and it looking a mess. I need to figure out what I'm going to do for hand in.

Mock-up and easy editing

To help me when printing I created a mock up of my piece of work on Photoshop.

I made each layer separately on Photoshop and then I was able to edit and size each layer to print.
I was also able to move different bits around to see how it looked without wasting paper and fabric and acetate in the process.

The fabric that I was printing on was not A4, it was slightly smaller so making each layer in Photoshop helped me to be able to size each layer to fit the paper and still edit without getting confused and again wasting paper and other materials.

Adding myself to the work

After writing my essay about hidden meanings in photographs and looking editing my images for Major Practical Project, where I found that I, as photographer, was within the images I wanted to add a bit of me to this work. 

In my essay I talk about how the meaning of the image stays within the image and can't be changed, only the connotation can change depending on the viewer. After thinking about this for a while, I wanted the meaning of my work to be within the work, quite literally, yet still be hidden slightly.

So, I used the same text as the book is written in, (Times New Roman) and wrote a small piece about the work. It reads:

'If trees could talk, wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what they might say about the occurrences on James Island whilst the slaves were held there. The island is such an idyllic place to visit, big trees, open sea, lovely heat and friendly people to explain the relics as you explore the island. Slowly, the sea is washing the island away;, it is vanishing bit by bit. At some point in the future all history of that island and stories that the trees hold within them will be lost forever. Then what will happen?'

I placed this text in italics, as it is personal I wanted it to stand out against the text from the book. I placed the text against the light brown at the bottom of the image, I think it is a piece of wood or something on the ground. I put it here because it does not interfere with the rest of the image, however the black text stands out against the light background. 

When it is placed amongst the other layers it is not very visible. Which I like, because it is in there and so that cannot change.. it is a literal trapping of the meaning within the piece of work.

I also like that it overlaps slightly the text from the books. The text from the book is bolder so that stands out more, hiding my text and blurring the words slightly. 

Now I feel like I myself am a literal part of this work. 

Research

I found this statement which I feel fits my work so well. Walker (2009) says.. 'When a photograph - enters into a montage relationship with either a caption, text, another picture, or a particularly potent display context, then a 'third-effect' meaning can be generated from that juxtaposition which was not inherent in either of the terms seen in isolation.'


Each image and the text that is included in my piece of work has its own meaning but when it is combined together it gains a new meaning and effect that isn't present in the single image.

Extra layer

I still feel like the work needs another layer in it to smooth it all out a little bit. I think that a photo of the sea would help to smooth the sky and the sea and kind of merge it all into one. I don't want all of the layers to stand out as being layers so they need to merge together a little more.

I have this image:

Which I Photoshopped the boat and birds out of to make this:

Which sits perfectly as a merging layer to smooth things out and make it look a lot neater. It makes the colours more milky which stop one standing out more than another.

Extra layers

Looking back through my images of the roots trip and gambia, 2 things stood out as being important. Most of the images I took were of the trees and relics of the island as that is what interested me and engaged me at the time. However I also took these 2 images:

 I can't remember what this flag stood for and I can't find it online - I'm an idiot and my brain is like a sieve at the moment. But it was joined with a statue which represented the end of slavery, so it is something to do with the abolition of slavery and a symbol that The Gambian people would not be slaves again. This is a really important thing to The Gambians, as well as important to the roots tour and the history of the town and island. Therefore, it links in really well to this piece of work.

The island still has these cannons around the edge of the island, which are obviously not needed but are an integral piece of history linked to the island. I pressume that they are the same ones that were there when the slaves were there, but nobody told us that and we weren't told any different. They are eroding, but I thought they were quite beautiful pieces of work and created a juxtaposition against the idyllic seascape.



When I placed both of these images into the work, it created a distinct line down the middle of the tree. I didn't want to stretch either image to full size, so i placed them both on one sheet. I really didn't like that the join was so visible through the tree, so I edited them in Photoshop so that it was just the cannon and the flag.

This works much better like this because there are no protruding lines down the middle of the page looking ugly. It is more smooth and when layered it looks a lot neater and more considered. 

Too thin..

If my work is just the 2 layers of fabric and a layer of text on the middle then it will be really really thin and will probably look a bit crap to be honest.
I need to find things to bulk it out a little bit. It needs to be things that are related to the island and the slaves and important to it all the support the imagery that is already there.
If I add something to it that is not related or important then it will completely change the meaning of the project.
I need to look back through the images that I took again and see what stands out.

Decision

I have decided that the front and back of the piece will be the main tree image printed on fabric. It will create a sort of sandwich with them both and all the layers will be trapped inside.

I am still trying to figure out how I will join it together. Perhaps if the front and back in fabric I could sew them together, this will literally trap the layers inside. However, it takes away the ability for viewers to handle it and see the layers individually.

But.. the more I create of it the more precious I think it is becoming, the layers being fabric and acetate will be quite fragile I think and so if people are touching it multiple times, will it get ruined really quickly ? Especially the acetate, there will be finger marks all over it which will show up all the time when the light is on it.

Maybe my idea will have to change slightly so that it is just one piece, and cannot be taken apart.
After all.. it is representing The Gambian people who I said hide their 'layers' so if it is representing them and they don't show them perhaps it should be the same in my work that you can't see the layers.

