Weekly Update #2

Walls 

I have been shooting recently, if just on the whim of attention or the things I have been actively seeking out, but I have been very interested in images of trees, plants, shrubs and other things sourced with nature.

Cherry Blossom, June, 2011

I came across a photograph I took in the early part of June last year of a pink blossom tree, full bloom. An image that I liked back then when I developed it and one I still enjoy looking at today. 

It was only when I begun to look at hanging plates that my attention moved on to wreathes and flowers in arrangements. But, really, what does it all mean? 

Hanging plates themselves hold this kitsch, increasing their value. These plates which originated in China, can be seen everywhere, from Europe to North America. They have purposes as ideal gifts, and for household decorations. The ones I am more interesting in though, are the ones that carry a motif, almost a moral motif. In themes of relationships, life morals, and so forth. 

These kitsch designs are interesting, there form and structure relates to the ideas of my work.

The plate as an object is surrounded by a golden edge, the first barrier. Within that is the second barrier, the wreath of flowers, and inside that are the some-what special words.

It was from this I begun noticing the involvement of nature with the portraits used in Walls. Now I have also been shooting portraits for a different series of work that looks at males in their own ephemeral landscape that has been on going for over a year Liam #1, June 2011 and Carter, 2011. 

So I want to get out and photograph more images similar to Cherry Blossom, June 2011, and see how they look visually alongside my portrait work, as a trial. 

Liam #1, June, 2011

Carter, 2011

Around the same time I  was discussing work from Canadian photographer or more correctly artist Jeff Wall. In the past he has made images such as The Crooked Path, 1991. A photograph that is a study of human understanding in the simplest forms of how we read a landscape. How do we get from point A to point B?
Not to mention with my previous post looking at the work from Photographer Maureen Drennan, you can see now why I connect with her work so well. There are visual similarities that I enjoyed reading, the colours, the composition and the eye for detail. 

The Crooked Path, 1991, Jeff Wall

And so, these are some of the things I have found myself looking at, and being highly interested in, no matter how visually mundane they may appear. 

Forest, Dovestone, 2012

 Dried Stems, March, 2012

Tangled Shrubs, 2012

Finally I even have this image, which I haven’t scanned in correctly at the right size, or sorted the colour balance correctly, but I wanted to just be able to see if it had any qualities I wanted to keep. I suppose I like the variation within it.  

Untitled, Houldsworth, 2012

Untitled #2 Houldsworth, 2011