Making It Count

Its my second week back at university and the assignments are coming thick and fast now.  After my trips out over the Christmas holidays I am starting to feel like my final photography project is coming together now.  I've spent time in the digital darkroom blending images together to see how they work and if this idea would be successful, and good enough to submit as my final piece of work.

So far I'm pleased with the results, some are working better than others, but I've still got a few weeks before my deadline so have time to tweak and work out how I can group the images so that the final body of work is a cohesive one.

Here's a couple of my favourites:

And one I'm not so sure about:

I'd love to know what you think.

Making This Project Count

As my project is about the affect pollution and humans have on our shorelines I wanted to link it with charities that work to protect the coast.  There are so many more out there than I thought there would be and it seems like it is becoming more widely reported in the media.  Which I know is a bad thing because of the levels of pollution and damage that is being done, but it also has to have a small silver lining because it is raising awareness and emerging in more mainstream media.  For example, the article More Plastic Than Fish in the Sea by 2050 was published in The Guardian and features comments from  Dame Ellen MacArthur, who broke the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2005.  I sincerely hope, by making more people aware of these atrocities we can start to make changes and reduce the damage that is being done.

To do my little bit to help I would like to support three charities through raising awareness of them at my final exhibition.  They are:

• Two Minute Beach Clean
• Surfers Against Sewage
• Break the Bag Habit

Two Minute Beach Clean is breeding a community of beach-loving volunteers helping to rid the world's beaches of marine litter and plastic pollution two minutes at a time.  People are encouraged to spend two minute picking up rubbish on their next visit to the beach, take a photograph and post it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #2minutebeachclean.  Why not give it a go and earn some social media fame.

Surfers Against Sewage is an environmental charity protecting the UK's oceans, beaches and waves so they can be enjoyed long term.  Their campaigns include targeting marine litter, protecting our waves, improving water quality, taking action on climate change, and increasing the education around these issues.  Take a look on their website for what is happening in your region and how you can support this cause.

Break the Bag Habit is a campaign targeting the reduction of single-use bags.  Not only do they contribute to litter on our streets, but they use resources such as trees and water to produce them, and take over hundreds of thousands of years to break down.  You'll also save on the 5p bag charge introduced by the Government last year.  Win win.  Its easy to sign up to the pledge and shows your support.

There are so many more I could mention, but it all gets a bit overwhelming so I have chosen those mainly targeting the UK and are easy to build into your daily lives.  We've all heard the messages to turn off lights when we're not in the room, to not leave the tap running when we are brushing our teeth, but what else can you do to reduce waste?

Happy New Year - Plans for 2016

Happy New Year!  I hope you enjoyed the fireworks last night and are starting 2016 off with lots of good intentions.  I’m not really one for New Year’s Resolutions, but I do have a few goals that I want to achieve this year.

This is it, my final year at university and it will all to be decided within six months time.  I’ll be shooting and soaring, bounding and leaping, into a brand new career and way of life.  How very exciting, and not even a little bit scary (well, maybe a morsel).

As have a lot of people, I've been thinking about what I learned in 2015 and reviewing the year.  It feels such a long time ago now, but back in February I organised an American Pancake Brunch with my fellow Event Management students; went to Costa Rica for five weeks in May learning Spanish, saving turtles and bird watching at an eco-lodge; and started planning what I'd like to do when I graduate university.

I've read a few other blog posts in the run up to the big NYE and a couple stood out for me.  The first was Monica Galvan's Choose to Live a Creative Life and the phrase "create more than you consume".  It's going to be my phrase (I couldn't do just one word as I know some people have) for 2016.  I want to create many new and beautiful photographs, and be more mindful about the products I purchase.  Could I buy handmade instead?  How will I discard what is being replaced and avoid my waste ending up in our oceans?

And the second was Beverley from Pack Your Passport's In Defence of Spending New Year Alone post.  My past few trips have been with other people and this post reminded me of the sheer satisfaction in travelling to a new destination alone, I am thinking about going on a trip when I graduate and at the moment leaning towards going back to New York, always a winner, but should I go somewhere I've not been before?  Maybe I'll create a Pinterest board with my options.

So these are my goals for 2016:

1) Review the images I have for my personal photography project and build a strong portfolio.
2) Plan and curate an exhibition of my final images in celebration of completing the project and promote awareness of what is happening to the vast seas and oceans of the world.
3) Graduate from university with a degree in Digital Photography and Event Management.
4) Continue to develop my photography skills (just cos I graduate, doesn't mean I stop learning).

