My learning log for the Open College of the Arts
I went to look for images around Old Glossop in line with my proposed story board.
Unfortunately I again got distracted by the old industrial relics on the site of the Hawkshead Mill, which I think are interesting images in their own right and serve to put the changes I am trying to depict in to context.
This section is still a work in progress for the final images!
The 1911 map shows the Waterside Branch running along the side of the Etherow having crossed a viaduct. Today this looks far from industrial and has been developed as a bridle-way.
I wanted images of the river flowing into the lowland rural farmland, and also to illustrate how the regenerative process has hidden this aspect of its industrial past.
My first visit was just to explore the area and look for locations. 
These images show the area without a hint of the railway which ran on the right hand bank of the far river or the viaduct crossing the near one. The only hint is the iron work remaining in the river.
Nearby today however is the council tip and this is as intrusive into a rural scene as the old railway, and shows how the access to the river is still controlled.
I was looking for a view of the river leaving the post-industrial area to the rural and wanted something like this.
Although this does not show any suggestion of change of use, so more like this is preferable to me.
I have revisited with tripod and polarising filter to retake these to add what I think is a better quality of depiction of the water.
Other images from the revisit also show that.
I will aim to use some of these in my final submission.
I worked this out before my earlier posts, but have only just got round to scanning the pages of my sketches!
Having decided to look at the rivers in Glossop and use the images of these as my vehicle for the assignment, I started to plan the locations I needed to communicate my objectives.
I approached this as a storyboard, describing the path the rivers take from the hills, through the town and out onto the plain and to the conurbation of Manchester in the distance. The sketches are from memory and serve me as an aide-memoire for the aspects of the landscape I want to illustrate.
The moorland above Glossop would provide images of the sources of the water, but also the effects on the peat of the industrialisation. Completing a cycle, it would also enable showing Man’s influence and attempts to restore this with new planting and attempts to stop peat erosion. Lower down in Doctor’s gate a bridge is a memorial to a rambler and illustrates the use of the land for recreation.
Associated with that is also the agricultural influences such as altered river course for sheep washes.
Further down the valley are more obvious agricultural influences on the landscape, and as the river approaches Old Glossop, a pre-industrial village, it flows close to workers cottages. However this scene also incorporates modern factories in use today.
Through the town the rivers are highly controlled and have been extensively used for industry, diverted into mill ponds and other structures. This old industrial heritage can still be seen, but as it decays nature regenerates to create new vegetation.
Finally, after only 6km, Glossop Brook leaves Glossop and joins the Etherow to flow onto the Cheshire plain and into agricultural land, before entering the industrial conurbation of Manchester. Here at the confluence of the rivers was an industrial branch line, the Waterside Branch, running across a viaduct and along the side of the river to the Waterside Mills. Few traces of this remain, such is the regenerative power of nature.
I have now a few sites I plan to visit and develop these themes.
I went to look around Glossop to look for some sites to photograph and develop some ideas of how my images might look for this assignment.
As I was unsure about access, I did not take a tripod and other kit but planned to re-visit if this seemed suitable for some of the images I was looking for.
I chose a stretch of Glossop Brook, in the centre of the town where it runs through the site of the old Howard Town Mills. This was a large area of cotton mills, now disused and being re-developed as retail area, hotels, and bars. The extent of these can be seen in the OS Map of 1924:
I found that I could get into the site of the derelict mills at the East end of the site and found these images of drosscapes. These were not what I was looking for, but I think are interesting images in their own right.
More in keeping with my project are these:
I am pleased with these images. I think they show an apparently rural scene, however on looking carefully the remnants of the industrial past can be seen – mill walls and pipelines in the river bed. I think they show the power of nature to reclaim our derelict industrial sites.
My plan is to revisit this site with a tripod and polarising filter as I think a higher image quality can be achieved. I would like to use a long exposure to alter the quality of the depiction of the water, and the polarising filter will show detail on the pipeline better.
The brief says that the assignment must “communicate something about you: your interests, motivations and ambitions for your photography”.
To help me determine what I wanted to communicate about myself, I reflected on this and again used the “mind-mapping” technique (diagram not shown) to identify what I saw as key aspects of my personality that I wanted to communicate.
In summary, my interests include hillwalking and scuba diving (the latter is hard to incorporate directly into this). These are linked by an interest in nature and the natural environment. My other large area of interest is my family and friends. Through my professional work I have an interest in people generally and their interests and background.
I think the theme linking this is an interest in heritage, why and how we come to be where we are, and in terms of our environment, what has created what we see – the forces of nature and of people.
