A revelation of sorts

Marie Smith September 26, 2021

My last blog was a revelation, or actually, a form of clarity that came to me that I had been failing to articulate. The lack of being able to articulate the problem or the next stage of the process had been making me feel lackluster and confused. So writing my blog about Yan Wang Preston’s work was a great initiative and also enabled me to formulate where I wished to see my process heading.

I must also remember that my process does not necessarily need to end in a resulting ‘product’, although I am still making collages and sequences as part of my WIP series, they are themselves a reflection of my process/product adding to the conversation and it is good to see my gaze shifting and becoming more attuned.

There are elements of the series Whispering for help, that can translate to any future projects I do, in particular, if I do choose to work with communities of colour or if I seek to work with specific individuals. Again, I am shifting my focus to providing and not concentrating on the process which only signifies for me the unnecessary pressure I am putting on myself to create something coherent to show people.

I have been viewing nature as an objective space, whereas really it’s more subjective, in particular, if I am trying to ascertain my relationship with it. This means that it cannot be objective and also this means that I have been projecting what I want and what I anticipate rather than seeing and experiencing the landscape for what it is.

The separation between myself, and using my camera as a tool of experience means that I have not been negotiating my relationship with the space beyond seeing the place ‘for me to explore or to assert’ my sense of belonging’ rather than a participant. That’s the essence of the relationship. That is what I have been missing and failing to translate. This means that I can be very intentional now and also think about how I can apply sustainable darkroom practices that are specific to my relationship with the participant.

I am glad that this revelation has come to me now, and I feel a sense of ease and weight being lifted as I now have the language to move my processes onto the next stage of development. Also, perhaps I can now go on making more photos which more intention knowing that I have a framing. I can now think about how or if I want to implement text in the work in some ways.

I boiled some corn on the cob husks yesterday, to use as a developer, a very new experience and I will try it with one roll of film to see how it goes, apparently, sweetcorn has a high phenol count but we’ll have to wait and see if that translate well as a developer.

WIP Sequence, Self-portrait with a landscape from council estate I live on in London, September 2021, ©Marie Smith

Interview with Yan Wang Preston - Who are we, we are nature?

Marie Smith September 24, 2021

Speaking to Yan Wang Preston provided another space for me to pivot into. One that was unfamiliar to me as Yan’s work focuses on the landscape of China and its multifaceted identity that is usually seen in a very binary context when thinking about how China is presented in the mainstream media. Dr. Yan Wang Preston moved to the UK from China in 2005 after completing her training in Clinical Medicine at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Upon moving to the UK, Yan took up photography and in 2018 she completed her practice-based Ph.D. at the University of Plymouth under the supervision of Liz Wells and Jem Southam.

I was very intrigued by Yan’s methodical and precise style, her landscape photographs were not just aesthetic but move the landscape away from being an objective space to a subjective ream for me to consider it as a place beyond and separate from myself. After asking my first question, Yan asked or more so posed) questions to me from a poem, ‘Who are we, we are nature’?

This question was not completely removed from what Season Butler said to me about thinking beyond nature being the physical context of ‘naturalistic’ and trying to encompass everything as a form of nature. Yan’s question was to provoke me to think about my physicality and body in relation to nature. Beyond my behavior in the context of climate change, I try to be responsible as much as I can, but do I see myself as something that is natural?

Yan’s practice and outlook are informed by Chines philosophy, that we as humans are part of the world and that there are multiple microworlds that are visible and invisible to us but we are all connected. This thinking goes against a capitalist mindset, for me as it means that nature is not seen as an object to exploit and subjugate for our own uses.

From researching her series Mother River, I noted that she had added maps and GPS altitudes, in an attempt for others to go and experience the landscape for themselves and in my opinion to ensure that the landscape is not just seen as an objective space devoid of history and nuance. On reflection, I did ask Yan about community and the about other things but I think the most profound thing that I resonate with me with my own research is her philosophy and outlook towards her work.

The slowness of the analog process that she is being considerate and her academic background means that the level of research means that she is engaged in finding answers to existing problems and finding ways to provide an alternative or a way for us the think about our agency and the hierarchical structures that means that we have a limited viewpoint of nature.

