Syd Barrett - The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story - in this a man who lived with Syd after he started to brake down from too much LSD described how the wall between their two separate bedrooms in the flat they shared felt non-existent and that he interpreted Syds thought process as while Syd would lay in his bed he had the possibility of doing anything in the world that he chose but as soon as he made a choice he was limiting his possibilities, so he just lay there as long as he could  to keep his future unlimited. But this, of course, made for a very limited presence and a very depressing presence. 

Jeff Wall.

Jeff Wall is a Canadian photographer most well known for his Tableau-style photographs. He often re-constructs scenes that he has witnessed in real life with models, props and lighting to emulate the real life situations he has seen. He also takes inspiration from classic painting and art works. For example, Jeff Walls’ “A Sudden Gust Of Wind” (the last image) is based on a work of art called “Travellers Caught In A Sudden Breeze At Ejiri”  by Hokusai.

Project Title

My project is titled Prominence. This is because my project is themed around the idea of prominent, personal memories from my own childhood, in which each object photographed plays a key part. There is also some irony within the title, in that the theme itself isn’t immediately prominent, and the objects may at first seem random, however to me personally they are prominent in their meaning. The series also displays prominence through the use of colour, making the objects visually prominent as well as being symbols of prominent memories.

Subject

I researched various photographers who practice in still life photography in the style that I was intending: simple and clean, using bright colours and even lighting. I then thought about how I could incorporate my own theme into this, and tried to consider the type of lighting I would need to use to create my desired outcome. The research I did was really useful in informing me of effective styles and compositions for still life such as this, and helped me to visualise my idea before shooting to make it more efficient in the studio. I then took all of my research into consideration and really formed my idea in terms of what exactly I wanted it to look like, for example I wanted to have the objects being held by a hand to infer the human connection that I have to the memory each object relates to.

Aims, Objectives, Concept

I think I have successfully achieved the idea and visual qualities I intended to convey through my series. The one thing however that could perhaps be viewed as slightly vague is whether or not the viewer can tell what the theme is by looking at the images, for example it may seem as if lots of unrelated objects have been thrown together and made into a series. However, as mentioned above, I intended there to be a sense of irony within the work in that the theme is not immediately prominent and neither are the meanings of the objects, but once the viewer is told the theme, that is when the theme becomes prominent. I therefore do think I have successfully conveyed this within the series, alongside the clean, simple yet vibrant visual aesthetics I intended to create.

Form, medium, presentation

I have chosen to present my series in a linear form upon the wall, mounted on foam board. I will arrange the images so that they alternate from the more vibrant colours to the more muted tones, which I think will make them work even better s a series of six. I think the series would be suited best on a gallery wall arranged in this way so that the images can be viewed collectively so that the theme really works.  In a book for example, the images would have to be viewed separately on pages, and I don’t think this would create the correct impact that the series intends to make.

Research Methods

Steven Klein

Paul Outerbridge - still life and portraits