In terms of photography, I started originally to use it to document what I have done and where I have been, however I recognise that I aspire to more and want it to mean something to me (and hopefully others). One of my personality traits I am aware of is perfectionism and I enjoy the technical aspects of photography, but am never satisfied with the outcome so want to better understand the essential aspects of an image to make it good.
My aim with the assignment is to try and show
Next Steps:
In this and my last blog post I believe I have set out how I intend to approach the assignment and what I want it to show. I now need to plan the images that will do this. To this end I will:
To take a “fresh and experimental look” at my surroundings I began by considering what appear to me to be the characteristic aspects of my home town of Glossop.
I did this by brainstorming aspects of the ideas about the town that have importance to me. I had not used the technique of “mindmapping” before in other work, but found it helped to generate ideas and provide a visual reference of how they interlink.
Overall I came to the conclusion that the character of Glossop comes about because it sits as transitional in many ways
An aspect of this is illustrated visually by the map showing it is encircled by the National Park, forming and industrial/post-industrial island in the Park.
One theme came over as important and seemed to link many aspects. These are the rivers flowing through the town. Rising in the peat on the moors, the rivers then flow down the valleys into the town and through it onto the plain eventually joining the Mersey.
Water has influenced
My initial plan is for my series of images to follow the rivers and use them to illustrate changes in Man’s relationship with them over time.
I began this assignment by carefully reading the brief.
My interpretation of the brief is to produce a series of photographs in response to the concept of the “Square Mile”.
That concept is an area
Technical Aspects
Stylistic Aspects
The Required Submission
Although this is the last stage of the assignment, I looked at this in some detail too, as I wanted to ensure that the work I produce will easily transform into a format ready for submission and that I will have completed along the way all the elements required.
Submission needs to include:
The self-assessment and reflection needs to be against the assessment criteria in the course guide. These are:
My Initial Response and thoughts about the brief
In terms of the practical skills needed to produce the actual submission, I am happy that I have the IT skills to produce the electronic outputs and submit the images in the required format.
I have not used digital contact sheets and will need to learn how to do that from my usual software (Lightroom).
The images must have only basic corrections, which is how I tend to work currently.
I am used to writing documents and providing a written submission should be well within my previous experience.
Reflection and self-assessment are skills I have to use in my professional work outside this course, and while I need to set up processes for capturing my reflections, this is not a new skill to me. Self-assessment in this context however will be more difficult as I an unsure about the standards needed.
This latter point also makes me unsure about my technical and visual skills and I will be looking for feedback as to how to improve these.
The major area where I feel I need to work hardest will be in the development of creativity and novel approaches to the subject. Linked to this is a lack of knowledge about the work of others so a major objective for me will be to research the work of others and analyse how this influences my own work.
Next Steps
Exhibition Visit: I went alone to this as I was unable to attend an OCA Study Visit and the curator-led visit I had planned to attend was cancelled. This was unfortunate and meant that I might not have gained as much from the visit as I had hoped.
The Exhibition “celebrates northern photography across five decades”. Included are images of studio and informal portraits, rural landscapes and urban/industrial scenes.
My objectives from the visit:
• To gain an insight into more contemporary photography
• To see the work of photographers who create images in similar geographical areas to myself
• To gain some ideas for use in my “Square Mile” project
• To visit an exhibition and try to understand the range of work shown and the rationale for inclusion
• To try and study the work more systematically to develop my own assessment/appraisal skills
The Works
Daniel Meadows
The images included were made around 1972 and are of residents of Moss Side where Daniel Meadows was living at the time. He took free portraits of local residents and it is some of these which are shown.
They are black and white images in portrait formal. The subjects are against a simple dark background, the folds of the material can be seen. All are looking directly at the camera and seem to have a very “stiff” pose. This suggests to me that they are not used to having their photograph taken.
I was struck by an image of Teenager with Pram. At first sight this might appear to be a stereotypical image depicting teenage pregnancy/single mothers etc, however on closer examination it is clear that the pram contains a television and seems to be a way of transporting it!
I found these interesting images of people capturing a time and style. For me it was evocative of a period when I started taking photographs and used the same techniques.
Chris Harrison
The images shown were from his series “Under the Hood” and are studio portraits of Salford young men and boys made in 1994. They are colour images in a square format. The subjects pose against deep red drapes in what appear to me to be classical poses. These are offset by contemporary objects, such as their beer cans.
