3 January 2019
Today is already the third of the new year and I have not yet written in this diary. I don’t know why but maybe because over Christmas and the New Year I did not feel like it. I was working away on my exercises and projects but not writing about what i was doing.
So now I am starting Project 2 and reading. with great difficulty, Alan Sekula’s article. I love Alan Sekula and was looking forward to this but now I am finding this really difficult. I decided to look at the second link but was underwhelmed by this.
5 January 2019
All this reading and thinking about archives has sent me back to my own archive and that experience has left me wondering how I can make sense of it all. Coincidentally I was asked if I had any view photographs of our island in Ireland for the site which the new development officer is updating. We are three photographers on Sherkin island so I don’t know if the others have offered anything. But this has sent me back to my files most of which are still in their RAW state due to lack of time over the past five years since I started with OCA!!!! What does that say? It is a really good thing that this DIC part of L2 is concerned with archiving. I might even be able to make sense of some of my work!!
Meanwhile I need to get on with my reading. Not making a lot fo sense at the minute but the first read is usually a quick scan and then I get down to it in detail.
6 January 2019
Today the Wise Kings arrive in Bethlehem. Sadly they will find no baby Jesus in Cucuron as I cleared up all the Christmas stuff yesterday. I wanted to give the place a good clean….. My neighbour will be sad that my crib, which sits in my downstairs bedroom, window is no longer lighting her way. As a devout Catholic she sees my crib, every year, as a spark of hope that I might join the ranks of that corrupt organisation one year – no hope…. I love my crib because my brother gave it to me the first year of our marriage. he too harboured hopes of his sister’s re-conversion to Catholicism.
Today is also Nollaig na Mban (Gaelic for Women’s Little Christmas). It is the day when we, the women of Ireland are allowed out of the kitchen!!!!!! But for me today has been marked by a wonderful interview with the BBC correspondent Orla Geurin. She was never locked in any kitchen and is such an inspiration.
All this work and reading about archives has really concentrated my mind about my life and what I have archived from it. My albums are mostly of our travels over the years, my diaries are of my life in Africa since I refused to photograph anything that was not concerned with my development work. This out of a sense of deep respect for my friends, acquaintances, neighbours and colleagues. Do I regret that now – well yes a little as I have almost no pictorial archive of those amazing years.
I am thinking of making my book for A2 on our trip to the Himalayas. I have a written diary and some photos and some memorabilia. But I am also interested in finding out what has happened to the Arun valley since we were privileged to trek there in 1989 with our children and my beloved sister-in-law. I’ll run this idea past my tutor to see what she thinks. If she is agreeable I will start collecting material.
10 January 2019
After the Sunday Hangout where I showed my pie chart images and the reaction was “Technically great” except Kate spotted a gap!!!! But… Clive felt my cut and past stuff said much more so I took up the challenge and am working on them again. Started with Margaret Tatcher and Teresa May. Then went on to Donald Trump, Reagan and Bush Jnr. Had immense fun sticking them together and finding text to accompany them….
Today it will be Macron and Holland – watch out guys!!
Am wondering if ‘Africa two years in the making’ would be more interesting than Nepal trip for book. Or maybe I should save this for a bigger book? Will read ahead and see what is coming down the track in assignments.
Looked up Harun Farocki and his work post Ceausescu in Romania – fascinating.
Decided to do Ex2.2 on Broomberg & Chanarin’s work with GRAIN. I am fascinated by AI use in creating images – they used a 3D type camera to make the Russian images. Could not find the details of the camera they used or if they had permission to photograph the subjects – I think they did not – quite a risk in Moscow!! But that’s what I admire about these two guys. Will re-read my work and make it live.
Also finished my third collage using not Macron but Holland – it just turned out that way.
Andy Hughes, one of my old tutors, is running a weekend workshop in Cornwall in May. Would like to attend but it may not be easy and it may be too costly. Will await details.
Then spent the night with friends in a seedy bar in Marseille where a mutual friend was performing. I love these seedy bars in Marseille with their weird characters. One has not lived until one spends a night in a Vieux Port Bar in Marseille!!!!
11 January 2019
I know I wrote about Alan Sekula’s article and Enwezor’s Archive fever but I seem to have lost the post in WordPress – how and why did that happen? I am not sure I can’t face re-writing all this as I found both articles really difficult and unnecessarily complicated. Maybe if I re-read them they might make sense….
