Evaluation and Process for project of photography and the archive

Posted on April 20, 2014 by xrsf48

Process and Evaluation

Initially, I found that the time lapse photography project was always focused on buildings and people. The fast dynamic development of people and lights created a fantastic image. I wanted my first ‘time lapse photography project’ to focus specifically on people and buildings.

I felt that the rest house in Bournville had a narrative symbolism; “The Rest House was paid for by the employees of Cadbury Brothers Ltd to commemorate the Silver Wedding Anniversary of George and Elizabeth Cadbury on 19th June 1913. The design is taken from a medieval butter market in Dunster, Somerset.” Thus, I had a sense that the rest house and the people whom had lived there had all contributed to the feeling of the present day the Bournville and the development of Bournville as a Trust.

When I made this photography into a video in response to my in-depth research on the process the one thing that really stood out for me, in my research, was that I should select a focal topic. However, my first attempt was unsuccessful due to the fact that it was too general focusing on the rest home and the general public. It was too straight forward to simply present the development of Bournville and realized that I was giving too many superficial details and not digging deep enough. The audience wouldn’t be encouraged to explore the themes and issues surrounding my work. Therefore, I decided to find a special metaphor to present Bournville. Thus, I focused on several natural objects, such as the lawn, trees, sky, cloud, fallen leaves, shadow and lights.

On my second attempt, I chose the huge lawn and a row of houses. The best thing in this video was the changing of light and shadows on the lawn. The time lapse photography made the dynamic faster. It was a fantastic idea in expressing this development despite not believing that the filming of such houses would create an effective visual emotion. I resolved to not continue with my focus on housing.

On my third attempt, I chose to capture a road which was buried by a heap of fallen leaves. I could also see the concrete path and green lawn. It was a stunning and beautiful view in my eyes and I therefore selected it without any hesitation. The other positive feature to this video was that the heavy wind and fallen leaves created a powerful and intense dynamic. It was mesmerizing, however I did not think it was enough to express my concept about Bournville and not enough to present the history and development. I was simply left with an emphatic dynamic and symbolism of the fallen leaves. I realized that I had to find more objects to present my concept being the “invisible not inexistent”. Furthermore, my tutor suggested that I could find a device that would make the leaves fly higher, to create a more powerful dynamic. However, in my mind, I think Bournville represents a stillness of place, and we can use this characteristic and elemental beauty to explore a tiny shift of consciousness which is profound and simple on many levels of existence.

On my fourth attempt, I just focused on a piece of lawn and fallen leaves. The dynamic of fallen leaves were subtle. It is not enough to present Bournville.

In terms of several suggestion by tutor and friends, I thought I have to find some different elements in my picture. So I tried find different colour in my video. The next attempt I selected a piece of green lawn, a piece of red leaves, and some white tree trunks. Actually, this project were not satisfied. The picture was not excellent, and the dynamic is not beautiful as well.

On the sixth attempt I focused on a tree. Because I found there are so many red fruits on the tree, but the leaves were all fallen. Behind that tree, it was a tree full of yellow leaves without fruits. When I first saw the tree with yellow leaves, it was absolutely beautiful. But then I saw the tree which is full of fruits but no leaves, I was lost in thought. I thought it is meaningful. The tree gave up all of the leaves for fruits. Another one kept the beautiful leaves without any fruits. In our life, we often knew such people who dedicate themselves for their lovers such as children. Perhaps, it seems like Bournville itself, it experienced such more wars and changes, but now it make the future generations live happiness with this beautiful and rich place.
But the worst thing in this video was that it was difficult to find the red fruits in the video. Moreover, no more strang dynamic changing in the video.

In terms of these attempts and suggestions, I made a summary. I had to select some particular objects to present Bournville. It was relevant to find different elements to keep contrast, at the same time, the perfect picture is important. The particular dynamic is the most significant point to make this video. I had to choose the reasonable elements to tell the story for Bournville. Some points we did not see on the surface, but it does not means inexistence.

Research for Photography and the Archive Project

Posted on April 20, 2014 by xrsf48

Research

When I first time saw a time lapse photography, I was really moving by the powerful visual and rhythm of sound. It was amazing because the slowly changing process of objects and scene has been compressed into a short time period. There is a strong vidual impact in the video. Moreover, it is efficient because it seems to tell a long story, but just use few minutes to make people feel the emotion.

In terms of the project was based on Bournville village, I read several material of Bournvilla, I knew the history and development of Bournville. For me, it is miracle, because Bounville had experienced so much incredible experiences and had a long history. it looks so peaceful and prosperous. I did not know that it suffered wars and has commemorative meaning. Additional the development process of Cadbury’s chocolate industry. Now Bournvillage has grown over the years from a small community of 300 houses, to about 8000 homes on 1000 acres. I just want to make a work to present the metaphor of development. We can not see the change here directly, but we can feel that by our heart.

