Presenting Assignment 1

Presentation for assessment

I have decided on a cinematic feel for the presentation of my work for assessment and  have chosen to present a short video slideshow plus the final six images.

The video offers the opportunity to get a real sense of the atmosphere created by my images; drawing the viewer into that feeling of unease that the city underpass generates. I think it better presents images which realistically would benefit from being printed bigger on paper larger than A3 and of a ratio better suited to their shape, perhaps on a roll.  The video is silent. After experimenting with sound ( see the final three experiments shared for critique), and mulling over feedback from fellow students, I decided a silent version worked better than clichéd sound effects such as footsteps or heartbeats.

The slideshow can be seen at:  Das Unheimliche.

The six final images can be seen below and will be printed on A3 Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper. I wanted a finish that matched the sense of a camera panning across the scene and after experimenting with a number of different papers, I think that this particular paper works the best. The outcome of my  paper experiments  are detailed below.

Experiments with video and printing papers

1  Das Unheimliche  – the video

I noted that in my Formal Feedback session my tutor suggested experimenting with a slide show approach as a way of presenting my final images. She  felt that what would make a difference to my final images would be presenting them one after the other left to right, possibly fading into each other. Having experimented with a slideshow approach for my fifth assignment, I’ve now come back to the idea of exploring this approach for Das Unheimliche. I decided to use Lightroom again.

Firstly I changed the order of the images to facilitate a better slide transition ( i.e.  #3, #5, #4, #1, #2 #6 ) .Sound tracks were sourced from the BBC Sound Archive. Early on I realised that the two key decisions were whether to use the panning and zoom option and whether to have a soundtrack ( I had some concerns with both of this options in that they might detract from the viewing effect). After some experimenting with various options, I have narrowed the video options down to three which I intend to bring to a forthcoming Landscape Hangout for critique. At this stage I’m too close to the work and would value some feedback from others less ‘wrapped up’ in it.

• Soundtrack but no panning 

• Panning but no sound

• Panning with sound

Update : Landscape Hangout critique (29 November) [ see https://wordpress.com/post/suegreenfieldphotographylandscape.wordpress.com/3294  ]

From our discussion of the three videos, it became clear that everyone felt the second video i.e panning with no sound was the better version.Jack commented that he thought the heartbeat soundtrack a little cliched and I must admit I do agree with him here. With hindsight I think it too obvious and in danger of detracting from the viewing effect.

So, I have selected Unheimliche 3 and renamed it ‘Das Unheimliche’ ( see https://vimeo.com/375134763/b90e815083

2) Das Unheimliche  – the images as prints

 

I intend to print all my images myself as I feel that I have more control on the finished prints . For this first assignment though, the size and shape of the final images do present somewhat of a challenge.I’ve opted to print on A3 paper which allows an  image size of 3.5 in x 17in.  – not an ideal size but just about enough to see detail and colour. To see what might work best with the six final images, I’ve experimented with different types of paper using my Canon Pro- 100S printer and the same image. To do this I purchased a sample pack of Hahnmühle Matt FineArt paper and a sample pack of Hahnmühle Glossy FineArt.

Canon Pro Luster (260 g/m² ) – I often use this paper now as opposed to Ilford Gallerie Smooth Pearl ( previously my favourite). The result provides a more cinematic feel than the matte / rag papers –  a sense of a cinematic camera sweep across the scene.

Hahnemühle  Glossy Fine Art  Baryta (325 gsm) – denser /darker colour  with less detail of the steps- the colour of tunnel is probably more accurate.Again the sheen offers a cinematic feel.

Canon Pro Premium Matte (210gsm) – the version printed on this paper lost a little color detail – the matte finish deadened or rather flattened the image which just about works  OK with the enhanced grain of the image

Hahnemühle Matt Fine Art  Photo Rag Duo (276 gsm) – the colour detail was slightly better that the Canon Matte – again a slightly flattened feel which enhances the sense of the ‘uncanny’…

Hahnemühle  Glossy Fine Art  Photo Rag Baryta (315 gsm) – good colour / a more bluish feel to the tunnel / clearer detail e.g. steps more visible – slight sheen offers a sense of the cinematic…

Khadi handmade rag  ( 210gsm) – this version brought out the enhanced grain of the image which is not surprising as it is not photo paper and very obviously a rag paper. The printer just about coped with its thickness ( I did have a momentary sense of panic when it took a while to get started) but the printing was marred round the edges of the paper where ink splatted ….So this option is not a viable one.