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions and/or goals for 2016?  What are your plans for this brand new year?

T'was The Night Before Christmas

I’m back home down south for the holidays looking after my friends' cats, Poppy and Hector, whilst they are having a lovely time in warm and sunny Mexico.

Even though we have three whole weeks break from uni I have a couple of assignments that need to be handed in after the break so I’ll be beavering away on those; making a start on my new ones; and cracking on with creating images for my personal photography project, which means trips to lots of beaches whilst they're deserted, how divine.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, have a fabulous time, eat, drink and enjoy.

Attracting an Audience

As I work on this project I will need to be constantly aware of it’s final destination, a curated exhibition, and who I would like to see the final images that I produce.

Photographs started small.  They were collected, not exhibited.  As photography began to compete with painting, photographs got larger in scale.  But producing a large image meant collaborating with others to produce the print, this brought into question who had made the image.  As the medium of photography grew in the public's estimation, this became less of an issue and more of who could produce the largest paper.  Large photographs became photomurals for commercial and political use, particularly during the war.  Anyone could see an image at an exhibition, it was a shared experience for those who viewed these gigantic images, and created a community among them.

However, early photomurals were pasted rather than hung carefully on walls and unprotected from exposure to light and crowds; many were thrown away after their intended use.  In 1932, the Museum of Modern Art in New York was the first to introduce giant prints to an exhibition and to focus on the scale of photography.  The exhibition was Murals by American Painters and Photographers.  Large prints were not welcomed in the art photography world, with the great Ansel Adams referring to them as 'expensive wallpaper'.  The smaller the image, the closer it was to the photographic original, and therefore, the creative act.

By the early 1980s artists like Jeff Wall and the so-called Pictures Generation, including Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger, developed an interest in large images, bringing them back into acceptance. With mural size images on display today at exhibitions such as the Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum, London, and the Zanele Muholi's #Vukani/Rise at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool.

One of the main aims of exhibitions is to attract audiences, however, understanding those audiences and how to target them, can be intricate task.  The National Portrait Gallery's Exhibitions and Displays Policy states to "maintain, extend and broaden the range of audiences and increase our understanding of those audiences" as one of their main aims.  It is something even the big galleries need to think about.  The Manx National Heritage Museum lists 'think about your audience as number one in their list of how to prepare for an exhibition.  They suggest displays should entertain; give information; be attractive; use strong images; and be safe and accessible.

My project would ideally attract people who are environmentally aware, keep up to date with current affairs and are engaged with the arts.  However, it will also be targeted at those people who have an interest in learning more about lessening their impact on the environment.  My project will provide information on how they can do this, such as how they can use water more efficiently and reduce their waste, especially plastic.

Project Update

I am currently despairing of the grey skies that are a bit of a permanent feature in the North West at the moment.  So I've been in the digital darkroom trying to perfect creating a digital image and printing it.  I've got a couple of digital images now, but am having a few printer problems.  Watch this space and hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have more successful news to report.

Delving Deeper Into The Research

My research so far had focused mainly on other photographers’ work, however, my subject area has been influenced by my own experiences and personal preferences, so I wanted to delve deeper and look for inspiration from other places.

When I'm not working on assignments I always have a book on the go.  I can go anywhere with a book, it keeps me occupied when I'm sitting in a coffee shop alone, or on a long journey (not driving though, I get car sick).  A couple of books I read over the summer immediately came to mind when thinking about this project.

In A Short Book About Drawing Andrew Marr explores the subject of drawing and painting, and how this has affected his own art.  There is a section in there about the natural world.  Marr argues many of us live in crowded cities far from open fields and skies.  "Advertisers, such as holiday companies, tease us with imagery of unspoilt landscapes lending a sense of sentimentality to the scenes portrayed.  A walk in beautiful countryside can induce a feeling of being vividly alive and in love with the world."  This quote made me think of an advertisement I'd seen for First Great Western trains who used the beautiful scenery of the South West of the UK to tempt customers to book a train journey with them.  This campaign was launched in February, when it was dark, cold and wet, in most parts of the UK.  Yet these images offered hope of warmer, sunnier days to come.  Richard Misrach, as discussed in my last blog post, used a similar approach with his photography, making industrial buildings look grand and implausibly beautiful.

Image courtesy of The Leith Agency

Marr also discusses the paintings of Claude Monet and how he recorded the changing environment.


