Production methods

The last week (week 7) has been spent trying to make decisions in terms of firming up the direction of the series through a consideration if different production methods being used. Near the beginning of the module I had the idea to explore my personal connection with places I call home, including my home, my childhood home, and two places within my extended family where I spend a lot of time. This would work out well with my personal obligations, as I knew I would be away from London for the final month of the module and would be visiting the other ‘homes’. I planned to link the places together into one series, connected through a shared aesthetic and a shared view of what makes a house a home.

However, as the module has progressed I have found myself more and more drawn to my own home and more drawn to a variety of production methods I can use to execute my vision. Through experimenting and risk-taking in terms of production methods I have really begun to narrow down my focus for this module and how I want to achieve it.

Production methods

I began with a DSLR as my last module had been focussed on using a medium format camera on location shoots, resulting in a slow process, my not being very prolific, and in the work not experimenting as much as it could due to time and cost restrictions. The DSLR allowed me to be far more prolific, and to use a variety of different lenses in my collection in order to experiment with different angles and achieve different effects. However, I still felt I could be doing more to push my practice and see what alternative methods could do in terms of helping me achieve the evocative images I was aiming for.

For a module task I used a pinhole camera for the first time, and I was really enamoured with the effects it created. I made prints with darkroom paper in the camera, and then digitally flipped the negative prints into positives. The images were dark, mysterious, with high contrast and quite a lot of vignetting, but at the same time they were warm, intimate, affectionate. I wanted to create more images like this, but realised that with pinhole interior images I was in danger of running up against the same problem I encountered in the last module – not being prolific enough and this leading to a lack of experimenting and risk-taking. Some of the images I have taken with the pinhole have ended up requiring 8 and 9-hour exposures. Risk-taking doesn’t equate well when making one image a day.

So I decided to look at some of my other equipment and see if I could use it to create a similar effect to the pinhole, I’ve collected a number of vintage cameras over the last few years and wondered how I could use photographic paper in them. I tried a Kodak Brownie camera, but the results were too fuzzy. Eventually I came back to the medium format camera I used in the last module, and it’s (I thought) useless Polaroid back (the film for these backs is no longer made). Filling it with direct positive paper and making exposures allowed me to get a similar aesthetic to the pinhole images (see Shadows for more information on aesthetic choices), whilst being able to be slightly more prolific. The images are not perfect, and controlling exposure is still a little difficult, but I’m finding that the imperfections add to the images. They help to make them interesting and unique, and reflect well the age and character of the house.

In addition to the aesthetic these medium format prints create, I find this is an excellent production method for this project and my current place within the course and my own learning. This is because they allow a balance between being prolific and taking time to think through shots. I have to make sure the crop and other factors (including lighting and contrast) work because I cannot do any major post-production with them (so there is a major difference with shooting film). With a digital camera I can be too blasé about the process in camera, knowing that issues can often be fixed in post-production. With the immediate prints I go straight to the final product, so what I get in camera is what I get. The only post-production I do on the prints when making them digital is to remove some bigger bits of dust and make very slight contrast adjustments for the screen. This training, and my recent training with film, will hopefully translate to my digital practice and make me more diligent in terms of getting things right in-camera.

Creating direct prints also has me looking at my home in more depth. I am looking closer at light and shadows and the play of sunlight through windows and blinds. My black and white images are more successful in terms of being evocative than in the previous module, and I am personally feeling a greater connection with them. This personal connection is coming through in the images, producing a series with more depth than the previous. The whole process takes time, but time spent with my subject. I set up a darkroom downstairs and move around the house making an image then immediately developing it and refilling the camera before finding another image to take. As I do this the sun moves and the shadows change, so my area of focus changes. I am working with my subject rather than standing opposite it and photographing it (it felt like I was doing this in the last module). This in fact encourages me to look at different angles and to take more risks in my choice of image. I can’t decide in advance exactly what I will photograph and how, so the process is a lot more organic.

Examples done in a medium format camera this week:

The pinhole images have also been interesting in terms of being part of the home. I alluded to this in a previous blog, but the more I have been photographing the more natural it has become to see this black box around the house. I warn my wife that I’ve set it up and not to knock it, but she is so used to it now that she doesn’t really think about it. The camera has become an objet d’art. We walk past and around it often, and it doesn’t get in the way of us doing our daily tasks. It happily sits for 8 or 9 hours whilst I go about my day and often photograph other things around it.

Pinhole examples from this week:

My experiences with these methods have made me more and more keen to photograph in my home as I believe there are a great many more opportunities to make interesting images. I still need to work on deciding whether colour images can work with the black and white, and am currently working on a small zine to test that. I have around one week left in my home before heading off to France, so will continue to make images specifically with early morning and late afternoon light.

I currently think that my work in progress portfolio will be focussed on my home images. This is where I have done the most development in terms of production methods, aesthetics and background theory, and this is where my focus will be for the exhibition and book. I also think that a large majority of my oral presentation will be based around the work in my home. It no longer seems as logical to include the work I will do in France in my portfolio, though I will continue to work on the wider series and will continue making blog posts about what I produce.