So, apart from the slight change in colour production, it seems that I have the choice of going for the cinematic feel of the luster / glossy fine art paper ( not much difference between Canon and Hahnemühle ) and the flatter, almost deadened colour ( and thereby grimness of location  ) of the photographs printed on the matte paper which enhances the existing graininess of the images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Panning and soundtrack 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2   Das Unheimliche – prints

 

Das Unheimliche – final images for Assignment one

Assignment one : Beauty and the Sublime   ‘Produce a series of 6-12 photographs that convey your own interpretation of beauty and /or the sublime within the context of landscape’

Das Unheimliche

‘the city is probably the most privileged site for the sublime as a threatening place, as it is one of the most common attributes given to cities now – likely to evoke fear equal to a brutal countryside landscape…..endless spaces for potential anxiety and fear’ (Bate,2016 p.117).

Das Unheimliche is my exploration of the sublime within the city landscape.

While  working towards this assignment I found myself drawn to the interpretation of the sublime through painting, artworks and photography –  all new ground for me.  What particularly caught my interest though was the concept of the uncanny in art; a concept  associated with Sigmund Freud. Freud believed the sublime related to repressed desire and the uncanny. This term ‘uncanny’ (‘unheimlich’ in German)  was first used in 1906 by Jentsch to describe something new and unknown often seen as negative at first. Freud took a different position. In his essay ‘The Uncanny’ he wrote that ‘the uncanny is that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar’ (Freud,p.15).

The  idea  that strange and anxious feelings can be created by the familiar in an unfamiliar context led me to explore the sublime within the context of the uncanny – the feeling of discomfort when seeing something simultaneously familiar and alien.

The Underpass

I chose a city underpass for this assignment. A familiar place but one at night that makes me feel unsafe and insecure. Liz Wells associates the sublime ‘with awe, danger and pain, with places where accidents happen, where things run beyond human control, where nature is untameable’ (Wells,p.48 ), but  she continues :

‘it is not the physical presence in itself so much as the mood induced in the onlooker, who is also subject to a range of other personal mood-forming factors’.

I decided to  interpret  the sublime less from a physical presence in itself than a mood induced in the onlooker.

Freud, George and Tarkowsky

Apart from Freud, my  work particularly references that of David George  and Andrei Tarkovsky. George’s urban landscapes in Hackney By Night like those of Thomas Ruff and Rut Blees Luxembourg evoke a sense of the uncanny for me. I chose to follow George’s approach of not bringing any external lighting to these scenes and to opt for landscapes devoid of people – any hint of human presence coming from graffiti on the walls of the underpass or shadow.

Crucially it was Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker that suggested the idea of using panning shots.I was struck by how colour, but particularly the use of long panning camera work created  a real feeling  of discomfort and anxiety in the film. I decided to use a panning approach as I wanted to create a similar, unsettling reaction to the urban landscape of the underpass.

The initial iPhone images  were chosen for submission to my tutor using these criteria:

• degree of edginess
• sense of something unseen
• degree of familiar versus alien
• visual interest
• sense of belonging to the  series

Following formative feedback from my tutor and critique from members of the OCA Thames Valley Group ( see https://wordpress.com/post/suegreenfieldphotographylandscape.wordpress.com/944 ), I selected the final images below:

Final images for Assignment one

Unheimliche #1

 

Unheimliche #2

Unheimliche #3

Unheimliche #4

Unheimliche #5

Unheimliche #6

 

Reworking Assignment 1 images.