Monet's Impressionist painting style sought to capture a moment in time without the detail and smoothness of previous painting eras, which resulted in stark depictions of the industrial revolution and its more adverse effects such as pollution.  In Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil shows a new bridge cutting across an idyllic rural scene, with a train belching steam into the air.  This is in direct contrast to traditional, picturesque connotations a viewer would have with paintings of landscapes and creates a bleak and grim view of the changing environment.

Image courtesy of Christie's

I will do some further research into these two approaches of depicting industry and how I can use one or the other in my own project.  Do you think using beautiful imagery is a more effective way of engaging with the viewer?  Is it more effective than showing people shocking, atrocious images?

Recommended Settings

I'm still happy with my project idea of portraying the impact humans have had on the environment and so these last could of weeks I have been spending some time researching the technical considerations and how I might be able to try something new.

As this is my final university project I wanted to try a style of photography I had not attempted before whilst I still had experts on hand to help.  Back in March there had been a Google Doodle to mark the 216th Birthday of English photographer and botanist Anna Atkins.  Atkins is credited with being the first to use a photographic printing process that produced a cyan-blue print, a cyanotype.  Atkins used the process to create a limited series of cyanotype books that documented ferns and other plant life from her seaweed collection.  Cyanotypes were used extensively by engineers as a simple and low-cost process to create copies of drawings, and were named blueprints.

Image courtesy of Anna Atkins, Ceylon Fern, 1854

I was very taken with the vivid blue colour of the images that were created through this process and wanted to try it myself.  I ordered a starter kit from Silverprint and scoured the local hedgerows for some interesting props to create my image.  It took several attempts, with the first completely disappearing after a couple of hours, but I did manage to finally produce something I was pleased with.  You can't see it very well on the image below, but just at the top of the feather it has captured where it has slightly parted.  Some parts are a lot more detailed than I thought they would be

I need to do a lot more experimenting as the white is still fading away after a while, and I want to try it with a digital negative to perfect this before I have to submit my images.  I am also attracted to double exposure images and think this could be used to portray the good vs. evil sides to the environment.  This is another new process I need to learn, and then turn into a cyanotype print.  I have lots to be working on for the next couple of weeks.

Please do let me know if you have tried making cyanotypes.  Can you recommend any other kits to try?  Or where I might start with learning how to create a double exposure print.  I'd love to hear what you think.

Think Of A Project, Any Project

It's my final year at university.  I can't quite believe how fast it has come around.  When I handed in my notice at work in 2013 I was quite calm in the knowledge that I had a plan for the next three years, but now, those three years have become eight short months.  So many shades of scary.

I'm doing a double module in Photography this year entitled Digital Photography: Production, Curation and Exhibition.  There are three assignments, create a Portfolio; write a Critical Evaluation;
and host a Production Event; the conclusion to the project.

First things first, I need to think of a topic for my project.  The world and everything in it is my oyster, I can chose any topic I like.  That's quite a lot to consider.  To try to narrow this down I thought about the things I am most passionate about and what I felt would be worthwhile exploring in greater detail.  I have a great love for wildlife, nature and the coast.  For one of my modules last year I went a placement to Costa Rica where I volunteered at a national park where they monitor sea turtles.  Although it was probably on the periphery of my mind, I'd never really considered just how much plastic makes it's way into our seas and, in turn, our marine life.  In Costa Rica, I experienced it first hand with daily beach cleaning patrols.  For a beach that is monitored for plastic on a regular basis, we still managed to collect several black bags full of plastic each day.

When I got home, as always seems to be the case when a thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere, this video showing a research team who found a turtle with a 10-12cm plastic straw lodged in it's nostril, was released in August this year.

Video courtesy of Christine Figgener

*****warning: strong language and graphic scenes*****

Over the summer I kept an eye out for other news articles about plastics in our oceans and anything else related to this subject.  I went to the Environmental Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society in London.  The competition is an international showcase for the very best in environmental photography and film. Honouring amateurs and professionals of all ages, it provides an opportunity for photographers to share images of environmental and social issues with international audiences, and to enhance our understanding of the causes, consequences and solutions to climate change and social inequality.

Eduardo Leal's project, Plastic Trees, was made to raise awareness of the problems caused by plastic bags on the Bolivian Altiplano.

Image courtesy of Eduardo Leal

These images are not specific to this area of the world, I know I can remember seeing plastic bags caught in trees in my local park, it is something we are all witness too.

I am currently researching other photographers who have created photography projects on the impact people and industry have had on the environment to further inform my own project.  More information on this in a couple of weeks.

If you would like to support Christine's research into sea turtles, visit her Go Fund Me webpage.