Showing posts with label Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Time. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
BBQ
Last night I cooked dinner and it was a BBQ feast. Along side a fresh garden salad there were grilled capsicum, mushrooms and onions. I cooked an traditional Irish potato dish boxty, sausages, chicken nibblets, chicken wrapped in chicken, and of course the center piece of any BBQ, the steak.
Last nights steak were the soul of the BBQ it was the last piece of meat remaining from the families cows which were butchered just before Christmas last year. In preparation I thought it only right to cook it exquisitely and so it was rubbed with garlic and marinated in red wine and sweet chili sauce. It was BBQ'ed to medium.
It isn't something often thought about but after butchering, the marinating, cooking and eating of meat is the only ceremony that cows and other animals are given by humans before they are forgotten to our stomachs.
Other animals give even less ceremony to their dinner.
People and their pets on the other hand are remembered ceremoniously in specific ways after their time of death, most often this includes a burial on a piece of land where they are remembered. Mentally and spiritually they may remain in that place, in reality all living things decompose over time.
This is where I am heading in regards to my final set of images based around time.
Last nights steak were the soul of the BBQ it was the last piece of meat remaining from the families cows which were butchered just before Christmas last year. In preparation I thought it only right to cook it exquisitely and so it was rubbed with garlic and marinated in red wine and sweet chili sauce. It was BBQ'ed to medium.
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| Raw Food |
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| Stirring Through |
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| The Steak |
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| Near Done |
It isn't something often thought about but after butchering, the marinating, cooking and eating of meat is the only ceremony that cows and other animals are given by humans before they are forgotten to our stomachs.
Other animals give even less ceremony to their dinner.
People and their pets on the other hand are remembered ceremoniously in specific ways after their time of death, most often this includes a burial on a piece of land where they are remembered. Mentally and spiritually they may remain in that place, in reality all living things decompose over time.
This is where I am heading in regards to my final set of images based around time.
Cemetary
It's interesting living in a place like Makara where almost nothing is how much there is available in the way of resources. Today just a small scooter ride away is the cemetary which I set off to in the hope of getting some emotional snap shots.
Little did I know that I would take an extra ten minutes getting there because a lock had broken and a gate had blown open in the wind and two shetland ponies had escaped across the street. I didn't think to take any photos but if anyone had taken photos of me it would have been a right laugh.
I'm not experienced with horses at all.
One horse at a time this is how I did it. I grabbed a handful of long grass and thrust it into the horses face, I put my arm around the horses neck in a headlock grab. I pulled the horse across the road and pushed it back into the paddock.
I also had to make sure that they wouldn't run back out while I was closing and tying off the gates. Not my idea of fun, but living in a small community and all of that someone needs to keep an eye out.
Enough back story, here are the images I took.
And what happens to the lot of us when we are buried.
Little did I know that I would take an extra ten minutes getting there because a lock had broken and a gate had blown open in the wind and two shetland ponies had escaped across the street. I didn't think to take any photos but if anyone had taken photos of me it would have been a right laugh.
I'm not experienced with horses at all.
One horse at a time this is how I did it. I grabbed a handful of long grass and thrust it into the horses face, I put my arm around the horses neck in a headlock grab. I pulled the horse across the road and pushed it back into the paddock.
I also had to make sure that they wouldn't run back out while I was closing and tying off the gates. Not my idea of fun, but living in a small community and all of that someone needs to keep an eye out.
Enough back story, here are the images I took.
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| You get a sense of uniform and symettry |
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| Time shows itself on this unkempt headstone |
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| The small angel juxtaposes wealth and sincerity with the larger angels behind |
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| Here the cross juxtaposes with the angels behind |
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| I didn't wish to capture any names in my final images. |
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| I was fixe on these angels, they illustrate rememberance through ornament. |
The other images I have taken include a memorial for our pets.
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| The tree under which a much loved pet is buried |
And what happens to the lot of us when we are buried.