I noted that in many of the images one side of the subject’s face is in deep shadow, whereas in one the subject looks directly at the camera and is more evenly lit. In the subject’s pupil, I can see in the latter two light sources (flash and reflector ?) and only one in all the others. I am unclear as to what the photographer was trying to achieve here – I wonder if it is to show that although they have lost their hoodies, the subjects still do not show all their faces…
Tessa Bunney
The exhibition notes describe Tessa Bunney as a photographer of rural life, capturing the way landscape is shaped by humans. The images displayed are of domestic flowers of the British countryside. They are in colour in a square format. The colours are muted pastels and to me, seem reminiscent of paintings. One work is a montage of many such images, reminding me of some of the works of Andy Worhol.
What I learned from this, is that although the artist has shown images of the flowers, the story behind the images is of the domestic flower growers and changes in flower farming from small domestic production to more industrial scale, and now back to smaller farms again.
Lisa Dracup
The exhibition notes quote critic Michael Prodger as describing Lisa Dracup’s work as “not about capturing a particular moment in time but about timelessness. Her focus is less on something fleeting… and more on the long afterlife of places, plants and animals.”
The images shown are of taxidermied animals and birds. They are in a portrait format with a black background. I note that there are large areas in each image of this black background, and each subject in shown with great detail visible.
I was keen to see Lisa Dracup’s work as my thoughts about my work are that I want to depict more than the here and now, perhaps the “pre-life” rather than the “afterlife”. It is interesting to me to see how this timelessness is shown by the use of taxidermy.
Paul Floyd Blake
The images shown are from his series, “Give us a Sign” and are images of churches with signs outside, all with a humorous aspect. They are colour images in a square format. The colour enhances the visual impact of the sign, making it stand out from an otherwise, quite grey urban/suburban background.
I saw in these images how a single point of interest and the use of humour, can elevate an otherwise bland scene.
Matthew Murray
The images shown are from the series Saddleworth: Responding to a Landscape. They are large images, described as “metallic”. Many have traditional landscape compositions of woodland and moorland but they are striking because of the lighting.
I found it difficult to see how he achieved the lighting effects but have since found his description of this. “I photographed throughout day and many times throughout the night. When shooting at night I would light the landscape with artificial lighting, external lights, torches, car headlights, I wanted to interact and manipulate the landscape”. (Murray, M (2017) Matthew Murray’s atmospheric landscape images inspired by walks on Saddleworth Moor. British Journal of Photography 8765: 20-21)
Overall I found this a striking way to show the landscape of the moorland and woodland around me.
Phoebe Kielty
These are black and white images from her series “These were my Landscape”. They are of details from an urban landscape which produce almost abstract black and white patterns. While the object in the image can be seen and identifies, I found I looked at the pattern not the image.
I liked the way the detail in a landscape has been identified and the pattern created used to create an abstract appearing image.
Ian Macdonald
These are images of Cleveland taken over a several year period from the 1970s to the 1990s. They are black and white images of the industrial landscape and people of Cleveland.
I noted that the images of industry in the 1970s were highly lit and contrasty. The sites looked clean. I formed the impression that these images aimed to capture the spirit of the “white heat of the technological revolution” speech by Harold Wilson in 1963, rather than our current disillusion with industrialisation as adverse effects on society and the environment become recognised.
I noticed what might be a recognition of this in the images of traditional fishing boats and a rural landscape of the estuary, while in the distance industrial plants can be seen with chimneys and emissions which probably would not be acceptable today.
The image, Picnic at Fourth Buoy Sands, shows local people picnicking in such a setting. It reminded me of Cartier-Bresson’s image of Juvisy, France 1932 of working people having a working lunch in an apparently rural setting, but close to their urban work.
My overall thoughts and implications for my work
I set out my objectives for the visit above
• To gain an insight into more contemporary photography
My notes above summarise the insights I have gained. I think this is a start, but find it raises more questions for me than answers. I now have other sources to look at and other work from these artists
• To see the work of photographers who create images in similar geographical areas to myself
I have seen this and commented above, however have observed that time is as important as geography even over a period of 50 years. “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there” (L P Hartley) has particular resonance for me in the light of these images.
• To gain some ideas for use in my “Square Mile” project
I have outlined above how I see these are relevant. I found most resonance with Ian Macdonald’s work and my own aspirations. However, I felt the images shown very much reflect a period in time, and my current work on “Square Mile” must deal with post-industrialisation and its consequence on the landscape.
