Baltz:-

"I don't think people find the content of these photographs to be the sort of thing they care to look at or think about. Perhaps people will see the work and wonder 'What possible reason could there be for anyone to spend this much time photographing this stuff' - and maybe that might draw them in deeper."

Gohlke:-

About his new topographic - man altered landscape images.

"the world you would like to see and the world you have to look at"

Evaluation

At the beginning of this project I had so many ideas and really got a little lost in which direction to go, so listening to advice, I just went out and enjoyed my photography, taking images of fishermen, objects on the street, fire escapes, bins, air conditioning units, the fire training ground at Durham Tees Valley Airport and of course the industrial units.

A month in to the project was when I realised to just push forward with the industrial estates but just wait for the right weather conditions and light, usually a cloudless sky with minimal wind. This meant having everything ready and keeping an eye on weather forecasts whilst driving round various industrial estates taking note of where the sun would be at what times on the plethora of buildings that I thought would make a suitable composition.

I put a lot more time and effort in the planning stage this time around so I could just turn up, set my camera up and take my time on the compositions and I believe it payed off and can be seen in the final 5 images I chose to submit.

I also decided to set a side a lot more time in the darkroom to try and improve my printing technique, although not always successful and sometimes hindered by things out of my control, I spent many a late evening trying to get the prints just how I wanted them. Again I believe this thirst for improvement payed off with many an evening sat at home with my finished prints up on display for me to enjoy and take in, whilst comparing them to the prints I submitted for my minor project. Even my presentation was carefully considered and took a slightly different direction to the usual classic black frame and window mount.

Overall I believe I have carried out this project to the best of my ability and feel satisfied in the knowledge that I am impressed with each of my prints. Usually I would sit and look at my final images and not be 100% happy, whereas on this occasion I am really enjoying my photography and the images I have produced.

I truly believe you can see the improvement, research, influences, time and effort that have gone in to produce my best work to date, which is only going to continue as I continue in to further education.

WHY?

This is the only question!

• Why choose film over digital?
• Why choose the subject matter I did?
• Why did I even choose to do a Fine Art Photography degree?
• Why did I choose the media of photography to express myself as an artist?
• Why do I think I'm an artist?
• Why do I still want to take it even further and do a Masters?
• Why do I enjoy wading through book after book of other photographer's images?
• Why do I spend hours loading my film, preparing my equipment, keeping an eye on the weather, dashing out and taking the images, coming home to prepare the film for processing, wait for 4 days to get the negs back - only to find that the images are shit and I have to start again?
• Why did I look forward to Contextual studies?
• Why did I enjoy spending 6 months of my life writing a dissertation?
• Why do I enjoy spending 5 hours in the darkroom to end up with a print that I know I'll have to go back the next day to do properly?
• Why is it only recently I've started to enjoy looking at my final prints rather than watching crap on the TV?
• Why do I prefer structure to chaos?
• Why do my parents look at my images then look at each other, smile and then look at me and say "thats nice"?

Research

Usually I blog and blog about the books I am reading on photographers such as:-

• Lewis Baltz
• Stephen Shore
• Joel Stermfeld
• Robert Voit
• William Eggleston - to name a few

And books such as:-

• New topographics
• Altered Landscape
• Shooting Space
• The nature of photographs etc

I look through my books every evening, read the latest editions of various magazines and then use the internet to check the work out of other photographers within the periodicals. My aim for this project was more of a research into myself as a fine art photographer, looking through my previous 3 years of work and reading feedback, paying attention to the notes I made after sessions of constructive criticism and then combining this with where I want to proceed in the future, giving consideration to further education.

I believe the work I am producing now can be seen to have a little influence of all my research, not only influence from photographers but also research in how an image works and sometimes still getting a little of my humour in to the image.

What I have learned is to try and add a little to the composition, to engage the intended viewer for more than just the usual glance, rather than just a straight forward industrial composition as in my minor project submission. Having displayed my images on an easel in my living room I have come to enjoy my images a lot more and that was a big step for me.

Where as my minor project focused more on shape and structure, I believe with more of an influence from Lewis Baltz than any other photographer, this time I have tried to put that to the back of my mind and photograph a lot more on what appealed to me - what I found to be aesthetically pleasing.

As with most of my images through out the degree, all of my compositions for my major project are void of people yet show the existence of people, excluding the street photography and portraits obviously (mind - even then my street photography compositions were not crowded with people). I like the idea of showing these busy places; industrial estates, car parks, chemical sites and docks etc, places where man has made its mark, places where we go to make money, where we spend our days and yet on an evening, once man has left, nature takes over and in the right light all these places come alive and become beautiful in their own right.

