Place and Non-Place

I have been given a university assignment called Place. The assignment description goes as follows.
'Place' will be the starting point for your visual exploration. Place can mean many things, from a physical location, a particular position, point, or area in space; a location, the position of an object or person, place can be also explored through the concept of non-place.
This is the starting point - you can take the theme in any direction, however you do need to demonstrate that you have made an informed choice regarding your particular creative response, both visual approach and meaning.
So what does this mean for me?
Where do I start?
I think the first step is too look for what makes the difference between place and non-place and then move onto practitioners who work with place and non-place for inspiration for my own work.
From extensive research I have found that place is somewhere we hold significance such as our homes, schools, libraries anywhere that holds some form of attachments where someone can be seen to feel some sort of emotional response. Non-place I have found that is the opposite of place so somewhere like places of transience  that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as 'places' such as a motorway, a hotel room, an airport or a supermarket.
But surely this is down to perception, I imagine that some non-places can be regarded as places to some people and visa versa. You might work at an airport surely this would mean this place of transition would be a more permanent attachment and therefore become place? Either way we all have our own preferences and I'm yet to decide whether I want to focus on place or non-place.

I've been given a list of practitioners to research for this brief and it's a pretty lengthy list
Brian Morrison
John Delaney - Hoboken Passing
Dylan Collard - Up My Street
Nicholas Hughes *
Lisa Dracup - Sharpe's Wood *
Dan Holdsworth *
John Darwell - Dark Days *
Gary Watts
Chris Anthony
John Crispin
Giles Revell
Julia Fullerton Batten *
Mathew Albanese
Klaus Pichler
Alec Sloth - Niagra
Lara Shipley - Coming, Going, Staying
Marisa Scheinfeld *
Richard Seymour - Metropolis *
Richard Seymour - Car Plants *
Robert Wilson *
Tim Walker

I have put a star next to each of the artists who take my interest and who I hope to get some inspiration from. The artists work really fascinates me and I will try my best to somehow incorporate their influence within my own practice.

Nicholas Hughes - In Darkness Visible

At first look these images are fantastic, they show life in the dark. It is winter time but still the trees live. The trees might be bare and skeletal but at the same time the focus and the strong glow of light to me show as if the trees are fighting back from nature and are refusing to wither away over the winter months. The trees look strong and resilient just waiting for their leaves to grow back.

After doing a little bit more research into these images I have found that all of these tree and inhabitants of public spaces in London. To me this is amazing that Hughes has been able to create such a contrast, finding these trees in London a concrete jungle. Knowing a bit more about the images I would put them in the category of non-place due to the fact that not many people will notice these like Hughes has, however, due to Hughes' acknowledgement of these spaces and its trees these images also give a sense of place. I think this will be something that I consider when I create my images, I will look to photograph something/somewhere that can be considered both place and non-place.

Liza Dracup - Sharpe's Wood

Liza Dracup's work about Shape's Woods is very interesting, these landscape images have all been made with a large format camera using really long exposures, this gives the strange lighting, it looks like the images were taken from dusk capturing the last of the available light through darkness using light pollution, moonlight and stars. It gives it a real psychedelic feel and looks like something from a horror movie like The Blair Witch Project or Shrooms, however, the images are still beautiful. To me it's the lighting that makes the images, I don't think they would be anywhere near as interesting if the colours weren't as vibrant or there was a lack of range in the colours. I'd like to include some influence from this work where I can rely on my knowledge of film to manipulate the images I'm going to take without having to use photoshop. Liza Dracup is adamant she doesn't use any retouching software and proves this by printing straight from the piece of film. This is something I am considering, not because I don't like using things like photoshop just because I feel like it's more honest.

Dan Holdsworth

 These stunning images from Holdsworth give me a really apocalyptic feeling the absence of man just what he has left. I might not be right but it also looks as if it's a statement about light pollution and a statement about wasting energy lighting places that aren't being used at night time. Why do you need to light a car park at night time if the shops aren't open?

To me this can be a really big influence on my work it has sparked an idea, there is a completely abandoned housing estate down the road from my flat in Liverpool. No body lives there, it's just sitting there waiting for someone to buy the houses and land to turn it into something else, however, the area is run down, as are a lot of the properties and streets. It's not something that could be fixed easily. The houses were and still are owned by the council just sat there, dormant. It would take a very large investment from a wealthy someone to turn the place into a business, the only problem is that it isn't appealing. Not from the current state of it. I feel like it could be a great photographic project as it once was place and has now turned into a non-place.