14 january 2019
My internet connection has been a little dodgy over the past few days. so this may be why I lost that page. But every cloud has a silver lining and re-reading Sekula was well worth the time devoted to it. I wasn’t in the correct frame of mind to take it in the first time. So now I have re-read and it is done and dusted. I have also been trawling through my lifetime of family photos – a weird experience. My husband is holding out great hopes that I might write on the back of each and catalogue them correctly. For now they are in boxes and spilling out of envelopes. By the time I have made my selection I can see myself stuffing them back into boxes and envelopes…
I have made a sort of story board in my physical log book one way I am thinking of dealing with these. I cannot find my African diaries – I think they might be in Ireland. Problem with living in two places…
23 january 2019
My diary got neglected while I was in Maastricht. I had to upload my material for the GDrive and used the rest of the time while there to do some reading. The only exhibition we got to see was a David Lynch. We were underwhelmed. I hope to go to the Chagall exhibition in Aix next week. The rest of the time was playing and walking with the children to and from school. We did some collage together and as always they completely surprise me with their originality. They are devoid of complications and let their imaginations run riot.
Back in sunny but cold Provence. I thought I would like to do a fourth digital collage of Presidents to complete Assignment 1. Not happy with the Russian presidential mix but will play around with it and see what turns out.
Now I must get on with Ex 2.3 of self portraits from my archives. I want to use the period just after getting married. I don’t have so many photos but I want to develop that feeling of maturing and the conflicts that brought. The wanting to pursue academia but the social distractions that were ever present. Then the arrival of the children and how torn I was between being a mother and a researcher, a wife and a free spirit, a gardener and a laboratory researcher. I also might try to represent my distancing myself from the Catholic church. How I will represent these ideas simply I am not sure. I don’t want to over work these as I think I did with the collages.
26 January 2019
Woke up thinking of assignment 2 possibilities. My first idea was “Feet” but I sort of went off the idea…. i was thinking of the fact that i nearly always take a photo of my walking boots when we are hiking over the world. My next idea was Water (H2O) which I love photographing. I should have a number of images in my archives. I imagine social media is flooded (excuse pun) with water images. The importance of water in the world. The parts of the world where water is a precious commodity. Seems like a topic that would offer quite a lot of material and possibilities.
The other thought which was swirling around in my head was the terrible accident which occurred on the M50 ring road around Dublin. A your woman, thirty years of age, was killed on a slip road leaving the motorway. One lorry and three cars were involved. Apparently people passing in cars took photos and videos of the crash scene and posted these on social media. What sort of person would do this?? What would make someone do it?? The police and the Road Safety Association chief asked people to refrain from posting their images and videos. Facebook was asked to take down the images which they did. This whole episode is truly shocking for me. What does it say about our Digital Selves?
1 february 2019
The past few days have been spent thinking and making a start on A2 on Water. I want to tie the topic into Social Media but cannot quite work out how. So I decided to make the first image and work from there. This images is about ‘drinking water’ I got a tap image form Adobe CC free images. I then did various searched of social media to see what this would give. What seems to be coming out is quite interesting to me. If a generic term is put into one of these sites there is a huge response which contain mostly advertising of ‘personal’ type images. If a more specific word search term is used, which is predominately a social issue, the number of images which turn up is relatively limited. I then looked at my own archives. My work exactly reflects this. This is despite working as a volunteer and being quite involved with social issues. I deliberately did not make images when I lived and worked in West Africa as I felt it was an intrusion in the lives of the people who were inviting m me into their lives. Do I regret this? Well ‘Yes’.
Back to the work in hand. I watched the video
Visual strategist Stephen Mayes, and photographers Henry Jacobson, Kerry Payne, Mark Peterson, and Danny Ghitis of Echo/Sight will discuss the public and personal in smartphone photography.
This has changed my attitude about smart phone images and social media. The work of Kerry Payne was so moving I was in tears. Her self exposure is amazing but it is helping others in the same situation. Having a daughter who had enormous trouble conceiving her first child I could feel this woman’s pain and I don’t know her….. I tend to try to put work on Instagram which says very little about me as a person, I think. I would not be prepared to bear my soul like this. I have never had any difficulty discussing my problems with friends so never felt the need to speak to a virtual community. I find this all very interesting. Why is this possible?
My ‘drinking water’ image advanced during the past two days to a point that I need to leave it now and move on to the next one. I know I have an image of a child drinking water from a public tap. But where is this and where was it made. I can’t remember…. I have the possibility of writing to Rosie in Hyderabad and get some images of the water pump we helped to have built last year. She had sent me some but when my phone crashed and I had to get a new one the gallery did not come across…
Now to the next page of this book – but what? I have a very busy day so no chance for actual work but plenty of time, while cooking, to reflect!
2 february 2019
As a child I spent the 2nd February making St Brigid’s crosses… What was that about. I won’t be doing that today.