Printing

I chose to opt for printing my own images as I believe it not only gives my submission a full personal feel, but also it is myself as the artist that is choosing the final print (as well as the buzz of actually printing yourself along with the heartache of getting it wrong more times than getting it right).
I have found through experience that when the negs are sent away for printing it is the machine and operator that decide on the final outcome, even compositions come back a little different.

I did like the idea of printing really big images and even considered being part of the process by going to a commercial lab and being in the darkroom as the prints were being processed, but again due to expense, time, work and the fact that I enjoy my printing (although sometimes if you met me in the darkroom you could never guess) I decided to go for 20"x24" size paper and use the facilities at college.

I would not like to guess the number of hours spent printing in to the early hours of the evening, but the buzz of sitting at home and looking at the final print on an easel in my living room just can not be beat.

I've found that final exposure, composition and colour is a very personal preference, but hopefully I am learning as an artist to accept my personal preferences whilst listening to constructive criticisms.

People will always comment that may be the image could have been a touch lighter or a touch darker, it could be suggested that certain images could do with a slight blue cast within the shadows or even a yellow cast when there are no shadows. Each image I have printed has been printed at least half a dozen times at varying exposures and casts, with hours of sitting comparing them as they were positioned on easels, ending in my final edit for submission.

A couple of my prints work well with darker shadows and a longer exposure emphasising the effect of a setting sun, whilst lighter shadows and less exposure have worked to give a less imposing feel to the final composition of others. Again personal preference, which could help with the rhetoric of the image and help engage the intended viewer for a little longer than a quick glance.

A few times I've sat at home looking at the final print which is always protected by an archival sleeve and watched the varying light within the room alter the colour cast of the print - making me think I'd got it wrong and then rushing to view my print outside (even removing it from the protective sleeve) and then giving a big sigh of relief.

I do not feel it necessary to blog and blog about my research in to printing as these final images are a culmination of everything I have been researching over the last 3 years - all of which have been previously blogged about, I myself as a critique of my own work can see a difference and a personal quality appearing within my printing technique from my previous submissions.

This can also be said for my choice of film and equipment. I have found over the last couple of years that my Bronica really works well for me with my choice of lens and my good old wooden Wista field camera with a good 90mm lens - both cameras working well with Fujifilm Pro 160. The majority of all research should have been carried out by now, sticking to what works best for you at this stage.

This is not to say I am making do with it and not trying anything else, I am at one with my equipment.

As in Harry Potter and his wand - Your equipment chooses you.

Presentation

https://www.theprintspace.co.uk/OnlineFramingOptions

I used various sites as above to come up with some ideas for presentation, but not only for my final submission - the end of year exhibition too.
I liked the idea of bare brickwork with a hidden batten behind to take my image away from the wall, or a sheet of cladding replacing the brickwork to help give an industrial feel.

Although when printing, I had decided on a border which was wider at the bottom and top (2 inches for both) to the sides (which were an inch), I decided that removing the border completely to allow the image to bleed out worked a lot better for the type of images I have taken. It seems to allow the impression that there is a lot more to the presented composition; the structure, road and vegetation are part of a bigger picture and space.

I usually go for the classic approach of a nice black frame complete with a window mount and non-reflective glass, but I don't think that approach would give me the punch I am after this time with the vivid colours and varying sunlight I used to take my images.

I could see what I was after in my head:-

• A matt white background as a border
• A nice thick border
• A thick white deep frame
• Space between the image and the glass
• Space between the back of the white backboard of the frame
• A floating picture

http://www.digitalab.co.uk/display.html#mounting

The professionalism of Digitalab Newcastle would have been a good place to start, but with time being a big factor and distance I decided to go to Nationaal Gallery in Linthorpe to discuss my ideas. The owner - John, has carried out my classical framing for my previous submissions and at the end of the day I trust his advice.

We discussed my ideas, looked a number of framing options and hopefully people will like what I have come up with.
One of the things I had not considered was the non-reflective glass. John explained that once this type of glass moves away from the print it would actually start to distort the image, making some areas look as though they were out of focus, and for this reason we opted for just plain glass - this will mean careful consideration will have to be given to lighting.
Small strip lighting within the edges of the frame may have been a consideration, but cost is a big factor too.

Hopefully my choices will do my compositions justice - really excited to see the final result.

Due to the cost of framing all prints for submission, I have chose to frame one image and the rest will be in archival sleeves and in a black print box. Over time I can continue to frame my images for solo exhibitions.

Examples