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| Worms |
Friday, 30 August 2013
Time
Going into study break I have been thinking of what I can capture to portray time. I had a few below decent ideas.
The first idea was of a place that portrayed time for one reason or another. There is one place that I have visited recently which was a path up to a power pylon. The path was barely recognizable as it had been covered by growth.
The path is so covered with green growth that navigating my way through it was a challenge.
There was even a discarded toilet hidden among the growth.
When I see this I ask myself 'how long has it been since somebody actually cared for this place?'
My second idea was to portray age through static images of people. Using Jodi Bieber's work in South Africa as a precedent I could capture people in natural situations to emphasize their age.
Bieber uses age to tell tales of poverty and sadness like in an image of a child prostitute who started that line of work at only 14 years old. I would use age to emphasize change and routine in life. This wouldn't necessarily have a preset emotional theme but each person photographed would give their own emotions to the images.
My third idea was to treat time in regards to life and death. I couldn't take photos of dead people [I don't know any]; so I would use animals. I have thought of contrasting life, by using a picture of a cow, with death, by using a picture of a family BBQ.
I have thought more and more about this idea as it seems the most practical.
I have thought that instead of just one contrast I could produce a chain of interlinked photographs illustrating a sort of circle of life, strarting with a cow eating grass, the next image would be a family BBQ but focussed on the dog on the ground chewing on a cow bone. the third image would be a dogs grave. surrounded by tufts of grass. The fourth image would be an extreme close up of a worm farm.
This idea of a sort of circle of life I think works well. the cows feed on grass and then become sustenance for the dog, the dog is buried in rememberance and then consumed by annelids [worms] and detritivores [other organisms that break down dead matter], the excess is used as nutrients by plants like grass, which in turn feed animals like cows.
What's it doing at the beach?
The first idea was of a place that portrayed time for one reason or another. There is one place that I have visited recently which was a path up to a power pylon. The path was barely recognizable as it had been covered by growth.
The path is so covered with green growth that navigating my way through it was a challenge.
There was even a discarded toilet hidden among the growth.
When I see this I ask myself 'how long has it been since somebody actually cared for this place?'
My second idea was to portray age through static images of people. Using Jodi Bieber's work in South Africa as a precedent I could capture people in natural situations to emphasize their age.
Bieber uses age to tell tales of poverty and sadness like in an image of a child prostitute who started that line of work at only 14 years old. I would use age to emphasize change and routine in life. This wouldn't necessarily have a preset emotional theme but each person photographed would give their own emotions to the images.
My third idea was to treat time in regards to life and death. I couldn't take photos of dead people [I don't know any]; so I would use animals. I have thought of contrasting life, by using a picture of a cow, with death, by using a picture of a family BBQ.
I have thought more and more about this idea as it seems the most practical.
I have thought that instead of just one contrast I could produce a chain of interlinked photographs illustrating a sort of circle of life, strarting with a cow eating grass, the next image would be a family BBQ but focussed on the dog on the ground chewing on a cow bone. the third image would be a dogs grave. surrounded by tufts of grass. The fourth image would be an extreme close up of a worm farm.
This idea of a sort of circle of life I think works well. the cows feed on grass and then become sustenance for the dog, the dog is buried in rememberance and then consumed by annelids [worms] and detritivores [other organisms that break down dead matter], the excess is used as nutrients by plants like grass, which in turn feed animals like cows.
The above are some more shots of the cows, I think that close ups of them are more intimate, and allows people to think of them as living creatures rather than just meat.
Also here is a picture of a goat.
Friday, 23 August 2013
Between Dogs and Wolves
The book "Between Dogs and Wolves" by Jodi Bieber has provided me with some incredible documentary photography. It is insightful. Bieber's photography shows a completely different world from what I am used to here in New Zealand.
The photography is all shot in South Africa and is aimed mostly at young poor people.
I have been inspired as to how graphic the snapshots of life [and death] are. they capture a snippet of life that is completely foreign to me.
In my next project I am to illustrate time. I have been thinking of doing this through age. Jodi Bieber redefines our concept of age in the following pictures.
