Ahead of Semester Two and the 2500 word Essay on a single word, we recently had to submit a presentation of how we planned to pick a word and create the essay.
After the presentation to the group a couple of weeks ago I decided to alter my course and go with a visual analysis of a couple of images that I could easily associate with my chosen word “Atmosphere”.
Above is the list of words that I considered and settled upon Atmosphere. The word came about from what other people have said around the edges of looking at my images.
You can see the fact that I’ve also selected to perform a visual analysis rather than writing a strict essay is noted on the above slide and allows me to pull in a photograph and point out elements that might contribute to the Atmosphere of the image. The visual analysis of the images still requires me to write in an academic manner and reference other artists, creators, analysts etc.
The structure of the analysis and writing around the images needs to be planned in order for it to make sense and be readable. The slide above captures my proposed structure and the contents of the analysis sections. My plan is to pull up an image, analyse the contents and structure of it, discuss the meanings involved and how they fit in with the other image.
The next slide was to show research that I had looked into whilst thinking about the atmosphere of images. Some of the references are specific to Todd Hido who has produced some really atmospheric images, the process of visual analysis and many other photographers who I perceive as using Atmosphere in their products. Other references that don’t appear on here are books like “How to write about contemporary art” by Gilda Williams. This book is especially useful to me as it helps me write using the correct structure, terms and method of getting the messages across.
The following slide shows the two images that I have selected to study in my visual analysis, because I feel an atmosphere in the photographs.
The first image on the left of the slide is an image by Liam Wong from his book TO:KY:00, titled Ghost In The Shell (03:43:20) . The image is from a collection of photographs and digital images made in Tokyo after midnight, check out the atmosphere in this photo. I’ll not discuss it too much in this post as I want to save it for the final essay/visual analysis.
The second image I’ve chosen, seen above on the right, is a photograph by Mark Power called Toulouse, France (FAL) which was taken in the factory where Airbus was making the A380 aircraft. To me there is an overwhelming reference to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining movie when the elevator doors expel a huge amount of bloody liquid. I’m pretty certain it’s as part of the manufacturing process but will look further into it for the full analysis essay.
My last slide showed a couple of images that I’ve made in the last few months that I considered to be of a nature that had an atmosphere. Both were taken in my place of work after the remainder of the employees had left for home. Both have elicited responses from viewers that point to them being creepy and having a weird feeling about them.
The visual analysis will begin during the next few weeks before I head out to Tokyo and will continue after I get back, but I will attempt to get the majority of it done early in the year and allow myself more time to concentrate on the Practice side of the course. That side of the module means that I have to prepare some work for an exhibition at the Eagle Works in April. It will likely be related to my work in darkness images. More info on this is coming in the next post as we also had to present a practice review this week.
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