Text

I read through the first half of 'Roots' again and marked all of the pages that mentioned the Baobab trees. This is because the Baobab trees are the main point of the piece, they are what drew my attention to the island so instantly because they are what have been there since the slaves. 

I was surprised when I realized that there are only 9 pages which mentions the trees. The book however doesn't talk very much about the island that I visited, because it was only a holding place so the slaves were quickly shipped in and out of there, from where they were captured to the slave owners who were purchasing them. 

 

I scanned them all in and then using Photoshop I cropped down so that I  could join them together to make one page of text to layer into the work.

The way that the printers work in university, I had to print onto paper and then photocopy onto the acetate. These are some of the test prints:

The first one I tried just randomly placing them on the page.

I didn't really like it like this because there is not really any structure, the rest of the piece is really structured and it looked a bit odd with the text randomly placed. It looked pretty thoughtless.

 

 The second image, I placed the text into columns on either side of the page, so that when it is layered with the other images the text would sit around the tree.
This worked a lot better than the randomly placed text.

To make it stand out more under the layers I circled the word 'Boabab' with a red ring each time it is on the page. I like the way that this looks because it just makes it bolder than the rest of the text and under the other layers it brings back the meaning of the work.

Back to it

I have to confess that this work has taken rather a backseat over the past couple weeks because all of my attention has been on getting my dissertation finished and handed in.

Now that that has been handed in, I am ready to get back into this project and get my final piece made. This I think is the most exciting part, it's the fun part. Its the part when you can physically see it all coming together and it is really really exciting.

Re-try tracing paper

Since I have sort of changed my idea and am now using light to aid the transparency of my images.. I decided to retry the tracing paper.
I wondered if perhaps when held to the light it would become transparent.
Here is the test:

It is slightly more see-through against the light, but still not enough for how I want it to be.
The colour is still there, sometimes when light is put behind an image the colour can fade, but in this instance it doesn't which is nice.

Unfortunately though I don't think it will work for this project.

Fabric experimentation

I brought some fabric that you can print onto from a craft fair this weekend. I thought it would be really fun to see what it would look like if I printed this image onto it.
Well, it worked out really well and it is so simple to do. When it has no light behind it you can just see the image, but when it is held up to the light it becomes more transparent.

I then tried layering the fabric over the acetate text and image (above). It worked really well I think. I was hoping that it would work but I didn't expect it to be as good as it has turned out.
I also like that the trees aren't lined up properly so it gets a sort of 3D/shadow effect on it.

However, it is already very apparent that the fabric frays so easily, you just have to touch it and it all starts coming apart. If I use it then I will have to sew the edges or something to stop it from doing this all the time.

True feelings

To be honest, I am feeling really disheartened with this project.
I really don't want to give up but at this point it just feels like its going nowhere and it's just not working. I don't know what it is thats making me feel like that though. =/ I just feel so rubbish about it.

I really like the print on acetate and the text. But i don't feel like it's enough. How can it be enough?
But.. its a representation of my trip.

I feel so passionate about the subject matter and what im trying to show, but i just.. it's not showing through! I'm not doing it justice - I feel like I can't do it!

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!! Sometimes, I just want to scream!

Drawing

I tried doing some drawing of slave ships and islands to try layering but it just really didn't look or feel right.

I really don't like drawing and it doesnt come easily to me, so i really felt like I was labouring it a little bit too much for it to be an inspired drawing or anything like that.

Here is an example of one of the ships:

It just didn't aid the overall look and feel that I want for my project.

I tried it at least, but I wont be adding any drawing to my work.

Making it personal

Ive been trying to think of ways to make my project more personal and I am really struggling. I don't want to add anything that will take away from the imagery, or that will make the concept so much more difficult to understand. Or just make it all look to busy and overcrowded.
I think it represents me and my trip to The Gambia in that it is my image and I am bringing all of the elements together to tell a story. You don't look at the image and see the history of James Island and straight away know about the slaves etc.
The history and darkness is hidden totally by the idyllic image, the viewer must do research into the meaning of my work to know what it truly represents.

(This is what I have written my mixed media essay based on. How the meaning of a photograph can be hidden from the viewer.)

One way I have considering making this piece of work more personal, was to stitch into the text. I thought about stitching certain words from the text which help tell the story, or that stood out to me as being important or moving.

However, this really didn't work. The only materials I could get the needle and thread through were paper, tracing paper and fabric. The acetate was just too tough to get it through.
As I really want to print onto the acetate, this isn't going to work.
I would need an industrial, super sharp sewing machine to be able to stitch into the acetate. This costs money and takes time, and I don't have enough of either to do it.

So.. I will keep thinking...

Experimenting

Because my image worked so well printed onto acetate, I wanted to see how well text printed onto acetate.

Here is my test:

I photocopied a random page from the 'Roots' book on the photocopier. The good thing about printing onto acetate, is if the text comes out backwards you just turn the acetate over.
I really like this.
I knew it would work because many people do this and project using text on acetate.
I just wanted to check that it worked printing off of the printers at university. And it does! yey so no expensive costs involved.

So then I put the image and text together and this is how it looks:

I absolutely love it. It works so well. It gives extra depth to the image and makes the tree really stand out i feel.
I tried it the other way around but the text was so overpowering you couldnt see the image as clearly below it.

I feel that I perhaps need to make it a little more personal, add a layer in that links it back to my trip to The Gambia. I'm not sure how to do this yet though.