Just a quick post. I’ve been doing a lot of experiments combining various different media with photography recently, and I think this so far is my favourite in terms of presentation and clarity.
Acrylic paint and photography on watercolour paper, sealed with matte spray varnish.
This particular one is a test example, and will be going into my sketchbook for future reference, but I have plenty of ideas centred around this particular technique. I just need some time to shoot. Roll on the weekend!
Some time ago, whilst researching the idea of building an instant pinhole camera, I saw a photograph of a Polaroid packfilm camera which had been gutted, and converted. Ever since, it’s been something I’ve wanted to try for myself, but the price of the cameras is often high, even for non-working models, and recently, they’ve been few and far between. Read the rest of this entry »
J and I picked up a box of cameras ages ago from a car boot, for about £2. Just a collection of cheap point and shoots, some with flash, various formats. I’ve been dipping into them for night out cameras here and there, but mostly they’ve just been awaiting creative inspiration.
Recently, I’ve been very into pinhole photography. I’ve build a large format pinhole camera, and done a few tests with photographic paper, but I don’t have anything worth posting just yet. I’ve ordered a box of sheet film, and am hoping to get some clearer results using that, but we’ll see. Another project in the offing is a Polaroid pinhole conversion, which I’m pretty excited about, but again, I’m waiting for things to arrive.
So, itching to do something pinholey, I fished this little lovely from the box of cameras.
I’ve seen this sort of thing done by various people, but everyone I’ve ever seen do it has stated that you need to use a photocopy, rather than an inkjet print, for it to be successful.
Well, I had time on my hands, an inkjet printer, a hard drive full of photos, and a room full of a million craft supplies just waiting for a purpose. So, I thought, nothing to lose by trying it.
I used Mod Podge, because it was the first gloopy, sticky craft substance that came to hand.
First, I printed out the image onto glossy photographic paper (I do wonder if this is a factor in the success, since the finish of the paper potentially makes it easier for the seperation to happen later.)
Right after it’s finished printing, I applied the Mod Podge fairly liberally over the print itself. Then, stuck it face down onto the receiving surface, pressed the surfaces together and rubbed like hell on the back of the print for a minute or so. T=Once that was done, I carefully peeled back the photographic paper. I did have to try a couple of corners before I found one that didn’t start to lift the image back up aswell.
First try, experiment on handmade paper:
Second attempt, onto a miniature stretched canvas:
The canvas one was a bit of a pain to rub hard enough for the image to transfer successfully, because of the stretched area haing no solid backing. Canvas board would probably yield far less patchy results. I’m also planning on trying a transfer direct to canvas, then stretching the canvas over a frame afterwards. I suspect this might skew the image, though.
But, result: inkjet prints work just fine, it would seem 
Aged 4, my parents seperated, and we moved close to my grandparents. Whilst my mother cleaned up the house she’d been renting out, we lived with my grandparents. Even after we moved into our own place, we were only a three minute walk away, and I spent a lot of time there.
At 19, I moved away to go to college, then to university, and at the same time, made a great many bad choices, developed bad habits, and entered into bad relationships.
6 years later, I moved back into the house, with my grandparents. It’s probably the best decision I made over the whole 6 years, and a big part of the reason I’m not dead right now.
This house has changed in so many ways, but in other ways, remains exactly the same as it was when I was 5 years old.
Using a combination of family photographs and slides (of which, thankfully, we have many), and my own photographs of the house, I hope to eventually create a story spanning the past 25 years, and more.
These are the very first of the photographs I’ve taken of the house. The whole idea for the project began in part because I’ve been digitising the huge quantity of family photographs and slides I’m lucky enough to have, and in part because I’d been thinking about a side project I could do alongside something I have in the pipeline which is going to be a much longer term thing.
This bookshelf has been in this same spot since I can remember. There’s a lot of furniture that has been in the house since I was a small child, but this bookshelf is amongst the few things which have never been rearranged. For me, it’s a fixed point in time. It is also the one thing that really brought this project idea into my head.
I remember staying in this bedroom many times throughout my childhood. The bed was in a different place earlier on, although I also recall it being where it is now. The most potent memory this position evokes is waking up one morning, maybe 7 or 8 years old. My family had been decorating, and unbeknownst to me, a bucket of wallpaper paste had been left at the foot of the bed. For whatever reason, I had scooted to the very end of the bed, and plonked both feet straight into the bucket. I called for my mother, who, thinking I’d just put a foot into it, called for me to hop to the bathroom to wash my foot. Everyone but me, I believe, saw the funny side.
I remember staying in this bedroom many times throughout my childhood. The bed was in a different place earlier on, although I also recall it being where it is now. You can hear the traffic occasionally pass through the night on the road outside, and even now, I find the passing of traffic more often a comfort than an annoyance.
I confess, I’ve had something of a creative block of late, in large part due to the focus on a funding application, and the very singular mindset I’ve had regarding it meaning that I’ve had trouble really getting my teeth into anything else. But, the application has been submitted. It’s unlikely to be a success, there were several things missing, but I’m very glad I put so much effort into it. Whether I get it or not, what I now have is a very specific, very good, project proposal, which can be used both personally, and as a template for any future funding bids. In addition, I’ve identified several areas of my creative life which I need to work on, so that if this sort of opportunity arises again, those missing parts are filled. I see that as a success in and of itself.
A while back, I posted some pages from the sketchbook I’ve been working on for the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project 2012.
Well, I finished it, and it has been sent on it’s way.
So, another year on and another year older. My only resolution is simply to do more. More photography, more crafts, go out more, see people more, do more new things, do more things I already like. Essentially, try that bit harder not to sit around for hours doing absolutely nothing productive. Because I work nights, and also live in a relatively remote area, it’s difficult to get into any sort of routine, or feel like I have the time to do something productive, and socialising is doubly hard.
One of my main requirements is simply to manage my time better, and stop using the internet as such a major distraction. I know from times when my broadband has been down that I am perfectly capable of occupying myself with creative and productive pursuits away from a laptop. I suspect the best thing would be to just give up internet for a short while. One of the challenges I set myself when I wrote my 101 things in 1001 days list was to give up internet for a week. All internet, including mobile. This really shouldn’t be hard, but the idea is daunting for someone who lives at around 60 miles from most of the people she knows. But, whilst it is my main day to day connection with the world, it’s still all just excuses. I have a phone number, most of my friends know it. Sharing descriptive paragraphs of my daily life with 200 people is not really communication so much as it is narcissism.
Over the past few months, I’ve been working on a few ideas related to memory, and family/snapshot photography. I’ve become interested in collecting slides and photographs of unknown parentage, and I’m hoping to produce a body of work based around these in the near future.
My main focus right now, though, is producing a large scale project proposal for a funding application. I have a huge quantity of research, and it’s all coming together slowly. I just need a good couple of creative bursts to refine the idea, and come up with a solid proposal brief. I’m really looking forward to sharing what I come up with later on in the first half of 2012.
The next post will contain some actual photography. I have a few bits and pieces to show, but since it’s been a while I wanted to keep this seperate.
Happy new year!
