When I went home for easter I started to take photos of flowers/trees, birds/beach whatever around the house and at the beach. And I have always loved taking photos of that. So why not use them? So I am going along with the whole environmental idea, but taking photos of nature, particularly at home instead... Well I might check with Caroline first...And she said its fine. sweet. I have already put all the photos up anyway =).
So to talk about my new ideas in more depth...
Anthotypes don't last forever, as do all photographic prints I guess. But anthotypes fade a lot quicker (in like a couple of years kinda thing). there is no way to fix them. There are anthotypes from Sir John Herschel, but they are kept in the dark at the university of Texas, Austin. And if you put the anthotypes in liquid the emulsion will wash off. So they don't last. And neither does nature, as we are especially finding out now with things like climate change and deforestation. So I'm making a comment on how if these things keep happing (climate change etc) then species (like the things I have photographed) will die and become extinct and the ice will melt and land will disappear etc, just as anthotypes do. Anthotypes have a short life, and so with the earth if we don't change.
Also another thing I have thought about is the significance of the photos been taken at home. our house and farm have been in the family for 5 generations, and as my brothers and I are getting older, so are mum and dad, and the question of who will take over the farm and it staying in the family is getting closer to needing an answer. So could the photos somehow comment on that? the naturalness of them commenting on the fact that we are farmers (and mum and dad are biodynamic farmers - an organic approach, using natural fertilizers and homeopathic remedies for cows etc) and the life span commenting on how dads time on the farm is almost up? how the farm is changing? growing? hmmmm I think this kinda complicates things, as I its to many ideas.
The significance of the photos of home can just be a personal reference I think, and kinda tie in with the environmental ideas, as these are the places in the world that I'd most want to stay the same and always be around.
Another idea - I came across this Japanese thing called Wabi-Sabi in Good magazine. It is a philosophy of design and life that values the beauty of things imperfect and incomplete. it suggests that imperfection adds to visual appeal, and it embraces flaws as being beautiful because they are true to life. Artist Emma Bass explores this in her work"Imperfect". She looks at wilted flowers, and how they still look beautiful. I know I've always found old/wilted flowers more interesting to photograph! here some of her work:
Wabi-Sabi Books
Wabi Sabi Suki; The essence of Japanese beauty.
According to this book Wabi-Sabi is "a system of aseptic judgement rooted in nature's simple system of order that has log stood the test of time. It embodies concepts that are as fresh today as they were a thousand years ago. Technologies may change, but both nature and basic human needs remain constant. The objective in wabi-sabi inspired deign is to achieve the same sense of ordered placement and balance within interior space that is found in nature…Wabi-sabi does not imply crudeness but an earthiness that is the ultimate in sophistication…Wabi-sabi is for those who are at peace with themselves and want to feel the peace of the natural world around them."
"The spirit of wabi-sabi is based on a simple set of ideals adopted form nature. These ideals are as straightforward as nature itself. It was only through keen powers of observation that the japanese were able to discern these hidden rules of nature, even though they are simple in their basic concepts. Because they lived as part of nature, they were able to understand it acutely"
Wabi sabi for Artists designers poets and philosophers
Its is a beauty of things modest and humble
It is a beauty of things unconventional"
What is said in here matches my assignment well -
"The closest english word to wabi sabi is probably rustic. Webster's defines rustic as simple, artless of unsophisticated… (with) surfaces rough or irregular. While rustic represents only a limited dimension of the wabi sabi aesthetic, it is the initial impression many people have when the first see a wabi-sabi expression." - the test's I have done have had a rustic element to them, so I'm guessing and hoping that the finals will too. The emulsion and colours turn out "irregular".
"Wabi-sabi does share some characteristics with what we call 'primitive art', that is objects that are earthy, simple, unpretentious and fashioned out of natural materials." - My work is very earthy (plant juice, recycled paper) and simple as it only uses one color, and the images don't come out with a lot of tonal range. And of course they are fashioned out of natural materials.
"Unlike primitive art, though, wabi sabi almost never is used representationally or symbolically."
My work is being used representationally or symbolically, so this is un-matching. My work symbolizes the fact that nature and the environment is disappearing and change, with the fact that the anthotype's are made out of nature and that they will eventually fade, and that fading has already been used to make them in the first place (with the sun).
