I visited the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part of a trip to Edinburgh and found a
great deal of photographic work to enjoy. Here are some of my reaction to works
that caught my eye:
Stuart Franklin: Farmscapes
The introduction to
the exhibition sums up the commission well:
"Farming dominates the Scottish landscape, with
around three quarters of the nation’s land mass devoted to agricultural
production. Woodland covers nearly a fifth of Scotland and the aquaculture
industry is the largest in the European Union. Rural land use reflects a range
of historical and environmental factors: large cereal farming is concentrated
to the drier, east of the country whilst the majority of sheep graze on the
poorer soils – and smaller farms and crofts – of the north west. Around 65,000
workers are directly employed in Scottish agriculture. New forms of
agribusiness, such as a thriving organic movement, continue to evolve."
The images in the
exhibition are impressive to view - printed large, detailed, probably taken
with a large format camera, and on the surface this draws the viewer in to
concentrate on the aesthetics of the work. On closer examination there is much
more going on however and a subtle underlying commentary.
Take for example the
image that is used to advertise the exhibition:
My initial reaction
to this image was to feel impressed by the beauty and detail of the piece, at
first I took in the patterns of shape and colour made by the countless flowers
and then moved closer to look at the fine detail of the individual flowers. It
took me a couple of moments to consider why Franklin would choose to photograph
a meadow of wild flowers - what agricultural importance could this have? There
was also the realisation that the picture is of a completely wild scene and not
something manmade, the caption drew me in further explaining that wild meadows
are increasingly being allowed to grow in an attempt to restore some balance
with nature that has been lost through man's intervention with the landscape
and provide a habitat for insects. This shows a shift in mind set and a growing
awareness that there must be a balance between nature and man. I was left to
wonder how typical this approach is however, especially when viewed alongside
this image:
This is a dramatic
image which more closely fits my understanding of what agriculture is. The
combine harvester is a menacing presence in the landscape which is emphasised
by its positioning in the frame and the dark approaching storm clouds. Although
there is no indication in the notes there is a feeling that Franklin is against
this form of industrial agriculture - or at least wary.
Reading the
photographers stance on varying farming practices is complicated by this image
of organic pigs:
The received notion
we have of organic farming is that it takes place in some sort of idyllic
situation, this image goes against that however showing a lone pig pretty
desolate surroundings. This image in a way is more critical than the harvesting
shot - that just reaffirms what is known about farming, this picture goes
against the marketing of organic produce; Franklin is showing here the reality
of farming even in what is supposed to be the 'best' circumstances.
When I viewed the
exhibition I concentrated more on the aesthetic properties of the images. It
was only after when I viewed the pictures at home that I began to consider the
intent of the photographer and his possible motivations. On the surface the set
is comprised of visually appealing images, but this is just a device to draw
the viewer in. Franklin seems to be challenging the viewer about the
environmental impact any form of farming has on the landscape while challenging
the notion that this is a natural process
- it is very much influenced by the hand of man.
Romantic camera - Scottish Photography and the Modern
World
This exhibition
features work from the collection of the gallery with the theme of exploring
the relationship between romanticism and photography in Scotland. Full
exhibition notes
here:
At the time I
visited the exhibition I must admit I found the link between some of the images
quite tenuous, never the less, there were plenty of images that caught my
attention. Here are a few of them:
Reisch was
commissioned by the gallery in 2007 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the
birth of Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. He chose to do this by 'intervening'
in the landscape, digitally removing any manmade clues from the landscape. I
found the image featured in the gallery somewhat uninspiring; to my eye it was
very obviously manipulated and had an unreal quality, it reminded me of middle
earth in 'The Lord of the Rings' films - a fantasy only loosely connected to
reality. The concept of the set intrigues me however, with only one picture
featured in the gallery so I felt unable to make a definitive view of the
whole. Viewing other images on Reisch's website the work seems interesting.
Maybe the unreal end result was a deliberate strategy by the photographer?
