BERLIN TRIP

From the 15th to 17th, a group of us went on a trip to Berlin for 3 days. In the 3 days, we visited galleries and landmarks and overall, had a great time. 

Day 1:
We got straight there, arrived at the hotel and went straight back out. We walked around to take in the sites and general environment of Berlin. Along the way we visited the Reichstag Building, the Brandenburg Gate, walked through the park, and to the Memorial of the murdered jews of Europe. This was something we said we would visit before we got there and after seeing images of this, I was interested to see it. Yet, images just doesn't translate the feeling you get whilst walking around this memorial. The memorial is one you have to experience yourself in order to understand how much impact it makes. 

After food, we walked to the Berlin Wall, which had some amazing artwork from one end to the other. Before returning to the room, we visited Pro QM book shop on the way back. We browsed in here for a good time, and despite being super tired by this point I tried to have a look at a variety of various things, from zines and magazines, to photo books. 

Day 2: 

We experienced the trams and tubes in Berlin and we headed to C/O Berlin Gallery. I actually spent a lot of time in the book shop at the gallery, and really had a look at the photo books that were available here. I noted a few artists down that I liked the look of for future references and also picked myself up a set of Tom Wood books - Men and Women.

Here, we saw the Joel Meyerowitz 'Why Color? Retrospective' exhibition and I can say it's one of the best ones I've been to. After this gallery we headed over to Museum Fur Fotografie. Here, we viewed the Helmut Newton collection and work from Guy Bourdin. There were a range of different work in this gallery and some interesting ways to present and display work also that I can consider when displaying my own. 

(I'm going to place the images and my thoughts on the exhibitions in a separate post you can read here - Berlin // Galleries )  

Day 3: 
This day was limited as we had to get to the airport and return home. However, we still had some time to explore and was free to do anything we decided. A group of us decided to go a visit Checkpoint Charlie and then walk over and visit the Jewish Museum.  


  

Danny Treacy // Work Review

After talking about his own work, I attended one of the group tutorials to show some of my own work. He made some very interesting points that I can consider in the development of the project.

• Occupy the space without my Grandmother there. I thought this was an interesting point as so far I haven't been in the house alone whilst photographing, although I have been photographing in rooms within the house alone. This is something that may effect the images, and is something to experiment with to see if it affects the outcome.

• In terms of using the archive, this can be very personal, yet it can also be contemporary

• The photograph of the ornament with the finger broken was picked out. He said this demonstrated life within the home and is something visually that I can experiment with to portray the life lived in the house.

• Within my images of the ornaments with the black backgrounds, I could look into the way archives (museums etc) document objects in varied way. For example, the black background could contribute a certain value to the object. 

• I included the portraits I took of my Grandmother and this was also picked up on. That maybe I don't necessarily need these as the objects alone could be used to describe the person I'm portraying. 

• He commented on the variety of styles of photo I had produced and stated this is a good position to be in as there are now several different ways I can explore my project, and I could experiment with combining more than one way of photographing to see how they work together.

• Throughout the project, as well as it being personal, I also need to disconnect myself from it at times and not to be too precious about what or how I photograph and just see what works.

• Letting the viewer piece together who the person is rather than showing them. This is another interesting point as a lot of my work so far is quite specific so taking a step back and letting the viewer ask questions is something I can experiment with.

• The unexplained gives images greater life and not everything needs a title or to be explained. Which so far in the project, I feel like I haven't left much room for interpretation which is something I can experiment with in future shoots.

• Use texts as research to inform the work throughout doing it, this will allow a wider understanding of the themes and media that I am experimenting with.

• The archival imagery can be used to inform the work but not necessarily be the centre of it. 

• And finally, He also mentioned the scale of the work, and to consider this in ways of what I want to achieve with the final piece. 

Overall, I got some great Feedback on my own work, that I can review and consider when shooting and researching from now, and how these ideas can help develop my project. 

Danny Treacy // Talk

This week we had Danny Treacy come into Uni to talk about his own work and then some group tutorials afterwards. This was an interesting insight into his own practice, talking about some of his early work and how this developed into his currently body of work.

From him talking through the processes he has gone through to get to where his work is currently at was informative as a viewer and showed him consistently reviewing his work throughout shooting to see what was working, what needed changing, and importantly what it was that he was interested in and wanted to explore further through photography.

He had worked on location and in the studio. However, his current work is shot with plain black backgrounds as he felt the environments were too much for what he was aiming to photograph, which were clothes he had found and worn within the photo. The found clothing spoke about the environment enough without taking the photograph there.

Also, from constantly reviewing his work, themes started to occur through taking the photographs, which he could then formulate ideas from and helped with the development of the project. One thing he discovered, were the items of clothing reflected the environment which they were found, an interest in looking at possessions, and morphing the sense of time within his work.

Process/Research/Practice
Near the end of the talk, he mentioned a little bit of the research and things he does that informs his work. He spoke of Research in a more broader term, for example walking round and finding objects is part of research that he does thats useful to his practice. He combines materials and photographs them to keep for research and not only photographing for a finished piece. The ambiguity of the objects works for him, in the sense not knowing is what makes the clothing and found objects interesting.

View Danny's Work Here.

Interim Exhibition // 2

Almost 2 months from the first interim exhibition, we had our second exhibition. For this one, we could select more than one image if we wanted and also had to write a statement that would go alongside the work on display unlike last time when it was just one singular image.

I decided to put up a combination of archival images and my own images. My own images were printed bigger at A3 on semi matte and the archival at about A5 and on silk paper. For the layout, I experimented with different layouts on a table first before finally deciding on one and working out the measurements in between to ensure they are spaced out equally. Below is the final display I had helped pin up for the interim.

Again, like my previous interim, I got some useful feedback from my tutors that I can then use to develop my project even further this term and the next. 

Project Statement:

Combining the past and present within this project, I have started to explore my Grandmothers life. Through photographing, links are starting to appear between the objects in her home, the places in the village where she has lived her whole life and the images within her albums.