i like easter. it’s the first big formal holiday of the year and lasts for 4 days. in recent years it’s often been the scene of an ambitious decorating project. this year it’s been the scene of relaxation away from forest school portfolio and considerations of images for the photographic society.
i have joined the society.
i’m still coming to terms with the competitive nature of the society structure. the good thing about this is it’s feeding my art and sport interest. this has been dormant for sometime. the society structure displays images in a competitive environment while giving feedback based upon the judges stare. i am yet to fully understand how the full competition circuits works.
i have two current opportunities with society. a gallery presence on their website and the final competition of the season.
quietly i talk to myself about competitive image making.
have you seen sook’s pop art documentary ?
i enjoyed the journey he took me on through the origination of pop art and smiled at those points where each individual involved claimed the origination as their own. pop art seemed to evolve out of the time and feeling about the time.
i consider my own practice and the time i live in. if i were to start making images in response to my time what might i be making?
i choose to steer away from consciously following the news. despite this i am still kept up to date with what’s going on. i’d prefer to live in a bubble of 19th century localism where news from another country takes days if not weeks to get to me.
am i starting to question why i should be aware of world current affairs and what if i am not?
i don’t really want to see images of world events.
i’d prefer to live in a world where there is post teenage government.
i’ve been taking part in the 7 day post a nature picture challenge on facebook.
my forest school portfolio needs to be handed in in late april. i’ve been working hard on the theoretical module in the past few weeks, saving the practical module to finish with.
using forest school ethos as a basis i’ve submitted an idea to the school of social entrepreneurs scheme backed by lloyds banks and the lottery to help men experiencing under par well being. i explained it better in the application – honest.
in thinking about the idea within context of the application i also necognise a possibility for research to be carried out and this has lead me back to an academic basis that i might explore but if i do i’ll need it to be on my terms as if not it’ll almost certainly become too overwhelming for me. … leading to a well being issue. ummm.
within the image collating for the society i’ve selected 3 images that are intentionally out of focus. i’ve linked them to the idea of a lost something. i think i might be considering entering 3 out of focus images to a society competition. will they get past the initial selection process ?
the language of out of focus is one of wanting to disconnect from the world as it’s presented. this is in terms of the public state of american politics and association triggered world events.
image contextualisation by title coming from a personal perspective.
it’s difficult being shy. i feel i have grand ideas but when it comes to it i do err on the side of staying within myself. the society membership is challenging me to step outside myself, knowing that the images i have are different in their inception from what i’ve seen so far. there being an importance set about technical capability over a creative vision. there being a lot of images that are technically proficient …
being in the society is punctuating my image creation too. images i’m looking to represent myself are from previous years. in going forward, my challenge is to create new images.
might i use my stance on
- post capitalism
- possible futures
- politicisation of images
- consideration of energy and it’s consumption
- art and sport
- time
- my own well being
to arrive at something in which i can express myself in an aesthetic manner and that manner being able to catch the eye of the viewer.
a few hours after publishing this post i added the following.
in my list of things to consider i have made some forgottens.
i forgot that i like the concept of nature being wiggly and mans part of nature being described by lines. i’ve considered this many times within the #leaves #lines images published to instagram.
if i am to rebuild my intellectual concerns, wiggly verses lines is something i need to bare in mind.
an additional aspect of the images i like to make feature a single aspect small within the overall space. these images give me great joy. for me they speak of meditative moments within the sometimes nonsense of the built environment around me.
i appear to have several threads of investigation and interest.
i’ve spoken about and considered the competitive nature of the society. upon reflection i note this is delivered in a positive and supportive manner. if an image is chosen to be in the competition, those judging speak of their likes and preferences for the picture.
in those submissions made to opportunities in the past, very rarely did i receive feedback as to why it had failed to come up to what was being expected. very rarely did i get an indication of why my idea was unexciting.
the journey into the society will at least include signposts along the way.
