This week on the course we listed to an interview with Richard Billingham discussing his practice, my time at the Magnum Photography course ‘Navigating the Art Market’ and reflect upon final preparation of my work for the rapidly approaching deadline for Module 2.
In the introduction for my video presentation I described myself as a photographer rather than be defined by a specific genre of photography so it was interesting Richard Billingham to describe himself using the even broader context ‘Artist’. This made me think about my own experience at the Magnum Photography event and my portfolio review with Matt Martin who suggested that some of my images could be integrated into installation art pieces. One suggestion was to print the layers from City Canyons on to large transparent sheets of vinyl attached to pulleys that would allow people visiting the exhibition could adjust the number of layers on view. Another suggestion was to create a large wooden outline of the coastline and insert light boxes into the installation. This would take my own work in a new direction and introduce an inter-contextual element to my work, which I am sure is something that Stieglitz would approve of as he viewed photography as art.
Richard Billingham talked about how the evolution of technology had informed his practice such as video cameras that allowed him to see in a different way when working on his Zoo project because it allowed him to see the animals in a way he did not find possible when photographing them. Those video recordings then informed the photographs he created of the animals after those initial recordings.
I view my use of the GoPro in photo timelapse mode in a similar way. Initially I recorded my walks as videos that were speed up, then timelapse videos but the use of timelapse photographs on a device that could go unnoticed while I walk the streets. The captured images allowed me to view the city streets in a different way.