Research

In terms of the project was based on Bournville village, I read several material of Bournvilla, I knew the history and development of Bournville. For me, it is miracle, because Bounville had experienced so much incredible experiences and had a long history. it looks so peaceful and prosperous. I did not know that it suffered wars and has commemorative meaning. Additional the development process of Cadbury’s chocolate industry. Now Bournville village has grown over the years from a small community of 300 houses, to about 8000 homes on 1000 acres. I just want to make a work to present the metaphor of development. We can not see the change here directly, but we can feel that by our heart.

bournville-almshouses-image-from-helen-cadbury-alexander-1906-richard-cadbury-of-birmingham-now-out-of-copyright

Bournville references
http://www.culture24.org.uk/places-to-go/west-midlands/birmingham/tra22960
http://www.sellymanormuseum.org.uk/local-history/
http://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-b/bournville/

Image 01 “BEIJING” Frame spacing 5s

Image 02 “METALOPOLIS-Shanghai E-motion”
http://shijue.me/show_text/50ed1c858ddf8717ba00023d

Image 03 “Russia”

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzUzNDE0NTEy.html
http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1018174-1-1-1.html

During my research, I found a lots of work describe about “City”, the landscape in the city and the people in the city. The first work is made by a Chinese cellphone brand to express the photo function. The content is about BEIJING city. The second work was made by a Chinese photographer, the topic is about the stress in Shanghai. He said, “ I have stayed in Shanghai for 3years to work and live. I see the sun rise, sunset, the shadow of the building in the light. Shanghai is a happy place, perhaps it is a sad place as well, it guids our emotion to change, people also observe it through the emotions. In the city, there are countless people live here, some objects have disappeared, other things are developing. The relationship between people and city is subtle. How much can we understand through the developing of this city?” It is a work to express the people’s stress in this city, also the contradictory emotions between city and people. These work always focus on buildings, people and some weathers. The third one is made by a Russia artist Zweiwei. Definitely, it is a good way to introduce a city and express a kind of emotion. But I do not think it is suitable for Bournville. Bournville is not a city, there is not the pressure emotions and no so much people there. It looks stillness, I need to make it dynamic and to feel the history and development in its heart. Moreover, it is so general to focus on building and people. I want to find some point specific to present the development of Bournville.

And then I was looking for some works which is not talk about “city”.This is a time lapse photography work about “measure” by Chinese artist Wang.There were different measures in different people’eyes. The world in astronomers’s eyes is very small, the world in biologists’s eyes is great. So different things in our eyes play a different roles, and we have different attitude to same objects. “Man is the measure of all things” said by philosopher Protagoras. I thought this is the relevant topic about our world and our attitude to this world. Related to Bournville, perhaps we have different feelings for Bournville when we see its surface now. If we understand the history and development of Bournville, we absolutely have different thinking. Even though some people do not know the history of Bournville, we can not think it is inexistence. I want to find a way to express the story of Bournville.

Image 04,05,06,07 “Measure of all things”

http://www.xwei.tv/topic/forgra/jingxuancy/201307/t20130726_91363.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protagoras

Another work made by a America artist Jeff Frost, Modern Ruin: Black Hole. An extended preview of a film constructed from 150,000 photographs that combines time lapse footage of riots, optical illusion paintings and stars. Modern Ruin is a contemplation of the idea that creation and destruction is the same thing. In the same way that you, life itself and even the laws of the universe are deeply paradoxical, so too are the realities pieced together to form this non-reality.Every event depicted in Modern Ruin happened in naked reality, from the riots, to the optical-illusion paintings. This work is full of powerful visual and sound, sad emotion as well,it talks about ruin and politics. Although Bournville had suffered wars, some of buildings and objects were ruined. It is a peaceful and happy place for English people. I do not want to make my video full of disappoint emotions. Politics is a strange field for me, I do not want to add this element in my projects. But this is a relevant topic express by time lapse photography rather than just talk about building and people.

Image 08 “Modern Ruin: Black Hole”

Website: jeff-frost.com
http://vimeo.com/72393215

There are others topic in time-lapse photography as well. A plenty of them are about “natural landscape”. In the nature,some kind of the dynamic always slowly we can not be conscious. Through time lapse photography, it make the dynamic change to speed up. Then we can observe the development directly in a few minutes. The powerful visual with strong sound make the landscape more beautiful. We can imagine, a single photography of landscape is amazing, but if it is in motion, it is more amazing absolutely.

Image 09 “Tibet”
http://blog.artintern.net/article/387908

Image 10, 11“The art of time lapse”
http://theartoftimelapse.com/

Image 12,13 “The lake by Geoff Tompkinson”
http://adonispulatus.net/

Geoff Tompkinson has created a mini-masterpiece with his time-lapse film “The Lake”, featuring Lake Hallstadt.

Geoff writes:

“Lake Hallstatt has been referred to as the “melancholic lake”, the “still fjord” and the “vision of a perfect mountain lake”. It is a classic relic of the Ice Age and it has a total area of 858 square metres lying between the steep Obertraun and Hallstatt mountains and Bad Goisern. It is the fifth largest of the Salzkammergut lakes.

