Processing

The third extract from the Processing newspaper is the introduction to Kenn Taylor’s text on McCoy Wynne’s ‘Triangulation’ project. In February this year, Kenn accompanied McCoy Wynne on a visit to photograph their next triangulation point. Kenn’s text reveals the physically demanding process of photographing the points but also weaves in different themes that the work addresses:

Its 8am on a mild February morning when I meet Stephen McCoy and Stephanie Wynne near Liverpool city centre. We are en route to the Peak District via the infamous Snake Pass. “There’s an element of the unknown,” says Stephen, as we drive out towards the M62. “You have a map but you’re not exactly sure. It requires a bit of detective work. Some have been removed, others are on restricted sites, but we want to document that variety.”

We are heading out to find ‘trig point’ number 25 of photography partnership McCoy Wynne’s long-term project, Triangulation. Trig points, or to give them their correct name, triangulation pillars, are concrete or stone pillars of about 4 feet in height which were used by the Ordnance Survey to generate an accurate picture of the shape of the British Isles. Approximately 6,500 of these pillars were spread across the UK, from as far north as The Shetland Islands to the southern tip of the UK near Lands End. Of these, just over 300 were ‘primary’ trig points. McCoy Wynne have made it their mission to photograph a panorama from the top of all these primary points.

The speed of the motorway network means we move from Merseyside to Derbyshire in a short space of time, but things are about to get a lot slower. Parking in a lay-by on the Snake Pass, we set out on the Pennine Way footpath. Travelling from the mild temperatures of the lowlands, it is surprising just how cold it is up in the Peaks. The level of snowfall can be seen by the deep footprints left by past visitors. Now though, the snow is frozen solid and even booted feet make virtually no impression on its hard surface.

Trig points were used by fixing a theodolite on the top of the pillar so that accurate angles could be measured to other surrounding points. This allowed the construction of a system of triangles which could then be referenced back to a single baseline. Trig points are generally located at the higher points in an area, so that there is a clear view from one pillar to another. You may have seen them on a country walk many times and never noticed them or thought of their function. As for myself, until this project I assumed they simply marked the highest point on hills and mountains.

We have some way to go before we reach our particular trig point on ‘The Edge’, not far from Kinder Scout. As we walk the Pennine Way the noise of the traffic gradually fades and the sound of the wind comes to dominate. It’s so cold I have to write speedily as, after only a few minutes with my gloves off, my hands go numb and I struggle even to unzip my pocket to put my notebook back in.

The trig points McCoy Wynne are photographing date back to ‘the Retriangulation of Great Britain’ instigated in 1935 by the Ordnance Survey. The aim of this project was to replace the original triangulation of Britain, known as the Principal Triangulation, undertaken between 1783 and 1853, with a more modern and accurate one. This was an immense task that would continue until the 1960s. The results of the retriangulation were used to create the British national grid reference system which is still used as the basis of maps today and allows the plotting of the entire country with relative accuracy.

Text courtesy of Kenn Taylor

kenntaylor.wordpress.com

www.mccoywynne.co.uk

The second extract from the Processing newspaper, ahead of the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, is the conclusion to my interview with photographer Kevin Casey:

JW: A few months back we discussed that when shooting the project, you observed that many patients in these technologically advanced chambers were middle age men who were subjected to frequent saturation diving years before the risks were fully understood. Do you consider ‘Chamber’ as representing the overlapping of these different eras?

KC: I think from a safety aspect alone the process seems to have developed. The contact that I have had with patients, mainly middle-aged men who use the chambers (from a commercial diving perspective) is evident for a few reasons. Firstly it’s useful as an “in” point to access some locations, units and other patients. My dad introduced me to contacts who were naturally his peers and in his age group. Secondly, as you mentioned, when these divers began in the 70’s and 80’s, there didn’t seemed to be a strict form, at least in Africa and the Middle East, of regulation for the time that they could be subjected to working under heavy pressure. For these divers the more time you spent in ‘Sat’ the greater financial reward. From a documentary perspective, it is interesting to note that patients who use these facilities have reached a meeting point in eras. From what I can gather and have been told the technology has not changed that drastically over the years. What I find interesting is that the functionality of the chamber has evolved. You can now find dental patients and burns victims being treated in the chamber.

