A2—Reworked

Following the feedback I received from my tutor, I decided to rework both my selection of images for this assignment and the way I presented them.

I decided that a more uniform presentation would avoid breaking the series and allow me to concentrate more closely on particular aspects of the images. I narrowed my set of artefacts to just the books I have in my possession from one line of my family—all of which are related to Christian worship in the Church of England. Furthermore, each book carries an inscription with either the name of my grandfather or my great-grandmother and, in some cases their names in their own handwriting.

I re-shot the assignment with a clearer sense of purpose and did my best to maintain consistency of approach: two shots of each book (closed and opened to the inscription page), no ruler for scale (I decided that the effort to be clinical or ‘archaeological’ was a bit forced), and a plain white background with even lighting. This last consideration has turned out to be more difficult than I thought it might—I’ve done my best to maintain a consistent white balance across the images, but it is not quite perfect.

In sum, the little collection of devotional books gives a glimpse into one aspect of the childhoods of two family members. I do not know if they continued church attendance into adulthood. It’s not a lot on which to build an understanding of a branch of the family: some books that suggest a degree of religious observance in youth, some handwriting, a surname, place names from the island my family left in the mid-1960s. In this sense, I think that the shots respond to the brief for Assignment 2 (photographing the unseen) by being suggestive rather than conclusive about family origins and identity.

Still, the connections are there if I choose to make them, as I see things that continue to be important to me: books, history, faith and place. Other viewers will almost certainly imagine other “unseens” in response to the series.

A2—Tutor’s feedback

I had my follow-up tutorial to A2 on October 8 and found some parts of it fairly challenging. The meeting got off to a rough start because I was at work and our firewall did not want to cooperate with the Zoom connection—in the end, we had to settle for a phone conversation.

Technical issues aside, I found that I didn’t always have answers ready for my tutor’s questions. Some were relatively straightforward and easily answered (Why did you approach the assignment this way? Have you thought of adding more text?), but others had to do more with the concept itself. I got the sense that I had produced a credible response to the brief (the written follow-up later confirmed this), but that my tutor was looking for… more. I took away the idea that, if I was going to propose a concept then I should push it. More than once I was encouraged to be “more extreme,” both for this assignment and for what I talked about for A3. I was concerned that the A2 images are a bit mundane (and that was the point), but my tutor countered with the following: mundane images can work if the concept is particularly strong, or vice versa (ideally both).

Following on this theme, I was encouraged to look for more narrative potential within the series of images and to look for something out of the ordinary that would affect people. If the pictures were to convey a sense of alienation, then I should go for it, either with a more extreme “museum-y” approach or more sense of loss. I should continue to develop the imaginary potential of the images.

I will re-shoot A2 before I submit CAN for assessment next year. I think I can make a tighter series by swapping out some of the artefacts (I’ll drop the cutlery service add another book or perhaps a medallion), increasing the museum-y aspects (perhaps with some more descriptive text) and making sure that all images in the series are consistent (I departed from the open/shut views with the cigarette case and will fix this).

All told, a challenging tutorial but one that I am willing to take on. I usually find that I learn more from hard questions—they are not always fun at the time, but they push me to new places. And that’s why I began the OCA program in the first place.

A2—Reflection

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

I am satisfied with the results I achieved for A2.
At the same time, I think it is fair to say that technical and visual skills were probably less important for this assignment than they have been for the work I did for A1 or during the time I was taking EYV. I see this as evidence of learning for me because I have been relatively comfortable with photographic technique for some time, but this assignment was a chance to branch out into more conceptual work.
I would not want to completely underplay the place of technique, though, as it was important for me to learn about how museums use photography to document the artifacts in their collections. I have followed most of these fairly closely (neutral background, even light, attention to details, brief descriptive text, scale, consistency of approach).

Quality of outcome

Once I had landed on the concept I wanted to pursue (pointing to “unseen” family through their personal objects), it gradually dawned on me that I could ‘universalize’ the topic by presenting the objects as though they were artefacts in a museum. I think the concept holds together fairly well and that anyone who had been to a museum would be able to recognize the form of the work.
I had imagined what I wanted to achieve before I began shooting and was able to find resources that outlined the elements / techniques that help to achieve something false more… authentically.
If I were to print these images for display, I think I would keep the print size relatively small (no larger than 8″ x 12″, or so) and would use a relatively flat, ‘clinical’ or ‘scientific’ presentation—loose, rather than framed, for example, and perhaps contained in a simple folder. Alternatively, they could be printed as a section of a small, folded museum / collection guide.

Demonstration of creativity

I think that this is where most of the learning took place in this assignment. As I mentioned above, there was perhaps a little less emphasis on skill or technique and more weight on the concept behind the series of images.
I deliberately turned away from my initial idea (church buildings as a visible manifestation of faith / the unseen) because it was very quickly leading me down a path I have travelled enough. Instead, I wanted to develop my thinking and work around something that marked out a new direction (toward the more conceptual) about subjects that are important to me (interpretation / construction of meaning; understanding the place of family ties).

Context

The reflection I did for this assignment was perhaps more personal and less based on referencing a particular artist. I did, however, spend quite a bit of time looking at the techniques and conventions of photographing and presenting artefacts. I also looked for examples of artists drawing on personal objets trouvés, but this was a more difficult search. Tracy Emin’s My Bed popped up repeatedly, but most of the objects appropriated by other artists seemed to derive their power from the fact that they were not personal, from Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 Fountain, on.
In the end, I decided to strike out on my own and do the project as the idea presented itself to me: personal objects that pointed to my unseen family members, presented as museum pieces.

References

Tate (s.d.) ‘Fountain’, Marcel Duchamp, 1917, replica 1964. At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573 (Accessed on 23 September 2019a)

Tate (s.d.) ‘My Bed’, Tracey Emin, 1998. At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/emin-my-bed-l03662 (Accessed on 23 September 2019b)

A2—Photographing the unseen

My work covers a number of the “unseens” that I identified as I began to think about this assignment: the past, the dead, missing people and secrets. Every family has its share of those and mine is no different. I know very little about my father’s branch of the family so, over the last few years, I have begun to unearth what I can through official records and archives in the UK. If it were left only to the physical evidence left to me—that is, the few objects in my possession—I would know very little about the people who came before me.

I present images of those objects here in the way that a museum or archive might, described simply and following archival technique (Online Museum Training – Photographing Collection Items. [s.d.]). I have done this because that is how I have come to read the pieces: for me, they are akin to museum artefacts in that they are from the past, are on display and are divorced from their original context. Individually, they might be read as objets trouvés, “objects or products with non-art functions that are placed into an art context and made part of an artwork” (History of the Found Object in Art [s.d.]).

Taken together, however, the objects form a collection that I try to fit with some difficulty and much imagination into a narrative about the people who owned them. In my mind, they hint at aspects of the daily lives of my paternal grandfather, grandmother and great-grandmother over a period of some 60 years, all before I was born. Without more detail and context, however, I realise that any interpretation I make contains a lot of projection and speculation.

And that is interesting to me. If I as a direct descendant am not able to tease out much of the context and narrative of these pieces, viewers with no personal connection are free to construct an even broader range of interpretations. We might all be able to view the pieces as signs, but it is unlikely we would all agree on what they signify (Hall, 2007, p.10). Would others’ narratives about the lives of my unseen family be any more or less valid than mine?

How would I know? Would it matter?

Item 1-1. Embossed silver cigarette case. Made by Frederick Field, Birmingham. No date.

*Item 1-2. Detail of cigarette case showing embossed initials.*

*Item 2-1. Board slipcase containing pocket Book of Common Prayer and Hymns Ancient and Modern.*

*Item 2-2. Frontispiece of Book of Common Prayer with handwritten inscription, 9 January 1891.*

*Item 3-1. Cardboard booklet with commemorative sticker on cover.*

*Item 3-2. Booklet, showing handwritten inscription and Sunday School stickers, 1915–1916.*

*Item 4-1. Kodak Six-20 folding Brownie camera.* Manufactured circa 1951–1955, London, UK.

*Item 4-2. Side view of camera, unfolded.*

*Item 5-1. Wooden presentation box containing 6-piece, stainless steel cutlery set.* No date.

References

ARTifacts as ART and Inspiration (s.d.) At: http://www.SandraMcLeanArts.com/artifacts-as-art-and-inspiration.html (Accessed on 23 September 2019)

Hall, S. (2007) This Means This, This Means That: a user’s guide to semiotics. London: King.

History of the Found Object in Art (s.d.) At: http://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/the-history-of-the-found-object-in-art (Accessed on 23 September 2019)

Mary Mary Quite Contrary (s.d.) At: http://www.marymaryquitecontrary.org.uk/ (Accessed on 23 September 2019)

Museum in a Box – Crawford College of Art & Design (s.d.) At: https://crawford.cit.ie/museum-in-a-box/ (Accessed on 23 September 2019)

Online Museum Training – Photographing Collection Items. (s.d.) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUgG7HEpvyo (Accessed on 21 September 2019)

A2—Approach and contact sheets

After deciding to change direction and pursue the idea of “photographing the unseen” of history of one line of my family, I also decided to take the few items that have come into my possession as artifacts. To do this, I consulted a range of materials that outline some of the technical considerations necessary to photograph items accurately as part of a scientific or historical record. The video produced by the Australian Museums and Galleries Association Victoria ( Online Museum Training – Photographing Collection Items. [s.d.]) was particularly useful and contained a lot of practical advice.

The main technical considerations I took away were the following:

Use a neutral background. I opted for a white background rather than black because some of the objects were already quite dark and I did not want to obscure any details in shade.
Ensure even lighting around the object. Rather than using artificial light, I used a light tent with natural daylight.
Show the object from more than one angle and highlight any important details. I did this for each object and made additional exposures for inscriptions inside books and for objects kept within cases.
Include a scale to provide a way to understand the size of the object. I used a drafting scale that is marked in 1 cm increments.
Provide a brief descriptive text or label for the photographed object.