Photos from inside a tree leaves in Brockwell Park, shot using Ilford HP5 Plus 400 film and developed at home using chemicals

Realising this means that I must again be more conscious of my own gaze and the limitations I have been placing on myself and my practice, I am aware of my body in these spaces but I am not really present, distracted mostly by having my camera with me, this tool creates another lens to see the world in without me considering what it is I am looking for?

The two photos featured in my blog are spaces that I go to often, the repeated steps that I take are familiar and ensure that I feel safe and I have never thought about mapping out my steps or sharing the walks that I take so that they could perhaps become a point of conversation. I was also thinking that this would be a way for me to find that connection to the space beyond the objective perspective I have been taking so far.

I need to be conscious of what I am doing, recently I feel I have been wondering in a daze and I feel a bit stuck and unable to articulate what I want to achieve, perhaps I have moved too far away from the initial remit of what I had proposed but perhaps this diversion will create more clarity for me. I am quite focused on the process at the moment but I am aware that at the end of this I would like to have some sort of an idea of what the ‘product’ could be.

My gaze has not shifted yet and I was glad that this interview acted as a type of intervention to my own philosophy and provided me with another nuanced perspective that I need to think about. I will be taking a break from shooting, and will probably pick it up in a few months once I have consolidated my thoughts a bit more.

Back to basics

Marie Smith July 2, 2021

I’ve been talking about making work and the process of other people being engaged with their work - whether that be a garden or portraiture. I’ve been exploring ideas from my archives and I’ve also been thinking about alternative ways of working and the possibilities of working with historical photography practices. I have previously worked with Cyanotypes and working in the way always feels like I am going back to basics.

I start by making the chemicals to make the cyanotype which will cover the paper which will need to be stored in the dark before I can use it. As it’s summer this is the best and also the worst time to do it. It takes ages to get dark, well dark enough for me to go to work coating the paper in the photographic mixes - I do this on the floor and on the back of a hard surface as it’s quite a messy process.

Once I have completed this process I make a move to quickly move the paper - in the dark to a cupboard where it will take a day or two for the paper to dry. After those few days, I wait again for it to go dark before I bring it back out and store it in a black lightproof bag.

And then I wait for the sun…. which comes eventually …

In the meantime, I have printed some images onto clear transfer paper which has a plastically feel but would work as a negative to use for the Cyanotypes, but the paper I have prepared is smaller than the prints and the images on the transfer paper are not dark enough. So I spend a good 2-3 hours painting over the lines of the photo with Japanese black ink to create a new image a new negative so the work has evolved even further from its initial point. I now have two sets of negatives but in different evolutionary stages, it seems that I have moved into new terrain for me and I am happy to be finding further potential in analogue photography.

This week we had a bright morning, I woke up blurry-eyed and sensed that I must take the opportunity, luckily I had enough sun for an hour before I started work to get the Cyanotypes done. One hour. Not long but long enough to see if my strategy to re-paint the lines had worked and they did, next time I will need more sun and more time but I am happy it worked. Just need to prepare some paper for next time. I’ve also enjoyed working with my hands and the slowness of it all, I will look to see what comes next and I will certainly be exploring cyanotype photography.

I would also recommend the current exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery - Unearthed: Photography’s Roots which provided me with a further impetus to engage with historical photographic methods. I welcomed the opportunity to be back in a gallery again. I particularly enjoyed Anna Atkins and her luminous Cyanotypes from over 100 years ago that document the sea and plant life of Victorian Britain. Next to Atkins, Cecilia Glaisher Albumen print’s fern prints provided a lovely contrast - striking and detailed I felt that both Atkins and Glaisher had made me think about locality and what I could source for my own work. The Photogravures of Karl Blossfeldt’s precise and beautifully executed, timeless quality made me reflect on the permanence of photography.

The resistance of basic is of historical photography.

Here are the negatives which I used to make Cyanotypes, I ended up cutting them again, using the lines created from the college to retain a reference to the original form. A collaboration between modern and historical photo methods

And here are the results, the transfer were not left on for long as the light started to hide behind a cloud, I also think maybe the cyanotype mixture was a bit weak as I didn't use much initially and I was trying to be frugal. More to learn for next time, that’s if the sun returns.