KC: I initially shot a video for my Masters in a chamber in the Wirral, Merseyside. The video could best be described as a documentary with a performance element – more of a dramatisation in the editing than the actual content. I thought that I could get deeper into the subject matter and people involved. The video edits played to the strength of a film with quick edits and increased sound and audio. However I thought it would be more interesting to slow the process down to enable the viewer to invest time in each image, which, of course, is the photograph’s greatest strength. My criteria for selecting images is ever changing as this is still a work in progress. There have been two separate edits so far. The first concentrates on the experience of the staff and patients in the facilities and their working conditions and daily routines. This could be seen as entering the realm of a medical case study, something that I feel would not be appropriate for a gallery aesthetic. The second edits have been looser and left open to the viewers’ interpretation. I think that this encourages people to investigate or try and piece together their own narrative which has generated different reactions from the mundane to the sinister.

In the first extract from Processing newspaper, I interviewed photographer Kevin Casey about his ongoing project Chamber (2011-) The project documents the inner workings of the UK’s decompression chambers.

Jack Welsh: What motivated you to start ‘Chamber’?

Kevin Casey: It all started from the stories and events that my dad would tell me from working on offshore oilrigs and boats as a diver for over 30 years. As a child when he would return from long haul trips of 1-4 months with stories (some true, some dramatised for bed time stories) of his diving experiences and working on the rigs.

I think the memory that has always stayed with me from when I was a child – and what may have been the major factor in starting the project – was when I first realised my dad had suffered a bad “bend” (more commonly known as ‘the bends’ – when the precipitation of dissolved gasses turn into bubbles inside the body on depressurisation).

I remember when he came home from a trip and spent most of his time doubled up on the sofa or in bed in a state of agony. When I asked my mum what was wrong she said that “your dad’s got a bad case of the bends”. I had no idea what that was. When you know someone who has the condition, you can’t see it or hear it; you are just helplessly witnessing a loved one in pain. The only thing that could help him was a series of sessions in a hyperbaric chamber.

JW: The title has strong connotations with confinement and isolation. Your photographs seem to convey this both implicitly and explicitly.

KC: I used Chamber as the title for the works because of those questionable connotations coupled with how staff and patients in the unit refer to it during treatment: “I’m just going in the chamber.” Although you enter at your own discretion and are in constant contact with a team of doctors and technicians, it can be a very isolating experience. You are sealed in this claustrophobic metal container and locked in. Although you hear slight background noise, it is fairly silent apart from the noise of air or gas being pumped in and out of the space; it is almost a micro version of solitary confinement and quarantine. I wanted to capture the essence of isolation for the patients as well as the surroundings themselves.

JW: How do you approach shooting these environments? Do you have a preconceived idea of what you want to capture or is it dictated by imposed conditions and circumstance?

KC: You do have a preconceived idea but like many documentary photograph projects, once you enter into the environment it changes and evolves. However I found that the institutions do have a lot of similarities with some unique and subtle touches – such as the layout, waiting rooms and office surroundings – which gave each location its own identity.

JW: You’ve travelled around the UK documenting different decompression chambers. Why did you feel this was important?

KC: From a personal perspective I wanted to investigate the experience that my dad and his friends had told me about the hyperbaric chambers. When I first started to photograph the surroundings it is very captivating. The technology seems both dated and futuristic at the same time; almost like a scene from a Kubrick movie. I also feel like the use, understanding and knowledge of hyperbaric medicine and people who use it for treatment is almost non existent. I feel that it has been over looked or forgotten about but as I have found out, it can be used for a variety of treatments.

JW: Why did you choose to document the facilities, staff and patients of these chambers as opposed to addressing just one of these elements?

KC: For Processing, I have edited the work to mainly focus on the units, facilities and technologies used. I have used a limited amount of patient portraits to encourage the viewer to try and piece together a form of narrative. This narrative is slightly abstract and not as definitive as a direct case study of a single patient, which may look like a medical report. There is a lot of information and possibly several different projects that could be formed through the work that have already begun. As Chamber is still developing, I consider the newspaper and exhibition as tools that will help me to refocus on the outcomes of the project and decide which direction the documentary needs to go in. This was one of my main motivations in starting the ongoing conversation with you that instigated Processing.