#NPMonthlyWord
#NPMonthlyWord
Hello and welcome to another musing from NathanPhoto, this one will be discussing images made for the monthly word which was ‘routine’ #NPMonthlyWord1
The word was ‘routine’ and I think I may have to be careful with choosing the word as April has been anything but that !! What an absolutely haphazard disruptive month this has been for me!2
Think that this was always going to be the case as most of April’s creativity was poured into my break away and then catching Covid put a strain on production then when I finally got out to shoot, a broken toe then family commitments all made my choices are a little more complex with time constraints on making images, which all influence the image, but as they say let us offer reasons rather than excuses, lets break down what we have done. The main few ideas that have influenced April’s #NPmonthlyWord have been:
a) What the actual meaning of the word is and how do you photograph meaning?
b) In my research practice I’ve been dissecting ideas of trace and flow in images, which has then informed/effected my NP practice.
c) Thoughts of what you can see and what you can’t see in an image.
As ever I didn’t take just one image, here are a few that didn’t make the cut and a brief declaration of why they did not.
1 Access – This is an image that explores issues that surround access (little background now my mother mainly gets about in a wheelchair, we have to look at the routes and shortcuts that we used to take, it mainly results in us changing our routine and going the longer way). Can you see that in the image? Does it make sense? Sidenote of hmmm I’m not so sure, think this is a good example of how words and image can work together to aid interpretation tho.
2 Pathways and patterns – This one revisits an idea that a fellow artist had back in the early 90’s, one that has come back to the fore recently, I’ve been looking at pathways both constructed and made, this one was constructed via pipe laying and establishes a pathway that converges, linking to ideas of revisiting work from that long ago and how it can be problematic.
3 Colour/monochrome – Was struck by the simple colours in this one but then it reminded me of a ‘ColourPop’ image, as I’ve never really got on with colour pop, even before that app but possibly this image would explore and deconstruct these types of pictures by using rubbish instead of stereotypical subject like ‘eyes’ etc. Discarded because I’m not sure I want this to represent me.
4 Typeface/sign/ignore – Started seeing typefaces that are left over from a different time, signs that are so small that they can be easily missed and how the society changes have enabled that to happen. Again, is this something that you can/can’t see in an image?
5 Tree Stump – This is a site that my son and I were actually at the time this tree (naturally) fell down a number of years ago, we heard it creaking and realised something was going on, stopped to look, and then it fell. What are the chances of being there at that time!! I used it as a teaching example to my son, wonder if he remembers it…I do often revisit the fact that I should have filmed it or taken an image at the time, but I didn’t so there you go3
6 New Topographics – Since my M.A I’ve added New Topographic ways of seeing to my work, I started on that course as NathanPhoto and left with a research practice, but I feel that images like these live with NP as the term I like to use is ‘moid’4 these are spaces that fit in-between other spaces, been photographing these since the 90’s
7 Now if you’ll just take a moment to think about this – This is the title I’ve given to these types of images, they border on the looking down practices that I mentioned in number two, this one more so, it comes with added problems. I feel that these are veering too close to my research practice, too much application of meaning and research in the image to sit comfortably with the NP.
There you have it…and breath…
Now with a drum roll it brings us to the final selection which is this one:
pigeon takes off in flight, on a urban street with blossom collecting in the distance.
This image has been chosen as I worked from what the definition of routine means: ‘a sequence of actions regularly followed’. Which started me on the thought processes of an individual’s sequence and how one person’s regular is not another’s, personally reflecting on how what was regular for me now is not. Chosen to represent this via a pigeon5 as what is regular travel for a pigeon is to take flight, whereas who’s that normal for? Feel that this maybe a very apt representation of NathanPhoto’s philosophy of life.
What do you think? Does it work? Does it not? Why? Does the concept match the image or is one better than the other? As ever let me know what you think via the usual channels.
Always good to add some technical insights in these types of blogs, so here I wanted to give my 7D a run out and wanted to shoot around the 50mm mark so with the 7D operating on a roughly 1:6 conversion rate I put my beloved 35mm on and voila something different but routine as well.
April has been anything but routine, so I better choose the next #NPMonthlyWord carefully but so as to give you a fair go if you’d like to take part, May’s word is Mindful.
‘Mindful’ l have sometime translated that to ‘mind is full’
As I normally finish with an image discussion but as this one is all about the image, I’ll leave you with a quote and it’s:
“Almost everyone today has a camera and takes snaps.
Just as almost everyone has learned to write and produce texts.
Anyone who is able to write can also read.
But anyone who can take snaps does not necessarily have to be able to decode photographs.”
It is from “Towards a Philosophy of Photography” by Vilém Flusser.
The thinking contained in the book is informing so much of my PhD thinking and practice at the moment, I will also use this in my teaching especially in the evening classes, I’ve added it here as NathanPhoto is a major part of my teaching practice, so it’s a good place to leave ideas/thoughts like this, ones that inform practices and outcomes.
Again l would like to thank you for reading, if you have any comments/ideas/thoughts please leave them via the usual channels.
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1 New hashtag who this? Pondering on if this hashtag/branding works?
2 Bit of background the word is chosen by a conversation between my creative director and given to me much like a working brief.
3 I have the reasoning of tiredness/fatigue of working nights then getting little sleep and up in the morning to look after a boisterous 9 year old for that fact
4 M.o.i.d is from a tv show in the 90’s and stands for "Master Of Infinite Disguise" it’s got retranslated to anonymous anything’s, people, spaces and such like. It’s something that stuck and has no relevance to anyone but me in the way I apply it.
5 I started this idea of photographing pigeons when I came to my H.N.D at Stockport College, it’s something I’ve been thinking about recently again, maybe too much nostalgia at the moment?