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musings on the photographic experiences of keith greenough
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Karen Knorr Exhibition Tate Britain – December 2014
I have studied Karen Knorr’s work, particularly her Belgravia 1979-1981 and Gentlemen 1981-1983 series and have cited her as one of my influences see here. It is very fortuitous that she currently has a retrospective exhibition showing just these two series at Tate Britain. I went along yesterday to see her work in the flesh as it […]
Back from my travels
December 15, 2014
I am now back in the UK after my trip to Australia and Hong Kong. The Australia piece was very much about racing triathlons with not so much time for photography. In Hong Kong however I managed to put my Leica rangefinder to use. During our stay in Hong Kong we spent a lot of […]
OCA Thames Valley Meeting 22nd November
November 23, 2014
Yesterday I attended an OCA Thames Valley meeting. It was a very worthwhile event. Sharon Boothroyd, my tutor, was there providing help and advice. The meeting largely concentrated on reviewing work by the students present – a form of critique. This is extremely useful and motivational as it can be very lonely on a distance learning […]
LIfting the Curtain – print sizing and organisation of image and text
November 18, 2014
In my previous post here I indicated that the principle forms of presentation that I will use are a book and an exhibition of prints. This post discusses questions about the nature of prints I would use in an exhibition. It is concerned with the sizing of prints and the spatial organisation of the image and […]
PhotoMonth Open – private view
November 7, 2014
Last night was the opening of the PhotoMonth Open. I spent a couple of hours their, looking at the work and looking and talking with people looking at my work. The image/text panels were all printed by the organisers. This was the same for everyone and created a level playing field for all exhibitors. It helped […]
Study Visit – Brighton Biennial
November 5, 2014
I attended an OCA Study Visit to the Brighton Biennial Festival recently. Other priorities meant that I could only attend for one day, but it was a full and excellent day. It is difficult with events such as this festival to get one’s mind around the sheer volume of work on show. I have therefore been […]
Lifting the Curtain – maps and references for book
November 2, 2014
The Booth archive at London School of Economics have given me permission to publish copies of their maps in my book and to use the maps for exhibitions (with a suitable credit of course). I have been mapping out (excuse the pun) how this would look in book format. Here are sample pages from a […]
Lifting the Curtain – Initial assessment of various forms of presentation
October 31, 2014
As a first step towards designing the form or forms of presentation I plan to use for Lifting the Curtain I have made a preliminary assessment of the options available to me (or rather those that I am aware of at the moment).I defined the scope of possibilities for presentation (see here) I indicated that This […]
‘Lifting the Curtain’ photographs selected—PHOTOMONTH EAST LONDON International Photography Festival 2014
October 28, 2014
Four of my image/text panels have been selected for the print show at the PHOTOMONTH EAST LONDON International Photography Festival 2014. Here’s the announcement of the event: These are the four images: The organisers are handling the printing….a bit nervous about that as not sure how the prints will turn out. I am expecting relatively […]
Assignment Four – Submission to Tutor
October 24, 2014
Today I have submitted my fourth assignment to my tutor….only one more to go now! I submitted the latest form of the image/text pairings for Lifting the Curtain in the form of a book. This may not be the final form but was a convenient way of showing the work at this stage. Click on the […]
Assignment Five: Presentation of ‘Lifting the Curtain’
October 23, 2014
I agreed with Sharon my tutor that I would prepare a scope of work for my final YOP assignment which will be about presentation of my work, Lifting the Curtain. On the subject of presentation, I was very taken by this observation by Angela Kelly in her essay Book, Exhibition, Lecture, Website – Revisiting Catharsis: Images of Post-Conflict […]
Lifting the Curtain – Photographic Influences
October 22, 2014
As a photographic work, ‘Lifting the Curtain’ is multilayered. At its heart it is essentially documentary. The photographs record the urban landscape of East London as it is today but also evoke as sense of the past, revealing remnants of older phases of urban development mixed in with present day architecture, signage and ‘street furniture’. It is also a […]
Umberto Eco – Opera Aperta (The Open Work)
October 20, 2014
I have been much influenced in my thinking about ‘Lifting the Curtain’ by Umberto Eco’s ideas of ‘openness’ in works of art as set out in his seminal work Opera Aperta (The Open Work). Eco’s work was first published in 1962. My analysis is based on a 1989 English translation published by Harvard University Press (1) […]
Barthes – Rhetoric of the Image
October 9, 2014
This is my second post discussing the relevance of Barthes writing on photographic meaning for my ‘Lifting the Curtain’ project. Once again my source is Barthes book ‘Image Music Text’ (1) and in this case his essay ‘Rhetoric of the Image’. (2) The essay concerns itself with the question ‘How does meaning get into the image?’ […]
Barthes – The Photographic Message
October 8, 2014
As I explained in my previous post, over the next few posts I plan to document the key influences on my ‘Lifting the Curtain’ work. I will look at this both in terms of the ideas of critical thinkers and the work of other photographers. Barthes book ‘Image Music Text’ has been of particular relevance. (1) […]
Nadav Kander – Dust
October 3, 2014
Yesterday I went along to Flowers Gallery on the Kingsland Road in Hackney to see an exhibition of Nadav Kander’s latest work, Dust. The title of the work comes from a T S Eliot quotation ‘I will show you fear in a handful of Dust’. Fear in this case relates to the nature of the places represented – three […]