These images challenge our understanding of ideas of the appropriate age.
Although the captions accompanying these images may be fairly long winded, they give a lot of insight into the meaning of the images.
"We tend to believe that sexual abusers are strangers, yet they are generally people close to the child. The Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, has a Kid's court Support Group aimed at empowering child witnesses who will have to testify in court. They are given emotional support, and taught about the court process and the skills to deal with it, through puppetry."
Captions by Jodi Bieber from the book Between Dogs and Wolves, Growing up with South Africa
The interesting thing about these photographs is that there is a feeling of a loss of innocence in the people captured. We seem to think of our childhood and teenage years as carefree and innocent but for people in other parts of the world they must deal with violence, rape, neglect, death, loss of loved ones, and countless other traumas.
I don't wish to portray a loss of innocence in regards to age, instead I wish to capture age in a static image that is not only beautiful, but also honest.
The images that I can produce will be very different to Jodi Bieber's images but they will be beautiful and honest.
The photography is all shot in South Africa and is aimed mostly at young poor people.
I have been inspired as to how graphic the snapshots of life [and death] are. they capture a snippet of life that is completely foreign to me.
In my next project I am to illustrate time. I have been thinking of doing this through age. Jodi Bieber redefines our concept of age in the following pictures.
These images challenge our understanding of ideas of the appropriate age.
Although the captions accompanying these images may be fairly long winded, they give a lot of insight into the meaning of the images.
"Tebugo is a child prostitute working on the streets of Johannesburg. When she was fourteen a man from her hometown of KwaZulu-Natal promised to put her through school in Jo'burg. When they arrived in the city, he said she would have to make money by selling her body on the streets - 'I charge R50 for a black man and R150 for a white one. We use condoms and I have blood tests at the local clinic. My family doesn't know I am here. They think I am at school. I would like to go back to school, so I can be a lawyer one day and fight for our rights.'"
"... When Bradley, her youngest son (7), gets angry he responds with a knife; behaviour learn in the streets is brought back home. The only way Lynette seems to know how to discipline her children is with a leather belt. Her son Wardlen (11), once stabbed her. Many women are left alone to care for and discipline their children, as their husbands are either in jail, on the run from the law or have been killed through gang violence. Lynette has pleaded with the Welfare Department to take her kids away from Westbury, as she believes it is not a suitable place for children to grow up in. However, life goes on..."
"'There is not a kid around six who can't tell you about a gun. My kid is 5; I take my gun home, remove the magazine and give it to him to play with. He must get used to it. He is the only man in the house; he will be the breadwinner. It is not to say that I want him to be a gangster, but he must be gun-wise because guns can be dangerous, even in your own house.' - Fast Gun member."
"We tend to believe that sexual abusers are strangers, yet they are generally people close to the child. The Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, has a Kid's court Support Group aimed at empowering child witnesses who will have to testify in court. They are given emotional support, and taught about the court process and the skills to deal with it, through puppetry."
Captions by Jodi Bieber from the book Between Dogs and Wolves, Growing up with South Africa
The interesting thing about these photographs is that there is a feeling of a loss of innocence in the people captured. We seem to think of our childhood and teenage years as carefree and innocent but for people in other parts of the world they must deal with violence, rape, neglect, death, loss of loved ones, and countless other traumas.
I don't wish to portray a loss of innocence in regards to age, instead I wish to capture age in a static image that is not only beautiful, but also honest.
The images that I can produce will be very different to Jodi Bieber's images but they will be beautiful and honest.
Weekly task : Exposure
This week I had two tasks, one was a photo of a long exposure +5 seconds.
With a 20 second exposure in a darkish place and a stationary camera I was able to play around with coloured objects to create distorted shapes. I used a green glassed bottle to create ghostly images.
I also had to get an image with a really quick exposure. A fraction of a second long.
I used a shutter speed of 1/4000 to allow very minimal light into the lense. this created a dark, brooding image even though it was daylight hours.
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