Texts/Materials that have influenced my practice.

• Exhibition, Time, by Delevic Vukasin

An exhibition called ‘Time’ by Delevic Vukasin has been heavily influential in the development of my practice this semester. While looking for other infrared photographers I found Vukasin’s work and while Vukasin may not be another infrared photographer, I believe that Vukasin has a unique out look on black and white film photograph. In this exhibition Vukasin focuses on ‘The cycle ogf photographs” through the use of different themes such as Landscape, Imaginative ambient architecture and portraits with indeterminate figures. I found a reflection of my practice in Vukasin’s as when we are both stuck creatively we tend to make a left turn and try a new avenue of learning and developing new skills which is how Vukasin’s ‘Time’ exhibition started. We also refer back to those around us with the knowledge of how to develop these new skills. Something that I used to be self-conscious about as I felt inadequate to be a photographer due to my lack of knowledge. Now however, I find it exciting as I still have so much room to learn and create. In Vukasin’s exhibition ‘Time’ Vukasin uses the human body by layering and using tonal range to covey the passing of time and with it the cycle of photography. While the people in the photographs are unidentifiable we can still sense their presence, their movement/cycle just as an artist can feel a changing in their photographic practice. Just as I feel it in mine both physically and mentally.

• Artist, Matthew Stuart Piper

Matthew Stuart Piper is an artist that I have reflected upon this semester as Piper works with infrared. Previously Piper worked with film as a medium for infrared however, has now switched to working digitally yet still producing infrared photographs. Piper’s work was one of many that I looked at during my journey in starting infrared photography and while Piper mainly works in colour and digitally, I found it helpful to have something opposite my work. To push me into thinking about different aspects of infrared photography. In Piper’s work Piper very rarely manipulates the image and often has it true to the original. This is something that I have also piked up in my own practice. Preferring to show everything raw as it was the moment the photograph was taken.

• Book, Negative/Positive: A history of photography by Geoffrey Batchen

Negative/Positive: A History of photography written by Geoffrey Batchen speaks to the use of negatives. How they have been treated throughout the years even down to the language we use to identify them. ‘Majority of language is consistently joined and association of the negative with blackness, otherness and femininity. This is something that I wanted to look into as in my professional practice paper it was a concept that I was working with regarding film being kept in museums or in personal collections. How little we value the original copy, the item that allowed us to create in the first place is so often cast aside in favour of the reproduced version. Batchen talks about photos of children from the 1800’s where the mother is in the photograph holding a child for their portrait yet is trying to hide under a cloth as to not draw attention from the child. A reversal of biological order which is reflected in how we treat negatives and positive. The negative is forgotten and the positive is put first. Batchen’s main goal with releasing this book is ‘to try to persuade the reader that the relationship of the negative and positive in both analogue and digital photography is the central motor of photographic practice’. This is something I believe to be true not only in my personal practice but photography in general. Yes there are many great photographers that have not and and wont have anything to do with dilm and yet film is what made their digital camera possible.

• Book, PhotoTherapy Techniques: Exploring the secrets of personal snapshots and family albums, Judy Weiser

PhotoTherapy is a tool in which a therapist can use to help understand their clients where sometimes words fail. “PhotoTherapy being used as an agent of change.” As everyone can use a camera, but not all the images will turn out the same from person to person. Therapeutic photography is different as you don’t need a licensed therapist however, it can still help you understand more about yourself and others around you. For me, even without knowing it, this has become a major part of my practice, While I may not always highlight my own personal connection to the viewer, it is something that has woven it’s ways into my practice. This book has helped me understand link in my practice which I had not perviously made.

• Artist/Blog, Maren Klemp

Klemp is an artist who’s blog I have been following along with. From her creative process, how she uses props or different exhibitions. I was drawn to her work as they typically work in Black and White, I enjoy her creative direction and it was good to see an artist’s development other than me peers at university. As she was not taught at AUT and lives on the other side of the world, she has a vastly different approach to blogging professionally for her practice, photographing and developing her creative process. This has been helpful in my own practice as a guide when I felt lost and isolated in my own art making.

• Book, Photography by Infrared - It’s Principles and Applications, Walter Clark

As I was starting out with infrared film for the first time this was one of the sources that I read on how to conduct the development and processes of infrared. As this book was written in 1939 things have changed as such this was my original reference point that I used when conducting further research on how to use infrared film. Clark gives a comprehensive look into the study of infrared and gave me insight into the process which I was unable to find in a lot of my current sources.

• Lecture, How art works: Psychological approaches to philosophical questions, Ellen Winner

As part of my practice I like to listen to videos/podcasts on different aspects in art while doing other things allowing me to process throughly what I am listening to. While doing so I found this lecture and felt that it heavily resonated with my practice. In the lecture she touches on how some perceive abstract art to be a waste of time and money making comments like ‘My child could have done that’ however she follows through with why that statement is indeed for a lot of us false. This lecture gave me the words in which to present my work to those that may have similar takes as I have felt and seen both myself and artists around me have to deal with such criticism.

Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus - Forgery

Hon Van Meegeren, 20th Century