East London Project – Bethnal Green Shoot
October 2, 2014
I am getting close to the end of shooting for the East London Project. Whilst I fully expect to keep making images right up until the end, from now on this will be directed at trying to improve existing images, rather than exploring completely new sites. Last night I visited what might prove to be my […]
East London Project – on to Assignment Four
September 29, 2014
Following the feedback for Assignment three (see my previous post here), I decided to take stock of where I had reached with my East End work. I had two questions to consider: Would the project work better by simply using the images without text? Sharon suggested that I look at the images themselves to see what they […]
Lifting the Curtain – re-examining the image/text concept
August 26, 2014
In her feedback on Assignment Three, my tutor Sharon gave me a number of very useful pointers for putting together the image/text pairings which I summarised in a previous post as follows: Clarify exactly how I want the viewer/reader to engage with the work and how his or her participation is needed to complete it. It would […]
East London Images without Texts
July 31, 2014
First it is important to say that I remain committed to working with image and text for my East End work. And that as my source of text I am keen to retain the link with Charles Booth’s work. This commitment is based on my wish to pursue a more innovative form for the work […]
Assignment Three Submission and Feedback
July 28, 2014
A little while ago I submitted my material for Assignment Three to Sharon my tutor. I have now had feedback from her and this posts documents both my submission and the feedback. The submission comprised of four elements. Two projects which are a prescribed part of the coursework for YOP. I decided to carry out both of […]
Lifting the Curtain – update 20th July 2014
July 20, 2014
I have continued to work on my East London project now called ‘Lifting the Curtain’. I am pretty well advanced and have reached a stage where I have decided to open a dialogue with Toynbee Hall in East London about the possibility of staging an exhibition in conjunction with them (preferably on their premises). The […]
[(6)] Publicity
July 19, 2014
I have managed to gain some publicity for the [(6)] exhibition. So far this has included: Big Issue of the North photo and mention of the exhibition: The Photofusion Blog: Printspace Blog: I am also hoping for an article to be published on the blog of 220 Triathlon magazine….watch this space.
Bank Street Arts Installation
July 6, 2014
We spent a full day yesterday in Sheffield installing the [(6)] exhibition. I’ve learned a lot from this experience about setting up an exhibition (methods of fixing photographs and their relative cost and ease of installation), laying out an exhibition space (no substitute for visiting the location, aligning the midpoints of the pictures – 157 cm […]
East London Work – Critical Context
July 4, 2014
It is time for me to start working on documenting the critical context for my East London work. The influences on my work fall into two categories: photographers whose works have inspired me (aesthetically and conceptually) and critical writing which has informed my conceptualisation. I plan to present reviews of these influences on this blog. […]
Back to work, back to East London….
July 4, 2014
It has been a while since I have posted to the blog. I have not stopped working on my OCA YOP course but have certainly slowed down whilst I have been on my travels and have been preparing for the upcoming exhibition in Sheffield, which is now going to run until the end of July… […]
Assignment Two Tutor Feedback
May 15, 2014
I have now received feedback from Sharon on my last assignment. We followed up her written report with a telephone conversation in which I updated her on my change of direction with the East London work. I am pleased to say that she was happy with how I now plan to take the work forward. Sharon’s […]
East End Prospecting – Working Practice
May 13, 2014
Thought it would be worthwhile documenting my working practice for prospecting for images in East London. The first step is desk research. My aim now is to try to get a broad spread of references from Booth’s survey. I would like to include the various industries he reviewed, get a broad geographic spread and coverage of the […]
the velvet cell
May 13, 2014
I had some time to kill yesterday on my way to the Photographers Gallery so I popped into Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road. It has a great selection of photographic books, including some very small run publications. I came across a number of books by a publishing house called the velvet cell. I bought a couple […]
Deutsche Borse Prize and Exhibition
May 13, 2014
I went along to the Photographers’ Gallery for the announcement of the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize (a perk of being an Associate Member of the Gallery). I also had the time to have a good look around the exhibition before it got too busy. Before going along I had looked at the PG website and […]
Project five an impartial view
May 11, 2014
For project five the student is asked to document a subject in as objective a manner as possible without skewing the presentation to a particular point of view. I decided to explore the question of impartiality by making new work for an ongoing project — a portraiture series of landscape photographers.(I have given this work a new working title: Portraits […]
Anna Fox – OCA Study Group
May 8, 2014
Yesterday I attended an OCA Study Group in the OCA Farnham, where Anna Fox gave a presentation about her photography. Prior to the event, we had been advised to review Anna’s website here and a recent interview she gave published on American Suburb X here. These also serve as a reference point for my thoughts on […]
A possible new beginning…
May 4, 2014
