WEEK 10: SUPERVISOR SESSION
Preparation
I was only working on all the texts I had/have to hand in for Speaking Critically and Critical Frameworks. Therefore no progress with the project. Maybe a good opportunity to talk about my written stuff.
The Statement
Soliloquy is a sequence of images that captures ideas of simplicity, connection, intimacy, location and light.
It combines two styles of work that were made in a short period of time, and although there is no pronounced connection between them, they deal with observing and capturing moments. They were designed intuitively, but follow different photographic processes: starting from planned, constructed photographs indoors and spontaneous capturing of place and light outdoors.
Sequencing them and arranging them next to each other creates a mood game. Meaning can be made not only in each individual image but possibly even more so in the space between them.
Critic Annotation
Just after submitting my first citic annotation, I completely changed my topic and process. I moved my project from a photographic dialogue about world topics to an inward-looking soliloquy with a mostly intuitive process.
The film Mrs. Dalloway shows a great example of soliloquy, especially in the dinner party scene. The character appears happy, but hearing her thoughts, it becomes clear that she is indeed full of self-doubt. This contrast is appealing. My work is a soliloquy with all the mood swings and change of topic that come with it.
Since most of my work in this project is done intuitively, I find it difficult to find words. As photography is my medium, I make the photographs because I want to express something but am missing the right words. This is where I find Susanne Langer’s philosophy of the aesthetics helpful. She sees intuitive work as a »fundamental intellectual activity, which produces logical or semantic understanding« (Chaplin-Dengrink, 2019, p. 194). This is reassuring, as usually intuition is looked down on. In her opinion, an artwork symbolizes a feeling as a whole and therefore cannot be put into words, as it is too complex. This does not mean I cannot find any words or meanings for my work, but I do not have to have the claim to be able to fully express everything in words.
But what can I describe? Charlotte Cotton’s essay in Photography Is Magic explains how meaning has changed in photography and how important process and context are today. My process, even if it is intuitive, can be put into words, and naming the series soliloquy already does. Context of it is the Melbourne lockdown but can be seen in a larger context of a general search for connection in a disconnected world.
Under lockdown restrictions, my work area is my home and neighborhood. So, I looked at photographers that worked in restricted conditions or seemed to photograph in one place: Liss Fenwick, Elizabeth Hibbard, Pia Johnson and Xiuan Xiao. Additionally, I studied various elements in these artists’ work. Fenwick, Johnson and Xiao show simple compositions, only a few elements but intriguing light situations. Their work is very detailed and intimate. Both things my work relates to and I am still working on. Hibbard shows a certain sense of humor in her series and most of her images convey the feeling a person present, but they remain anonymous and out of focus. My series is also fun but less quirky. Rinko Kawauchi, Saul Leiter and the movie 3 women are additional references I explored for their moody or dreamy visual language.
In a second step, I looked at films with sci-fi elements (Melancholia and Solaris) and visual artists that have an unreal approach to their work. Victoria Siemer digitally edits her pictures, but Cody William Smith simply uses a mirror to create a similar effect. My approach in this series is hardly any digital alterations but still pictures that make the viewer wonder and discover. Therefore reflections, looking through things and shadows play a major role.
Continuing the project, I feel like getting more explorative and experimental. Francesca Woodman and Duane Michals are photographers whom I will study further for this purpose.
I like that most of my references are female creatives, writers, philosophers. In my series, I celebrate femininity with a female model, flowers and pink everywhere.
Research Narrative (already submitted)
Feedback
Soliloquy is a sequence of images that captures ideas of simplicity, connection, intimacy, location and light.
Soliloquy: purpose is a character to tell the audience they don't know and which isn't revealed by interactions with others (revealing something they don't know), internal revelation/revealing
Statement = abstract/summary
> good that I didn’t explain “how”
> explain/unpack the “why” (and “what”)
>> where am I locating this within a conceptional/inquiry investigation space
>> revealing something the audience doesn't know, that helps to inform the audience to understand what the motivation is behind making some of the images
>> I could talk about an open-ended narrative (stories are told and things are relatable but ultimately the connection is up to the viewer to draw)
> as the statement is a good example how not to tell anything, this could also be my goal (like a challenge/mystery/puzzle)
> if there is an interest to unpack it in relationship to something (anchor of reflection/revelation)
>> if there is self-doubt (as in Mrs. Dalloway): this work is about acknowledging feelings, sharing them with others
> ultimately my work could be about intuition (“what is your work about?” – “my work is about everything but approach it from a methodology that is really about intuition”)
>> becoming more skilled at seeing things for what they are
>> becoming more connected with the world around me and working on ways to explore that
>> my project is about intuition, located myself at intuition about how I respond to a certain condition in the world and restrictions that are placed upon that (COVID)
>> through intuition I'm photographing neighborhood
>> translate concept “intuition” in places, time, histories
>> look up concepts of intuition
>> merge notion of intuition with soliloquy, with concepts of randomness
> or write something that is about something.
Photography already has something to work with. Writing starts with a blank sheet of paper.