Revisiting my experimental work, visual research and documentary texts over the weekend, I can see that my Creech Woods images fall into three areas :
- ‘straight’ images
- ‘abstract blur’ blended with 1944 black and white images ( though only a limited number of suitable wartime images found)
- ‘abstract blur’ images with accompanying text or an introductory text to give context
Putting examples together in Contact Sheet 1 to get a feel of where to go I’m now favouring’ abstract blurs’.
Using the examples as a selection ‘guide’, and after much mulling over the images that made the penultimate selection ( really hard to do for this assignment ), I have chosen a series of images that I think work on a number of different levels… a passage of time; a sense of presence and emotion; a fading of memory.
That said, I was drawn to image ‘t above and was in two minds to replace image 7 with it..more from ‘t’ suggesting dark times ahead before ‘getting there’ ; image 7 placing a more hopeful slant for the way ahead perhaps. It will be interesting to see what my tutor thinks about the final selection and to share the images for critique with fellow Landscape students if we can get together in a Hangout at the end of August.
L to R 7/t
Selection of images for submission to tutor:
Why the abstraction and the use of blur? I wanted to create an abstraction of reality and choosing intentional camera movement as being best suited to my intention of both evoking a sense of troops encamped within the woods, waiting for D-Day and marking the fading memory of their presence there in 1944.The last image is a deliberate contrast in ‘blur’ to mark the absence of the troops…
Do I use accompanying text ?
I am in a quandary as to whether to use text to accompany these final images. Text would give context to the images but I’m wondering whether they are too direct in suggesting what the viewer should see or feel. Also I do not have enough quotes to provide one for each image so the selection and positioning needs careful thought.For example,one approach could be :
‘To-day we have come into a new camp from where we shall embark and so there is only a last bastion between us and the fight in front of us. I have to admit I am not a hero and I have never wished for a free bath in the Channel! Nor have I been impatient because of the long delay’.
[ Captain Alasdair Bannerman]
‘To-day we learn that tomorrow we will march to be allo-cated to landing craft. So the play is on’.
[ Captain Alasdair Bannerman]
‘Now it seems that the day approaches us with the speed of lightning and just now I met Rowland who admitted to me that he was really afraid! He doesn’t know where we go but when we looked at a map of France we have – independently of each other – come to the conclusion that it could be Calais…’
[ Captain Alasdair Bannerman]
‘It is now cool evening, the mess has closed, and the time is late when the camp is preparing for its rest, and probably this will be the last night on English soil for ages’.
[ Captain Alasdair Bannerman]
- #5
Tomorrow we shall have to go into our different boats and will not meet each other again for some time, not before we have reached our destination for action. I have already spoken to all of them and bade them good night and now I have to read them three orders of the day, one from the C.O., one from Monty and one from Eisenhower’.
[ Captain Alasdair Bannerman]
Soldiers,Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security to yourselves in a free world’. [Eisenhower]
‘Much depends on our gun but I cannot do any more. God be with them and all of us and may it be His Will that we end this horrible thing soon’.
[ Captain Alasdair Bannerman]
- #8
‘I cannot remember them departing but one morning when I looked out of the window they were no longer there. They must have pulled out, albeit very quietly, during the night’.
[Limbrough]
At the moment I’m inclined to go for using some text ( a selective use here I think as less seems better than more ), maybe as captions for prints or within a book format…I’ll try a draft book format to see how this might look…
References
Bannerman,A. et al. (2109) If I Don’t Come Home – Letters from D-Day [Kindle edition] From Amazon.co.uk (Accessed on 24 May 2019)
Eisenhower, D.D. (1944) Order of the day At: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowerorderofdday.htm (Accessed on 25 June 2019)
Limbrough. (2003) Allied troops in the Forest of Bere Before D-Day. At https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/about/siteinformation.shtml (Accessed on 9 May 2019 )
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