Toxic waste drums found at the old facility.
I was particularly interested in how my approach to working with images would cope with the wide variety of textures in a situation like this. I took a wide variety of images today all around abandoned farm buildings and again did this on my way to doing something else, so it was very quick, free and unstructured. The area had texture which is what I was looking for. I wasn’t looking for more than this currently. I wanted to understand in this image if I could handle the colour subtleties of the leaves in the centre of the picture whilst also maintaining good texture in the oil drum. Wood and metal together with rope and weeds all combine in a very texturally busy image to make the process I work with much more difficult to lay across a single image. I am personally pleased that it has a graphical feel whilst also keeping the air of hyper reality I want and like. Each image created constantly surprises in the way it eventually unfolds and the way it actually ends up.
At the moment I am working on single images and getting used to the process. I then want to start placing several in perhaps a rudimentary grid form layout to begin the elements of story. I am very interested in creating drama through the images and in utilising strong angles and close ups and wide shots as in cinema. The visual style is the next point of focus for me. I want to look at how tension and drama may be built through not just layout but also through the flow of edited images and how the cut sequences run parallel to the story being told.
In the beginning it is about looking at the way I can take ordinary ever day surroundings and turn those into a visual backdrop for story development. The sense now is to get used to the process of creating single images I think work in a graphic novel style. The style may be unique to me but I feel it goes beyond the photograph and drawing into graphical art in a way that represents the story I want to tell. These stories I hope will emerge as I get to develop a constant process and fully capture the same feel through sets of images. It is a strange but disciplined experience and interesting for me to explore what is possible using limited equipment. I am testing process adaptability at the moment so learning as I go along.
The key thing is to keep doing if only to see what emerges. It would be nice to get a fast and productive method from this approach but perhaps something entirely different will evolve over the course of the blog posts. I want to produce a graphic novel because for me it merges many artistic modes of expression into one place. I may not be able to achieve what I set out to do, but I would like to think I will learn a lot about my photography, drawing and writing as a result.
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