As you can see the area is pretty run down. I'm going to look at photographing it to explore how it once was a community that has now become streets of boarded up windows and shutters. John Darwell has done something similar to this in his exhibition Dark Days.

John Darwell - Dark Days

These images were shot at the time of the foot and mouth epidemic, it was a national tragedy and Darwell truly captures the seriousness and the bleakness of this unfortunate event. Even now 12 years on I still get shivers thinking about it, and these images seriously encourage the shivers. I feel that they may have worked better if they were in black and white, I don't think that colour is necessary, however, they still do the job. It really does look like the apocalypse was upon us. Death and disease. I want to create something that has the same impact as these images. I want to use black and white film for my project to try to make it look more apocalyptic than Darwell's work.

Julia Fullerton-Batten

I'm still unsure about how I feel about this work from Batten I cannot make up my mind as to whether or not the people in these pictures want to be in the places that is layered onto/under their portrait or whether or not they are trying to escape from the places. The title of this work is Schizophrenia suggesting that the places that are overlayed upon the portraits are another part of their personalities as if that is how they feel. Like the last image I have uploaded of hers, is the woman feeling trapped in the city? Does she want to escape to the city? Does her head feel noisy like the city? Is her head busy? It's not that I don't like the images I think that they are a really good idea I'm just uncertain about them. However I can link this to place with my interpretation viewing the different layers of the images as the people are stuck in non-place as if they are in a void or different dimension where no one can hear their problems and the landscape imagery beneath the portrait as place like these people just want to be heard or find some form of purpose.

Marisa Scheinfeld

I really like this work from Scheinfeld I can link it in to what I am looking at doing. These images show what used to be a thriving hotel in America and due to lack of custom and visitors it has turned into an urban explorers dream. From the images I get the feeling that this once hotel has been abandoned for quite some time due to the plants growing through the carpet. I like how contrast isn't needed here because you can imagine it. Busy hotel - vandalised building. The way this is shot makes it feel really personal, it been captured as if someone was still living there, looking at the chairs, rubbish and the decor. This is what I am going to try and do with my own work and I am very happy that I have viewed Scheinfeld's work.

Richard Seymour - Metropolis

I absolutely love this series of images from Seymour they're absolutely beautifully taken. It looks like every single aspect of them has been taken into consideration. To me these images represent a utopia yet to be inhabited everything is spotlessly clean and taylor made to fit a modern society. The intricacies of what makes the images are beautiful, the lines and curves in the architecture are stunning and I just want to see more from Seymour. I want to incorporate the loneliness of these images within my own to give a real sense of abandonment and desolation I think it will be really effective with the content of what I want to shoot.

Richard Seymour - Car Plants

Once again another utopian feel shoot from Seymour although these images just show the shell of a car it also shows me what it will be, the technology being used to makes these vehicles looks very advanced as if each one of the cars were to be taylor made, down to the finest detail. Through the stunning lighting these images become more than commercial, they become art. They give this non-place a sense of place and I would like to give that feel from my own work.

Robert Wilson

These images from Robert Wilson are fantastic, the bring life to the machine. They make this network of pipes and metal a character in the story of this mine. It's very inspirational to see that a little bit of persistence with the same subject can make a project, from even just three photographs. I want my work to have this same character, I want it to tell a story. I will be shooting in black and white however, I feel I can achieve this with persistence and when I am out shooting I will take this into consideration.

Shooting.

I have only had a very short space of time to shoot this project, and shooting on film has dramatically reduced the amount of images I have been able to produce, however, here are the good images that I can potentially use for my final ones.

When shooting for this assignment I wanted to seriously capture how apocalyptic this area of Liverpool looks so I've focused my attention to how alone and run down this place looks, no body lives here the estate is barren and minimal yet at the same time I feel like this work almost speaks a narrative. This is what I imagine our country to look like if there was any global crisis, extreme war, disease, extinction.

I shot these images using black and white 35mm film. I know my camera very well so creating the desired look has been years of trial and testing. I wanted contrast, deep blacks, grain and soft focus. The contrast for vibrant images, the deep blacks to show how little life exists within this area that is meant to contain families and prosperity, grain to make these images almost timeless giving the viewer a sense that this could already have happened or this could happen in the future as if it is a premonition, finally I have used the soft focus to show the uncertainties of what has happened here.

