V&A Visit – 24th August 2016

As well as going to the Science Museum on the 24th August I visited the V&A Museum (just across the road) to see what they had to offer by way of current photography exhibits. On enquiring at the information desk I was pleased to find that there were a couple of photographic displays;

• The Camera Exposed – Gallery 38a
• A History of Photography: The Body – Gallery 100

Both were also free, which was a bonus.

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The Camera Exposed

This temporary (23 July 2016 – 5 March 2017) display was a collection of 120 images from a broad spectrum of photographers, with each image containing a camera in one form another. There was no restriction on photography so I took some pictures of the images that particularly drew my attention. These are shown below, with their accompanying display information:

(Victoria and Museum, 2016)

I really enjoyed this display and highly recommended to anyone wanting to see a marvellous display of themed images. The combination of the various photographers inventiveness, creativity and craftsmanship is evident throughout.

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A History of Photography: The Body  (Victoria and Museum, 2016) 

This display is held in the V&A permanent gallery and currently concentrates on ‘The Body‘. The gallery introduction is shown below followed by a selection of prints that I liked:

(Victoria and Museum, 2016)

Again another very interesting and varied display, and another I would also highly recommend. I am only sorry that my snaps don’t these great images (in both displays) justice.

Reference:

Victoria and Museum, A. (2016) V&A · the camera exposed. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/the-camera-exposed (Accessed: 12 September 2016).

Victoria and Museum, A. (2016) What’s on. Available at: https://shop.vam.ac.uk/whatson/index/view/id/2060/event/A-History-of-Photography–The-Body/dt/2016-09-12/free/1 (Accessed: 12 September 2016).

Science Museum Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph exhibition

On the 24th August I was lucky to be on leave and had the chance to visit the Science Museum Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph exhibition.

From the exhibition website information; ‘In the nineteenth century, as the industrial revolution boomed, Fox Talbot revolutionised culture and communications by inventing the negative-positive process, a technique that formed the basis of photography around the world for over 150 years and immortalised him as father of the photograph.

Discover the influence Talbot’s revolutionary technology, techniques and practices had on his contemporary practitioners – Anna Atkins, Hill and Adamson, and Calvert Jones – and see original prints from his seminal publication ‘The Pencil of Nature’.’ (Fox Talbot: Dawn of the photograph, 2016).

The day was warm and the cool temperature/humidity controlled environment of the exhibition was very welcome. The exhibits were displayed in several rooms in a chronological fashion, with the earliest works of Fox Talbot and various contemporaries displayed first.

The pale ghost like early prints from waxed photogenic drawing and calotype negative experimentation seem so fragile compared to the stunning Daguerreotype positives of the same era. Progress through the rooms shows the steady improvement of Fox Talbots repeatable print process via the use of negatives. Also they also include the works of other luminaries producing important works at the same time a Fox Talbot such as, Rev George Wilson Bridges and Rev Calvet Richard Jones.

A selection of images from the book of the exhibition (Roberts and Hobson, 2016) are shown below:

Overall a very interesting and historically important exhibition. My only criticism was that the lighting on the few Daguerreotypes that were on display were poor positioned and I found that I had to contort myself to view them clearly.

Reference:

Fox Talbot: Dawn of the photograph (2016) Available at: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/fox-talbot# (Accessed: 11 September 2016).

Roberts, R. and Hobson, G. (2016) William Henry Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph. United Kingdom: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers.

Assignment 2 first impressions and planning part 1

First impressions

My first impressions on reading the brief for Assignment two was great, we have three choices. After rereading the brief a few times and pondering I settled on the idea of “Crowds”. I then drew in a long breath and wondered how I would approach this. I have been reading a book called ‘Basics creative photography 03: Behind the image: Research in photography‘ (Caruana and Fox, 2012), recommended by my tutor. The first chapter covers aspects of basic research proposal planning and I found elements of this a helpful starting point.

Inspiration for project working name

At the weekend I was watching a Star Trek original series episode called “The Mark of Gideon“. The premise of this episode was based around a planet that was so vastly overpopulated that its citizens had no space or privacy. The inhabitants are healthy and no one seems to ever die in the totally germ-free environment. All they every want is the freedom to move or to have space of their own.  I started to think that this might be the basis for a good Crowds storyline and also a suitable working title.

(3×16 – the mark of Gideon – TrekCore Star Trek original series Screencaps, no date)

What do crowds symbolise

I tried now to  In thought about the words that the phrase “Crowds” evoked.  I came up with a list of 60 words and decided to make these into a word cloud, as shown below:

Where to find crowds

I thought on where I could find crowds:

• Underground
• Markets
• Shops
• Subways
• Concerts
• Railway Stations
• Bus Queue
• Bars
• Sports Venue
• Airports
• Demonstrations

However many of the above would be dependent of various factors including; time of day, size of the event; location etc.

As I commute into London every day I feel that Waterloo railway station would be a good location. It has many places for crowds to be found:

• Platforms
• Concourse
• Shops
• Upper mezzanine floor
• Tube station
• Subway
• Stairs
• Escalators

Who will this collection be for

I then thought about who this collection was for and to be viewed by. This assignment will be for my tutor to be viewed and act as a guide to my progress and development through this part of the course. Also potentially to be viewed and evaluated by my assessors towards my degree. But ultimately for me as a platform to practice, develop my skills and demonstrate my creative progress.

Reference:

Caruana, N. and Fox, A. (2012) Basics creative photography 03: Behind the image: Research in photography. Lausanne: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

3×16 – the mark of Gideon – TrekCore Star Trek original series Screencaps (no date) Available at: http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=91&page=6 (Accessed: 5 September 2016).