As I indicated in the last post I have been having some serious reservations about the originality of my approach to my East End project. I outlined two alternative directions in which I could take the work. The second of these was to base my series on Charles Booth’s 1889 survey of East London. The […]
More images for Umbra Sumus
April 24, 2014
Out again this morning shooting early. It is quite tricky to get the shots I am looking for. I was up at 3.45 am and in the car headed for London just after 4 am. An hour later I was parked up and on my way to my location for the morning – The Highway. […]
Umbra Sumus – latest photo edit and future locations
April 11, 2014
I have now narrowed down my edit to 15 photographs. I am content with the locations of these photographs and have identified texts to accompany each. This is still however an early edit. I want to revisit several of the sites and try again to make a photograph which I am convinced is a keeper. […]
Jochen Lempert
April 11, 2014
I was struck by a recent post that Sharon made on the OCA blog. It is about Jochen Lempert, a photographer who has been shortlisted for the 2014 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize. Click on photograph below to see Sharon’s article. A paragraph at the end of Sharon’s article particularly attracted my attention because of its […]
Umbra Sumus – reflections on work to date
April 6, 2014
It’s time to take stock of how my concept for my East End London (Umbra Sumus) is working in practice. The conceptual basis for the work is intended to operate as follows: The subject is the transient nature of immigration in London’s East End. This is to be represented through a series of photographs of […]
David George – Shadows of Doubt
April 3, 2014
At the Uncertain States exhibition back in November (see here) I learned about another exhibition of photographs of London’s East End, Archive Imagined East End, which was due to take place at Hoxton Hall in November. The exhibition featured photographs by Don McCullin, Ian Farrant, Spencer Rowell, David George, Mick Williamson, Tom Hunter and Stephen […]
Umbra Sumus – Posters and a Pop Up Gallery
March 30, 2014
Re-writing my artists statement for my East End project (Umbra Sumus), has prompted me to think again about how I might present the work. My thoughts to date have centred on high quality gallery prints of the image text panels. However, having re-positioned my work to be an exploration of the ephemeral nature of immigration in […]
Eigenzeit
March 21, 2014
Whilst my mind is still turning on landscape photography I thought I would document here some recent investigations I’ve made into the question of why some ‘romantic’ landscape photography has been well received by the art community, whereas most have been dismissed as needless idealisations. For the purposes of this analysis I have focused on […]
Back to Work
March 20, 2014
I have been absent from this blog and productive work on my degree course for around five weeks. My time has been spent on other pursuits – three weeks training hard in Lanzarote for upcoming triathlon races, a few days at home catching up on life, a week in Scotland walking and photographing the landscape […]
Student Exhibition
February 11, 2014
I have joined a group of level 3 students at the OCA who are planning to stage an exhibition in June this year at the Bank Street Arts Gallery in Sheffield. At this stage the venue is not confirmed but as I am going to be tied up for a few weeks I thought I […]
East End Project – Image/text selections for now
January 13, 2014
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 […]
East End Project Texts – embedded texts
January 12, 2014
Another question which has been vexing me is how to physically link the text and image for viewing. There are many options: a slide show with the text presented before/alongside/after the image; a book with text presented on the opposite page to the image; a book with text captions in an appendix; gallery prints with […]
Stay at 5 Fournier Street
January 4, 2014
I have been planning for some time to have a short stay in London’s East End to accelerate the process of photographing my chosen locations at unsocial hours (very early in the morning and late at night!). Next week my wife and I are very lucky to be staying at the ‘Townhouse’ which is a […]
Critical Review – and the title is….
December 18, 2013
In her feedback on my proposal for a Critical Review my tutor Sharon made the following observation: ‘ I’d like to know from the title what it is about documentary or context and meaning that you would like to compare’. This is an excellent starting point from which to construct the process I will use to […]
YOP Assignment One – Feedback from Tutor
December 5, 2013
Sharon responded very quickly to my submission and also spent some time reviewing the content of this blog. Her comments on both are included in the pdf note below: Keith Greenough YOP1 Sharon Feedback I have presented below a summary of her comments and my immediate response….some will take longer to respond to… Project one […]
YOP Assignment One – Submission to tutor
December 5, 2013
As agreed in my work plan my submission for Assignment One included the following: project one on Gestalt in composition, an artists statement and a few photographs for the Another Hawaii project (I have used images from this work for the Gestalt in composition project) my proposal for a Critical Review, my major project proposal […]
Landscape in Mind
December 3, 2013
I have decided to abandon the title ‘Women and Landscape’ for my portrait series of women landscape photographers. My preference now is to present the work as a series of portraits of landscape photographers and to allow the fact that they are all women to emerge in the process of viewing. I want the viewers […]
Photographer stereotypes
November 27, 2013
The landscape photographer work has got me thinking about what a stereotypical landscape might look like. I’ve been doing a little research on gender and landscape photography. In Land Matters Liz Wells suggests that “…limited attention was paid to gender and landscape in these debates [on feminist theory]. In the UK one reason for this […]
photo-graph 
December 17, 2014
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