Although this lake is one of the darker, colder, less inviting lakes of the region, as a photographer I decided to use this darkness and stillness as a device to reveal the true beauty of the lake through its mirror-like surface.”

Image 14 “The secret of Cappadocia”
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia,in Turkey.
http://timelapseworks.com/project/the-secrets-of-cappadocia-timelapse/

During these projects were about “natural landscape”, in spite of they did not have a theme, but they made the landscape better than static and made some stillness things more dynamic. Related to my project, it was a good choice to select a pice of landscape to the Bournville and express the emotion. In Bournville, the most fantastic thing are the history and the nicest place to live. Thus, I wanted to combine them to present the heart of Bournville.

The relevant time lapse photography research I had got is the biggest different between normal photography. The art of telling story by time lapse photography.Most of photographers tell a story through a single picture. It’s right, it does but it also tell us what had happened and how had it happened especially when photography is in motion. They condense long hours to a few minutes to show the process of the story.
There are some video tell us a story by time lapse photography. It is lovely. For me, Bournville is a place which is full of historical story. I want to tell this story by my video and feeling the characteristic of Bournville. Some story we can not see when we arrival Bournville, but it is not means the story is inexistence. Some objects can symbolize the story of Bournville through several clues.

Image 15,16 “LIFE CAPTURED IN TIME LAPSE”
Imagine watching how you have grown and changed over the past 12 years in two minutes flat? What would it look like? In what can only be described as “marathon running” for video artists, there are creative’s out there who are photographing or recording themselves everyday and placing the images together in time-lapse sequences.
http://www.real.com/resources/time-lapse-vidoes/

More time lapse references
5 People Doing Time-Lapse Photography Right
http://petapixel.com/2013/07/24/5-people-doing-time-lapse-photography-right/

12 Artistic Long-Exposure & Time-Lapse Photographers
http://weburbanist.com/2009/02/18/12-long-exposure-time-lapse-photographers/

25 Awesome Examples of Time Lapse Photography
http://www.orphicpixel.com/25-awesome-examples-of-time-lapse-photography/

Statement for Project of Photography and the Archive

Posted on April 20, 2014 by xrsf48

Statement

Time lapse photos tells a story but the question is what is a story? Most photographers tell a story through a single picture. It’s right, it does but it also tells us what has happened and how it happened especially when photography was in motion. Furthermore, one of the most amazing things about time lapse videos are that they do not catch a single moment. They condense long hours to few minutes to show the process of the story. The time lapse video allows people to imagine what has happened and what will happen. It expresses a story in powerful visual, strong voice and sequential narrative.

In terms of my research, the concept of time lapse videos always includes “the art of time”, “measure” (Man is the measure of all things–philosopher Protagoras), “amazing landscapes” and “motion in the city”. All of these tell a story through powerful visual feeling.

In my opinion, time lapse photography is a suitable technology form to express my concept- “invisible not inexistent”. My work is based on Bournville village, the historical village in Birmingham. Bournville is a village which has experienced a long history and there are several historical houses, which were built in 15th century. There is a popular Cadbury’s chocolate industry as well. Historically, Bournville has suffered several wars, the civil war, the World War 1 and there is an important place to commemorate the Silver Wedding of Mr and Mrs George as well. Still the village seems so calm. And now, Bournville is a peaceful and beautiful village which is the nicest place to live in Britain. This in my view, is an example of how the invisible does not means inexistence. It is necessary to understand the heart of Bournville and its history to become existent in our minds.

In my work, I want to focus on a snapshot to reflect the heart of Bournville. I thought to record objects such as houses, trees, plants, fallen leaves, and the lawns. After recording my focus changed to the images and symbols of shadows and lawns. In the video, the strongest element was the movement of the shadow, reflecting the time movement since the history of the village. The shadow is mixed with light, so there is no darkness. Additionally, the lawn represents the people who have gone through the history. And there is a little movement in the bushes as the wind blows. They seem still but some of them are moving with the wind. Nothing is certain except change.

In conclusion, it is difficult to observe the change in some objects’ and dynamics in a short period of time, but by spending hours and hours, the dynamic becomes obvious. This is the main advantage of time lapse photography. The background sound is from the famous Carillon of Bounville. The sound was recorded in Bournville so as the voice is more natural and it matches up to the project. The unexpected presence of the birds in the video symbolizes luck and happiness in Bounville village. All in all , the time lapse photography tells us the invisible development from the historic stories of Bounville village. As I can’t take pictures for the history and cannot go back to the past years, I want to select some natural objects to replace the historical process. According to me, the people life doesn’t lasts for long whereas, the presence of natural objects lasts for years and years. So through the time lapse video to feel and imagine the historical process in Bournville I choose natural objects. Within a few minutes by the help of time lapse video, it becomes easy to understand the experience with the powerful visuals and sounds.