Yesterday I went back to A1 to try to make my fourth sliced politic image. I had decided a long time ago to use Russian presidents. I had collected all the images but could not get it together. I hope it has worked now. I have an appointment with my printer this week to discuss how we will get these printed.
I got very little done on my A2 book images apart from the fact that I found the image of the little girl drinking from the public pump. It was in Nepal that I made the image a very long time ago. Not sure I will use it but will try it out. Also found my Fox Glacier image which I want to use for melting ice caps. I made a 5:4 crop but now I think I will use this for an almost double page spread. I’ll re-crop it today and see.
In the video my tutor sent me there was a mention of Richard Price and his appropriation of images. I had heard of his work but had never really investigated. I want to know what I can use from Social Media, what is ‘fair use’ ( a lawyers dream I fear) and should I get permission to use the images I appropriate, just as an exercise. The first person I tried on Instagram replied “Yes” – delighted.
4 february 2019
After communication with tutor I need to get my act together and get a ‘story’ sorted for this assignment. As always with my thinking process i began to form a project in my head. It would be Chile and not Water. This thought was not isolated from my Water idea. I was thinking about how Chile manages its water supply from the desert in the north to the temperate climate in central Chile to the snowy south. Then I decided that Chile is a story in itself. I have wanted to make book about our trips to Chile for a long time. I will try to work in the water idea.
7 february 2019
Brought my political satire images to Pascal, my printer, and discussed how they would print. Chose a paper. He will print a sample for me before we decide.
Spent time looking up statistics on Chile and water., salmon fishing, hydroelectrics etc. Learned how to create a Adobe Print ready PdF of the book so far. Also about creating ‘Text objects’. Am trawling through my photos many of which are still RAW…..
Going to Aix today to see Chagall exhibition. Went to see film “Colette” last night. Will write a review. Loved it.
8 february 2019
Spent yesterday in Aix visiting the Chagall exhibition. Was brilliant. Wrote a review. Then had to go to train station to book our tickets to Modane for our family skiing trip, as the internet site would not allow husband to book. Got tickets and are all set to go on 3 March.
Printer made appointment for today. Am looking forward to see what he has produced.
9 february 2019
Three of the four prints were Ok the fourth will have to be re-thought or abandoned.
Got some more of the Chile book worked but got very bogged down and tired. I have so many images to look at and find it so difficult to select what works best. Most of them are still RAW. On the one hand I like looking at them as it brings back wonderful memories but it is so time consuming. But I went for a lovely walk with the sun shining and a big blue sky.
This PetaPixel article:
has me looking forward to returning to Ireland and my ‘new’ studio. It will take time to get sorted as it was just finished before we left.
10 february 2019
Today is the first anniversary of a very good friend of ours. He walked with us for fifteen years, he was the fittest guy I knew, younger by a number of years, he had a mind as sharp as a needle, he had an encyclopaedic knowledge, he stretched us both intellectually and physically and then cancer struck. he battled if for a year continuing to walk when he could but on the 10 February 2018 he said he couldn’t fight any more. We will remember him and his beautiful wife today.
Yesterday my second hand book “Waterlogged” arrived. It looks great. I started it.
I worked on tidying up my #chile_water book and doing some more research. I contacted a guy to ask permission to use his image. He replied this morning giving me the go ahead. I now have the final part of that journey Puerto Natales to the Torres.
13 february 2019
First version of the book finished yesterday. Sent off to my book designer friend to get her advice. Will also send it to some friends to see what they think. I will then submit it as I am not sure how ‘finished’ it has to be. I have not found a suitable cover image. I will do that today.
My book Roland Barthes “The Grain of the Voice” arrived yesterday. Did not open it yet. Am really enjoying “Waterlogged”.
15 february 2019
Watched “Roma” the film that won all the prizes on the Baftas this year. Did I miss something? I wrote a review of it…
Got some feedback on book so far – reworked it a little.
16 february 2019
More improvements to book given the comments received.
20 February 2019
Got a complete roasting at the Hangout on Sunday – totally deserved. I am now in the process of re-working using the advice I got. I think it looks better already – it was descending into a travel book…….
1 march 2019
Back from Rome with a really, really nasty cold. Need to be careful – can’t make up my mind about antibiotics. I am supposed to take them the moment it goes down on to my lungs or I will get pneumonia…. Can’t do any work either here or in the house.
2 march 2019
Worst has happened it is now on my lungs – wiped. It has been five years since I had this last. Am on antibiotics.
4 April 2019
Just discovered this Chilean artist Marcos Zeegers has an exhibition on Mining in Chile and water. Have sent him an email
Zeegers M. n.d., Marcos Zegers, retrieved 5 April 2019, <http://marcoszegers.cl/contacto/>
Digital Image & Culture 