When scanning the images in I didn't clean them, nor when I put the images into photoshop to manage the levels did I take any dust specs off or try and spot heal any grain, hair, marks or dust and I have done this on purpose I'm not just being lazy. I want the viewer to feel like this images are part of this estate I want the images to represent what this place really feels like; run down, uncared for, depressing, lacking attention, dirty.
I feel as though because I haven't cleaned the film it gives an accurate representation of the area I have photographed and although this isn't how I would usually treat film, I think it gives these images the boost they need to reach out to the viewer.

The Final 6

I've chosen these 6 images for my final outcome because I feel that they work not only as stand alone images but they also tell a narrative and I feel that is an important commodity when producing work like this. Each single image gives a small part of this story but when they are together the story comes alive and shows you how everything links together throughout the work. These final images are not only an interpretation of how I can see what the world would look like if a global crisis were to happen resulting in an apocalypse but this is also a piece of documentary work about our current recessional position.

I have decided to open up the work with the above image. I think that this is a strong image to open with because it shows the viewer what the work is about. The sign which says a great opportunity development is mounted on a poorly made wall which looks like it could fall down at any moment and there are over grown bushes and plants which are entering the frame suggesting that this sign has been here for quite some time. The over grown bushes indicate that this area has a lot of maintenance issues which is reinforced by the weather beaten, frail looking wall it's climbing. As an advertisement for Liverpool council who are obviously trying to sell the area it's a poor attempt at a sale of land which suggests that this sign has been here a long time and that there is no one around to look after the site.

The second image, we enter the estate. It's dark, it's gloomy, there's no one here. All the houses have got their windows boarded up. What has happened here? The telegraph pole suggests that this area was once civilianised showing that people once lived here. It is a long street, there are a lot of houses, yet no one is inside them. Not a single from of life is here apart from myself and the viewer. Where have you brought me? I like how the image is so suggesting that this neighbourhood had people who used to live here. It gives me the feeling that everyone just vanished. This is now a non-place. I'm glad I researched and looked at the work of Richard Seymour because it has made me look deeper at how I photograph the environment I'm shooting in.

Image number 3 gets a little bit more personal with the area. The sign on the door states that all items of value have been removed to stop looters and robbers. The scripture on the wall next to the door says elec off (electricity has been turned off) I imagine this is to stop squatters thinking that this is a desirable place to move into, however, maybe there is someone inside, our species lived without electricity for a very long time what's that to stop anyone living without electricity now. On its own this image works just as well as if it does in the series it makes you ask so many questions and lets you build a story up inside your own mind. I'm starting to feel the influence of Marisa Scheinfeld within my work now.

Image number 4. This image is one of my favourites, it shows that it is not just one street that is affected by whatever has happened here but it has affected a large number of people. On the pavement to the right of the screen, plant life has started to grow through the gaps in the concrete showing that no one has walked here for a while allowing other life to blossom. To the far right of the frame there is the start of a playing field, it makes me imagine that there were games of football and cricket went on here with the local children. 

Image number 5. I enjoy the irony of this image. How can something so advanced be closed down? This picture shows that there were businesses in the area this now changes the neighbourhood into a community. It makes me think about John Darwell's work about the foot and mouth crisis. 

Image number 6. The final image in the series expands on the non populated area, a lot of people has been affected by whatever has happened and I feel like it is a good image to end the series with. The contrast works very well, it makes me imagine what this area would look like in colour and with people. I think that the fridge that is lead out side the first house on the left shows that someone left in a hurry and decided to only take what was essential. Yet another image with a strong influence from John Darwell. What was once a place is now a non-place.

To conclude for this assignment I have shot, I feel that I have explored the concepts of place and non-place to a fairly in-depth standard and have explored relevant practitioners to enable me to do so. I have really enjoyed this piece of work and where it has taken me, and from it I have developed further ideas and thoughts on projects I would like to do in the future. Working on a project where I have looked at the environment as a different world/time zone/hypothetical scenario has strongly made me consider how I create my images, how I use my camera and how to use what I have to the best of my advantage. I have learnt a lot from this project and I look forward to continuing on with work like this.