The contact sheet of the unprocessed images I took for Assignment 2 is available as a downloadable PDF at the link below:

can-a2-contact-sheet Download

References

hsscarchaeology (2015) Photographing Artifacts. At: https://hsscarchaeology.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/photographing-artifacts/ (Accessed on 21 September 2019)

Karin (2011) Museums Nova Scotia: Photographing Artifacts – the good, the bad, and the ugly. At: http://passagemuseums.blogspot.com/2011/02/photographing-artifacts-good-bad-and.html (Accessed on 21 September 2019)

Online Museum Training – Photographing Collection Items. (s.d.) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUgG7HEpvyo (Accessed on 21 September 2019)

Pezzati, A. (2002) Adventures in Photography: Expeditions of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Philadelphia, UNITED STATES: University Museum Publications. At: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3441604 (Accessed on 21 September 2019)

A2—Further thoughts

As I began to work through the concept and subject matter of Assignment 2 I had thought of doing something in connection with the unseen nature of faith. The impetus for this was my memory of a passage from the New Testament.

I planned to use churches as tangible evidence of faith and the persistence of religious belief. I wrote that “[…] few signs of faith are more publicly apparent than the sustained investment of time, energy and money in places of worship.” I still think this is the case and it may be an idea that I return to, but I quickly found myself going down a familiar path of photographing buildings… at night.

Part of some initial work for Assignment 2. Not ready to do this again.

Although I was pleased enough with the initial images I made, I do not want to produce something close to work I did for EYV. In the image above I’ve got warm light streaming from the church’s windows into a sky of blue and I could have developed this theme/concept across a range of local churches. But I’ve already got that t-shirt.

So, I’ve turned my attention to some of the other “unseen” items that I listed as I was doing my initial thinking for A2. And it occurred to me that it might be interesting to develop a theme that has taken up space in my mind for the last couple of years: the largely-unknown (to me) English branch of my family. Most of my immediate relatives on my father’s side are dead, and there were not many to begin with. I have spent hours following up leads on Ancestry.com and, more recently, in the London Metropolitan Archives.

Apart from genetic traces, however, my father’s line of the family falls into the “unseen” category: dead, in the past, missing people, broken relationships and, inevitably, secrets. I still hold to what I wrote earlier: ” it seems to me that ‘photographing the unseen’ is usually going to involve some kind of proxy for the thing that is absent.” The proxy in this case is the limited number of items I have that used to belong to my English grandparents.

These items are not treasured keepsakes or heirlooms, but are everyday items that hold a curiosity for me. I don’t think that I have a lot invested in them emotionally, but they are pointers to some aspect of my origins. In that sense, I could look at them as artefacts with a certain, perhaps scientific, detachment. Individually they point to something about their owners’ interests and activities, but how might they be interpreted if they were displayed as a museum collection? What might some future archaeologist make of them? What narratives might the samples suggest, if they were all that a researcher had to reconstruct the lives of the people who owned them? I’d like to ponder that.

A2—Initial thoughts

Rather than wait until the assignment is upon me, I started my thinking ahead of time for A2 “Photographing the unseen.” A few times of reflection on things that are unseen led to the list below, although I am not pretending that this is exhaustive:

Emotions
States of mind
Spiritual world
Buried cities
Dreams
Hopes and aspirations
Talent and potential
The unborn
The dead
The wind
Microscopic life (can be seen, but not by the unaided eye), atomic particles
Physical health, disease
Electricity
Time (past or future)

Much of the animal world, most of the time
Things camouflaged or concealed
Objects in the dark
Sites that are off-limits
Works that are banned or censored
Missing people
Broken relationships
Secrets
Lies
The ‘disappeared’
People and names written out of narratives and records, whether deliberately or through forgetfulness / neglect

Along with these thoughts, the title of the assignment itself (“Photographing the unseen”) reminded me strongly of a verse from the New Testament: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Epistle to the Hebrews 11:1). As I thought more about faith being “…the evidence of things not seen” it occurred to me that the writer of this passage is suggesting that the faith held by people points to spiritual realities. The acts and behaviours (not just beliefs) of believers are offered as evidence (not proof) of a particular God.

I wanted to explore this further, because it seems to me that “photographing the unseen” is usually going to involve some kind of proxy for the thing that is absent. Something visible must point to what is not visible. Perhaps this is similar to the way that scientists look at black holes: by definition, black holes do not emit light and are therefore invisible, so we learn about them and gather evidence through observing the effects they have on their surroundings.

This line of thinking holds for the entire list above of things we cannot photograph. We cannot see any of them directly, but we must often infer them by indirect evidence.

In the case of religious faith, we can observe acts, rituals and objects that communicate the confidence of believing communities. And if we gather evidence of the unseen through their surroundings, few signs of faith are more publicly apparent than the sustained investment of time, energy and money in places of worship. A church building does not prove the existence of God, but it does show that the people who build churches have faith in “the unseen.”

This needs more thought yet, but my “photographing the unseen” for A2 may involve the role of churches as signs of faith in our built landscape.