I was struck
immediately by this image when I saw it in the gallery. There is a joy and
abandon present in the photograph of people dancing and enjoying themselves at
a Christmas party. I assume flash has been used to momentarily illuminate the
scene, in reality I guess it would have been quite dark which would have led to
a sense of comfort for the people pictured. There is a brilliant naturalness to
the people here and a sense that they are truly letting their hair down -
something that is probably an infrequent occasion. The lady at the front of the
image anchors the image - and in some ways there is an element of cruelty that
can be read from her inclusion. I doubt whether she would view this as a
flattering portrait - you clearly get the sense that this is not the normal
way she would behave. While I can understand why someone would be aghast at
being included in such a way in an image I personally enjoy the sense of joy in
the picture and the way the image is completely unstaged. The theme of truth
and reality in photography is as old as the mediums invention and something
that interests me greatly - I am fascinated by the way people can look so
different frame to frame and strategies employed by photographers to get there
subjects to appear natural is something that inspires me (for example Walker
Evans
underground series, Philip Dicorcia's
Heads series, Rineke Djkstira
YoungMothers and
Bullfighters series)
When I got home and
researched the photographer more I found the image was part of a wider project
documenting the people of the town of
Port Glasgow.
In 2004 Neville
spent a year as artist in residence in the town the output being a coffee table
style book which was delivered free of charge to Port Glasgow's 8000 residents
and which the photographer vowed would never be reprinted. The concept for this approach was to subvert the
way art books like this are usually disseminated and is a comment on class -
one of the themes of the work being the difficulties faced by the residents of
Port Glasgow in the face of economic decline of traditional industries. The
reaction of the inhabitants is interesting - some saw the book as beautiful and
honest, others that it showed the community in a negative light and a few
protestant residents burned copies of the book behind the towns Catholic club
in protest as what they perceived as pro Catholic bias in the work. Looking
through Mark Neville's website it seems he has produced a number of interesting
projects and I will have to note his name for further research.
This image is truly
an example of how you can only get the full effect of a work in a gallery
setting - on the computer screen the image looks interesting but nothing
special but on the gallery wall it is life size and extremely detailed which
makes the work quite mesmerizing and meant I spent quite a while viewing the
portrait. Learoyd achieves this through a fascinating process - his 'camera' is
a kind of camera obscura which projects the image of the sitter onto
photographic paper meaning that the work is a positive image which cannot be
reproduced - a comment on photography as an art itself.
This work again only
really resonates when seen in the flesh. It is a series of panoramic images of
four very different cities, the horizon being placed in the same position in
each frame and arranged next to each other on the gallery wall. The effect at
first is that from a distance the images appear to be of the same place, it is
only when you begin to look closer that you realise they are of very different
cities (Amman, Tokyo, Edinburgh, Essen) and begin to look at the differences
between frames. The images were all taken at differing times and I admire the
photographers self discipline to follow the project over an extended period.
Paul Strand - South Uist (from Tir A'Mhurain)
Paul Strand is a
photographer that is held in high esteem but who I am only marginally
acquainted. (Unfortunately I have not been able to find the image presented in
the gallery on line) 'Tir A'Mhurain' his photo essay about the Hebrides is
often citied as an exemplary example of the photobook - for this reason the one
image featured in the gallery left me wanting to see more.
A few months after
my visit to Edinburgh I came across this fascinating
article by Fraser
MacDonald in The Guardian written on the 50th anniversary of the books
publication.
The article details
much that I had no idea about and has pricked my desire to research Strand
more; he was a Marxist exile from McCarthy era USA, South Uist was a possible
location for secret missile testing around the time Strand photographed and he
insisted that the book was published beyond the iron curtain in East Germany -
surely coincidental? The gallery showed only one image of Strand's from this
series and I was left with a feeling if wanting more, of needing to see the
entire work before it makes sense. This feeling of wanting to see a set
together is something that has been on my mind for a while - when I first
became serious about photography the books I bought were all overviews or
history's providing only a couple of images by each photographer discussed. As
my knowledge grew I bought titles about individual photographers but again they
tended to be overviews of their work. A turning point came when I bought Robert
Frank's 'The Americans', one of the most celebrated photobooks of all time. It
was a revelation to me seeing many images I had by now become familiar with
through other contexts presented in together as a whole and I was struck by the
way Frank's sequencing of the images added so much. I am becoming increasingly
interested in the photobook as an art form in its own right and the power that
can be created through presenting a set of images together.
I left this
exhibition with a strange mix of exhilaration and feeling unsatisfied - the
work had whet my appetite for researching many of the photographers on show
while I felt the need for a little more substance. Similar to my feeling about
photobooks I want to see exhibitions by single photographers rather than this
kind of group show.
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