Artists Statement:
Statement of Intent 2.1 Challenging Genres. Self-Directed Project:“Mono no aware”
Between 1989 and 2001, I worked for a UK police force as a criminal analyst. During that time I viewed hundreds of crime scene photographs. Some of those images have stayed with me and even now similar views trigger their recall. They challenge the idea of the picturesque landscape and urban photography whilst hinting at the historical dark sublime.
These images are not the more graphic scenes as one might expect, but the relatively banal, and possibly even picturesque images that hide the real story.
I remember these images due to their unfolding slow presentation of the events, leaving the imagination to piece the story together like an unwanted nightmare.
For some of them, I did see the original location often a long time after the event. It is the original photos, subsequent triggers and in some cases the original location that make up the memory that these images have been created from.
It is the memory of these original images that I am re-creating in this work. As individual images they represent an event. As a series they are a metaphor for this type of crime, representing the steps from the beginning to a place of no return to the end of the crime and in every case the end of a life.
The memories will undoubtedly change, but they are my current personal memories of theses original photographs and are therefore to an extent biographical in their differences from the original. They are also a testament to the victims in such that they are not forgotten.
I am still unsure if I am going to include my statement of intent in the book itself. It has been suggested that perhaps it should be placed at the end of the book rather than the beginning. Allowing the reader some space to draw their own conclusions.
After feedback from my tutor I realised that although I very much wanted to control how the images were seen, it is virtually impossible. I have decided to embrace the “misunderstanding” and assume that most people will view them as a sequence of linked events rather than individual events that have their own story. It is also clear that although the events are not connected, they are very much connected in their very being. Each image is only in existence because of a crime committed by a human being against another human bering. For each event there was a beginning and an end. For the victims there was a beginning and an end. The series itself represents this finality within all seven images. I have taken the dates off the opposite page and left each image (with its URN) to speak for itself, with a pause between them in the form of the turning of the page. Each image will be viewed individually with only the memories of the previous images to decide on the story.
- How far have your ideas shifted, and will your work be resolved in a way that you originally expected or has your idea shifted and the work with it?
My SDP idea at the start of the project is still recognisable but has shifted in several ways as it has progressed. The final book is far more sterile than I had imagined at the start and the initial inclusion of a title and date for each image image that emerged somewhere in the middle of the project has since been rejected. I was using them to try and keep each image as an individual event. I now want the viewer to make of then as they will and have only left the URN as a clue that these images might not be what they seem.
Project 8: Exercise 2 Shift your position
- In what ways has your project explored, developed, challenged or shifted between the boundary classifications of the four genres?
The genres I was exploring was that of landscape, urban landscape, crime scene images and aftermath photography. The traditional picturesque landscape is challenged by the inclusion of a number (URN – Unique reference number) which tells the viewer that there is more to these images than just landscapes or urban landscapes. Although each image is based on a “real” crime scene image, instead of being sterile and lacking bias, I have included as much information as possible to create the scenes in the way I now remember them and to illicit feelings of discomfort from viewers. Using particular focus lengths to make roads look longer and “endless” for example and points of view that make the images appear more sinister than they would have appeared in the originals. These are all techniques that would be frowned upon in the area of crime scene photography.
Project 7: Research – Crime scene photography my images and “double bias”
Project 7: Research – Aftermath photography and Landscape
- What will your final selection of images be from across your entire project?
The final images were not difficult to select. They had to be the images that triggered the memory of the originals. In order to help this process I had to put myself in locations similar to that of the original events or create the scenario myself. When downloading and viewing the images on my laptop it was immediately clear which images triggered that memory and which didn’t.
- Reconsider the sequencing of your work as your final set of images are being resolved.
This was quite challenging as I couldn’t see how any particular sequence could help the series to say what I wanted it to say. It was only when I read that the series probably needed a start and an end did it all start to make some sense. The start image became obvious (path into the woods) the end image also became obvious (boarded up and fenced off abandoned building) The series was representing the start and the end of each event. The images in this particular sequence also became a metaphor for all events of this type.
Project 8: Research – Dates and date sequence in other work
- What genre conventions or innovations are relevant to your individual project when it comes to thinking about presenting?
The book style presentation idea started because I wanted a way of presenting each image individually. It is clear that even in book form the images will inform each other but only by memory. I initially had text in the form of a title and date for each image to add to the individuality of each event but removed them to allow the images to stand alone and as a series after feedback from my tutor.
Project 7: Assignment 7 – Consider your Audience
- Reflect on the use of Image and Text in relation to your final outcomes. Has text become an integral part of your work, or will you only be using text to title or caption the final work.
As previously stated, I explored the use of text in the from of titles and dates along with the style, size and type of font in order to try and control how the images were viewed. The URN, which forms part of the images itself is the moment that the viewer comes back from the traditional landscape, urban landscape world. I have included information about when the images were taken, when the original images were taken and when the original images were viewed.
Project 6: Exercise 2 – Image and Text
Project 8: Research – The “Convergence” of Images and Text – Placing the audience in a “Vortex”!
OCAPhotography 