The course provides
access to three examples of work from level 3 OCA students, ‘Check Up’ by Peter Mansell, ‘Ring Road’ by Dewald Botha and ‘Memories of Childhood’ by Jodie Taylor.
All of these case studies tackle photographing things that may be considered
unseen, or un-photographable.
All three pieces
of work use subjects that are important to the student but the one that
resonates most with me personally is ‘Ring
Road’. Personal environment is important to me and I can totally connect
with the prospect of finding calm and beautiful pockets in a place, which is
otherwise crazy and difficult to live in.
What I love about
this project though is that Botha went looking for beauty and relief but found
so much more:
‘The project,
which started out as an exploration of a physical object… turned into a more
complex personal journey of self reflection about displacement and survival.’
In the making of
the project, he walked each section of the ring road several times. I would
imagine that each time he revisited a section, he would have the opportunity to
reflect; not only on any physical changes but also on changes he felt as a
person and his connection with that place.
All of the
aforementioned projects are quite personal to the author, yet they may evoke
feelings and opinions in the viewer, which do not reflect the authors’
intention. I would like to think that I would celebrate this; I enjoy hearing
differing opinions and the discussion that subjectivity brings. I do wonder
though, if this were a piece I had created, would a small part of me want to control
the viewer’s experience in line with my initial intentions?
No comments:
Post a Comment