• To visit an exhibition and try to understand the range of work shown and the rationale for inclusion
I have looked at some aspects of this, but clearly have a long way to go in this
• To try and study the work more systematically to develop my own assessment/appraisal skills
I have tried to look at each image systematically, but do tend to concentrate on my comfort zone and look at the technical aspect of the image, although I am beginning to understand elements of the intentions of the photographer.
I was directed towards this concept by my tutor Andy Hughes to help me with my assignment, “Square Mile”.
Berger is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard, and introduced the term “drosscape” to describe waste landscapes around urban areas (Berger 1998). He defines it as “a term to describe a design pedagogy that emphasises the production, integration and re-use of waste landscape throughout the urban world.” He suggests that processes such as de-industrialisation and technological innovation lead to waste landscapes, as structures and areas are no longer used. The processes leading to this include rapid horizontal urbanisation, as cities extend into the surrounding areas; and the creation of left-over development of previous economic regimes.
As such, Berger suggests that drosscapes are a natural component of very dynamically evolving city, and reflect healthy urban growth. He approaches these landscapes from the perspective of an urban designer and advocates that designers adapt their role to incorporate these changes into new urban design.
Although they might be considered visually unattractive, Berger suggests that they are neither intrinsically bad or good, merely an inevitable consequence of urban and technological change.
Images of Drosscapes
Berger’s book is illustrated with examples from aerial photographs, serving to document the variety of waste landscapes. The areas he studies are exclusively in the USA.
I have searched for photographers who have used images of drosscape.
Katherine Westerhout has an extensive catalogue of images of derelict buildings of various types, in the USA. Her work concentrates on the buildings themselves and the how the process of decay and degeneration affects the fabric of the building. This is exemplified by work such as Yonkers Power Station II (Westerhout, 2011).
Fortuna D’Angelo uses black and white imagery to depicit drosscape in Italy in his image, Drosscape by the periphery of Naples. Casal di Principe (Italy), (D’Angelo, 2011). This image shows the derelict area adjacent to new development and rural areas.
Relevance to my work – Square Mile
The classic description of drosscape refers to waste land around American cities, by the process of “rapid horizontal urbanisation”. As such that process relies on there being land around the city to allow new development into. This is not the case in the UK, particularly around Glossop.
However if I consider the process rather than the physical manifestation of it, there has been changing land use for centuries in my study area. It is this change that I aim to illustrate, even if there are not drosscapes of the type described by Berger.
The images of Westerhout, show the buildings, and their decay. They show the effect of the process of decay and as such reflect a static image of one point in the building’s history. They do not put the building into its context and surroundings. I hope to show in my images a reflection of the process of both decay and regeneration as part of the cycle of a dynamically evolving city, which in turn in Berger’s words “reflect healthy urban growth”.
This latter aspect is more in keeping with the image of D’Angelo – showing several stages of the cycle.
References:
Berger A (1998) Drosscapes: Wasting Landscape in Urban America. Princeton University Press.
D’Angelo F (2011) Drosscape by the periphery of Naples. Casal di Principe (Italy), 2011. https://fortunadangelo.tumblr.com/
Westerhout K (2011) The East & South; The Catskills/Yonkers. http://www.katwest.com/gallery_the_catskills_yonkers.html
This was the first meeting of this group and my first physical contact with others from the OCA. I have only just started my studies with the OCA so was unsure what to expect.
There were three elements to the day.
What I learned and gained from the day:
The majority of students were studying photography. Many of the students are taking more advanced courses than me, but it was helpful to hear about their experiences when they were at the same stage as me.
I saw other students’ work in the development stage and began to see how that process is working for them.
Hazel Bingham showed some of her work for her Level 3 project “Neoliberalism in the City” . I was able to discuss this with her and Andrew Corby.
Relevance to my work and study:
I am at an early stage of my study with the OCA and more pre-occupied with the process and techniques of studying rather than the subject matter itself.
I learned that my confusion over communication systems is common among students as there are several systems in place. The “hangouts” groups are used by students for informal discussions and I have since located how to access these and checked that hangouts works on my computer!
I have also a better understanding of the process through which students develop their work. Having seen the work brought to the day, I have a better understanding of the physical presentation of the work as well as the intellectual process for the development of it.
Hazel Bingham gave me a link to her blog and I have been able to look at that and other examples to see what is needed in a learning log.
Andrew Corby interpreted Hazel’s work in the context of neolibralism and the appropriation of old buildings. My plans for my “Square Mile” project are to examine the the re-use of old buildings and sites and this may be of relevance. I will re-examine this as my thoughts are more developed about my project.
Andrew Procter 