I visited the exhibtion by Tearfund named 'Onani' help at the Salvation Army HQ, London this week.
It was all about capturing the heart of Africa in a range of different mediums.
Miriam-Rose Platts used mosquito nets in her piece. Photographing them up close gives a great texture and interesting mix of light and shade when the light comes through the net.
From my trip to The Gambia, I have lots of malaria tablets left over. This work made me think perhaps it could give an interesting texture to my work if I crushed a couple and scanned them or photographed them and layered the texture with my work.
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Monday, 20 January 2014
Chosen image..
To me it reminds me of what the tree in the garden of Eden may have looked like.
I think the scene looks really idyllic, such majesty from a big tree, in the middle of the image so it is the main attention. I like the orange dust path on the right hand side, and what looks like a shelter of some sort. The sea looks calm and inviting in the background, nicely soaking into the sky along the horizon.
I think this image is so peaceful, it calms the viewer I feel and just gives the impression of tranquility, peace and happiness.
With other imagery and text layered underneath it I think it just works really well for what I am trying to say with my finished piece.
Thursday, 16 January 2014
'Roots'
One of the excisions I took part in whilst in The Gambia was the 'roots' trip. This trip takes you on a journey of Gambian slave Kunta Kinte, starting at the village he lived in 'Juffure' and then travelling by small canoe boat to James Island, now re-named Kunta Kinte island.
Since returning from The Gambia, I have begun reading the book 'Roots' by Alex Haley. Haley is a descendant of Kunta Kinte and after learning of the family history from his great grandmother decided to write it into a novel.
Whilst at James Island, our tour guide began telling us of the Baobab tress on the island and that they are many hundreds of years old. When we reached the slave yard he said, "If trees could talk, the stories that they would tell..."
This stuck with me for the whole trip and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It is so true! If they have been there all of this time, how much have those trees witnessed. What would they say if you could speak?
After that, I began photographing the island in a different mind set. When looking at the island from the main land, whilst travelling over on the boat and even being on the island itself - it is SO idyllic! Huge green and brown trees, sand, bright blue sea as far as you can see out, sunshine and happy smiley faces all around ... people journey there and think 'wow' its beautiful - I know I did when I first arrived there.
But, look deeper into the history and the truth and it is no idyllic, it is not beautiful, it is so far the opposite. It is shocking.. and to be honest it brought me to tears when the realisation sank in.
On my blog that I kept whilst in The Gambia I wrote this about the day - 'James Island is a bit of an interesting place - it's beautiful views, idyllic are juxtaposed with the horrors of what happened there ! 'If trees could talk' was a phrase our tour guide repeated. The baobab trees there are the same ones that were there at the time kunta kinte would has been a slave on the island ! Insane ! '
Since returning from The Gambia, I have begun reading the book 'Roots' by Alex Haley. Haley is a descendant of Kunta Kinte and after learning of the family history from his great grandmother decided to write it into a novel.
Whilst at James Island, our tour guide began telling us of the Baobab tress on the island and that they are many hundreds of years old. When we reached the slave yard he said, "If trees could talk, the stories that they would tell..."
This stuck with me for the whole trip and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It is so true! If they have been there all of this time, how much have those trees witnessed. What would they say if you could speak?
After that, I began photographing the island in a different mind set. When looking at the island from the main land, whilst travelling over on the boat and even being on the island itself - it is SO idyllic! Huge green and brown trees, sand, bright blue sea as far as you can see out, sunshine and happy smiley faces all around ... people journey there and think 'wow' its beautiful - I know I did when I first arrived there.
But, look deeper into the history and the truth and it is no idyllic, it is not beautiful, it is so far the opposite. It is shocking.. and to be honest it brought me to tears when the realisation sank in.
On my blog that I kept whilst in The Gambia I wrote this about the day - 'James Island is a bit of an interesting place - it's beautiful views, idyllic are juxtaposed with the horrors of what happened there ! 'If trees could talk' was a phrase our tour guide repeated. The baobab trees there are the same ones that were there at the time kunta kinte would has been a slave on the island ! Insane ! '
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
Carrie Mae Weem
I just came across - by chance really - the work of Carrie Mae Weem. And wow I am a little speechless.
The series 'From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried' (1995-1996)
http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/from-here.html
I think this is really relevant to where I am in terms of research at the moment. I have been looking into slaves alot as a follow on from reading the 'Roots' book.
