Meeting this morning at St Annes with the Church Man. he let me into the church for a proper look around, which included the Crypt, fascinating and very crumbly. we talked some more about my idea.
The passing of time and people have obviously left their marks on the building, and if the project is to be more than a repeat of similar projects I have done before, I am going to need to engage with some of the faithful. happily the Church Man ( who does have a name, btw) can arrange this. If I’m to record the impressions made by the faithful, it does make sense that I include some of them. I took a few digital snaps just really to keep the place in my mind but the plan is to use my large format camera for the project. the next steps are for Church Man to sound out the congregation about participating, but he thinks that shouldn’t be a problem, meantime I have some more thinking to do….
It has all made me reflect on my musings on the feeling of home, although home is something we identify visually it is actually about something that is unseen: relationships, memories etc. You can be a Christian without going to church, but such a building gathers people together, again it is about the relationship and fellowship of the people who gather there. I really do need to try to articulate this idea better.
But anyway, at least I am doing something.. A book on my shelf has just caught my eye, The Fate of Place by Edward s Casey… I never did get to grips with it when I was doing my degree and tried to sell it on amazon… I have a feeling it’s calling me now….
Many years ago I visited St Marks in Venice; I was immediately struck by the atmosphere, it felt like the years or some remainder of them , hung in the air. Some kind of ethereal reminder of all the faithful that had passed through the doors. Hold on to this thought, I am going to return to it later.
Now, in my photographic practice I try to capture an atmosphere , a feeling, something which can’t be seen, it’s not easy but its what I do. Anyway for some time I have wanted to do a project about faith, based in a church. Is it possible to photograph faith? I can photograph representations of faith, people observing their faith, but I am looking for something else. Well I have finally got this off the ground and have an appointment in a church on Tuesday. I do not know the place, although I have been there once before, only not with the intention of photographing it, and then only for a few minutes. I am not sure what I will find or whether my idea will work.
A church or any building or place can leave an impression on one who spends time there, spiritually, psychologically, in an unseeable way. People passing through will leave an impression on the place, definitely a physical impression, and maybe something less definite…we’ll see!
The good news is I am finally ready to do some photographic work, after suffering the visual equivalant of writers block since graduating!
In an attempt to avoid doing any work of my own I have taken on some volunteer work, to take my mind off my lack of creativity. I’m helping the family history archive (where I made my last project) catalogue their 30,000 photographs..that should keep me busy for a while.
I thought it might be worth beginning this blog by outlining my ideas and how I work. Recent projects have addressed aspects of identity, and the ideas related to objects, home and place as this is an area which interests me. In the past my projects frequently had a personal connection, sometimes by way of the location, or an often tenuous link with an idea or memory. For me, photography is not solely about detail and clarity of image and I try to create photographs which evoke a feeling or atmosphere, not just provide ‘information’. Although we relate to and identify with places and objects visually, their importance to us is frequently emotional and connected with memory and relationships – things which cannot be seen and this view influences my work. It is often these emotions, memories or relationships that I attempt to capture a sense of. My preferred medium is film, in particular medium and large format photography, usually relying only on the available light. I do use digital SLRs also, but prefer to keep digital manipulation to a minimum.
