The following is a summary of what I have already set out in more detail in my learning log at aprocter231.wordpress.com
Background
Shipwrecks as archaeological sites provide valuable insights into the past. They have been considered as “time capsules” containing objects being used at the time of the sinking. Because of the precipitous nature of the sinking there was often no opportunity to remove objects and they remain as they were while in use at that time.
Wooden wrecks such as the Mary Rose (flagship of Henry VIII’s Vice Admiral of the Fleet, sank July 1545) may be preserved for many years allowing recovery and interpretation of artefacts. The systematic exploration of such an archaeological site depends on the careful recording of where precisely each object was found. In this way the spatial relationship of one object to another is recorded and from that spatial information, function may be inferred. The Mary Rose has revealed huge number of artefacts and a unique insight into Tudor life because of this.
Iron and steel wrecks are not preserved in seawater and decay much more rapidly and as a result there will not be a similar archaeological record for these. Amateur divers regularly dive the wrecks of iron and steel vessels in relatively shallow, coastal waters. Some of them do this as part of systematic investigations of the wreck, but most are informal almost “sightseeing” trips to the wreck. These latter divers often take objects from the wrecks as souvenirs and build up small, unsystematic collections. For many wrecks these collections may soon be all that remain as the iron and steel decay.
These objects recovered by amateur divers lack contextual information and therefore are unable to contribute to knowledge about their use or the wrecksite more generally.
It is the lack of contextual information about the objects in these collections and their isolation and separation from their origins which I want to try and capture in my Project. By so doing I hope to highlight the importance of recording finds so that an effective record of this aspect of nautical history can be recorded.
Approaches
I have obtained a number of objects recovered by amateur divers and I considered several ways of photographing them.
I explored images of the objects as items of interior design, as museum exhibits and as “trophies”. However I believe none of these approaches encapsulated the lack of contextual information about them.
I adopted an approach used by Robert Enoch in his image of cyanide and by Lisa Draycot in images of taxidermied animals. These photographers showed their subjects against a black background removing contextual cues and thereby enabling the observer to bring their own preconceptions to the image.
Technical aspects
I adopted a view-point (ie camera position) as if the observer had the object in their hand. This enabled viewing of the object with a “normal” perspective, regardless of the size of the object. The objects vary in size, but are all presented in the images as filling the same amount of the frame. I used small aperture to give a depth of field to have the entire object in focus.
I positioned the objects some distance from a black background and on a black surface. I used two flashes with softboxes to light the objects and minimise the light on the background. Some detail can be seen of the surface on which the objects sit, but I have minimised this with exposure adjustments in Lightroom.
Evaluation
What Worked Well
The final images I have made show artefacts recovered by amateur divers on a black surface against a black background. This was the effect I tried to achieve and in general has worked well.
The objects are appropriately lit and focussed.
What didn’t work so well
There are elements of the background apparent in some of the images and in those arranged along the diagonal of the frame may appear somewhat strange. (I composed the image on the diagonal by tilting the camera so as to maximise the size of the image).
In some images traces of a support (“Blutack”) can be seen.
I am not sure that the images in the series are linked in any way, any one image could be removed without it affecting the overall series. These are a random set of objects which were available to me.
What I Would do in the Future to Improve This
The major improvement would be to somehow make the objects linked to each other. However, as the whole point of this series is that the objects are now isolated, removed from their original context it is hard to see how this could be achieved and not affect the overall aim of the series.
The other thing I would do is explore more ways of photographing such objects and the technique of displaying, mounting and lighting the objects to most effectively show them separate from their background.
Andrew Procter 