Samoylova uses printed appropriated images found on the internet of sublime landscapes. Single images are folded and connected with mirrors and corrugated shelving to form a 3d picture. She then photographs the tableau as she builds up the picture. Her images become a transformation and representation of nature rather than actual images of nature.
Link: http://anastasiasamoylova.com/landscapesublime
Thomas Kellner
Kellner takes buildings such as the Eiffel Tower with which we are familiar and deconstructs, then reconstructs them having planned which perspectives he will need to photograph. He may shoot one or more roll of film and reconstruct them to look like a contact sheet showing one structure. Inspired by cubism, the press release of his Black and White exhibition explains "Timeless images of a newly formulated language based on cubism emerge [...] The relationship between the object and the form is at the centre of the consideration."(Arnold, B 2016)
Arnold, B. (2016) Pressarea: Thomas Kellner Black and White. Available at: http://www.thomaskellner.com/info/info/pressarea/pressreleases/black-and-white-by-thomas-kellner/ last accessed /4/17
Link: http://www.thomaskellner.com/info/info/pressarea/pressreleases/black-and-white-by-thomas-kellner/
Jerry Uelsmann
Uelsmann uses traditional methods of enlarging and layering negatives in the darkroom. He uses his intuition to decide what to include. His aim is for viewers to react to the image rather than break it down and study how it was made. He believes that technique should support the image.
Link: http://nashvillearts.com/2014/01/jerry-uelsman-maggie-taylor-photography/
David Hockney
David Hockney uses different planes to show multiple viewpoints, a wide space and depict time and motion within the same image, using the same principles as cubism. The Tate explains that “Each [of Hockney’s] individual polaroid is taken separately and experienced simultaneously […] exemplifies Hockney’s interest in depicting a 3-dimensional world through 2-dimensional art forms.” (Tate, 2017) I particularly liked the portrait of his mother in which he photographed her movement so the image becomes the perspective of the photographer rather than the viewer’s perspective.
Link: http://www.hockneypictures.com/photos/photos_collages.php
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Watkins, C. (2014) Trees, woods and forests. London: Reaktion books (pp140-174)
The oaks of Sherwood were traditionally used for naval timber supplies, had picturesque qualities, druidic connections, associated with Robin Hood, has aristocratic power and is a habitat for rare insects. Tourism was started by Walter Scott with Ivanhoe and Washington Irving. In the 18th century the crown took less of an interest in royal hunting. Victorians began to visit ancient trees because they were considered picturesque. They were linked to literary writings and legends. Corruption in the forest led to ancient oaks being destroyed.
In the 1780's, Major Rooke, a local historian (Major Oak named after him) looked at the forest in a scholarly way, linking protection of the trees to druids and classical literature. Together with his contemporaries he looked at ways of protecting the trees. Working with Whigs and gentry, they used John Evelyn's Sylva A discourse of Forest Trees and the Propagation of Timber, first published in the 17th century as a method to restore the forest to its former glory.
William Hewitt published an essay on "Sherwood Forest" in "The Rural life of England (1836) which described the forest as a sublime place.
"A thousand years, ten thousand tempests, lightenings, winds of wintry violence, have all flung their utmost force on these trees and there they stand, trunk after trunk, scathed, hollowed and knarled, stretching out their bare arms or their bare, foliage and win, a life in death its like a fragmented world, worn out and forsaken."
Christopher Thomson painted picturesque views in 1847
Sale of crown lands meant loss of fuel and fodder. Activities such as bracken burning for ash, feeding pigs on acorns, collecting firewood, killing young birds had to stop meaning people had to endure a life not supplemented by the forest.
Tourist book first published 1850
Walter Scott and Washington Irving's books put Sherwood on the Tourist map, elaboration stories of Robin Hood and Maid Marion. Naming the trees helped build up legends. Rare species of plants and and birds were found.
Late 1800's walking tours around Sherwood Forest became popular. Landscape was being preserved by landowners managing large oak trees and silver birch.
1909 Scotts and Corsican Pine planted which were fast growing. Railways were being built and landscape changed. Forestry commission established 1919.
In the 2nd World War one major land owner was prepared to sacrifice the picturesque for the war effort. Tanks driven through area.
1960's initiatives set up for planting. Visitor Centre built. Management of trees following storms took place.
Over the last 60 years the over planting has been managed and landscape is gradually returning to the appearance of the area in the 18th and 19th century.
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Conduit, B. (2012) Historical Walks in Sherwood Forest: In the footsteps of Robin Hood. Lancaster. Palatine Books.
This walking guide book to Sherwood Forest contains a mix of monochrome and colour images. Apart from the image on the front cover, the images are not credited to anyone making me wonder if the writer took these himself. Only 3 of the images contain people and they are so small the viewer cannot make out the identity of them. Questions sprang to mind regarding cost of use of an image archive, copyright issues, printing and subsequent copies. Also I was intrigued as to what time of day they were taken and why there was no-one around? Did the photographer wait for people to walk out of the shot before pressing the shutter or was there genuinely a lack of tourists? This follows some of the rules of guidebook images - places to see to tick off the list, "wilderness" images, and pleasant "postcard" views. Would the readership change if the images contained real people or tiny, unrecognisable people? How much notice do the readers take of the images?
This was an image I took at Rufford when looking for picturesque images. View through the Abbey window. I was watching the people and they were spaced evenly as if I had positioned them.My eye is drawn past the tree to the people.
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Ottewell, D. (1994) Sherwood Forest in old photographs. Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing
I was intrigued to see how capturing images of Sherwood Forest had changed and what the book was like as an archive. The section on Sherwood Forest has a collection of photographs, most not dated, a painting and a couple of line drawings. The internet actually provides a better, more up to date source of material, but how accurate is it? E.g. the first image (p9) was taken in about 1906 but there is no information in the book.
Palmer, J. (2009) Major Oak Mosaic Available at: http://www.eyemead.com/majormos.htm last accessed 4/4/17
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Harrington, B (2016) Walking, landscape and visual culture: how walkers engage with and conceive f the landscapes in which they walk. [PhD Thesis] Northumbria University. [online] Available at: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/29627/1/harrington.barbara_phd.pdf last accessed 4/4/17
This was an interesting research project set up to look at how walkers respond to the images they see of the area they are walking in. The thesis provides a detailed account of the guidebooks a walker is likely to come across. From Wainwrights hand drawn pictures to photo's in guide books, most of the images featured a lack of people and civilization unless it was a sight that could be ticked off, the emphasis being on the wilderness. They were asked to record their own images which varied but were different from those seen in guidebooks.
As I had not found any usable Tourist Information leaflets I was left with lots of questions regarding visual culture tourist areas and how it is perceived. This thesis provided some links, in particular reminding me of some of the work covered in the landscape course. Revisiting the walking guide book on Sherwood Forest, I began to formulate ideas on using some of the images and inserting people into the liminal space as John Stezaker had done with The Third Person Archive.
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Stereoscopic photograph of the Major Oak 1860
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| Major Oak, 1860 |
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Images used in part 1 assignment 1
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| Golden Hand, (n.d.) Sustrans, Clipstone, |
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| Oil Patch Worker, Jay O’Meila, 1991, Rufford, Notts |
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| Tribute to the British Miner, Nikola Oskotziamanis 2003 Mansfield |
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