Weem joins imagery and text in a way that is really moving I feel. The red tone over the images, makes it more difficult to see the person in the photograph. The thing i have noticed about slaves from my research is that they are not respected, they are not seen as important and so not being able to see the faces clearly in the images really pulls this out and makes it obvious.
Also, the text over the top is readable but it is not bold. It doesn't stand out as much as it could do, again i think that this works really well. You have to look closely and kind of concentrate to read what it says. Placement of the text is important too, and in none of the images the text is over the face. I feel that this gives an air of respect back to the people in the photographs. It is also a little .. haunting? You can see these people, you can read a statement about them, and all the time they are looking directly out of the image and almost make you fell guilty for looking. Well.. they make me feel guilty !
I feel a real sense of 'the other' through doing this work. I am beginning to be overly aware of the fact that my skin is white and in some cases.. when looking at gripping imagery such as this.. I feel a sort of guilt fall on me as if I should be sorry for what has happened to these people.
I wasn't even alive at the times of some of these things, yet because of the colour of my skin I feel ashamed.
The thing that really is sinking in though... is that in some places the colour of skin really is still determining how you are treated. How awful ! To in some cases fear your own life.... because of the colour of skin you have been born with !
The series 'From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried' (1995-1996)
http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/from-here.html
I think this is really relevant to where I am in terms of research at the moment. I have been looking into slaves alot as a follow on from reading the 'Roots' book.
Weem joins imagery and text in a way that is really moving I feel. The red tone over the images, makes it more difficult to see the person in the photograph. The thing i have noticed about slaves from my research is that they are not respected, they are not seen as important and so not being able to see the faces clearly in the images really pulls this out and makes it obvious.
Also, the text over the top is readable but it is not bold. It doesn't stand out as much as it could do, again i think that this works really well. You have to look closely and kind of concentrate to read what it says. Placement of the text is important too, and in none of the images the text is over the face. I feel that this gives an air of respect back to the people in the photographs. It is also a little .. haunting? You can see these people, you can read a statement about them, and all the time they are looking directly out of the image and almost make you fell guilty for looking. Well.. they make me feel guilty !
I feel a real sense of 'the other' through doing this work. I am beginning to be overly aware of the fact that my skin is white and in some cases.. when looking at gripping imagery such as this.. I feel a sort of guilt fall on me as if I should be sorry for what has happened to these people.
I wasn't even alive at the times of some of these things, yet because of the colour of my skin I feel ashamed.
The thing that really is sinking in though... is that in some places the colour of skin really is still determining how you are treated. How awful ! To in some cases fear your own life.... because of the colour of skin you have been born with !
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Choosing a theme
Since organizing all of my images into albums and then processing and spending time with each album individually, I have decided that I will be using the portrait photographs of the children and creating a book.
Drawing upon research from my dissertation topic about the representation of African children in the media, I want to show that the images we see of African children don't always have to be of them looking sad, sick and malnourished. Many people don't know any different and are okay with the way that they live. Just because a lot of them don't fit the Western standards of living, doesn't mean they are not happy.
It is good to be aware of poverty and to want to help those children who need help, but for all the other Afrian children who are being tared with the same brush, it is not fair!
Drawing upon research from my dissertation topic about the representation of African children in the media, I want to show that the images we see of African children don't always have to be of them looking sad, sick and malnourished. Many people don't know any different and are okay with the way that they live. Just because a lot of them don't fit the Western standards of living, doesn't mean they are not happy.
It is good to be aware of poverty and to want to help those children who need help, but for all the other Afrian children who are being tared with the same brush, it is not fair!
Friday, 10 January 2014
Link back to previous work..
Thinking about using transparent materials to print onto led me back to thinking about my final college project in 2011.
I printed on tracing paper, acetate and fabric. They were each framed individually and hung from the ceiling in front of a bright window. This project was to document my family history and each image was spaced away from the others and so you could see through each one individually but when stood in front of it you could not see the back image.
I feel like this project is sort of an add on to this project.. it builds on it.
I love the idea of images being able to been seen through, it makes the viewer connect with it easier. If you held it in your hand it would look like every other image, but once you physically lift it up and put light behind it, it gives it a new life, a new dynamic and you can interact so differently with it.
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