East End Project – Image/text selections for now

I’ve decided to put my current deliberations on image selection and how to present the image/text pairings on hold for now as I am falling behind on the work I need to do for my Critical Review.

I have selected 13 images which work for me at least in principle. Some of the images I will re-do as I have yet to capture them exactly as I want, but many are in good shape. I have also decided on the texts I want to pair with the images. Again this is by no means the final position, but certainly good enough to present to Sharon my tutor to gain some initial feedback.

As regards how to present the images/texts, I feel that I would like the image/text to form a single panel for display, rather like Martha Rosler did with her Bowery image/text combinations. David Gillanders also used this approach in his ‘Uncivilised’ series. I am not happy with placing the text on the image itself – for me this feels too much like magazine copy (although I do accept that there are many art works in which this approach is taken – Burgin and others). I have decided to present the image/text combinations as 30×30 inch panels. With the text included on a black background either at the bottom (for landscape images) or at the right hand side (for portrait images). I chose black as it references my theme of “Umbra Summus” or translated from the Latin “We are Shadows”. For now I have chosen a font for the text which simulates a typewriter script. This has historic connotations which suits the work, although some of my sources for the texts would have been published on early printing presses.

The image/text panels are intended for gallery display – ideally in a location in Spitalfields such as one of the old Georgian Houses. Each panel would be accompanied by a conventional caption panel which would simply state the title of the particular piece. I decided on a gallery display as this will give the viewer time to consider the works. The devil is in the detail with some of them. For example, the Jewish reference for the Wentworth Street image is in sharp contrast to the mostly Eastern names on the shops now there. The shop names would be easily read on the prints at the size I envisage but the viewer would have to look carefully.

Click the image below to see a pdf of the images

The individual image/text panels are shown below: