Agree to Disagree – the art of ignoring your original intentions.

Degradation is a word that can be used in many a different context. I feel it’s one way to see the world, as a constant death or of dying. When something degrades it signifies time, and with it a space for which it sits in.

In contemporary photography, the technology not only in the mechanics of the camera, but the technological advances in ink pigments and printing processes, strive to make an image last longer, slowing down the process of degrading somewhat.

However, what we seem to be missing in all of this is that degradation allows a sense of reflection and self-realisation. Through seeing what once was, we are able to see what is, and project to what shall be.

In my latest works, I use as many processes as possible to degrade an image, obliterating detail and revealing ambiguity.

To see more of my work, please visit www.flickr.com/jamesfickling.

So, I had my assessment for my PGDip phase. Now, i’m my own worst critic, but I don’t feel that it went well.

However, last month I collaborated with Video artist Lucy Cheung to create a video for an exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary called ‘Giving The Eye’, which was a response to go alongside with another exhibition that was running at the same time (the Jack Goldstein and Anne Collier exhibition).

My practice is becoming even more personal as of late, and I have had no choice but to begin self-portraiture as a means of purveying the themes within my work.

Some of the experimentation for my self-portraiture can be seen on my Flickr (www.flickr.com/jamesfickling)

The following link re-directs to my Flickr account, documenting the official photography done for Dance4 as part of the Nottingham Contemporary performance entitled ‘Giving The Eye’: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesfickling/5562539…

I also created an 8min video as part of the performance, in collaboration with artist Lucy Cheung (documentation of that to follow)

I am interested in the relationship between person and place, and philosophical ideas of how the presence of an individual within a place alters that place (or at the very least the conception of that place).

I have always been fascinated by how people think, and the processes of memory and how fragile, incomplete, inconsistent and sometimes incomprehendable it can be.

In my practice I continuously draw upon memories of my heritage, how I identity myself through the place I grew up and how that has shaped me.

Currently, i’m experimenting with instilling narratives and mysticism in landscape photography.

As an artist, you need to constantly be wary of the effects that side projects can have to your, shall we say, “main practice”.

Over the summer I began to do something i’ve always wanted to do – fashion & editorial photography. I worked with numerous models, make-up artists and stylists, worked both on location and in the studio, exploring different themes and from time to time getting myself published in online zines and fashion blogs.

However, now more than ever I am realising the impact that doing this type of photography has had to my practice. I am finding myself using compositional techniques, lighting set-ups etc that are typically used in photography for advertising. This has now resulted in the work i’ve been creating having a very commercial and fashion-heavy bias, which is inapprioriate to what i’m wanting to achieve.

However i’m currently collaborating with a group of performance artists called Dance4 to create an exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary, which has really allowed me to be self-reflective and get ‘back to my roots’, so to speak.

Both the Dance4 collaboration and my latest body of work will be published on here at a later date. However, should you wish to find out more about either, here are the links:

www.flickr.com/jamesfickling

http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/giving…