Bridge Project – Final 3 sequence

Without further ado, and with much deliberation, the final three images from my mini 6 week bridge project. The task was to shoot a particular location and create a series using three photos. The advise and guidance of one of the photographer’s running the project really helped me with the narrative and sequencing. Hope you guys enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts

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Another roll scanned from the bridge

A quick post of some photos which could potentially be part of my final three selections. I just need to clarify the narrative. Despair as a whole in the bridge? Personally a more compelling theme and will hold an interesting narrative.

Man with stained shirt

I had initially started off with an interest on the City narrative and the human narrative as could be seen in this bridge.

Woman with roses

But how do you show the state vs human & does it even apply in the area I had chosen? It’s not really a contested space. There is a sign saying no lying down, sitting or standing on the side walls but I had not seen it enforced.

Man’s boot and my shadow

Fractured Self Shadow

 

 

 

 

Bridge Project Update

So I have not had the chance to shoot nor scan the 3 remaining rolls of my processed superia 400 film.

Justice Now

Plus I am finding it difficult to pick the three photos aswell. How do you choose them as a coherent set? What narrative do I wish to show? Portraiture? Shadows? Still life?

Make shift bin

Perhaps Morning, Lunch and Late in the afternoon? Decisions decisions. Tips and advice welcome!

Down and out

Fremantle Beach

Part of my Beached As series. Went and drove to Fremantle one weekend with my Canonet loaded with Kodak Ultramax 400. Planning to make a book out of it after a year or so of going around beaches 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uncanny

I really enjoy photographing strangeness. An exploration which has carried on from my architectural dissertation on “Uncanny Spaces”, where I explored the mental spaces of my childhood. Spaces which were not of delight but of terror.  I mapped these rooms as part of my spatial history (included in this post), trying to capture the emotion I felt while occupying each room.

Studio work space where I tried to figure out what the hell I was doing.

 

Growing up in the Philippines, there were certain areas in the house that really got to me. I felt as if these spaces were alive. The Philippines is predominantly a Christian majority with a strong belief in spiritual beings, the good and evil kinds.

10 Commandments mixed with the all seeing eye.

 

Extended threshold of fear. The main circulation core where doors face a stairway which leads to the ground level. Limited light created dark spots and areas. A large mirror was located on the stair landing which evoked phantoms.

 

 

Stories of creatures and spirits are a big part of the culture and the feeling that I shared my home with phantoms were visceral experiences. I should perhaps elaborate on what I define as a home at that time. I lived inside a catholic school compound where I spent most of my childhood playing and going to school. During day time it was a blast, student’s and teachers were about, filled with activity and life. But as school finished up and the large compound with lots of empty rooms became silent, the atmosphere changed. It was not uncommon to invite the local priest to come and bless the school.

 

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 ‘Dark is the hour!’ ‘Aye, and cold.’
‘Lone is my house.’ ‘Ah, but mine? ‘
‘Sight, touch, lips, eyes gleamed in vain.’
‘Long dead these to thine.’

Ghost by Walter de la Mare

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I linked this back to Sigmund Freud’s essay “The Uncanny”. One that stems from the definition of  the German word “Heimlich” which translates to homely in English. He goes through its etymology by using two 19th Century dictionary’s and also looks at it’s use in literature. In particular the Grimm’s fairytales and highlights the literary definition of Heimlich ultimately changes to that of “Unheimlich” / unhomely.

 

In essence the home that is secure, safe and familiar can be viewed as something that is private and unknown.

 

Kitchen Window looked out into a dark corridor. All I could hear were people talking, footsteps etc.

This unknown morphs into the mystic and unseen becoming unheimlich or Unhomely. This blur, liminal point is that which is Uncanny.

Heimlich (a) Familiar                 Unheimlich (a) Unfamiliar

Heimlich (b) Secret                   Unheimlich (b) Revealed

The strangely familiar. Freud’s essay goes onto giving examples of fantastical tales which evoke the feeling of Uncanny, from Automaton’s to doppelgangers just to name a few.

Portal – The large mirror placed on the stair landing always brought fear that one day I see a reflection of the unknown inhabitants.

Anthony Vidler also explores the Unhomely in his paper “The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely”, specifically focusing on the Architectural unhomely aspects of the uncanny. Vidler uses Edgar Edgar Allan Poe’s “The fall of Usher” as one of the Haunted houses as an example and describes the uncanny arises from the “normality of the setting” and the absence of overt terror” resulting in a “disturbing unfamiliarity of the evidently familiar”. Poe’s description of the blank deteriorating walls and its lifeless eyes for windows makes us identify with our own mortality and the ultimate effect of time to all things.

Textured and green corridor

 

I find photographically I am drawn to these sort of spaces. From gritty alleys, to desolate abandoned places were Urbanex photography arises. Two years ago I came across the term “Thanatourism” which according to good old wiki is “Dark tourism (also black tourism or grief tourism) has been defined as tourism involving travel to sites historically associated with death and tragedy.” Urbanex I think is the photographer’s version of this fascination, as we break into abandoned mental asylums or take photos of models in run down place filled with grafitti.

My last year’s trip to the Philippines again reminded me of the type of rawness I grew up in and which I identify with whenever I see a dark gritty alley. The textures, colour, decay, and use is like a patina over the buildings.

 

 

Light Leakage

 

I do find these sort of images in Australia albeit much more difficult. I shoot and post a range of images but these sort are  the most personal to me.  The next images are all shot here in Australia. Thanks for reading. Hope I have not scared you guys off.

 

 

Incarcerated

 

 

Bodies

 

 

The Beautiful People

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better Luck Next Time

Humour

Funny things recently encountered on the street. Giant

Dog lover

 

Happy Weekend 🙂

 

 

Curiosity

I got into film photography out of curiosity. To see the grain, its limits, and to slow down the pace of my digital machine gun fire.

I regret not doing photography as a subject in high school as it taught the basics of film as well as developing. But I probably wouldn’t have learn much as it may not have been in my interest. I drew alot, did art in high school and afterwards chose architecture as a profession under the guidance of my art teacher. Intuitively I put the two things together, I liked to draw, architecture is about drawings and making so it must be a perfect fit. Fast forward to where I am now, and it could not be further from the truth. The creation is there, but the creativity not so much unless you work for a “starchitect”.

In essence it is an office job.  Dress shirts, pants and shoes minus the suit jacket. One stares at a computer screen for 8 hours drawing lines, emailing and so forth. Sometimes there are site visits and check ups but not often.

Thankfully I found photography as a form of creative release. Jumped into analog after 1 year of digital and have a love hate relationship with it.

I had to relearn patience. I dislike the cost aspect of it but why save money on things I do not want to do. I am frustrated on the average quality of the images when compared to the masters but that only keeps me going.

For the craft and understanding that we must put in time, as did the pioneers of the medium.

 

Ambiguity

I find one of the rewards of photography is enabling us to see those invisible things in everyday life.

And by capturing it without the outside world’s clutter.

It emerges, creating more questions rather than answers.

 

 

Lucky Super 200 Roll Surprise Find: Philippines Trip

While trying to find my last roll of Agfa Vista 400 to load into my canonet I discovered a roll of Lucky Super 200 I shot from the Philippines. Delighted I got it processed and scanned earlier this week. I know I have said this before but there is something about film that captures reality. The colours, the grain, the imperfections, I believe reflect the world that we reside in.

 

Digital has become so perfect and shiny that to me they are unreal after seeing analog photos. Interestingly I remember the first time I saw my analog scan I did not like the grain at all. I got so used to looking at digital images I was not accustomed to it. Now It doesn’t seem like I can turn back.