Assignment one:

‘Produce a series of 6-12 photographs that convey your own interpretation of beauty and/or the sublime within the context of landscape’

My feedback discussion with my tutor ranged over a number of ways that I might take this work forward which really interested me. For example:

• Consider and experiment how the images might be presented for screen and print
• Experiment further towards final presentation, particularly print values
• Re-edit the final selection – 6 images may well have more impact than 8.
• Experiment with some ‘discerning ‘ cropping

Firstly, I re-edited the selection reducing the number down to six  and created a black and white set for comparison:

I also experimented  with increasing the grain in some of the images, again to see if the resulting effect added anything to the feel of the uncanny…

The effect was interesting providing a kind of ‘grungy’ look which echoed the sense of place but did this add to a sense of the uncanny? If I’m trying to achieve a distorted view to contribute to the sense of the unfamiliar in a familiar place does this grain help or would using a fine art paper be a better way of bringing something to the work as my tutor suggested. I’ve  acquired some sample fine art inkjet paper ( Matt Fine Art smooth ) printing paper to experiment with the print quality.

Then I considered how I might crop these images to achieve a cinematic effect. Research revealed the following cinematic ratios:

• US widescreen cinema     1.85 : 1
• Current widescreen cinema   2.39 : I
• Universal  20th century  4:3
• Television  16.9

My tutor suggested cropping by a third. How does this work for Unheimliche #7 ? Placing the original at the top of the column:

And then cropped to 25 : 1

My instinct at this point was to stick with the uncropped versions as for me the wider image created a sense of turning you head quickly as if to see some fleeting shadow or person sensed more than seen…
I then took prints of the original six images with cropped and black and white versions along to a meeting of the OCA Thames Valley Group. I wanted to see their reaction to the images. Would they see them as being ‘uncanny’ and whether they had any views as to whether the cropped or black and white versions worked any better than the originals. This was very useful.The consensus was that the images did deliver the feeling of unease, a sense of the uncanny; that the colour version worked better than black and white and that they shouldn’t be cropped. This echoes my own feeling. The next stage is to experiment with printing on different paper.

I was also struck by one comment that it might be worth taking the horizontal image right up to the vertical edge of the paper which would allow the images to flow into each other if placed side by side. This led me to think about whether a slide presentation rather than prints might work better in delivering the sense of the uncanny.I’ll look at this and note how this works in a further post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tutor formative feedback: Assignment 1

I was encouraged by my tutor’s formative feedback. We discussed my initial images for this assignment over the telephone. This was the first time that I have had verbal formative feedback during my OCA studies and it worked very well – much better than just receiving written feedback.

She felt that I’d succeeded in my aim of producing a series of images ‘evoking a sense of disquiet; vulnerability; the unfamiliar’. I was also encouraged with the comments regarding creativity:

• The panning approach is very effective result of experimentation – giving (as you say) a sense of disorientation and the feeling of one’s head turning around as though in panic; being in a state of hyper-alertness and in self-preservation mode, even taking in the scene from the “corners of your eyes”. V. effective strategy – interesting to note this was informed by your viewing of Takovsky’s Stalker.
• Your experimentation with filters/image quality looks promising and definitely warrants further exploration.

Our discussion ranged over a number of ways that I might take this work forward which really interest me. For example:

• Consider and experiment how the images might be presented for screen and print
• Experiment further towards final presentation,particularly print values
• Re-edit the final selection – 6 images may well have more impact than 8.

Certainly we both agreed that the first image Unheimliche #1 stood out from the rest of the series, mainly due to its colouring. And though it is my favourite image I know I did have some reservations about its difference and yes , it may well be dropped after I take a further look at the series.

• Experiment with some ‘discerning ‘ cropping

Other key points that arose focused on:

• My introduction to the assignment images – needs to be reworked to make it more concise
• The Reflection section for this assignment – include the three key resources used – maybe introduce a hyperlink to my previous research ( think this definitely worth doing).
• Supplement general independent research with subscriptions to such as Hotshoe or Source magazine as a way to keep abreast of developments in the contemporary field – a good idea to supplement my British Journal of Photography, Black and White Photography and Photoworks Annual subscriptions.

So, plenty to get my teeth into; helpful not only for this assignment but future ones too.The full Tutor Formative Feedback can be found here: Landscape1 Sue Greenfield