ARTIST RESEARCH AND IDEA BRAINSTORM

After having a long break at Christmas, taking the time off thinking I am back to start putting into practice my idea for my major project as a part of my Ma.

Due to the lockdown 3.0 in England being extended until March at the earliest, this means I cannot visit my grandfather in Scotland. I had originally wanted to explore my grandfather's gatehouse grounds focusing the attention of my camera on the nature surrounding. The metaphorical idea of nature in its natural form when exploring my family tree was the obvious place for me to begin getting the creativity flowing.

This idea led me to become focus my attention on photographing a micro project of solo tree's. The trees would be a symbolic representation of how I felt without knowing my dad; trees also happen to be something my dad enjoys. I began photographing trees alone and in small clusters around my local area, photographing any tree that caught my attention. My goal was to capture as many trees as possible on my digital and film camera to bring them together in a sequence in a typology. The typology display was influence by Bernd and Hilla Becher.

ARTISTS

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Hilla and Bernd Becher a married award-winning couple won the Erasmus Prize in 2002 and Hasselblad Award in 2004 for their work as professionals. The duo came from different art backgrounds, Bernd began studying painting and typography were as Hilla was a commercial photographer. They married and have been a duo for forty years. The work consists of typography documentary-style images of the decreasing industrial architecture around Europe and North America. Photographing water towers, coal bunkers, gas tanks and factories.

Figure 1

Figure 1 is the typology display I had in mind when photographing the trees. The typography within Bechers work shows the scale of the disappearing industrial architecture around Europe, emphasising the message the duo set out to document and raise questions around. The repetition of the act reinforces the truth of the industrial future. Using my photos of trees within the bleak landscape to reinforce the emotion of loss and emptiness in a repeated display to emphasise the scale of my emotion and the length of time I felt lost without knowing my dad.

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MY PHOTOGRAPHS

Figure 2

After heading to the local spots I initially photographed the trees a few days later the snow arrived, so I headed back to photograph them in the empty cold atmosphere to reinforce the emotion of absence and loss. In comparison to the first shoot shown in figure 3 I feel the symbolic message is best portrayed from the second shoot shown in figure 2.

Figure 3

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REFERENCE

TATE. (no date ). Who are Hilla and Bernd Becher?. TATE. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bernd-becher-and-hilla-becher-718/who-are-bechers

Figure list

Figure 1

Becher, B., & Becher, H. (1974). Pitheads. [photograph]. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bernd-becher-and-hilla-becher-718/who-are-bechers.

Figure 2

Boothroyd, H. (2021) typology trees, shoot 2 [photograph] Huddersfield.

Figure 3

Boothroyd, H. (2021) typology trees, shoot 1 [photograph] Huddersfield.